Joining the Dance
Mar. 16th, 2006 12:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvessel12 Mar 2006
Dracula Cha Cha Cha - Kim Newman - Simon & Schuster, 1998
* * * *
As I’ve remarked before, alternate world fiction is fundamentally a mug’s game. To anyone with an evolutionary sensibility, it is blindingly obvious that there can be few if any historical inevitabilities. As books like The Hinge Factor and What If? show, a tiny deviation in the course of historical events can swing the outcomes of wars and change the actions of history’s movers and shakers in the same way that a single nucleotide change in DNA can cause huge alterations in the morphology and behaviour of an organism. This means that even the smallest “what if” will lead to a massive accumulation of alterations that will soon result in a world that is utterly different from our own. To do an alternate world novel properly therefore requires a massive amount of preparation and imaginative thought which isn’t really possible for a jobbing author who has to produce a novel every couple of years. As a result, most alternate world novels are light-weight affairs, fluffy constructs that rely on amusing subversions of historical personalities to disguise their fundamental lack of plausibility.
Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series doesn't start with a small deviation from history but a big one - that the titular vampire isn’t defeated by Van Helsing, but marries Queen Victoria and founds a vampiric ruling class. Dracula Cha Cha Cha, the third and final book, is set in the 1950s Rome of La Dolce Vita and typically for the genre fails to follow through the repercussions of its premise. The world in which the story is set is still recognisably that of the historical 1950s despite the fact that vampires have been known about for over sixty years and a large number of the great and the good have been turned into immortal bloodsuckers. There is absolutely no way that history would not have changed radically - if there is one thing that would foment revolution, it is the general awareness that the ruling class can become immortal by feeding on the blood of the rest of humanity (yes, I know that a satirical point is being made about economic domination and exploitation by the aristocracy and capitalist plutocrats). Yet not a single country has a different leader or governmental system. To be fair though, Newman knows what he is about, and providing you can ignore the constructed nature of his world, it is quite entertaining.
The book starts memorably, with the murder of a vampire elder and actress in the Trevi Fountain by a masked vigilante called the Crimson Executioner. This is witnessed by Kate, a vampire reporter who has arrived in Rome to cover the impending nuptials of Dracula with a Moldavian princess. She meets up with Genevieve, a vampire elder who is looking after the ancient Charles Beauregard, the person who went up against Dracula in the first book of the series. Both Kate and Genevieve have had relationships with Charles who despite being on the point of death refuses to be turned into a vampire himself. There is also Penelope Churchward, a third vampire who is now Dracula’s majordomo and also has a history with Charles. Much of the early part of the book concentrates on re-establishing and developing the prickly relationships between the three women while Charles slowly sinks and the Crimson Executioner claims more vampire elder victims.
There are a number of flaws in the plotting and characterisation. You would have thought that Kate, being a reporter, would have gone hell for leather for such a major news story as the Crimson Executioner, but her concern for Charles means that her investigations are frustratingly incompetent and desultory. Despite the setup, this is not really a whodunnit; the revelation of the identity of the Crimson Executioner is a disappointing non-event, and the main villain (other than Dracula) appears to be based on a deeply obscure cult film and is less interesting than the reader is led to believe. There is also a spoof spy subplot with suave but incompetent vampire “Hamish” Bond (presumably for copyright reasons - but why Hamish, other than as a Scottish reference to Sean Connery?) that doesn’t really come off.
The book was largely redeemed in my eyes, however, by a spectacular plot twist which was utterly logical and which I didn’t see coming at all. As I always read books in analytical mode and am constantly speculating on possible plot developments, it is not often that this happens. There are some other good features: the characters of Kate and Genevieve are still engagingly and convincingly human despite their vampiric characteristics, and this raises interesting science-fictional questions about how far human beings can be altered before they cross the border into inhumanity. And of course, Kim Newman's encyclopaedic knowledge of film and popular culture allows him to create many fine and funny vignettes of historical characters, some of whom are still with us today. When Cliff Richard is a vampire, the sinister implications of the song “Living Doll” become so much clearer...
This book doesn’t really solve the fundamental implausibility of alternate world novels, but by keeping its tongue firmly in its cheek and some occasionally deft plotting, it turned out to be a more than averagely entertaining example of the genre. If you can accept the setting, joining in the Dracula Cha Cha Cha can be a rewarding experience.
