P.N.Elrod (ed.) - Dracula in London

[andydecker]

P.N.Elrod (ed.) – Dracula in London (Ace Books, 2001, 263 p., tpb)

Content:
Introduction - P. N. Elrod
To Each His Own Kind - Tanya Huff
Box Number Fifty - Fred Saberhagen
Wolf and Hound - Nigel Bennett and P. N. Elrod
The Dark Downstairs - Rachel Caine
Dear Mr. Bernard Shaw - Judith Proctor
The Three Boxes - Elaine Bergstrom
Good Help - K. B. Bogen
Everything to Order - Jody Lynn Nye
Long-Term Investment - Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
"Places for Act Two!" - Bradley H. Sinor
Beast - Amy L. Gruss and Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein
A Most Electrifying Evening - Julie Barrett
An Essay on Containment - Gene DeWeese
Berserker - Nancy Kilpatrick
Curtain Call - Gary A. Braunbeck
Renfield or, Dining at the Bughouse - Bill Zaget


It is a sound idea. What did Dracula do in London besides getting bothered by Van Helsing and friends?

But the thoroughly limp cover should have been a warning, besides being "inspired" by the Coppola movie, it is a rather dull affair. And the same can be said for most of the stories. Worst offender is surely the collaboration of Elrod and (fine) actor Nigel Bennett, the LaCroix of Forever Knight, in which they put Dracula against Sabra, supernatural heroine and immortal celtic defender of Britain, who sends him packing. Later they wrote a trilogy about Sabra, mixing Merlin and Arthur with vampires. (Shudder.)

You get the usual (and obvious) Dracula meeting famous people like the Prince of Wales, Tesla, Stoker or actress Ellen Terry, and you get the noble Dracula, helping - I kid you not - two orphans. At least there is no Jack the Ripper or Sherlock Holmes.

But there are also a few nice stories included. Elaine Bergstrom's The Three Boxes brings Dracula together with the early suffragette movement, but at least the count stays in character and the story isn't preachy (due to be written before the PC movement). Bergstrom had already written a quite readable sequel to Dracula and a few other vampire novels.

Rachel Caine's The Dark Downstairs tells the story of the maids of the house of Westenra, who wage their own war against the fiend. It is a nice idea well executed.

Jody Lynn Neye's Everything to Order was the highlight for me. Seems Dracula brought the three Brides to England, who, having lost all luggage on the Demeter and being pissed about it, go shopping at a respectable Victorian dressmaker establishment for ladies of standing complete with young ladies performing the gowns for the rich clientele. Absolutly novel idea, combining a forgotten piece of social history with the vampire brides, and actually writing a creepy horror story about it. I only knew Nye as a collaborater of Robert Asprin's groan-worthy humoristic Fantasy and some dull Anne McCaffrey novels, but actually she wrote hundreds of short stories - mostly light Fantasy - and 40 novels. Even if Dracula never appears in this tale and the idea of the Brides in England takes a little getting used to, this works and is fun.

But on the whole this anthology is a tame affair, no gore or sex.

[helrunar]

Thanks, Andreas, for that review. The Jody Lynn Neye story does sound like fun, as does the Rachel Caine tale about the determined housemaids.  I have never heard of either author.

cheers, Steve