This is long overdue, but I had to give myself a few months to cool down.
The writing, like Meyer’s, is bad, but not unpublishable. Dialogue was definitely the weakest point.
Grade: C+
The characters, as original creations, are nothing special, as resurrections of Bram Stoker’s characters they are a complete failure. There is nothing of the original personalities and mostly they are just made pathetic and disgusting.
Grade: D
The plot was fine as an independent book. Nothing blew me away.
Grade: C+
The vampire mythos was puzzling. The authors contradict the original novel for no particular reason, other than to make their story match Hollywood’s versions of Dracula, rather than Bram Stoker’s.
Grade: D-
As a sequel to Dracula it was an abomination. I really have no other words than that.
Grade: F-
Overall grade: D (C- as an independent book, F- as a sequel to Dracula)
I agree, that as a separate, independent book it does have some virtue. As a sequel to Stoker’s original Dracula, no.
Living here in the Carpathians, not far from the ruined castle of Countess Elisabeth Bathory, and knowing of her history (which is interesting enough on its own) I cannot fathom why she had to be included in this story. Except for her real-life family connection to Vlad Dracula of Transylvania, I see that as no reason to re-create her now as a vampire. Her place in the book made it difficult to read and to swallow, with her cast as a blood-drinking, undead creature of the night with supernatural powers.
The final straw was that Jack the Ripper was named as a vampire too!
Who else can we throw in there with supernatural, vampire powers? I shudder to think and close the book.
This books status as the official sequel is driving me insane and into a depression
TECHNICALLY…since Stoker is dead and the original book is Public Domain, there is no such thing as an “official” sequel– certainly not on Dacre (gym teacher) Soker’s say-so, and even less so for Ian (can’t even get direct-to-DVD work) Holt.
It would be like a descendant of Shakespeare endorsing an “official” sequel to Macbeth– absolutely meaningless