Seance For A Vampire!

Seance for a Vampire by Fred Saberhagen is part of his Dracula series and the specific sequel to The Holmes-Dracula File. The setting is six years after the first novel in 1903.

This one begins with the story of an 18th century Russian pirate who is turned into a vampire as part of a scheme to steal his treasure. Centuries later he returns to take revenge on the family he blames for the theft and initiates a rambling plot which becomes a case for Sherlock Holmes and Dr.Watson. Holmes soon enough suspects vampires are involved and that means that an old ally, Count Dracula is called in to help.

To be honest the novel feels a bit longer than the story it tells, and consequently seemed to drag for me with quite a bit of action which ultimately seems to be for naught. The climax is properly exotic and I only wish Saberhagen had saw fit to get to that setting sooner.

The story does offer up a few surprises, but nothing as compelling as the earlier novel did. Sadly I have to say this one was a bit of a disappointment, though properly distracting throughout.

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Loose Cigarettes!

The recent furor over the failure of two grand juries in two different states to indict policemen in the deaths of unarmed black men is fully ablaze and I can only hope it will continue to be stoked until real actual change is made to the justice systems across the country which have in many instances failed a significant portion of the population.

But the most recent events in New York have really created some of the most crass evasions I've come across in the media in many moons. Sean Hannity (neither a subtle nor necessarily nimble-headed bloke) in minutes of the announcement that no indictment was forthcoming in the death of Eric Garner suggested  (seriously I actually heard this with my own two ears) that the real culprit was the government of New York State for its avaricious tax policy which created a black market for the sale of "loose cigarettes". That the death could have been avoided if only such egregious taxes didn't exist.

I have since heard a few mopes on Fox echo this truly craven and moronic meme in a truly desperate attempt to shift the conversation away from police brutality and racial profiling and onto ground the speaker feels more comfortable beating his chest. My own Senator, the sometimes surprising but often disappointing Rand Paul also jumped up with this truly dopey talking point.

I have noticed that after the first few days this terrible talking point has been mostly abandoned and replaced with the novel idea that there is actually no real evidence that any of the individual killings by cops across the United States are racially motivated, conveniently ignoring the totality of the trend and carefully seeking to isolate each event. It's still a craven move, but at least it's on point.

To be fair (and balanced) I will say that I've been refreshingly surprised that most of Fox's gallery of chatterers have been properly outraged (for once) about the obvious injustice in the Garner case.

Loose Cigarettes! Really! Idiots!

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The Holme-Dracula File!

The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen, part of his Dracula series, is a fascinating bit of storytelling. Two narratives are developed, one purportedly the third-person saga of a peculiar old man who has fallen victim to some mysterious miscreants who are kidnapping and experimenting on the unfortunate, and the other is the report of Dr. John Watson as he records an heretofore unrevealed exploit of the legendary Sherlock Holmes. These twin narratives parallel one another as the story progresses, one edging ahead in the time frame a bit then the other, until they reach a most satisfying conclusion.

It's difficult to talk too much about this story without spoiling it, but suffice it to say this is not quite the Dracula portrayed in the Bram Stoker work, though nominally the same. This is a more noble creature, not quite a walking corpse, but absolutely supernatural with the ability to shape shift into mists, bats, and whatnot. Dracula's famous command over the vermin of the planet comes in good use in this yarn which also offers up a version of the great untold Sherlock Holmes story about the Giant Rat of Sumatra.

There are secrets galore as Dracula and Holmes discover for themselves that their histories are not what we've all imagined all these years.

Recommended for sure.  This one is a rip-snorter.

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The Tangled Skein!

David Stuart Davies can be counted on to create a satisfying Sherlock Holmes adventure and this one proves out nicely. The Tangled Skein is the story of Holmes defying the supernatural schemes of Bram Stoker's monster vampire Dracula is a rousing yarn filled with monstrous encounters and plenty of derring-do.

Unlike the Loren Estleman version of the dramatic encounter, this one puts Sherlock and Watson front and center in the struggle against the designs of the Transylvanian demon, and forgoes attempting to graft too much from the Stoker novel. Freed of that obligation, the story here can take twists and turns which are truly unexpected.

In fact if anything, this is story is sequel to the Arthur Conan Doyle masterpiece The Hound of the Baskervilles. I'll say very little so as not to spoil a wonderful mystery, but the classic tale of a false supernatural menace on the moors gives way to a true one in this story which...ahem...catches you by the throat and doesn't let go.

Davies is so steeped in his Sherlockian lore that he doesn't feel the need to prove himself and allows it to blend into the background of the story, giving the whole a feel of a truly lost adventure. 

I give this one a hearty recommendation.

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The Adventure Of The Sanguinary Count!

Loren D. Estleman's pastiche pits Sherlock Holmes against the other late Victorian literary superstar Dracula. It's a natural pairing, done many times over the years. Estleman's rendition was produced in the late 70's with an eye on film production, and it shows.

