Dracula: His First Centuries: The Legend of Dracula, Book I – review (& revisit)

Author: Perry Lake

First Published: 2021 (2nd edition)

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: All men know the LEGEND OF DRACULA. Since the publication of Bram Stoker’s novel in 1897, the name of Dracula has Inspired terror. Yet between the death of Vlad the Impaler in 1476 and his invasion of England in 1890, there lie four centuries. So what was Dracula doing during the time?

In these nineteen stories, you will see Dracula hack and slash and plot and scheme his bloody way to the top of the undead hierarchy.

Beginning with a quartet of tales about the historical Vlad the Impaler, you will see the depths to which human depravity can descend.

Then meet Doctor Faust, the arch-sorcerer, who makes a deal with the forces of Darkness, to give him power and knowledge. Demanding a devil to serve him, Faust becomes the greatest wizard of his time. But in the end, who will end up serving whom?

Read of Dracula’s battles with the ancient Chi You, the seductive and mysterious Nycea, the cunning Erlik Iblis, the brutish Vardalekos, and the even more brutish Torbalan! Stand beside him in his struggle against those myriad vampire lords who had ruled the Night for centuries—even millennia—prior. Then watch Dracula make an alliance with Ivan the Terrible.

The origin of DRACULA lies within these pages.

The review: Perry Lake had previously published three books in his The Legend of Dracula series (you can access the original reviews for book 1, book 2 and book 3) and had provided the three for review. He contacted me recently with a fourth book and then mentioned that he had substantially changed the first three volumes. The books contain a series of short vignettes concerning Dracula and, in his words, the author has “thoroughly reworked my previous Dracula books, this time assembling the stories in chronological order and adding over 75,000 words of new stories.” I was keen to look over the reworked volumes as, whilst the series grew stronger over the volumes, the first volume was a collection of great ideas hampered somewhat within the style, as the book did jump across time periods in a jarring way. I’m glad I did and this is the new edition (also renamed) of the first volume of the series.

The prose has been corralled, offering a more linear narrative that serves to inform the reader, leading them into the world the author is building. In this world Vlad Ţepeş is the vampire we will come to know within the Stoker narrative. I need to repeat here that whilst Stoker did not base his character on Ţepeş, the concept is part of the Dracula megatext and I have no problem with other authors making the connection for their versions of the story. In this case he, as a mortal, does attend the Scholomance but, whilst aided by the terrible knowledge he accesses within the Devil’s school, he is still ultimately assassinated, his head taken to Istanbul but, decades later, the wizard Faust reclaims body and head and then resuscitates him as one of the undead. Faust’s mastery of the vampire is relatively short-lived and he ends up Vlad's slave. The volume then follows Dracula’s struggle to become ruler of the undead. The stories in this volume (bar the prologue) go up to 1578.

The vampires have to sleep in native earth but can, if well fed enough, daywalk. Mirrors hold their true face (as in what their corpse should appear as) and it is when they would have decayed far enough that they can start to shapeshift. Vlad, having been rendered down to dust in the restorative process can shift immediately. Shifting incorporates clothes into the new form but not metals (so no armour, for instance).

If I had a complaint, it isn’t a new one, and I don’t think it would surprise the author. There is a use, in dialogue, of Elizabethan pronouns. I understand some writers think it makes the language sound more authentic but to my ears – unless the writer is intimate with the rules around them (and I am not by any stretch, myself) – they can be jarring – especially imposed over a prose that feels of a modern style by dint of the author’s natural voice. I do have to make the point again as other new readers can be put off by it too but it soon faded into the background for me and didn’t overly disturb my immersion. The use has not impacted the score.

As for the score, I am pleased to say that the work Perry Lake has put into tidying and updating the volumes has paid dividends. 6.5 out of 10 for a stronger opening to the series

In Paperback @ Amazon US

In Paperback @ Amazon UK.

Mystics in Bali – review

Directed by: H Tjut Djalil

Release Date: 1981

Contains spoilers

This Indonesian flick is also known as Leák. The Leák of the title is a type of vampiric witch from Balinese folklore, also known as a Leyak, and is similar in trait to the Malaysian Penanggalan – a vampiric creature we have come across both in the Mike Mignola DVD comic that came with Hellboy: Blood and Iron and less successfully in Kapop.

