Newman's first Anno Dracula novel was released inwhich put it in the vanguard of the "new wave" of modern vampire fiction a genre so well established now that it is easy to forget the hiatus of the late's and's, when those seeking stories of the best of monsters had to really dig to find something decent apologies to Anne Rice who obviously bucked the trend.
Kim Newman came up with a something to shake the foundations of the Genre, His vampire world was groundbreaking in its visceral nature some of the vampires are simply animallike predators grafted on to a human shell others would be better described as humans with a dark and violent edge.
The question of what makes a person become one type or another when they "turn', is a source that Newman uses throughout the series to introduce depth to his monsters and makes us think "what would happen to me"
"One Thousand Monsters" is different in this respect.
Set in Japan, rather than Europe, Newman has taken the opportunity to introduce a wealth of new types of vampire born of research into the myths and legends of those islands that again moves the goalposts.
There are fire vampires, a toad vampire and even one that takes the form of a bloody umbrella, amongst many other the eponymous "one thousand" varieties of monsters.
The result is mixed, To me, Newman's strength in this series has always been the fascination of the world he creates, combined with the question of "what makes a monster" that is asked whenever someone who used to be human behaves otherwise.
In his other books, these issues can be easily absorbed by the reader because of the legacy of the European vampire story, and Stoker's "Dracula" novel in particular, provide the context and a cultural backdrop to Newman's explorations.
In "One Thousand Monsters" this aspect is generally missing and the novel is weaker as a result in places, it drifts into a plain old blood and gore horror story.
But one of those needs, at a minimum, scary monsters and a good plot, There are lots of great monsters, but tight plotting has never been what the "Anno Dracula" offerings have been about and in this novel it shows.
Having said all that I liked it, largely because I have read the others and my previous involvement with the characters made this experience richer.
I've given itimagining what it would be like for someone else, reading it cold at home, alone, in a gloomy room with just a woodburner going it is astar one for me.
Kind of a midquel to Newman's Anno Dracula series, this volume sees a boatload of exiles from Dracula's England where he had married Queen Victoria, defeated van Helsing and set himself up in the open seeking refuge inMeiji Japan, where the years of isolation have given rise to creatures as strange as the European vampires.
This is very elaborate worldbuilding, with references to anime and Japanese cinema that I am sure I did not fully appreciate, The fifth Anno Dracula novel by Newman, and the rough edges are showing despite moving the action to a Japanese background rich with possibilities, Set just after Dracula's ascendancy, we get three intertwined stories, of which I found Genevieve's recollections of her time in Paris in thes and earlys to be the most interesting.
It was still fun to play "spot the imaginary characters" from literature and film, but the disjointed plot failed to engage me, and eventually fell victim to the tired cliche of an arrogant and all powerful protagonist crushing the villains in a Deus Ex Machina finale.
This volume feels like Newman's version of one those albums turned in by bands under a contractual obligation : still the same familiar tunes, but no passion.
Lets hope he's saved his enthusiasm for Anno Draculavol, which Titan contracted Kim for in return for reissuing the earlier books, I couldn't wait to read this as I liked the other books in the Anno Dracula series, I don't know if it was just me but it took me ages to get into the story, but once it got going I really enjoyed it.
I had forgotten how much I enjoy Newman's pastiche series and its many, many, many nods to classic and contemporary works of fiction,
Just in the first couple of chapters we get things like a sailor by the name of Popejoy who gets his face scarred by a lash from a tarcovered rope but gets his eye saved only to squint forever on and sadly lose his original nickname of Hawkeye the Sailor Man.
No amount of Spinach can cure that, I wager,
I'm partial to stuff like the WoldNewton books and Alan Moore's work on the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, so Newman's Anno Dracula and the Man From The Diogenes Club parallel series, are endlessly fun.
Especially since they share alternate versions of many the same characters, Hell, his Warhammer Fantasy series under the pen name Jack Yeovil yet a third alternate version of the vampire Geneviève Dieudonné,
Hell, if you can't appreciate a scene where the characters arrive to a Japanese town at the turn of theth Century and they come across the dog with the severed hand in its jaws from the beginning of Kurosawa's "Yojimbo," we can't be friends.
“There are no vampires in Japan, That is the position of the Emperor, The Emperor is wrong ”
Japan,. A party of vampires exiled from Britain by Prince Dracula seeks refuge in Tokyo and are confined to Yokai Town, a ghetto where the Meiji Emperor keeps the countrys vampires bizarre creatures as different from European nosferatu as they are from living humans.
