Dracula : Asylum (Dracula (Dh Press)) (Bk. 1) [Paperback]

Paul Witcover (Author)

Book Description

Series: Dracula (Dh Press) | Publication Date: February 22, 2006

Since Bram Stoker first penned Dracula in 1897, this horror classic has been endlessly reinterpreted on stage, screen and print. Drawing on Universal Pictures' 1930s rendition of Count Dracula during the Golden Age of horror films, Dracula: Asylum is a bold new turn on a story that has remained a consistent favorite for over 100 years. The book follows the activities at Dr. Seward's Sanatorium, the location from which Dracula drew several victims before being destroyed by Jonathan Harker in the original story. It is now after World War I and after being gone for years Dracula is suddenly restored to earth. Trapped beneath the grounds of the madhouse, his evil reaches out into the minds of the weak and insane - and as a new crop of victims is harvested, new heroes are needed to battle this impenetrable evil. Dracula: Asylum combines intense horror, psychological tension and thrilling action to create a successor worthy of the original.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Paul Witcover has been a writer and editor for more than 20 years. His near-future science fiction novel Waking Beauty was widely praised and short-listed for the James Tiptree, Jr. Memorial Award. He has also written a biography of Zora Neale Hurston and numerous short stories. His new novel, Tumbling After, was released in hardcover from Harper Collins in March 2005. He lives and writes in New York City.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse; 1st DH Press Ed edition (February 22, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595820183
• ISBN-13: 978-1595820181
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,350,470 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A First-Rate Reinterpretation of the Dracula Legend, May 9, 2006

By 

Steven Cohen (Brockton, MA., USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dracula : Asylum (Dracula (Dh Press)) (Bk. 1) (Paperback)

This book is superb! Fans of Bela Lugosi will find this book to be quite a treat. If you have not seen the 1931 version of Dracula, I highly recommend that you check it out; the book is a sequel to that movie. It is in some respects a combination of Dracula and All Quiet On the Western Front. Some of the most frightening aspects of the book take place when Faulks, a traumatized veteran of World War I, recalls the horrors of trench warfare. The book clearly shows that human beings can be the most terrifying monsters around. As Dracula said, "There is no evil so great that it does not exist in the human heart." On another level, though, it is a story of great courage as the protagonists band together to battle the fiendish count.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much Better Than It Has Any Right To Be, August 8, 2006

By 

Thomas Raven (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Dracula : Asylum (Dracula (Dh Press)) (Bk. 1) (Paperback)

I didn't expect a lot when I purchased Dracula: Asylum. It's the first book from Dark Horse Press, an offshoot of Dark Horse Comics, and it is a franchise property of Universal Pictures...a sequel to the Lugosi Dracula, not the Bram Stoker novel on which the Lugosi film was based. All of this lent me pause, but being a fan of the original film, I took a chance. All I can say is this book is better than it has any right to be.

I don't imagine that the fat men in suits at Universal had anything like this novel in mind when they okayed the concept of a new print franchise. Paul Witcover has provided us with interesting, complex characters, an unexpected set of subplots, and compelling prose. Despite the fact that his Dracula isn't a carbon copy of Lugosi's, I found him frightening in a way that most onscreen portrayals never approach. For the first time in my experience, Dracula is portrayed as truly scary in the real world...not in a comic book way, but in a visceral, spiritual way.

If you are a fan of vampire fiction, you can't do much better than this. Anne Rice has pages and pages (and pages) of descriptive text and Laurell Hamilton has devolved into writing mostly porn, but neither has written anything as compelling as this chilling tale.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Reinvention, December 7, 2006

By 

E. Loredo "LoriderReader" (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Dracula : Asylum (Dracula (Dh Press)) (Bk. 1) (Paperback)

I likely never would have picked this book up because the movie tie-in would have discouraged me. Lucky for me, then, that my sister recommended it or I would have missed out on one of the surprise literary pleasures of my year.

I finished it on just three day's subway rides and missed my stop on one of them because I was too deep inside to realize I'd blown past Flatbush. Then I ended up letting another train go by to make sure I'd finish the last few pages I had left, standing there on a pretty drafty platform for another half-hour, unable to stop reading.

Initially, I thought I might enjoy the horror-thriller part of the book and did - genuine chills there, which I don't usually get when reading no matter what those "will send shivers up your spine" back-cover reviews usually say. But what carried me away was the war story. I can't imagine the amount of research that made those passages read like such a true and gut-wrenching account but it was the best kind, the kind that doesn't show itself off. Everything was in service to the action, which was relentless, horrifying and moving. Those were incredibly gripping chapters and they give the story soul, exactly what's needed to balance the more fantastical darkness of the classic Dracula myth.

But even the myth was reinvented and made fresh and truly scary. For once Dracula's power over everyone doesn't feel like a cartoon seduction but like some kind of elemental characteristic, as if an evolutionary byway had been taken. It didn't hurt that the female lead had real heft for once.

Fair warning: You'll also want a friend to read it so you can talk about the revelation at the end with someone. That's why my sister suggested that I read it, as it turned out! Very tricky.