Customer Reviews

Fangland: A Novel

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Well, think again! In this amazing, weird, genre-bending and -blending, different-from-any-other-book-you're-likely-to-read novel, you'll get to know a particularly nasty specimen. Forget the teeth - this vampire uses a saw and a bucket. But FANG LAND isn't only a smart and frankly terrifying retelling of Bram Stoker's classic (which it is indebted to on a structural level, too); Marks uses the foil of the vampire novel to say some pretty serious things about why our media suck. (Excuse the pun.) And he does so with a satirical edge that is all the sharper because he used to be a producer for 60 Minutes himself. A great read and more profound than you'd think. The cover is spectacular, too.

Fangland can basically be described as an updated Dracula. In fact the main character, a young woman is named Evangeline Harker, just like Stoker's classic Jonathan Harker. There are even a few names that are re-used as well. Evangeline is a reporter for a TV show called the Hour. She is sent to Romania to interview a possible crime lord named Ion Torgu, who presumes the role of Dracula. Although it is never said if he is truly a vampire, he is something else that is not of this world however.

Similar to Stoker's tale, Evangeline remains too long on her trip and doesn't return at the appointed time, but for some reason someone is taking over Evangeline's life and sending emails in her name and shipping strange crates back to the office. Evangeline loses her memory of the duration of the trip and when she returns home her memories slowly return to her and the terror of them drives her insane. A horror has taken over the people of the Hour and Evangeline must do all that she can to defeat the monster.

Overall a very good book. If you've read Stoker's classic Dracula you'll love this modern new twist. As mentioned before there are a few names that are similar if I'm remembering correctly. A must read for all Dracula fans, you won't be disappointed.

As a huge fan of the Stoker original, the premise of the novel intrigued me -- an updated "Dracula" story? Excellent! Gender-flipping the Harker character into a female lead? Great! Lots of high reviews on Amazon and other places? Clearly this must be the Holy Grail of vampire novels!

Sadly, not so.

The first half of the novel starts out well enough-- where Marks stays true to the Stoker original without being a complete carbon-copy. The modern adaptation concept worked really, really well. Marks updates the old epistolary format, popular in the 18th and 19th centuries using therapy journals and e-mail, and it's all really engaging.

Unfortunately, it all falls apart halfway through. For one, by avoiding all of the trappings of the vampire mythology, Torgu seems less and less like a vampire. In fact, by the end of the novel, I wasn't entirely convinced that Torgu WAS a vampire (in fact, when he DOES in fact drink blood, it seems like a total nonsequitur -- he collects it in a bucket after slashing the victim's throat, and then proceeds to cup it in his hands and drink it). He's essentially described as human suffering made manifest, and there is a distinct emphasis ON human suffering and the dead, but its significance never really clicks with the rest of the book.

The main character, Evangeline Harker, is completely unsympathetic -- we're never sure what kind of person Marks wants her to be, and eventually her behavior is nothing short of pointlessly erratic -- not a trait you want a protagonist to have.

For that matter, the cast of characters is far too large, and it not only becomes difficult to keep track of them all, it becomes impossible to care about any of them. (Besides that, most of them aren't likeable in the least, which makes it doubly difficult to give half a damn about them.)

The POV changes that some of the other reviewers complained about is consistent with Stoker's original, but what Marks fails to do with this tapestry of correspondance is make all the pieces fit together to create a coherent whole. Stoker's novel, while flawed in its own way, consisted of newspaper clippings, journal entries, and letters, that all fit together, like a mosaic, and when you stepped back, as a reader, you saw how the pieces fit and what kind of picture it made. Marks pays homage to the format without fully understanding it, it seems, and so it all falls horribly flat.

And as a personal pet-peeve: people simply do *not* talk the way Marks portrays, I don't care how worldly and well-educated they are. The dialogue is at times painful, and the winding monologues are best skipped over entirely.

In short? I wouldn't recommend it.

This novel started out with so much promise. I really liked the fact that Marks was telling the story with emails, journals, newspaper clippings, etc. in the style of Bram Stoker. Unfortunately, it was soon apparent that EVERY character spoke in the EXACT same voice. Even worse, emails were so lengthy and written in such elegant prose that it was just unbelievable. And a personal journal that one of the characters was being FORCED to keep as a therapy tool by his psychiatrist, (again, written in the same voice as every other character - are they ALL mental?) was also written eloquently - as though it was something he expected to publish rather than something he was writing under duress.

Even though the "vampire" was very different than Stoker's Dracula, and the way to render him helpless was sort of interesting (if you don't have too puritanical a mind-set), reading this novel finally became too tiresome because of the "one voice" writing style and slightly annoying due to numerous plot holes

Not only did this book not go back on my shelf to take up precious space, I could not even in good conscience donate it to Friends of the Library. I put this one in the recycle bin.

Fangland begins with your seemingly normal descriptions, vivid, about The Hour and Evangeline Harker's assignment. As the story progresses, things begin to snowball and this burgeoning darkness begins. It grows and grows, going from subtle to total freak out. I love that building darkness. It is intense and I fantastic. The story was very original and the gore was insignificant in comparison to the foreboding and dread. I loved it and would definitely recommend reading it. I've read it three times.

