I made a mistake once, giving away books that I would want to re-read in the future. (OK, I’ve made mistakes more than once… I made that particular mistake once.) And then they were out of print, so I couldn’t find them. But the author wrote more books to the series, so they’re back in print, and I found some of them at Powell’s in July.
The series is Anno Dracula. Not surprisingly, given the name, the series is about vampires. The first book, Anno Dracula, starts in 1888, as a What If to the original Bram Stoker’s Dracula… what if Dracula had won? By 1888, he has married Queen Victoria and vampires live openly in London. The fascinating thing about all of the Anno Dracula books is how Kim Newman combines vampire and other lore with historical – both real and fictional – figures from the era. Anno Dracula presents readers with a variation on the Jack the Ripper story, where all of the victims are vampire girls, skillfully slaughtered with a silver knife. Interspersed in the stories are glimpses of classics like Sherlock Holmes, Jekyll and Hyde, and Oscar Wilde.
Continuing in chronological, rather than publication order, the next book is Anno Dracula: One Thousand Monsters, which skips across the world to 1899 Japan where a ship of vampire refugees find a temporary home in ghetto for monsters. Newman explores a variety of Asian lore, some more recognizable that others, such as the four kappa (anthropomorphic turtles) with martial arts weapons, along with recognizable vampires from other sources, including a nutty psychic named Drusilla and references to the Theater des Vampires in Paris. Yōkai Town is more of a prison than a refuges, and somebody is pitting the vampires against each other.
The Bloody Red Baron presents terrifying shape-shifting vampires attacking Allied planes mid-air. Edgar Allan Poe, a vampire living in Germany when the United States joins the war, who in our reality died before the American Civil War, is recruited to write about these flying nosferatu.
Dracula Cha Cha Cha is set in Rome, in 1959, as vampires from around the world flock to Dracula’s latest wedding. The alliances that were formed to finish World War II are mentioned, including a treaty between Britain and Dracula. Someone is killing vampire elders across the city, and Kate Reed, a vampire journalist, along with Hamish Bond, the undead British secret agent, get caught up in the mystery.
Lastly – at least for now – is Anno Dracula: Johnny Alucard. Dracula was a prolific parent in his early days, but as his power and fame grew, he let his children turn others rather than making new vampires himself. Near the end of the 20th century, a vampire boy emerges from the shadows, claiming to have been turned by Dracula himself. He makes a name for himself in the United States, both in Manhattan and Hollywood, selling a dangerously addictive drug and raising a cult-like following for himself and the Dracula legend.
These books are amazingly well written, which adds to the addictiveness of the series. I highly recommend them.