About book Judgment Of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959 (1999)
With Book Three of the Anno Dracula series we reach the late 1950’s and 1960’s. A time of European opulence and Mediterranean glamour, epic film making and spy thrillers such as Ian Fleming’s James Bond and Len Deighton’s Harry Palmer. Not to mention vampires.Old Vlad (Count Dracula) is still around and at the start of the book due to marry again – this time to Asa Vajda, Princess of Moldova. Kate Reed, vampyrric super-reporter and erstwhile secret-agent for the mysterious Diogenes Club, is in Rome to meet old friend Charles Beauregarde, now-dying ‘warm blood’ and his vampire lover Genevieve Dieudonne as well as cover this select event. On her arrival Kate soon ends up in trouble. First, she meets an old adversary, Penelope Churchward, an old friend turned vampire, now one of Vlad’s assistants. Secondly, whilst as a guest of Count Kernassy, and his young-looking lover Malenka, rising vampire starlet, Kate finds herself witness to their gruesome deaths. These are not the only fatalities. It seems that the city is in a state of alarm. Whilst preparations for the world-class event are in hand for the un-dead wedding of the century, the mysterious Crimson Executioner is about, messily executing vampire elders. Kate finds herself trying to discover why, whilst Genevieve, with the help of un-dead superspy, Hamish Bond, finds herself up against Russian spies, assassination attempts and her old nemesis, Vlad, and his assistant Penny.I enjoyed this one a lot. Like before, it’s that sense of time and place that really works for me in the impeccably imagined world of 1960’s Italy, albeit with added vampires. Thoughts of Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier of Monaco, Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, warm weather, sunglasses, espresso and motor-scooters infuse this tale throughout. Whilst I’m not quite sure that the vampires appreciate the sunshine as much as us mere warm-bloods, (actually something Kim does deal with in the novel!) it’s a nice change from Victorian England and the battlefields of France that we’ve encountered in the previous books. The 1960’s are cool and this is engagingly retro-cool. The writing is as lively as ever, the culture references throughout. You don’t have to have read the earlier books to get a gist of what’s going on but I found I did enjoy reading about characters met before and what happens to them here. It is a tale of three women and how events have led to this. It is also a book with a great deal of closure. Originally the last book in the series, there are major developments here, with the death of some key characters and the consequences of those deaths clearly impacting upon the others. This highlights the need to move on and to change, in a world that was rapidly changing anyway. The point is made that the elder vampires are finding this faster, brighter world with global media coverage difficult to live in.Of course, one example of this change in the 1960’s, go-faster, live faster world, is the arrival of ‘the superspy’, whose approach to espionage is very different to that previously encountered from the Diogenes Club. The epitome of this is the debut of Bond - Hamish Bond – to this tale. He is looked upon with serious disdain by the elder vampires such as Genevieve, as the personification of this ‘act first, think later’ approach. Whilst Bond is working for the Diogenes Club, like Kate and Genevieve, it is quite clear that Bond’s world is different from the Victorian world of Kate and the older Genevieve. But of course Bond is not the only reference to other metafiction. Others I found were references to The Exorcist, Michael Moorcock and many others. In addition, the use of real people such as Orson Welles, Arthur C. Clarke and Tony Hancock help create a realistic feel to the world that is an alternative to ours.This world building is carefully crafted. Not only does Kim show this vampire-dominated world with humour – privileged airline passengers are offered white mice as part of their ‘in-flight meal’ and other small mammals as an entree at Dracula’s Engagement Ball – but examines the wider implications of a world run by vampires: the Roman Catholic view of vampires in their Holy City, the difficulties of vampires involved in the Cold War negotiations, and so on. It’s a writer with confidence in his created world, writing with skill.Strangely, one of things that works well (again) is that, despite the series being entitled ‘Anno Dracula’, the titular Count appears very little. Though his presence is always there, and his importance to the tale undeniable, our focus is really upon all those around him, and in particular Kate, Genevieve and Penny who each create a different perspective to the events herein. This new edition from Titan, like all the previous releases, has an added bonus: a novella of Aquarius, set in 1968. As the title may suggest, the story about vampire murder, set at a time of upheaval at the dawning of The Age of Aquarius. From the other end of the 1960’s decade, it is all flower-power, drugs, swinging London and social revolution – and ‘Drakky-bashing’. It’s an engagingly written tale, not only being a murder case but also a summary of the zeitgeist of that time mixed with Kim’s usual cultural links. I enjoyed the link to Christopher Fowler’s Bryant and May, nosing around the case.With Dracula Cha Cha Cha we bring to an end the re-release of the Anno Dracula books. The fourth, Johnny Alucard, is due in April 2013. This moves us towards the next decade, allegedly set in the 1970’s.
