REVIEW: Anno Dracula by Kim Newman

Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
First in the Anno Dracula
Paperback: 560 pages
Publisher: Titan Books Ltd; Reprint edition (27 May 2011)
[Originally published 1992]
ISBN-10: 0857680838
ISBN-13: 978-0857680839
Copy: Bought new
Reviewer: Cara

From the back of the book:
A new savage era has arrived...
It is 1888 and Queen Victoria has remarried, taking as her new consort the Wallachian Prince infamously known as Count Dracula. His polluted bloodline spreads through London as its citizens increasingly choose to become vampire.

In the grim backstreets of Whitechapel, a killer known as 'Silver Knife' is cutting down vampire girls. The eternally young vampire Geneviève Dieudonné and Charles Beauregard of the Diogenes Club are drawn together as they both hunt the sadistic killer, bringing them ever closer to England's most bloodthirsty ruler yet.

When I first saw the current edition of Anno Dracula on the shelves of my local bookshop, I thought 'meh, yet another vampire novel' but I was wrong. Very wrong indeed! For this is no 'sparkly vampire' story; instead it is a fully realised alternative history of Victorian London, complete with a large cast of often familiar characters, both real and fictional. The central premise - that Dracula didn't die at the end of Bram Stoker's book - provides the base from which Kim Newman creates a whole new world.

The central plot revolves around the mutilation of vampire prostitutes in Whitechapel. Anyone who knows about Jack the Ripper will immediately recognise the similarities; some of the victims' names, the letters 'From Hell', the left-handed murderer, etc. We know the identity of the killer from the outset and gt his point of view at various stages in the book. Charles Beauregard, agent of the Diogenes Club (a secret society whose purpose is to protect the Crown) is ordered to investigate the murders. In the process of doing so he meets up with Geneviève Dieudonné, a 450-year old vampire from a different bloodline than Dracula. Both characters, original creations of Newman, are fascinating. Beauregard is the epitome of the quintessential English gentleman spy, a forerunner to James Bond. Dieudonné is working as a doctor for sick vampires, products of the corrupted Dracula bloodline. She is a strong elder vampire, well travelled and knowledgeable, yet myseterious; we only get tantalising glimpses into her past experiences. These two are the principle characters through whom we see most of the action. Dracula himself, on the other hand, is often mentioned but not an active character until almost the end of the book. He is, however, well worth waiting for. To say much more would risk a spoiler.

Where Anno Dracula excels is in the creation of an alternative Victorian London. While the physical locations remain familiar, with the Dickensian slums of the east end and the high class Mayfair, it is the social and political environment that has changed significantly. Dracula has insinuated himself and his followers into the upper echelons of British society and by marrying Queen Victoria has consolidated his power base. Leading politicians, members of the aristocracy, industrialists etc have succumbed to the lure of immortality and become vampires. All levels of society are filled with an increasing number of 'new-born', that is newly created vampires, and they all need feeding. Opponents of the new regime, including Sherlock Holmes, Lewis Carroll and Bram Stoker himself, have been rounded up and imprisoned in camps. Rumours abound as to the purpose of these camps...

"How soon would it be before the 'desperate measures' Sir Danvers Carew advocated in Parliament were seriously considered? Carew favoured the penning-up of still more warm [non-vampire humans], not only criminals but any simply healthy specimens, to serve as cattle for the vampires of breeding essential to the governance of the country." [p73]

What sets Anno Dracula apart from other vampire novels is the writing. On the surface the books reads like a good historical murder-mystery with a vampire twist. But there are a large number of references to classic vampire fiction, and to the works of contemporary novellists, particularly Sir Arthur Conan-Doyle. Being familiar with Bram Stoker's original Dracula helped me to pick up a lot of references, but there are a few modern ones in there too. This added another dimension to the book and while it was slightly distracting (and sent me off to look stuff up on Wikipedia at times) it was also very cleverly done. The mix of historical and fictional names worked well in this context, particularly with the vampire characters - do Lord Ruthven, Kurt Barlow, or Lestat de Lioncourt ring any bells with you? Luckily, in the new 2011 edition of Anno Dracula, there are some helpful annotations in the accompanying extra end sections.

