Kim Newman

Take THAT shallow consumerist 90s culture! Also political witch-hunts, fascists and mind vampires! It ain't subtle, but it is clever and it's evocation of a classic film, its writer's life ruined by McCarthy (with the help of the mind vampire) sucking the creativity out of him, and its legacy in the era of cocaine and commodification and exploitation is well-observed. The grimy low-life of Soho, its sleazier upper classes feeding of them, and a literal monster feeding off all of them, it's a show more nasty little horror package wrapped around Newman's version of On The Waterfront and its history. show less

The cards! The cards! Why are this mother and son being sent these horrific cards? Has it something to do with the ghost story the mother watched one Christmas Eve when she was a child but which doesn't seem to exist? Probably! The relationship at the centre of this story of mounting terror is actually rather touching and lovely, and as it frays under claustrophobic supernatural pressure, the very nature of Christmas is dissected for examination.

Once upon the time there were three little girls who went to the music academy.... I can't believe how long it took me to cop on to the fact that this is a riff on Charlie's Angels, with the Phantom Of The Opera as Charlie, the Persian as Boswell and a rotating cast of three angels on hazardous duties. I think it was the first time they were given their assignment by the Phantom through a mirror with the Persian beside them in good ol' Charlie's Angel fashion. I loved Charlie's Angels when I show more was a kid. I wanted o be Submarina.

A succession of cases, a succession of angels going together down the mean Parisian streets, following trails and foiling schemes and battling evil. There are lots of great ideas here, and I don't want to give them away, but I particularly loved the reverse-heist in the Mark Of Kane.

It's he sheer quantity of female characters lining up to become angels. A remarkable and diverse selection of heroines or borderline personalities, from Irene Adler to Lady Snowblood to Eliza Doolittle. Many of them are neglected even in the works they appear in - here they're given a chance to shine and take centre stage, cease being marginalised and become adventuresses.

The adventures are cracking, the setting is vivid and the pop-culture underbelly is full of weirdness and nastiness and material a-plenty for the Phantom and his Angels and their hazardous duties. show less

A ridiculously enjoyable book in a ridiculously enjoyable series. This is the sequel to Anno Dracula, which had Genevieve and Charles Beauregard chase Jack The Ripper through the fog-choked streets of Victorian London, as ruled by the Prince Regent, Dracula. Not to spoil it or anything, but at the end of the book revolution was kindled and Dracula ejected from Britain. Now he's in Germany, running the War for Kaiser Wilhelm. Warm and dead alike are chewed up in the muddy fields of France as show more the conflict stalls and drags for years, while in the skies above the nascent science of aerial warfare capture the public imagination. The deadly Baron Von Richtofen is Germany's greatest ace. Edwin Winthrop is assigned by the Diogenes Club to spy out the headquarters of Richtofen's Flying Circus, where dark deeds are afoot. Vampire reporter Kate Reed is driving an ambulance at the front and sniffing out stories. Exiled American writer Edgar Allan Poe is conscripted to write a very special biography. With Russia out of the war, millions of German troops are being brought to the western front for a Spring offensive that could end the war and see Dracula triumphant.

The pages are crowded with literary characters, some of them vampires, some of them not, which adds a delightful level to the book, but there is a cleverly constructed, compelling story and in Kate and Edwin a pair of strong, likeable leads in dreadful peril.

This is a new edition, and it includes a previously deleted chapter and a novella set in the 1920s, featuring Genevieve and Edwin in a messy effort to find a new king of the vampires. At 150 pages, it's a substantial chunk of story, and with the annotations and a film treatment for a Roger Corman film this is an attractive prospect even for fans who already have a copy. Still to come is Dracula Cha Cha Cha and then, finally, Johnny Alucard. That's a lot to look forward to.

Dec 2022: The AD reread continues, this time in audio. show less