Dr Geneviève Dieudonné, Kostaki, a soldier, Daniel Dravot, a spy, and Christina Light, a revolutionary princess, try to survive in Yokai Town as forces within and outside its walls threaten to destroy the newcomers and the longtime residents.
What secret lies under the Temple of One Thousand Monsters Note: I received an advance review copy of this book through Goodreads
I have been greatly enjoying Kim Newman's series of alternate history vampire books ever since "Anno Dracula", and this book continues the series in a fun direction.
Set in the turn of theth/th century Japan, "One Thousand Monsters" delivers a fun and engaging story featuring some great new characters, as seen through the perspective of the familiar character Geneviève Dieudonné.
One of the wonderful things about
Newman's books is a sense of wry humor, peppered with some great 'Easter egg' pop references as a nice counterpart to the darker elements of the mythos.
One of the wonderful qualities of this book is the sense that using Japanese demon or 'yokai' archetypes really allows him a marvelous varieties of new forms and shapes to play with, pushing well beyond the traditional European vampire forms into some truly imaginative and surreal directions.
This book also allows for the interesting idea of a sort of evolution or mutation that is possible in the various species, and having Genevieve's medical assessment of the various vampires and other creatures she encounters brings a nice perspective.
The pacing and overall story is fun and engaging with plenty of action and good character interaction,
I can solidly recommend this book! Completely failed to find a way into this, I've read a couple in the series but the worldbuilding is now hugely complex and gnarly and I don't have the moral strength to find out who the giant cast all are.
I also read a bookor something in a romance series recently that did this, I get that existing fans will love all the passing mentions of thepeople from previous books, but it's a bit wearing for a newbie to the series, not to mention impenetrably dull.
The latest in the Anno Dracula series,
The year isand Genevieve and a few other vampires, including Dravot and Kostaki, have been exiled from the United Kingdom that Dracula is Prince Consort of.
They arrive in Japan, a country that officially denies the existence of vampires, They find themselves interned in a special town for vampires, Dracula may be considered the Prince of Darkness, but they find themselves in a Hell not of his making,
Well written and well plotted, The only reason this isn't astar read from me is the way the story seemed to peter out, rather than have a defined ending.
As usual Kim Newman has loaded the book with pop culture references and real people, There are several Buffy references, and noted collector of Asian ghost folklore Lafcadio Hearne gets an outing,
Highly recommended. Ive always had an odd relationship with the Anno Dracula series, I was drawn to the original due to the concept and my love of Kim Newmans journalistic work, I found it a little disappointing, I wasnt sure about his take on vampires, nor was I keen on the pop culture references, but generally I enjoyed it enough to keep going with the sequels.
And then I got to this book, Not a prequel, simply filling in some blanks, I felt that this was the point that his writing matured and he finally gained control of his chaotic, grotesque variation of a vampire.
Still not keen on the pop culture references, but this time because they distract from his truly original mythology, A gently paced yet engaging story allows you the space to get to grips with the world, so that by the end I wasnt just looking forward to reading the next book, but itching to go back to the beginning.
Clearly not my favourite in the series, I struggled to get to the end, I did not enjoy it as much as I hoped, I felt like not much happened and I got really bored, . . As a fan of Kim Newman and the Anno Dracula series for almostyears, I have made my peace that while A, D. is an amazing feat of storytelling and writing in many ways, climaxes and endings are its weakest points, I read with great happiness two nearmasterpieces by Newman Johnny Alucard and the nonA, D. The Hound of D'Ubervilles only to be let down by the fact that they just, . . ended, leaving a sour taste in my mouth that wasn't blood, The first three novels of Anno Dracula had left me with a similar feeling, Before reading this novel, I had also noticed the reviews in Amazon and GoodReads, singling it out as the weakest entry of the series, along with Judgement of Tears/Dracula Cha Cha Cha.
So my standards were low,
Boy, I was so happy when the reviews proved to be wrong, One Thousand Monsters is the most solid novel in the series from beginning to end, I was so pleasantly surprised to read an Anno Dracula book with an exciting, allgunsblazing climax and an ending that left me smiling,
The story focuses on vampires exiled by Dracula's court years after the conclusion of the first Anno Dracula, sent to "Yokai Town" in Japan.
The wonderful Geneviève Dieudonné narrates the novel and writes an account to her "warm" lover, Charles Beauregard, about her life as a medical student in Paris, hiding in the shadows like all vampires, until Dracula's ascension to the British throne.