Novels like Fangland vex me because I can never comprehend exactly what is going on. Is it because the novel is deliberately vague, or am I just an imperceptive reader? I will try to encapsulate the novel, but keep in mind that it is a difficult book to encapsulate.

Fangland is about Evangeline Harker, an associate producer at a 60 Minutes-type news program who travels to Romania to judge whether a Keyzer Soze-like criminal is suitable for her show, only to learn that he is something unnaturally horrific with plans to plant his terror in New York.

The novel is three stories in one. It is a modernization of Bram Stoker's Dracula, in which the vampire uses technology and programming to spread his dominion. It is also an insightful insider's view of a news program, written by a former producer of 60 Minutes. It is also a commentary on the fascination with slaughter among the media and news watchers.

Fangland is a vampire story the same way F. Paul Wilson's The Keep is a vampire story. Ion Torgu, the Romanian criminal, is vampire-like but without any of the mythological trappings (e.g. aversion to garlic and holy symbols). Nevertheless, vampire mythology is featured in the book. The use of e-mails and journals brings to mind the epistolary style of Bram Stoker's seminal work, and Evangeline's last name cannot be a coincidence. Oddly, no one in the novel mentions that she has the same surname as the characters in Dracula (unless I missed it). I also equate Trotta with Van Helsing, although I might be stretching. (Yet he is called Von Trotta at one point.)

In my opinion, the novel's best scenes deal with the news program and the disparate people involved in its production. The author obviously knows the inner workings and hierarchies of such a show. I enjoyed trying to figure out who is based on Ed Bradley, who reminds me of Mike Wallace and Morley Safer, etc. (Thankfully, there does not seem to be an Andy Rooney clone.) I was less impressed by the novel's supernatural proceedings; I still feel in the dark about Torgu's affliction and Evangeline's erotic power against him. I like how Marks ties in the 2001 World Trade Center tragedy into the plot. In the past, references to that day in novels and movies have left a sour taste in my mouth, but the inclusion makes sense in Fangland.

Fangland offers an original, contemporary angle on the vampire legend. I like how Marks imbues the novel with a tone of impending doom. I recommend it with the reservation that you may not understand what is happening (and more importantly, why) and may not be meant to. It is up for a 2008 World Fantasy Award.

Looking for something a little "different," I picked up a copy of Fangland by John Marks.

Evangeline Harker is an associate producer for the long running, New York-based, television show The Hour (think 60 Minutes). She isn't happy that her current assignment is to go to Romania, and do background on a well known, but little seen, criminal, Ion Torgu. Part of the unhappiness is that she just got engaged. The other part is that she is an associate producer - one of the lowest rungs in television news (long hours, very little pay). And then she has issues trying to get to the appointed meeting on time. After meeting with Torgu, Evangeline goes missing for several months, but she does turn up - a long way from her earlier destination and without her memory. While she was missing, some strange items were delivered to The Hour offices. And the employees are slowly losing their minds.

Marks employs some unique methods of telling the story. First person, e-mail, instant messaging chat transcripts, and journals. This allows the reader to experience the story from many different views. But, in my case, created some initial confusion. When first introduced, I needed a few moments to figure out who was talking and to determine the method of communication. Marks keeps each of these different methods unique to specific characters, so when you come across the next journal entry, for example, you know who is talking to you.

This was a very good horror novel (we are talking about vampires, by the way). Set in the present day, using current technology, it shows that you are not safe from ancient evil. By providing you with different viewpoints, Marks really draws you into the story. But at the same time, I wish that he had spent more time with Evangeline, as it seemed that the reader had to fill in some blanks. Overall, a very creepy novel.

It begins with a TV reporter trying to interview someone who knows a well know / looked for criminal. But that person never shows up and she meets this criminal in person, so thinks that she has the luck to get a personal interview. She goes with him to an abandoned hotel in Transylvania where many surprises await her. To the rest of the world she has disappeared, and for them she has been gone for weeks but for her its only a couple of nights.

The novel develops and introduces us to various characters that you will not soon forget. Soon things begin to happen in the TV station she works at in New York, people begin to die or commit suicide, strange boxes begin to appear in the delivery office, etc.

It is a novel that is hard to put down, very intriguing because you never know what will happen in the next page/chapter.

The only bad thing is the Title!!! FANGLAND? I think it would sell more if the name would have been something like Vampire land or Land of Vampires or something similar. But other than that is amazing and I do recommend it. Never a boring moment.

I picked up this book thinking it was some kind of YA novel, but this is not your average Buffy book. The touchable characters, both fiendish and friendly, chilling imagery, and masterfully woven plot had me immediately hooked. The tongue in cheek analysis of today's post 9/11 media added an extra layer of intrigue. A patchwork of different voices and a marvelously drawn heroine, Evangeline Harker, kept me turning pages.

I'd definitely recommend this for a special friend on Valentine's day or even as a belated V-day gift. A good book shows thought, flowers don't.

I tried this book for one of my book clubs and I couldn't get through it. It started to draw me in after she met Torgu but then it left me confused and unsure of what was going on. In a good book, that would mean I wouldn't be able to put it down until I had everything figured out. In this book it meant I stumbled through a bit more then put it down. I'm just not curious enough to know what comes of Evangeline Harker and Torgu. Life's too short to read books that I'm not enoying!!