Newman, Kim

Anno Dracula

As Nina Auerbach writes in the New York Times, " Stephen King assumes we hate vampires; Anne Rice makes it safe to love them, because they hate themselves. Kim Newman suspects that most of us live with them . . . . Anno Dracula is the definitive account of that post-modern species, the self-obsessed undead." In this first of what looks to be an excellent series, Victorian England has vampires at every level of society, especially the higher ones, and they engage in incessant intrigue, power games, and casual oppression of the weak--activities, as we know, that are all too human. Numerous characters from literature and from history appear in both major and cameo roles. Spectacular fight scenes, stormy politics, and a serial vampire killer keep the action lively. A scholarly bibliography is included.

Dead Travel Fast

Horror: Another 100 Best Books

The Bloody Red Baron

You don't need to have read Anno Dracula to enjoy this feisty sequel set amidst the airborne heroics and trench-warfare drudgery of World War I. As in the previous book, part of the fun is spotting all the names from history and literature who pop up in major and minor roles: a vampire named Edgar Poe is writing the Baron von Richthofen's biography; Mata Hari contributes her vampire bloodline to German breeding experiments; and characters from such sources as P. G. Wodehouse, J. K. Huysmans, D. H. Lawrence, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway--as well from movies such as Nosferatu (1922), The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Jules et Jim--each impart their dollop of richness to this alternate universe. But the dogfights between Sopwith Camels and huge winged vampires are the real heart of the book: Kim Newman has done his research, so the air battles are vivid and thrilling. A scholarly bibliography is included.

Judgment of Tears:: Anno Dracula 1959

July 1959: The occasion is the marriage of Vlad Tepes, Count Dracula. The world's vampire elite have gathered in Rome for the union. Vlad's past wives have included Hungarian princesses, baronesses from California, and even Queen Victoria; all marriages were arranged for strategic gain rather than love or passion. Reporter Katherine Reed is in Rome to write about the wedding. At just under a century old, she is considered young among the immortal vampires. Now, someone is killing the elders, some of whom have bloodlines stretching back to the Middle Ages.

In this alternative history, to "be turned" means persecution. From the beginning of the century--when the vampires first emerged from legend into the public eye--through World War II (when Hitler began targeting the immortals) the vampires continued to be a source of fear and fascination. But vampirism still has its joys. To accept immortality means an extraordinary heightening of all the senses, and blood is both sustenance and narcotic, sexually pleasing and simultaneously nourishing.

Judgement of Tears blends horror and humor remarkably well. Semigraphic scenes of bloodsucking and neck biting are interspersed with humorous name-dropping. Among the guests at Vlad's wedding are a black-clad, gloomy couple named Addams, a British spy named Bond, and Orson Wells. Edgar Allan Poe is living as a scriptwriter; since being turned, he hasn't had an original idea. In the end, Judgement of Tears is as much a tale of intrigue as it is a horror novel. The backdrop is an old story of petty politics, set in a world that vampires, zombies, and even Frankenstein-like monsters share with the living. The flashes of wit serve to anchor the story to the real world and provide a connection to 20th-century popular culture. The ending reminds readers that politics prevail--whether for mortals or immortals. --Andy Bookwalter

The jet setters, the intelligentsia, the artists and luminaries, the powerful and the merely curious from all over the world are descending upon "the Eternal City." The paparazzi have gathered en masse to chronicle the raucous wake of a remarkable decade-and to shoot the beautiful ones who have arrived to be seen. Rome is in her glory, for the dark prince himself has selected this ancient metropolis of fountains and lovers and history as the site of his latest nuptials-and everyone who anyone, vampire and mortal alike, is planning to attend. The mad celebration has begun in earnest; the "Dracula Cha Cha Cha" is all the rage. But come the blood-red dawn, there will be a terrible price to pay. For no party truly last foreverand even the undead must die.

Best New Horror 4 (Mammoth Book of Best New Horror)

Horror: The 100 Best Books

First published in 1988, Horror: The 100 Best Books has remained the only book of its kind: a solid (and entertaining) annotated reading list spanning the range of horror fiction from the 16th to the 20th century. The device of asking 100 horror, fantasy,and science fiction writers to write about their favorite horror books might seem at first to capture an idiosyncratic sample, but through diplomacy and diligence, editors Stephen Jones and Kim Newman succeeded in obtaining short essays on most (if not all) of the well-known classics, as well as many more lesser-knowns that are well worth discovering. Readers who follow up on these recommendations will find tips about books by writers mostly known for other genres--such as Iain Banks, Robert Holdstock, Lisa Tuttle, and David Morrell.

Also valuable are write-ups on literary works not always acknowledged as horror, such as Kingsley Amis's The Green Man, Jerzy Kosinski's The Painted Bird, and John Gardner's Grendel. And the write-ups offer a fascinating peek into the minds of the contributors, who include just about all the top horror writers of the'60s-'80s. This 10th anniversary edition makes no changes in the list of 100 books, but updates the entries and includes a 9-page reading list of titles from 458 B.C. to 1997. --Fiona Webster

Dracula Cha Cha Cha

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