Robert Lory Dracula´s Brothers - #3

[andydecker]

As it is a topic again I will complete the documentation of the rest of the series.

Robert Lory Dracula´s Brothers (Pinnacle 1973)

There is a maniac in New York who has trained bats into an attack force. Now he blackmails the mayor and the UN. Enter Dr. Harmon and his weapon, the Vampire!

I always thought this one of the weakest entrys of the series. There are a few nice parts in the "animals attack vein and Dracula is his usual arrogant and sadistic self. But the plot is very pulpish and kind of silly.

[junkmonkey]

I've not read all of these but I just love the man's writing style; the opening paragraph of Chapter 2 of this book has to be one of my favourite 121 word sentences in the English language:

Untitled-1 by the_junk_monkey, on Flickr

[jamesdoig]

Jun 21, 2012 0:31:19 GMT junkmonkey said:

I've not read all of these but I just love the man's writing style; the opening paragraph of Chapter 2 of this book has to be one of my favourite 121 word sentences in the English language:

Cracking stuff, deserving of a Bulwer-Lytton award.

[dem bones]

Review by NIGHTREADER

In this third installment of the series the setting is New York. A crazy scientist has genetically modified vampire bats, while his equally crazy twin brother has trained them to kill. Unknown to disgraced scientist August Abelard his twin brother Adrian (a down on his luck ex-vaudevillian) has been been training the new breed of bats to attack, with the addition of razor sharp metal sheaths for the wing claws. After a couple of attacks Adrian is ready to put his demands to the Mayor of New York, one million dollars or members of the United Nations will be next.

Sanford Proctor, a retired yet influential advisor to the police, calls on Professor Harmon to help. The story seems to take place shortly after the events of ‘The Hand Of Dracula’ since the Count is still bound by the wager he made with Harmon – to comply with the Prof’s wishes for six months. Naturally Dracula is reluctant to kill the bats, who he refers to as his “little brothers” – this leads to the inevitable conflict with Harmon. It is Cameron Sanchez who points out that the controller of the bats is the one they are really after. The slinky and mysterious Ktara is also on hand to give poor Cam some extra brain ache.

Throw NYPD Detective Hank Nevarre into the mix, who has a real obsessive grudge against Cam, and the scene is set for it all to kick off. There’s an impressive battle with the bats on the rooftop of the UN building and the story moves along swiftly.

The bats are interesting and effective but the real star of the show still is Count Dracula: “The sleek black hair was moving down the high arched forehead. The nostrils of what had been an aquilline nose were flattening, and the lips were drawing back from teeth which were no longer those of a human being but more like the the fangs of some savage meat-tearing animal. And those eyes that had flashed red were now totally so, except for the very centres which were tiny pin points of white searing heat…”

Totally satisfying read from cover to cover.

[dem bones]

Robert Lory – Dracula’s Brothers (NEL, 1974)

Lucinda Cowell

Release the bats! There is hitting the ground running and there is Robert E. Lory in full flow. Within the opening paragraphs we're told that Zheliiasko Stoykichev, incompetent Bulgarian with a memory like a seiv, is fifteen minutes from a horrible death. Returning to the UN General Assembly Building on a fool's errand - his superior is trying to cop off with a secretary and doesn't need Zheli under his feet - Stoykichev can only watch appalled as a colony of bats came crashing through the window and straight for his eyes.

Now we're aboard a subway train with Harry Baldwin, big-shot advertising exec. Harry's had too many Martini's and the carriage is too hot and stuffy. Maybe he'll step off onto the platform at the next station, grab some fresh New York air. The bats, led by the oversized monster with the red marking on his skull, swoop and destroy ....

As they do at Tommy Little's club, just as brutal pimp Yancy Goldfist is thinking it's time to step inside and see if Suede Mary is putting herself about like she ought to.

Who is behind this atrocity? It can't really be the mayor of New York himself, can it?

I've said it before, i'll say it again, you really can't go wrong with Dracula's Brothers even if you've not read the previous couple in the series (which are plugged shamelessly at every opportunity). Coming in at under 140 action-packed pages, DB easily qualifies as a bona fide 'when animals attack' on account of the many episodes featuring the mutant killer vampire bats, notably their rooftop attack on flame-thrower handed cops who don't stand a chance (the bats blind their victims with the old metal-tipped claws which means lots of gory, screaming death plunges).

