Vlad Dracula: The Dragon Prince [Paperback]

Michael Augustyn (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 310 pages
• Publisher: Vasso Studios (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0966086503
• ISBN-13: 978-0966086508
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,735,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What Historical Should Be, June 7, 2000

By 

high_cotton (Glastonbury, CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vlad Dracula: The Dragon Prince (Paperback)

This is an impressive piece of historical fiction - well researched and well told. While Vlad Dracula is certainly a famous, or infamous, historical figure, not a lot has been written about his world. Augustyn does a very good job of introducing the average history buff, such as myself, to the region and time. Augustyn is clearly a revisionist. By placing Dracula in historical context, he demonstrates that his subject's bad reputation is at least partially unfair. One can understand how Dracula is still considered a national hero in Romania. The bottom line of what makes this book work is that it tells an interesting story. It reads like a fictional thriller. I do not understand why the book has not received more main stream attention.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A readable historical novel about Dracula, September 25, 2004

By 

Marilyn C. Brahen (Philadelphia, PA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Vlad Dracula: The Dragon Prince (Paperback)

Having no endurance for novels with endless historical facts, this story engaged my imagination without overdoing the research, which was just enough and not too much and didn't interfere with the story movement. Michael Augustyn writes smoothly and well, and I enjoyed meeting all of his characters, including Prasha, but what stays with me the most, long after having finished reading the book, is the ending and the deft manner in which Augustyn blended the historical Dracula with the fantastical Dracula. I also enjoyed the colorful settings, including the battle scenes, and the tense relationship between Vlad and his brother Radu, the latter living in the Ottoman empire, effectively sleeping with the enemy. I recommend this book to anyone who wants a different, more realistic view of the 15th Century world of Vlad Dracula, the harshness of that world and his determination to bring order and justice to it, which caused him to become known as the "Impaler."

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent historical novel, December 14, 1999

By 

Alexander J. Thorne - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Vlad Dracula: The Dragon Prince (Paperback)

This book takes the few bare bones given us by history, and fills out the flesh. The author goes many steps further than Florescu and McNally's research by providing a full *context* for Dracula's actions, thereby making him seem not like the "mad impaler" described in German pamphlets but rather like the shrewd tactician that he was. The history of the region is explored, from Kossovo to the fall of Constantinople, rooting this story in the vital realities of the time. My only problem with the book: the sentences tend to run short. And choppy. Like this. To explain things. It gets annoying. But overall - an amazing amount of insight has gone into the characters (other than the cardboard-flat "Prasha"). It is only too bad this book was on such a small press. I hope to see more from Augustyn.