Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt: When it was announced that an "official" sequel to Dracula by Bram Stoker, one of my all-time favorite books, was coming out, I was ecstatic, especially since it was reported that the book would be penned by a descendant of Stoker's and would be based on Bram Stoker's notes. I bought a copy of the book, cracked it open, and all was revealed.
Dracula: The Un-Dead is an entertaining, fast-paced, occasionally thrilling book, but it is anything but an "official" sequel to the greatest Victorian Gothic novel ever written. In fact, it reads more like one of the dozens of attempts to capitalize on and modernize Stoker's original, harrowing tale. The fact that it was co-written by a member of the Stoker family is irrelevant; what matters is the story itself, and the story contained within this novel's pages does not show an ounce of reverence toward the source material. Dacre Stoker and his co-author Ian Holt take Stoker's original story and basically cut it to shreds, reshape it, and create a book that reads like an attempt at a Hollywood blockbuster, complete with explosive set-pieces, gory effects, and graphic love scenes.
That's not to say it is a bad book. Far from it. This is one compelling piece of dark-fantasy, written in straight-forward prose, and with nary a dull moment. But when the plot centers on Countess Bathory wreaking havoc in London, killing members of the band of heroes (Harker, Mina, Holmwood, and Van Helsing), while Dracula turns out to be alive and well, and, shock, horror!, a hero who wants to protect Mina and her son, Quincey, you can hardly call it a continuation of Stoker's masterpiece. Did I also mention that Bram Stoker himself makes an appearance?! Throw in Jack The Ripper, an obsessed detective, and lots and lots of chases, and you get a modernized, oversexed, somewhat cheesy attempt to create a blockbuster sequel.
The Bottom Line: An entertaining, fast-paced novel that should be read as yet another attempt to modernize Stoker's tale. But a proper, true to the source material, sequel it is not.
