[books 2014] The latest Anno Dracula
Feb. 10th, 2014 08:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
inulro8. 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.
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.
