DNF at 146 pages.
I was drawn to this book like a drug addict to a speed-ball. A throw down between Dracula and Hitler?
Gimme Gimme Gimme!!!
Just look at that gorgeous cover. I expected a slightly campy suedo-history lesson with lots of gore. I wanted Dracula to wreak havoc on the third Reich, then obliterate Hitler. My expectations and reality failed to negotiate a satisfactory compromise.
I wanted to read this book so badly I ordered it new from Amazon in Hardback. I don't do that. I get my books dirt cheap or free because my teenager eats like a Clydesdale. Can't keep that kid in jeans or sneaks. And he's driving this year. His insurance premiums are killing me.
I tried to read this thing for six months. No, I really tried. I don't remember how many times I put it down promising myself it would get better. I just had to hang on till it got past the boring part, or found a cohesive voice. 146 in pages and it hasn't gotten there yet.
This book is just not for me. I want a lot of action. I want dynamic characters. I want to move seamlessly from one scene to the next and feel like what I just read was worthwhile spending time on. I don't want much (or any) romance in my monster books. And I do not like repeated perspective changes. This book shifts perspective like every chapter and often from scene to scene.
Maybe I shot myself in the foot by not reading Dracula first. In Dracula vs Hitler, young John Harker connects with his Grandfathers old hunting buddy, Van Helsing and his granddaughter.
Of all the characters, Dracula is the only one I really liked. He accepts himself for who and what he is. A monster. A monster with a mission he is anxious to accomplish.
Some authors don't write women effectively. Duncan may be one of them. Miss Van Helsing, a competent, thoroughly modern young woman of her age seems to be trying to launch the age of feminism 20 years early and going about it backassward. Does anyone remember The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones? I'm referring to the episode with the suffragette. In which Indy meets a spirited young miss with more enthusiasm than actual life experience. She always took things that step too far. And when she invariably stepped over the line instead of behaving like an adult and saying What was I thinking? or Where are my manners? she would run away and hide. Miss Van Helsing is that girl.
This book doesn't tick off any of my favorite boxes. I'll step a long way out of my comfort zone if the writer keeps me engaged. Duncan didn't do that for me. Possibly because Dracula vs Hitler is more a Georgette Heyer than a Bram Stoker. I'm Serious. Interspersed within the book are excerpts from an unpublished manuscript. A story about a woman (who clearly represents Miss Van Helsing) falling in love with a Prince (who clearly represents Dracula) that takes place in the same time period and under the same circumstances as Dracula vs Hitler.
Just trying to explain that gave me a headache.
I don't know if manuscript scenes are a cleverly structured ruse to adhere to 1040's mores and still let the two characters get away with something that would absolutely not be tolerated in that time because --hey it didn't actually happen (wink wink)-- or a dream, or a fantasy, that Miss Van Helsing turned into a story afterward.
There's an interesting story here. One with a lot of moving parts that I wish I'd found the will to finish. There is a good, boots on the ground representation of freedom fighting in Europe. A believable peek into the bureaucracy of the third Reich and plenty of local color.
The constant perspective changes and the story within a story was too much for me. I couldn't put all the pieces of the story together satisfactorily.
I was drawn to this book like a drug addict to a speed-ball. A throw down between Dracula and Hitler?
Gimme Gimme Gimme!!!
Just look at that gorgeous cover. I expected a slightly campy suedo-history lesson with lots of gore. I wanted Dracula to wreak havoc on the third Reich, then obliterate Hitler. My expectations and reality failed to negotiate a satisfactory compromise.
I wanted to read this book so badly I ordered it new from Amazon in Hardback. I don't do that. I get my books dirt cheap or free because my teenager eats like a Clydesdale. Can't keep that kid in jeans or sneaks. And he's driving this year. His insurance premiums are killing me.
I tried to read this thing for six months. No, I really tried. I don't remember how many times I put it down promising myself it would get better. I just had to hang on till it got past the boring part, or found a cohesive voice. 146 in pages and it hasn't gotten there yet.
This book is just not for me. I want a lot of action. I want dynamic characters. I want to move seamlessly from one scene to the next and feel like what I just read was worthwhile spending time on. I don't want much (or any) romance in my monster books. And I do not like repeated perspective changes. This book shifts perspective like every chapter and often from scene to scene.
Maybe I shot myself in the foot by not reading Dracula first. In Dracula vs Hitler, young John Harker connects with his Grandfathers old hunting buddy, Van Helsing and his granddaughter.
Of all the characters, Dracula is the only one I really liked. He accepts himself for who and what he is. A monster. A monster with a mission he is anxious to accomplish.
Some authors don't write women effectively. Duncan may be one of them. Miss Van Helsing, a competent, thoroughly modern young woman of her age seems to be trying to launch the age of feminism 20 years early and going about it backassward. Does anyone remember The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones? I'm referring to the episode with the suffragette. In which Indy meets a spirited young miss with more enthusiasm than actual life experience. She always took things that step too far. And when she invariably stepped over the line instead of behaving like an adult and saying What was I thinking? or Where are my manners? she would run away and hide. Miss Van Helsing is that girl.
This book doesn't tick off any of my favorite boxes. I'll step a long way out of my comfort zone if the writer keeps me engaged. Duncan didn't do that for me. Possibly because Dracula vs Hitler is more a Georgette Heyer than a Bram Stoker. I'm Serious. Interspersed within the book are excerpts from an unpublished manuscript. A story about a woman (who clearly represents Miss Van Helsing) falling in love with a Prince (who clearly represents Dracula) that takes place in the same time period and under the same circumstances as Dracula vs Hitler.
Just trying to explain that gave me a headache.
I don't know if manuscript scenes are a cleverly structured ruse to adhere to 1040's mores and still let the two characters get away with something that would absolutely not be tolerated in that time because --hey it didn't actually happen (wink wink)-- or a dream, or a fantasy, that Miss Van Helsing turned into a story afterward.
There's an interesting story here. One with a lot of moving parts that I wish I'd found the will to finish. There is a good, boots on the ground representation of freedom fighting in Europe. A believable peek into the bureaucracy of the third Reich and plenty of local color.
The constant perspective changes and the story within a story was too much for me. I couldn't put all the pieces of the story together satisfactorily.
