Helpful Score: 2
While I don't like this author's unrelated series, the Vampire Detective Files (or something like that), I really enjoyed this stand alone book. In fact, I read it twice. Remember from Dracula the "cowboy" type, Quincey Morris the American hunter/tracker (I think that, in the movie, it was the guy who was NOT Cary Elwes or Keanu Reeves - but, I'm not sure)?
The author has basically chosen to tell the story of the events beyond the end of the Dracula book/movie...from the perspective of Quincy Morris, who is thought dead by his friends but wakes horrified to find himself a vampire, and Dracula, who allows his hunters to think he's been killed so that he doesn't have to kill them (Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing's group, now minus the fallen Quincy)...and draw attention to the continued existence of himself and his kind. He gains Quincy's silence by simply saying that if he goes back to his friends in his altered state, he'll kill them to keep the secret.
Quincey learns what being a vampire is really like and discovers a hint of what Mina Harker and Dracula truly shared, as well as how the events unfolded from the perspective of the great villain. Did Jonathan Harker really find himself seduced by the unnatural powers of the Vampire Brides...or was he seduced in a more conventional manner?
More than even the loss of his humanity, Quincy mourns the loss of his true friends but, given their depth of hostile feelings toward Dracula, he dreads trying to tell them that he isn't dead...exactly.
Then, he meets his best friend's sister on his travels, forcing his hand...manipulate her mind or come clean?
A surprisingly good read, really. Not fast or dramatic, but deliberately paced, interesting, and well thought out and delivered. I liked that he chose to explore this relatively minor character in Dracula lore thoroughly, and thought that he did a fine job of it.
FROM THE BACK COVER:
Rough and ready Texan Quincey Morris thrust his Bowie knife into Dracula's heart, bringing an end to the quintessential battle between the living and the Un-Dead. It also brought an end to Quincey as he bled his life away into the chill earth of Transylvania. Or so he thought.
Waking to the night, surrounded by ravenous wolves, he finds himself plunged into his greatest adventure yet: life beyond life - as a vampire. To survive, he must quickly adapt to his dark change. At the hands of his savage mentor it's a hard, painful process, but Quincey is determined to escape the wilderness and return to his grieving friends.
However, Professor Van Helsing has convinced them that the only good vampire is a dead one. Seen as an acolyte of their greatest enemy, can Quincey persuade them to accept his change, or will a lifetime of friendship end in bloody betrayal?
The author has basically chosen to tell the story of the events beyond the end of the Dracula book/movie...from the perspective of Quincy Morris, who is thought dead by his friends but wakes horrified to find himself a vampire, and Dracula, who allows his hunters to think he's been killed so that he doesn't have to kill them (Jonathan Harker and Van Helsing's group, now minus the fallen Quincy)...and draw attention to the continued existence of himself and his kind. He gains Quincy's silence by simply saying that if he goes back to his friends in his altered state, he'll kill them to keep the secret.
Quincey learns what being a vampire is really like and discovers a hint of what Mina Harker and Dracula truly shared, as well as how the events unfolded from the perspective of the great villain. Did Jonathan Harker really find himself seduced by the unnatural powers of the Vampire Brides...or was he seduced in a more conventional manner?
More than even the loss of his humanity, Quincy mourns the loss of his true friends but, given their depth of hostile feelings toward Dracula, he dreads trying to tell them that he isn't dead...exactly.
Then, he meets his best friend's sister on his travels, forcing his hand...manipulate her mind or come clean?
A surprisingly good read, really. Not fast or dramatic, but deliberately paced, interesting, and well thought out and delivered. I liked that he chose to explore this relatively minor character in Dracula lore thoroughly, and thought that he did a fine job of it.
FROM THE BACK COVER:
Rough and ready Texan Quincey Morris thrust his Bowie knife into Dracula's heart, bringing an end to the quintessential battle between the living and the Un-Dead. It also brought an end to Quincey as he bled his life away into the chill earth of Transylvania. Or so he thought.
Waking to the night, surrounded by ravenous wolves, he finds himself plunged into his greatest adventure yet: life beyond life - as a vampire. To survive, he must quickly adapt to his dark change. At the hands of his savage mentor it's a hard, painful process, but Quincey is determined to escape the wilderness and return to his grieving friends.
However, Professor Van Helsing has convinced them that the only good vampire is a dead one. Seen as an acolyte of their greatest enemy, can Quincey persuade them to accept his change, or will a lifetime of friendship end in bloody betrayal?
