Publishers Weekly
08/29/2016
Screenwriter Duncan (Mr. Holland’s Opus) knows how to pepper a story with cinematic fight scenes and lush descriptions, but in this alternate take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the massive lump of backstory proves indigestible. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, contrary to canon, has preserved his monstrous nemesis for future scientific study. Life, love, and war delay his research until he’s goaded to action by Nazi depredations in Romania. With the help of Jonathan Harker’s grandson (who’s dallying with Van Helsing’s daughter, Lucy, on the side), Dracula is resurrected and proves remarkably amenable to bargaining: he gets freedom and all the Nazi blood he wants, so long as he focuses his hunger on “the Hun.” It’s an enjoyable Faustian contrivance—and takes 100 pages to launch. En route are interminable journal entries, military reports, and even a novel within the novel, all designed to fill the reader in on Nazi atrocities, the resistance to them, and the provenance of the characters. A distracting and sometimes painful variety of print fonts will send readers running for the digital edition. This novel is only recommended for those willing to take a very deep dive into what-if. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
"[A] lively and entertaining mash-up..." —Booklist
"A novel worthy of being called the true sequel to Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Patrick Sheane Duncan a writer rightfully deserving to be considered that author's successor." —New York Journal of Books
"One glorious badass story that will keep you wanting more." —Dread Central
"Smart and engrossing... Duncan adroitly takes a preposterous theme to giddy heights, and tells a damn good story in the process." —Diabolique Magazine
"A thrilling action adventure with brilliant literary homages to Bram Stoker's original. You never wanted to root for Dracula more!" —Felicia Day, founder of Geek & Sundry and New York Times best-selling author of You're Never Weird on the Internet
"A magnificent, flawless, delightful mashup of historical fiction and gothic horror." —Wil Wheaton
"Dracula vs. Hitler shows you a side to two stories you thought you knew, and breathes bold, poetic new life in them. You will be swept away." —Mark Alan Miller, Writer of Hellraiser, Next Testament, and The Steam Man
"That rare kind of book you can’t put down." —Brad C. Hodson, Horror Writers Association
"Furst meets Stoker in the best possible way." —Jason M. Hough, New York Times bestselling author of The Dire Earth Cycle and Zero World
Library Journal
★ 09/15/2016
Prof. Abraham van Helsing, now an octogenarian, and his adult daughter, Lucy, are guerillas fighting the Nazi invasion in backwoods Romania during World War II. Their resistance group is largely successful, until a sinister SS agent takes control of operations and begins summarily executing resistance fighters. Van Helsing has only one option left: resurrect Dracula from his lair and recruit the vampire to their cause—because, above all else, Count Dracula loves his homeland. Together with a young John Harker (grandson of Bram Stoker's original Harker), a brain-addled Scottish explosives expert code-named Renfield, and a band of Romany fugitives, the van Helsings and Dracula shoot, blow up, and shred their way through Nazi strongholds—until the Führer himself gets wind of what is transpiring in Romania. Drawing on the same epistolary form that Stoker used for his 1897 Dracula, Duncan (screenwriter, Mr. Holland's Opus, Courage Under Fire; novelist, A Private War) makes Stoker's characters his own in this enjoyable literary salute. VERDICT On the level of Gregory Maguire's Wicked in terms of rehashing classic literary characters, this entertaining and surprisingly intelligent work might be the most fun book of the year. [See Eric Norton's SF/Fantasy Genre Spotlight, "Imagined Multiverses," LJ 8/16.—Ed.]—Tyler Hixson, School Library Journal
