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.
Dracula: The Undead by Freda Warrington: Now we come to that other sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, which was commissioned by Penguin to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Stoker's original. Released quietly in 1997, with almost no publicity whatsoever, Freda Warrington's Dracula The Undead, is a well-written book that is infuriatingly uneven.
On the one hand, Warrington goes to great lengths to stay true to Stoker's style, and, for the first two thirds of the book, the novel reads like a true Dracula fan's dream come true, with spot-on characterization, a dark, foreboding tone, and clever plot machinations. Then, Dracula rises once more, and all is lost, with Warrington falling into Anne Rice-mode, turning Count Dracula into a misunderstood anti-hero and Mina's destined lover. What a shame, because up to that point, Warrington had got everything right, from Dracula's sinister plan to resurrect himself, to the tortured lives of the band of heroes who defeated Dracula, to the marvelously creepy scenes in the Scholomance, to the exquisitely Gothic tone. But, alas, Warrington seems to have a bone to pick with Stoker, as she injects the story wth feminist overtones, defensive, psycho-sexual babble, and a misplaced romance between Mina and the Count.
Still, if one were going to choose between this book and Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt's "official" sequel, Warrington's book is the better choice. At least she doesn't attempt to please everyone (especially the Hollywood crowd) with her book, only herself. Recommended, but with reservations.
Text © Ahmed Khalifa. 2012 - 2021.
Ahmed Khalifa is a filmmaker and novelist. He is the writer/director of several short films and a feature, which was released on Netflix, and the author of a number of novels and short stories, including the YA horror novel, Beware The Stranger, available on Amazon. Find him on Twitter @AFKhalifa and on Facebook @Dark.Fantastic.AK·Writer
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