Dracula Cha Cha Cha - Kim Newman - Simon & Schuster, 1998
* * * *
As I’ve remarked before, alternate world fiction is fundamentally a mug’s game. To anyone with an evolutionary sensibility, it is blindingly obvious that there can be few if any historical inevitabilities. As books like The Hinge Factor and What If? show, a tiny deviation in the course of historical events can swing the outcomes of wars and change the actions of history’s movers and shakers in the same way that a single nucleotide change in DNA can cause huge alterations in the morphology and behaviour of an organism. This means that even the smallest “what if” will lead to a massive accumulation of alterations that will soon result in a world that is utterly different from our own. To do an alternate world novel properly therefore requires a massive amount of preparation and imaginative thought which isn’t really possible for a jobbing author who has to produce a novel every couple of years. As a result, most alternate world novels are light-weight affairs, fluffy constructs that rely on amusing subversions of historical personalities to disguise their fundamental lack of plausibility.
Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series doesn't start with a small deviation from history but a big one - that the titular vampire isn’t defeated by Van Helsing, but marries Queen Victoria and founds a vampiric ruling class. Dracula Cha Cha Cha, the third and final book, is set in the 1950s Rome of La Dolce Vita and typically for the genre fails to follow through the repercussions of its premise. The world in which the story is set is still recognisably that of the historical 1950s despite the fact that vampires have been known about for over sixty years and a large number of the great and the good have been turned into immortal bloodsuckers. There is absolutely no way that history would not have changed radically - if there is one thing that would foment revolution, it is the general awareness that the ruling class can become immortal by feeding on the blood of the rest of humanity (yes, I know that a satirical point is being made about economic domination and exploitation by the aristocracy and capitalist plutocrats). Yet not a single country has a different leader or governmental system. To be fair though, Newman knows what he is about, and providing you can ignore the constructed nature of his world, it is quite entertaining.
The book starts memorably, with the murder of a vampire elder and actress in the Trevi Fountain by a masked vigilante called the Crimson Executioner. This is witnessed by Kate, a vampire reporter who has arrived in Rome to cover the impending nuptials of Dracula with a Moldavian princess. She meets up with Genevieve, a vampire elder who is looking after the ancient Charles Beauregard, the person who went up against Dracula in the first book of the series. Both Kate and Genevieve have had relationships with Charles who despite being on the point of death refuses to be turned into a vampire himself. There is also Penelope Churchward, a third vampire who is now Dracula’s majordomo and also has a history with Charles. Much of the early part of the book concentrates on re-establishing and developing the prickly relationships between the three women while Charles slowly sinks and the Crimson Executioner claims more vampire elder victims.
There are a number of flaws in the plotting and characterisation. You would have thought that Kate, being a reporter, would have gone hell for leather for such a major news story as the Crimson Executioner, but her concern for Charles means that her investigations are frustratingly incompetent and desultory. Despite the setup, this is not really a whodunnit; the revelation of the identity of the Crimson Executioner is a disappointing non-event, and the main villain (other than Dracula) appears to be based on a deeply obscure cult film and is less interesting than the reader is led to believe. There is also a spoof spy subplot with suave but incompetent vampire “Hamish” Bond (presumably for copyright reasons - but why Hamish, other than as a Scottish reference to Sean Connery?) that doesn’t really come off.
The book was largely redeemed in my eyes, however, by a spectacular plot twist which was utterly logical and which I didn’t see coming at all. As I always read books in analytical mode and am constantly speculating on possible plot developments, it is not often that this happens. There are some other good features: the characters of Kate and Genevieve are still engagingly and convincingly human despite their vampiric characteristics, and this raises interesting science-fictional questions about how far human beings can be altered before they cross the border into inhumanity. And of course, Kim Newman's encyclopaedic knowledge of film and popular culture allows him to create many fine and funny vignettes of historical characters, some of whom are still with us today. When Cliff Richard is a vampire, the sinister implications of the song “Living Doll” become so much clearer...
This book doesn’t really solve the fundamental implausibility of alternate world novels, but by keeping its tongue firmly in its cheek and some occasionally deft plotting, it turned out to be a more than averagely entertaining example of the genre. If you can accept the setting, joining in the Dracula Cha Cha Cha can be a rewarding experience.