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Title:
The Dracula Tape
Series: The Dracula Files
#1
Author: Fred Saberhagen
Publish:
1975
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
186
Words: 76K
When
I was looking around for another series to add to my tbr, I ran
across these and didn’t really pay attention to the author. I
probably should have, as I haven’t had the best luck with
Saberhagen for the most part. However, it has been over 8 years since
I last read a book by Saberhagen, so when I realized this series was
by him, I figured I’d give him another chance.
Back in ‘14 I called his Berserker book dry and pedantic and “workmanlike” (and not in the good way). This was very much in the same vein. What saved it from an ignominious 2star rating and series abandonment was reading about Dracula try to justify everything that took place as chronicled in Bram Stoker’s Dracula. He’s an unreliable narrator and what’s more, he’s a big fat whiny loser. It was hilarious. I don’t know if Saberhagen intended things to turn out that way, but my goodness, watching Dracula perform mental contortions of unfathomable proportions to justify himself was better than going to the circus.
For this book to work, you really need to have read Dracula, not just know the basic premise but have read it and be familiar with it. Which leads to the biggest drawback, for me, in regards to this book. I knew, roughly, what was going to happen and was bored. Dracula’s re-writing of the events aren’t different enough to make this book stand out as something truly new. Kind of like watching an actor’s commentary track on a movie. Sure, it is a little different and you get a slightly different view, but it is not a different movie. Same with this book, and since it wasn’t in epistolary format, it automatically wasn’t nearly as good as the original.
With all of this complaining, I’m still giving this 3stars. Dracula is a great story and even Saberhagen couldn’t cover that up. I’m really hoping that the next book is more original though, or I’ll have to dnf the series.
★★★☆☆
From Fandom.com
The Dracula Tape is a novel by Fred Saberhagen where Dracula tells his version of the events in the Dracula novel.
Dracula tries to paint himself in a better light and while some of his claims ring true (like the issue of blood type and the blood transfusions Lucy Westenra received) others (such as what happened on the Demeter) have an unreliable narrator quality about them.
According to this novel the final events of Dracula took place in early November 1891.
Per this novel the fates of the other characters are:
Jonathan Harker - dies of apoplexy in 1938 while raging at Neville Chamberlain.
Mina Harker - dies of old age in 1967; rises as a vampire her youth restored in the "present" day
Lucy Harker (Mina's daughter) - still alive
Quincey Harker (Mina's son) - killed in the Battle of the Somme, 1916