Reviewing for Hearts on Fire Reviews Fans of Horror, especially of the Vampiric subgenre, and aficionados of excellent writing, can be thankful to Titan Books for bringing Author Kim Newman’s classic trio, the “Anno Dracula” series, to a broader readership, and introducing readers (like myself) who missed out on these at first publication, to an outstanding set of books. Mr. Newman knows his history about as well as any historian; and the details he brings to light and to life are extraordinarily accurate. Of course, his is an alternate history, an alternate timeline, and so we read details we might have missed in our history textbooks at school: Queen Victoria with a new Prince Consort—Count Dracula; the World War I European Axis Powers, commanded by: Count Dracula; and so forth. Different? Yes. Always engaging? Most definitely.In this installment, it is 1959; in “our” timeline, the Cold War is frozen, Communists are the enemy, and actress/star Marilyn Monroe had converted to Judaism and wed playwright Arthur Miller, author of “The Crucible.” However, in Europe (in Mr. Newman’s Dracula timeline), while Count Dracula prepares for his new marriage to a princess from Moldavia in Eastern Europe, Charles Beauregard, that point man for the covert arm of the British Government, continues to age (his vampire love Genevieve, of course, does not age), and journalist Kate Beauregard hunts for the mysterious and elusive “Crimson Executioner,” a wily murderer seemingly determined to destroy vampire elders in Rome, the site of Dracula’s imminent wedding festivities. Kate, who is a preciously feisty undead character and heroine, is not the only hunter of this killer; Bond is too, on behalf of the British government, and Bond also happens to be undead.I found this series to be excellent on first read, and I often took a moment to ponder throughout. But these are also keepers and destined to be re-read, and I think many readers will find this so.
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The third book in Kim Newman’s weird and wonderful Anno Dracula is as original as ever, but isn’t quite as enjoyable. It’s still a great read, but the quality has dipped slightly. Dracula Cha Cha Cha is one of the most inventive novels of the genre and many authors will be envious of how effortlessly Newman pulls it off. The set-up, almost a who’s who universe of well-known, and some lesser known, characters from cinema and literature is a brilliant idea. Even a famous secret agent features in this volume. It’s quite reminiscent of Philip Jose Farmer’s Wold Newton books, yet still manages to maintain its own personality and is highly original fayre. Newman has an amazing text book like knowledge of these characters and their sources, and this is illustrated from his use of Italian cinema classics in the chapter titles. Having read some of Newman’s articles in magazines such as Empire, it’s no surprise to see him make use of the things he knows best. The inclusion of notes explaining the origin of the more obscure characters is excellent and a great short story featuring the vampire Kate Reed adds a touch more value to this edition. It’s very refreshing to see a writer who is clearly enjoying themselves and only adds to a series that is becoming a real tour de force.
—Jonathan
Newman continues to impress me with his ability to write in a broad range of styles, and continues to bring his characters through different times. I liked the fact that he allows Charles to die, holding on to his principles despite Genevieve and Kate both being desirous to turn him. His death added a more emotional form of cutting to all the gore that was portrayed elsewhere. I enjoyed the deepening of the relationships between Genevieve, Kate, and Penelope. I liked the Bava and Argento influences on this story, and the ending was very satisfying. All around, well worth the time.
—Baal Of
Fantastic!The third installment of the Anno Dracula series takes place in Rome in 1959. Newman brings his impressive font of period knowledge to play, captivating readers with blatant and obscure references (I am in awe of his historical, political, literary and pop culture catalog of knowledge), as well as an engaging plot. I shake my head to think this voyage began when I won an advanced copy of Johnny Alucard, which I assumed as a stand-alone novel. As soon as I discovered that it was the 4th book of a series, I scoured the local libraries so that I could get up to speed, and have recommend the series to all. Kim Newman, where have you been all my life?!
—Debbie Armbruster
