Author: Barbara Hambly
First Published: 2006
Contains spoilers
The Blurb: A fresh take on Bram Stoker's Dracula focuses on the obsessive devotion of Renfield to his vampire master, embarking on a personal mission to hunt down Van Helsing and his companions that sets the stage for the ultimate confrontation between the living and the undead and takes him from Dracula's castle into the horrific darkness of his own mind.
The review: Re-visiting the Dracula story from the point of view of Renfield has been done before – most notably Tim Lucas’ the Book of Renfield, which was published just the year before this novel. I missed this one at the time of publication, but have now read it and what we have is a solid reimagining that actually (sparingly) incorporates some of Stoker’s text and becomes almost a semi-epistolary novel, with some of Seward’s notes, Renfield’s tallies (of creatures devoured) and letters to his wife (which we later realise were never written, simply composed in his mind). The book also, then, adds in standard prose – which has the advantage of being able to delve into detail with a greater ease.
The lore, mostly, follows Stoker (though the author changes the nature of the earth the vampire must sleep in) and she actively makes Dracula the historic Vlad Ţepeş. We get more of a view of Seward’s (failing) attempt to court Lucy but the biggest change is in the character and background of Renfield, shifted from colourful but 2-dimensional psychic barometer to an actual character – as one would expect from a book based on him. We also get a(n unsanctioned) incursion into Britain by the Brides, angry at being abandoned, and jealous of the idea that the Count is creating new vampire brides. One of the Brides is moulded into a more rounded character also – but the other two remain 2-dimensional.
Whilst the prose is good and the story fits well into the source material, I do have to say I preferred Lucas’ novel. That said, I’m not suggesting that this is a poor cousin, just not my favourite of the two. 6.5 out of 10.
In Hardback @ Amazon US
In Hardback @ Amazon UK
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