Sympatethic Carpathian Guard captain Kostaki narrates additional chapters,
Fans of Japanese folklore, myth, cinema, literature, manga and television will have a smashing good time with all the famous fictional characters, yokai and famous ghosts that appear in the novel.
I'll write a longer, better review down the road, In the meantime, I'm happy to report that GoodReads was wrong this time around and I'm happy about it, I just want to say that Newman has outdone himself this time, Also, there are some genuinely creepy and gory scenes in the novel, some very funny moments and some deeper character development for this endearing cast of vampire adventurers.
Kim Newman returns to the world of Anno Dracula but throws something of a curveball by setting it shortly after the original Anno Dracula, It'sand Genevieve Dieudonne is on a ship with a bunch of vampires who are exiled from Dracula's England, Gene and her fellow vampires, including Princess Christina Light and former Carpathian Guard Kostaki, find themselves in Tokyo's vampire enclave Yokai Town, It won't take long before trouble finds them,
OK, I have to say from the off that was this was my least favourite Anno Dracula book, For a start, not much really happens here, For three quarters of the book at least it's Gene noting how weird the Japanese yokai vampires are, I love the way Anno Dracula books take in a range of historical and fictional characters from there settings, This might well do this but if it does it uses Japanese folklore which I, and I suspect the majority of readers, have limited knowledge of it.
I also found the plot hard to follow, Characters seemed to come and go and noone seemed to know what was going onindeed there were some sections which seemed utterly irrelevant, The book sets up the next Anno Dracula book set inand I can't help but think that this is the only reason for it's existence.
There were some chapters that I really loved which told us of what Gene was doing before Dracula came to power, It's interesting to see what being a vampire was like when they were hiding from society and how that changed when Dracula came to power.
This felt like the Anno Dracula I know and love,
The other highlight was the characterisation of Gene, She has long been one of the best characters in the series, a vampire elder with the face of a sixteenyear old who mostly works as a doctor.
She's a great narrator too and it's good to spend time with her again,
Some brilliant moments but an uninspiring read for the most part, I am however intrigued where the next book will go and looking forward to seeing the vampire world of, Note: This really is closer to a,, but the pure insanity of the last several chapters moved me to round up instead of down,
Anno Dracula has become an odd series for me, The first three books were all great in their own way, with Cha Cha Cha serving as a satisfying ending point, However, more books were required as part of Newman's deal with Titan in exchange for reprinting the series, which resulted in the entertaining if somewhat uneven Johnny Alucard, with multiple novellas/short stories somewhat haphazardly strung together, ending on a major cliffhanger, presumably to be resolved in Book.
The Anno Draculacollection didn't help matters, ultimately being a shameless cash grab, with only one story tied into the series the first few chapters of this book, to be precise.
Don't get me wrong, that collection had plenty of merits on its own, but the way it was packaged as an Anno Dracula book left a bad taste in my mouth.
That being said, it did advertise an upcoming book, due later inAnno Dracula: Daikaiju, . . which we still haven't seen,
Which brings us to One Thousand Monsters, Apparently, it was supposed to be part of Daikaiju, but proved strong enough to stand on its own, And for the most part, it does, A prequel/interquel hodgepodge set between the first two books, it follows Genevieve, Kostaki, and company as they flee Dracula's England, and get caught up in a power struggle in Tokyo's ghetto for supernatural creatures, Yokai Town.
There follows many bizarre incidents, twists and cameos from various figures from Japanese folklore and pop culture, It's a fun romp, packed with atmosphere, entertainment, and a finale chock full of the most insane action imaginable, The cameos the ones I picked up on, at least tickled me pick, especially the ones I didn't pick up on at first, And some of the new characters introduced ended up being worth the time spent with them, especially the ever surprising Christina Light, Also, Genevieve's flashbacks to Dracula outing vampires to the world finally gives some insight into how the world at large reacted in the immediate aftermath, something that was never really covered before.
However, there are still plenty of negatives to go around, The plot takes its time to set everything up, only for things to draw to a close rather quickly, just as it feels like the story has picked up.
This is probably a consequence of Daikaiju being split into two books, as evidenced by the prophecies mentioned, as well as the sequel hook at the end.
Also, the status quo of the vampire world in Japan has been shifted in such a way that it really should have been mentioned in the books that take place after this, especially the novella where vampires gathered to select a new ruler.
I suppose that's just one of the risks of writing a prequel,
Overall, it's a worthwhile read for fans of the series, but I wish Newman would get on with it and just finish things already.
I'm seeing shades of George R, R. Martin here .
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