The story begins vigorously enough as Sherlock is called in by a local Whitby reporter concerning the mysterious arrival of the Demeter. The ship, steered by its dead captain roped to the wheel, proves a proper mystery for the Sherlock methods. Add in a mysterious dog seen bounding off the boat and a missing crew and you have all the elements.

But Sherlock and Watson are called off the case, but some time later find themselves investigating the "Bloofer Lady", a figure in white associated with some injured children. Soon enough we see that Sherlock is thinking supernaturally when the famous pair encounter Professor Van Helsing and his gang of vampire killers at the tomb of Lucy Westerna.

Later still the powerful force calling himself Dracula makes himself known to Sherlock and Watson and the game is properly afoot.

But as enticing as these elements are they ultimately fail to congeal into a proper whole. We are led to believer that the role that Sherlock played in the ultimate defeat of Dracula was extirpated from the Bram Stoker narrative at the request of the ego-driven Van Helsing, so the story we have here is mostly the one Stoker relates through the assembled letters and journals, but with sidebars in which Holmes and Watson can fit.

The stirring beginning comes mostly to naught as while Sherlock is able to forestall Dracula's stratagems in some regards, he is uncharacteristically unmoved to follow the threat through, choosing rather to allow Van Helsing's mob handle the mop up. It leaves the story with an unfinished feel. It's clever but a bit overcooked in places.

Also Estleman insists on making specific references to sundry previous canon stories by Doyle which become tedious after a dozen or so. It's nice to see the story is supposed to be inside the larger Holmes frame, but being overt about it makes the story feel a bit fannish.

Overall Sherlock Holmes Vs. Dracula is a dandy romp with a great beginning and an ending which seems all to full of adrenalin and not intellect.

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The Veiled Detective!

The fascinating Sherlock Holmes pastiche The Veiled Detective purports to be no less than a secret origin of sorts for the great detective. What you think you might know about Holmes and his biographer Watson is undone by the details of this sprawling saga which rumbles through the whole of the career of Arthur Conan Doyle's creation.

It's a hard book to discuss without giving away secrets, but suffice it to say it presents many of the most famous moments in the career from a very different perspective and adds some real spice to tales which are all too familiar to fans of Sherlock Holmes. Moriarty is at the heart of the web which spins an absorbing story of intrigue, of deceit, and of nobility.

David Stuart Davies is clearly a man who knows his Sherlockian lore and brings that knowledge forward to great effect. His storytelling is lean and compelling and the story licks along at a delightful pace. Meet old friends, confront old enemies, and see the world of 221 B Baker Street from a completely new perspective.

Highly recommended.

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Pax Americana!

I picked up Multiversity- Pax Americana for the very simple reason that I love the old Charlton Action-Heroes and this is as close as we're ever going to get to seeing new adventures featuring those awesome characters.

These characters, created largely under the aegis of editor Dick Giordano were a brief but brilliant attempt to mine the superhero market which blossomed briefly during the Silver Age. Captain Atom and Blue Beetle were dusted off and revamped with new heroes such as Peacemaker, Nightshade, The Question and Judomaster brought along to fill in the ranks.

These characters of course these days are mostly remembered as the inspirations for Alan Moore's iconic Watchmen series and many dismiss them beyond that point. Alas, in this story Grant Morrison, a storyteller with stones, tries to revisit these heroes but clearly through the goggles of the Watchmen variations.

We are invited into a complex story, told by Morrison and artist Frank Quitely, which travels back and forth through time and space with all sorts of visual hijinks, all serving to create some larger mystery and make some larger point. The heroes are not as developed as individuals but merely used as elements of the one-shot story which explores the nature of heroes and justice and how the society can best make use of them.

We get good looks at Captain Atom, a man removed from his fellows by the dint of awesome power and who seems lost inside himself and the universe he sees differently from everyone else. The lovely Nightshade is a very young government agent who seeks to find the right way, but seems out of her depth most of the time. Peacemaker is a man on a mission which makes little sense for most of the story. The Question as always seeks answers regardless, while the Blue Beetle is a loyal government man.

We get glimpses of  Sarge Steel and while Judomaster doesn't make the cut, his sidekick Tiger is around for a few pages as a member of a superhero unit which has a lot of vintage fun picking out a sobriquet.

The story even has a reference to Charlton's first superhero, the Golden Age Yellowjacket.

This is a complicated yarn, a mystery which has an answer, but which demands mighty attention from the reader and frankly more than one pass through the material. At five bucks for a copy, I guess I should thank Morrison and Quitely for giving me a comic which demands to be read more than once, since the density makes the entertainment value rise.

This is a book any Charlton Action-Hero fan should read, if only to see some vintage imagery and old rather obscure Charlton references hanging around in various panels.

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