As impressive as Dracula is, I can't help thinking Ktara is the true star. The black-clad, white faced proto-Goth (she even writes awful poetry - or rather, "runes" - for crying out loud) may protest that she's merely a "slave" to the master, but most of the time it's cat-woman who is calling the shots. Cam is by far the most sympathetic character. Not only is he saddled with barking Prof. Harmon but Ktara knows everything that's going on in his head which must drive him insane: poor guy can't even fantasize in peace

And Damien Harmon? Well, it sure is heart-warming to see him pitted against a fellow mad scientist.

[cauldronbrewer]

I'd rank Dracula's Brothers below The Hand of Dracula but above Dracula Returns. My favorite parts were the twin villains--the one a mad scientist, the other a mad stage magician--and the bat attacks. Cam remains sympathetic and Ktara enigmatic, but at this point I'm ready for Dracula to tear out Harmon's windpipe. For now, I'll settle for the scene where the bats swarm him.

As with the rest of the series so far, Dracula's Brothers strongly reminds me of 1970s-era comic books, especially Tomb of Dracula. For me, that's a good thing.

[dem bones]

Jul 11, 2012 11:42:39 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

I'd rank Dracula's Brothers below The Hand of Dracula but above Dracula Returns. My favorite parts were the twin villains--the one a mad scientist, the other a mad stage magician--and the bat attacks. Cam remains sympathetic and Ktara enigmatic, but at this point I'm ready for Dracula to tear out Harmon's windpipe. For now, I'll settle for the scene where the bats swarm him.

As with the rest of the series so far, Dracula's Brothers strongly reminds me of 1970s-era comic books, especially Tomb of Dracula. For me, that's a good thing.

i'm with you on the relative merits of Hand .... and .... Brothers, but .....

email from Robert E. Lory dated June 24th, 2007, first posted on Vault MK. 1. Thanks to Bob for allowing me to reproduce it.)

Hey Kev,

Actually, my favorite was Dracula's Brothers -- but what they hell do I know.

Other than the Robert Lory name. I used V. J. Santiago to write a series happily stolen from Death Wish (but I insist I was much more bloody) and I was Paul Edwards for half of the John Eagle Expeditor series (interestingly, people who have read my other stuff seem to easily figure out which ones I wrote). The Robert Lory name also was on covers of a series of Horrorscope books.

Here's a point where initial success can turn around and bite you in the butt.

After the Boris book, I suggested another short story collection--each story to be based on a zodiac sign. Great, "they" said, but let's make it a series of novels. Crap, I said. But I did it anyway. I don't think the four I did were
totally awful, but I do think they deserve a lot of the adverse criticism they generated.

And, yes, I'd be happy if you add my blog links.

Finally, although I (Bob Lory) appreciate your thanks, I have to say old Harmon wouldn't give a shit. Hey, but that's his bag. Give his some space; he's got a bad back.

Cheers!
Bob Lory

[andydecker]

Jul 18, 2012 12:38:50 GMT dem bones said:

The Robert Lory name also was on covers of a series of Horrorscope books.

Here's a point where initial success can turn around and bite you in the butt.

After the Boris book, I suggested another short story collection--each story to be based on a zodiac sign. Great, "they" said, but let's make it a series of novels. Crap, I said. But I did it anyway. I don't think the four I did were
totally awful, but I do think they deserve a lot of the adverse criticism they generated.

Funny story. As I already posted somewhere there is a fifth Horrorscope Claws of the Crab which only got published in Germany. Old news. Imagine my surprise when I readied the other four novels for a new scan and discovered that only three of them matches the Pinnacle edition.

Seems the German edition ditched the first one Green Flames of Aries and substituted it with a novel called The Virgo Crypt. It is a typical Horrorscope novel, with the usual prologue and then a stand-alone horror tale.

So if Mr Lory only has written 4 novels who wrote the other 2? And why were they not published in the US? Maybe they were ghosted by German writers, wouldn´t be the first time. Sometimes even the original titles were faked. But there is a translator credited, so it is somewhat unlikely.

Guess that´s 2 more mystery books for bibliographys which will never gets solved.