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.

Vampire Wars – review

Author: Perry Lake

First published: 2014

Contains spoilers

The Blurb: For thousands of years, ancient vampire lords ruled the Night. Their queen, the coldly beautiful, immortal, and all-powerful Lilith, ruled them distantly, ignoring their squabbles over territory and victims. Then came Vlad the Impaler, once history's most bloodthirsty fiend, now reanimated as an undead creature of the Night. Facing the vampire legions of the brutish Vardalekos, the loathsome Viy, the diabolical Jhiang-Shi, the monstrous Mmbyu, the cunning Erlik, and the seductive Nycea, Vlad Dracula seeks out allies, be they undead or lycanthropic or mortal.

You've read Bram Stoker's “Dracula”. Now see how Vlad the Impaler fought and struggled to become Dracula, the King-Vampire. A part of THE LEGEND OF DRACULA trilogy, this book is a collection of twenty short stories about the infamous Count and his undead legions as he strives for the ultimate goal—the throne of the supreme King of the Vampires!

The Review: It’s frustrating when I read a book like Perry Lake’s Vampire Wars. In the first instance I have to say it was filled with fantastic ideas but I also felt it a little lacking in the prose style – though I trust my criticisms are constructive.

The book itself is made up of vignettes, shorts if you will, which cover an expanse of time from Dracula’s resurrection through to the nineteenth century. Being shorts (and the book being one of three, which I am assured can be read in any order) there is some degree of narrative repetition but that is to be expected.

It runs on the ‘Vlad Ţepeş was Count Dracula’ premise (calling the castle “Castelui de Vlad Ţepeş” jarred as the man wouldn’t have referred to himself by the sobriquet Ţepeş) but how did he become a vampire? The beginning of the book suggests he was resurrected by Faust and held as a slave for over a decade until he seduced Gretchen, turned her and became dominant over Faust who was turned also. I liked the idea, and I do like drawing Faust into the vampire realm – a trend (I believe) begun by Paul Féval in the book the Vampire Countess. Then a later story mentioned he was turned in the Scholomance and these separate origin stories appeared to jar until I realised that he was killed post the Scholomance and it was his vampiric form that was brought back by Faust – the full story isn’t within this volume.

The vampires in this are burnt by the sun (mostly) though they can stand some exposure as they age. I liked the fact that they died during the daylight hours. There was an interesting lore around reflections, that the true state of the vampire was seen – Gretchen seeing a decaying corpse, Vlad seeing a ghostly skeleton and the reflection fading to nothing as their true form completely decayed. The invitation rule is deemed not to hold true if the house bears the vampire’s blood (ie if it is held by their mortal family). The ability to transform is not something all vampires can do and also relies on their true form to be sufficiently decayed to allow the dissolution of their body.

Holy items burn but it is not denominational – the Ganges, being a sacred river, would burn a vampire. Vampiric resurrection is achieved by applying human blood (preferably virginal and certainly not undead) to the remains under the light of the full moon. If a victim is preyed upon by a vampire and that vampire is destroyed, an occult law prevents the victim being further predated by another undead for seven years.

As well as these ideas – all of which I was impressed with – there are a cornucopia of vampires from myth, legend, literature and movies. Mostly this extended cast works, some of whom are active characters and others who are mentioned in passing. We get Ruthven, Carmilla, Erzsébet Báthory, Viy and Lilith (who is the vampire Goddess Strigoica, also called Kali). In passing we get such characters as Angelus (from Angel) and Mamuwalde (from Blacula). We get different vampire types mentioned including a vampire horse, vetal, and penanggalen. Most of the cornucopia worked well – though the tying in of Lord of the Rings was perhaps a conceit too far.

However, I said I had issues. Firstly it was within some of the language used. Lake deliberately chose to use thee and thou’s in the dialogue and, to be honest, they didn’t work, were inconsistent with the other language used for dialogue and just felt forced. Better to have avoided them in my opinion. I think the greatest failing of the book was, however, based within the short story style.

It was clear that many of the stories could and, more importantly, should have been expanded on. There was, because of the brevity of the prose, a dearth of descriptive prose and even more so a lack of characterisation. Some characters appeared to only die again in the same vignette, unfortunately still two dimensional. Others died off page (such as Faust). But there was an inability to really care as there was never a connection built with the characters. Of course they are all villains (the vampires are not good guys) but expanding the story and characterisation within the vignettes, indeed expanding the book to several volumes, would have made the reader care. At times I felt I was reading an extended summary rather than the final prose.

This is unfortunate because, as I said, there are fantastic ideas in volume and Perry Lake has a lot of story to tell… I just think he needs to take his time and tell those stories more fully. 5 out of 10 balances great ideas with a need for expansion (and the need for the loss of the cod-archaic dialogue). The homepage with an excerpt is here.