Customer Reviews

DRACULA LIVES - Book (1) (i) One: Dracula Unborn; Book (2) (ii) Two: The Revenge of Dracula; Book (3) (iii) Three: Dracula, My Love

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I have read this book as part of the trilogy, "Dracula Lives!", which also includes Tremayne's other novels "The Revenge of Dracula" and "Dracula, My Love".

The basis of this story is, that the author obtained a manuscript at a London street market (of which, this novel is a supposed transcript), that turned out to have been written by no-lesser a personality than Prof. Abraham Van Helsing himself (a prominent character in Bram Stoker's novel, "Dracula".).

That manuscript, in turn, is a translation of a memoir by Mircea, the son of Vlad Dracula, and his encounter with his family in what is present-day Romania.

What then follows is basically a retread of Jonathan Harker's journey to Transylvania and other scenes from Bram Stoker's book, but set over four hundred years previous. There is even a Van Helsing substitute, in the form of Brother John; a Cornish monk.

Tremayne includes quite a bit of research into the text, which kind of detracts from the story itself, as these bits of information seems a bit forced.
Despite the amount of work that has clearly gone into the research, there are a couple of errors I have spotted. Take, for example, the term "mesmerise" (more commonly known as "hypnotise" these days) is used. The term was named after Anton Mesmer, renowned for the skill in the EIGHTEENTH century, and, ironically enough, the term "vampire" itself, which also didn't enter popular usuage until the aforementioned era.

On the plus side, the story moved along at a fast pace, and I really liked the scene with Brother John and Mircea (or "Michelino" as he is known to himself and others) are trapped inside a bedroom in Castle Dracula with a vampire woman on the other side of the door, trying to get in.
The origins of Dracula's vampirism is also given an inventive, occultish twist.

In the end, though, I'd only really recommend this book for the die-hard vampire fan, or, just for an entertaining, albeit fairly forgettable, read for others.