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Book Review - The Holmes-Dracula File by Fred Saberhagen
- By Adrian Tallent
- Published 01/26/2010
- Books and Zines
- Unrated
Adrian Tallent
A former student of Spartanburg Technical College and overall geek, I enjoy listening to music, reading books, playing video games, and watching movies. Sometimes I write about them.
View all articles by Adrian Tallent
Fred Saberhagen has been around the block when it comes to his favorite subject, Dracula. The man was chosen to co-write the screenplay for the movie adaptation of Braham Stoker’s Dracula that came out in the 90’s. As a literary giant, the ancient Count holds his own. Sherlock Holmes, another literary giant, joins forces with him in this book, The Holmes-Dracula file.
In his previous work, Dracula tracked down the Harker’s descendents in modern-day London to set the record straight regarding the harrowing tale published in Jonathan Harker’s diary (“Dracula” by Braham Stoker). This tale takes place a good deal before that, in London during the late 1800’s, roughly six years after Van Helsing led the Harker family against Dracula. Having survived the encounter, the dark lord of the night is once again back in London on personal business, hoping to see Mina again. Unfortunately, he is clobbered by a common street ruffian wielding the one thing he is truly weak to: wood. The blow causes Dracula to lose his memory, and he becomes involved in some bizarre medical experiment against his will, with no one the wiser to who he really is. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes is in residence when a woman comes from America imploring him to find her husband, a doctor researching the plague in India who has mysteriously vanished.
These two seemingly unrelated cases will bring together the dark prince of the night and the greatest detective in the world, for they must act together to stop a madman who would threaten the entire civilized world.
The book is written in a dual-narrative. Chapters alternate between being penned by Watson in his familiar narrative script, to being written by Dracula as he fills in the gaps that John Watson could never know. This gives the book an almost night-and-day duality, leading up to the climax of when these two literary forces finally meet. Unfortunately, it is at this crucial point in the story where the tale really starts to unravel. Up until this point, the story seems like it might actually fit believably into the canon of both characters, but upon meeting Dracula Holmes reveals some aspects of his past that seem to come from entirely out of left field. I believe Mr. Saberhagen got a little carried away with himself, as the abruptness and absurdity of the reveal smacks of fan fiction. However, it does serve some interesting literary purposes, even if it doesn’t have a shred of canonical backup in the histories of either character, as far as I have seen. Perhaps it is more interesting that in the completion of this tale, Holmes is the only literary character I’ve known to have met both the fictitious work and the creator of said work (Holmes met Braham Stocker in “The West End Horror” by Nicholas Meyer, a work that I have reviewed previously.)
In short, I found this book to be interesting, but otherwise without merit as either a tale of Dracula or a tale of Holmes.
In his previous work, Dracula tracked down the Harker’s descendents in modern-day London to set the record straight regarding the harrowing tale published in Jonathan Harker’s diary (“Dracula” by Braham Stoker). This tale takes place a good deal before that, in London during the late 1800’s, roughly six years after Van Helsing led the Harker family against Dracula. Having survived the encounter, the dark lord of the night is once again back in London on personal business, hoping to see Mina again. Unfortunately, he is clobbered by a common street ruffian wielding the one thing he is truly weak to: wood. The blow causes Dracula to lose his memory, and he becomes involved in some bizarre medical experiment against his will, with no one the wiser to who he really is. Meanwhile, Sherlock Holmes is in residence when a woman comes from America imploring him to find her husband, a doctor researching the plague in India who has mysteriously vanished.
The book is written in a dual-narrative. Chapters alternate between being penned by Watson in his familiar narrative script, to being written by Dracula as he fills in the gaps that John Watson could never know. This gives the book an almost night-and-day duality, leading up to the climax of when these two literary forces finally meet. Unfortunately, it is at this crucial point in the story where the tale really starts to unravel. Up until this point, the story seems like it might actually fit believably into the canon of both characters, but upon meeting Dracula Holmes reveals some aspects of his past that seem to come from entirely out of left field. I believe Mr. Saberhagen got a little carried away with himself, as the abruptness and absurdity of the reveal smacks of fan fiction. However, it does serve some interesting literary purposes, even if it doesn’t have a shred of canonical backup in the histories of either character, as far as I have seen. Perhaps it is more interesting that in the completion of this tale, Holmes is the only literary character I’ve known to have met both the fictitious work and the creator of said work (Holmes met Braham Stocker in “The West End Horror” by Nicholas Meyer, a work that I have reviewed previously.)
In short, I found this book to be interesting, but otherwise without merit as either a tale of Dracula or a tale of Holmes.