[books 2014] The latest Anno Dracula

[inulro]

8. Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard by Kim Newman

Francis Ford Coppola goes to Transylvania to film a ruinously expensive version of Dracula in the 1970s, and the entourage comes back with a new-born vampire peasant boy, Ion Popescu. Who promptly reinvents himself as Johnny Pop, and becomes a mover and shaker in the Studio 54 scene and associate of Andy Warhol. He makes a fortune selling drac, powdered vampire blood which temporarily endows the user with vampire powers, and just when things heat up too much in New York, he and his money move on to Hollywood, where he reinvents himself yet again as Johnny Alucard, big-time producer and mover and shaker. And then his plans for world domination start.

I loved the first two parts - Coppola in Transylvania and the New York scene, but the pace goes off after that. There are several "interludes" that become relevant later, and I thoroughly enjoyed them too.

There's Newman's usual mix of real and fictional characters- notably a context in which the demise of Sid and Nancy makes more sense. Some of them work really well - the punch line about Andy Warhol in particular makes a lot of sense - but he's thrown just too much into the mix this time for it to all hang together. And, like I said, the pace goes off the boil in the second half.

Still good fun though, and has reminded me I've got Quorum lying around here somewhere and should read it soon.

Comments

[ivory-goddess.livejournal.com]

It's more like a series of short-stories than a novel. Not that it's bad, just slightly disjointed.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I think I loved the same parts as you, and not the rest. I think the problem was, it wasn't fixed in one time/place like the other three, and suffered from the scattergun approach. I still enjoyed it, but I'd been waiting for it for over a decade - how could it have taken *that* long to write?!

Also, given the name, I expected a bit of swinging London, as one of the characters in Dracula 1972AD was called Johnny Alucard. No Hammer makes me sad!

[inulro.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, it was way too over the place and had too much packed in already. I suspect there will be a short story/novella in the Hammer vein at some point.

I agree re: we waited 10 years for this? Basically it's a load of shorter pieces thave have mostly been published elsewhere put together.

And I've have enjoyed it a lot more if that's what it had been sold as, rather than a new Anno Dracula novel.