The main difference between the two creatures is that whilst the Penanggalan is simply a vampiric creature which floats around as a head that has its stomach and intestines, the Leák is more complex. A witch like creature that practices black magic, they are able to shapeshift as well as fly around in a Penanggalan-like way. This film contains both a Leák – actually the Queen of the Leák (Sofia WD) – as well as the neighbouring Malaysia’s Penanggalan.

American Cathy (Ilona Agathe Bastian) has come over to Bali to learn the secrets of the Leák. She has previously learnt voodoo and wishes to write a book on the most powerful (or dangerous) of black magic practices. She has met local Mahendra (Yos Santo) – known as Hendra – and has asked him to help her. Eventually he agrees to try to find the Leák for her. To note, as well as the blooming awful dubbing – I mean it is bad – Cathy is as wooden as a log. I understand that Bastain was just some tourist spotted by the producers, so perhaps she can’t be blamed too much.

Now one of the problems with this movie is that the scenes don’t hold together so well. We have a trip to a Balinese cemetery where the bones appear to be disinterred – no real explanation is given for trip or bones – and a woman following Hendra and Cathy. She just appears every so often and it is only in the end of the film we discover she is his ex, watching over him despite the fact that he dumped her for some American tourist but… onto the meat of the story.

Hendra gets permission to take Cathy to see the Leák and they are caught in a thunderstorm of unnatural origin before being faced with the witch herself. First thing to note… the cackle, oh my word how the crone can cackle. Then the voice, she is dubbed in a faux-Yoda type voice that makes it very difficult to take the whole thing seriously. Finally the look, corrupted of face, long of nails, wild of hair. Honestly, if they had done the laughter softer (and thus more sinister), dubbed her better and had better general effects she might have been a genuinely creepy screen-presence. She agrees to teach Cathy and leaves her arm behind, to crawl Thing-like in a blur of bad SFX.

The next night they return and the Leák is hiding in a bush. She asks for the tribute requested (that we didn’t hear asked for, bad scripting) and takes the jewels from Cathy’s hand by rather long, glowing tongue. She then uses said tongue to drink blood brought for her in jars – she’s walked a long way and so is thirsty. Finally she draws a spell onto Cathy’s thigh by tongue – a way to lend Cathy Leák power. The next night she should come on her own.

Cathy is taught by dancing and laughing with the old woman whilst the lessons are telepathically communicated to her. She tells Hendra that she will soon be a Leák master and then explains, in a flashback for our benefit, how she and the Leák changed form into pigs the night before.

For his part Hendra is worried and goes to see his Uncle, who just so happens to be a wise-man whose family have opposed to the Leák for some time. He wants to discover if there is a counter-spell that can rescue Cathy. One would have thought he’d have considered all this prior to introducing her to the Leák Queen – numpty. There is a spell and Uncle gives him a mystic dagger too.

Of course it is far too late. The Leák is going to use Cathy’s head, as she puts it, and causes it to detach as she has made Cathy become a Penanggalan. This fits in with folklore, which suggests that a Penanggalan can be created through a powerful curse. Also fitting in with folklore is the fact that Cathy has fangs. The idea that her body should be preserved in vinegar whilst her head is out and about is lost, however.

Her attack on her first victim is straight out of Penanggalan folklore. She flies into a house where a pregnant woman is, knocking the poor old midwife through a wall in the process, and descends between the woman’s legs to devour her unborn baby. However, Cathy is not feeding herself, but rather collecting for the Leák who is using the blood to become young once more.

Uncle gets involved and he decides that Cathy is irredeemable and thus puts thorns (or toothpicks!) in her neck to prevent reattachment – broken glass is the folklore weapon of choice but close enough. Traditionally this would be enough to kill the Penanggalan as it cannot reattach by sunrise but the Leák is involved and more shenanigans are afoot – culminating in a bad SFX magical battle.

One unusual twist on the traditional folklore was having the Leák unable to stand the sun and, indeed, it is through the sun that the Queen dies. Traditionally the Leák look like ordinary people in daylight. We also get some different shape-shifting through the film, into snakes (Cathy throws up mice the next day) and into fireballs.

But is it good? How could you ask? Bad effects, bad plotting, bad dubbing and dialogue, wooden acting and Yoda sound-a-likes… It’s blooming terrible and yet absolutely necessary as it is the only place you’ll see a serious attempt (despite all I’ve just mentioned) to portray both a Leák and a Penanggalan. 3 out of 10, with that caveat.

The imdb page is here.