Anno DraculaKim Newman
Titan Books, May 2011
ISBN: 978-0857680839
Anno Dracula is a rich and panoramic tale, combining horror, politics, mystery and romance to create a unique and compelling alternate history. Acclaimed novelist Kim Newman explores the darkest depths of a reinvented Victorian London.
After Dracula and Van Helsing's failed attempt to kill him, Vlad Tepes turns Queen Victoria and installs himself as the Prince Consort. England is caught in a quiet civil war, its citizens torn between their loyalty to the queen and their hatred of Dracula, and in the midst of this unrest, someone is killing vampire prostitutes, butchering them with a silver scalpel. Jack the Ripper's come to London.
Kim Newman presents a unique and remarkably detailed vampire culture in Anno Dracula, offering a fresh look at how vampires might function as part of a larger society. Vampirism is blood-borne, and different blood lines produce different vampires. Some of them are monsters, or have become monsters, but not all of them. Newman looks at the consequences of vampires suddenly becoming visible, influential and part of society, and the social change that brings.
Anno Dracula is a brilliant mystery story set in an alternate Victorian England where Dracula is consort to Queen Victoria, vampires are the dominate species and Jack the ripper is stalking women in White chapel. The alternate universe that Kim Newman draws in Anno Dracula is fantastic. The story mixes historical and fictional characters in a coherent and interesting way, staying true to the spirit of the period the book is set in. This was without a doubt a great read, one that I recommend to any Dracula fan.
KIM NEWMAN is a well known and respected author and movie critic. He writes regularly for Empire Magazine and contributes to The Guardian, The Times, Time Out and others. He makes frequent appearances on radio and TV. He has won the Bram Stoker, International Horror Guild, British Fantasy and British Science Fiction Awards and been nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards.
ISBN: 978-0857680839; ISBN10: 0857680838; Imprint: Titan Books; On Sale: 5/24/2011; Format: Paperback; Pages: 560; $14.95