Overall, Anno Dracula is a fun, though at times gory, read. Mixing two well established themes, in this case  vampires and Jack the Ripper, could have been disastrous, but Kim Newman succeeds with aplomb. The subtle wit running throughout the book lifts it from a good read to a very enjoyable one.

Plot 7
Characters 8
Style 8

Overall 8/10

REVIEW: Fledgling by Octavia E Butler

Fledgling by Octavia E Butler
Format: Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Warner Books; (2 Jan 2007) [Originally published: 2005]
ISBN-10: 0446696161
ISBN-13: 978-0446696166
Reviewer: Cara
Copy: Bought online

From the back of the book:
Shori is a mystery. Found alone in the woods, she appears to be a little black girl with traumatic amnesia and near-fatal wounds. But Shori is a fifty-three year old vampire with a ravenous hunger for blood, the lost child of an ancient species of near-immortals who live in dark symbiosis with humanity. Genetically modified to be able to walk in daylight, Shori now becomes the target of a vast plot to destroy her and her kind. And in the final apocalyptic battle, her survival will depend on whether all humans are bigots - or all bigots are human...

Fledgling is a disturbing novel that uses the mythology of vampires to explore race, sexuality and what it means to be human. It is not a comfortable read. And that, I think, is Octavia Butler's intention.

Told in the first person, the book opens with the central character waking in total darkness, badly injured and with no memory of how she came to be in this situation. All she is aware of initially is pain and a powerful hunger that, when an animal approaches her, drives her to kill. When she has consumed her prey, she is  recovered sufficiently to venture out of the cave. As she explores the woods and nearby burnt out buildings, fragments of knowledge return to her. It is through her returning memory and internal dialogue that we, the readers, begin to understand that she is not a normal human being. When she is found by Wright, it is through him we learn she is a vampire, with the physical appearance of a pre-teen black girl.

It is not until later in the book that we learn that the girl is called Shori and is fifty-three in human years, which is young for her species. By this stage we know that she forms symbiotic relationships with humans who provide her with fresh blood in return for the highly pleasurable sensations felt when she is feeding from them.  The humans become almost addicted to these sensations which, although not stated overtly, seem to be of a sexual nature. Certainly Shori is sexually confident, seducing Wright early on. He, in turn, quickly dismisses any misgivings about her physical size and appearance. And this is where Fledgling becomes uncomfortable but not just because of the seemingly paedophilic nature of the relationship. It is how quickly she has complete control over Wright, and soonafter Theodora because Shori needs more than one human to sustain her. The chemical that is injected by her feeding not only generates those heightened feelings of pleasure, but a dependency which is almost a slave-like devotion.

When we get to meet Shori's people, the Ina, the issue of racism moves to the forefront. Not only is Shori black-skinned and darker than most of her people, but she has also been genetically enhanced. The underlying themes move to embrace the issue of racial purity and the extremes to which some people will go to ensure this. While Shori's colour was used against her, the overwhelming prejudice appeared to be the mingling of Ina and human genetics in her. Having read some of Octavia Butler's books before, racism is a familiar theme and by using two distinct humanoid species, as opposed to people of different races, she is able to explore this quite thoroughly. The arrogance and assumed superiority of many of the Ina towards their human symbionts translated into violence by a few and this reflected much of the racial politics of our own real world past history. What was clear, however, was the dehumanising terminology used towards the non-Ina characters - symbionts being a prime example.

The vampire mythology and the Ina culture were used to good effect as devices to explore discrimination. Yet Fledgling is more than a metaphorical exercise, it is a strong and engaging story too. Shori is a fascinating character because she has to learn or remember who she is from the beginning due to the violent attack that caused her injuries and resulting amnesia at the start of the book. There is a mystery element... who attacked Shori and her family? There are some exciting action sequences plus a courtroom-style trial by judgement. I felt by the end however, that the story of the Ina was unfinished, and that there was more to follow. The novel read like the first in a trilogy, in that the main plot was resolved but there were several minor threads left hanging. Sadly, Octavia Butler died after completing Fledgling, so we will never know if she intended to make this a series or not.

Plot: 7
Characterization: 7
Style: 8

Overall 7/10