Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron

"Anno Dracula: The Bloody Red Baron" is the 2nd novel of 4 in the Anno Dracula Series from Kim Newman, a thought provoking, thoroughly frightening alternative history set in WW1. Visit the popular notion of vampires surviving and openly living among mankind. Kim Newman's novel reveals how a different sort of evil could have influenced and affected this historical period. Graf von Dracula is the military commander-in-chief of Germany and, as usual, is filled with egomaniacal dreams of wresting power over the world with his evil cohorts. The Red Baron is portrayed in a grand, twisted manner I found both bizarre and extraordinary. There are a cast of well-developed characters including Dracula's nemesis, the human Charles Beauregard, and vampires inimical to Dracula's desires, the audacious Kate Reed, vampire reporter extraordinaire, and the mysterious and beautiful vampire, Genevieve Dieudonne, who, in an irreverent poke at literature, infiltrates the Diogenes Club. I recommend reading "Anno Dracula" before this novel.

Anno Dracula book 1 was an extrapolization of what would have happened if Dracula had defeated Van Helsing in Bram Stokers Dracula. Dracula establishes himself in the British government and Vampires come out of the clostet. Book 2 is just more of book 1. It introduces vampires into WWI.

There isn't much need to praise the pacing and storyline of 'The Bloody Red Baron', the second volume of the 'Anno Dracula' series. Anyone who has read Kim Newman's other stories will know what they can expect, and their confidence will be rewarded.

What is remarkable is Newman's ability to cram chapters with a vast cast of fictional and historical characters, without forcing the point. 'The Bloody Red Baron' is no exception. Against the political and military machinations of Count Dracula, now a European power, the story unfolds in page after page of surprises. Mata Hari dies as a vampire before a firing squad. Kafka makes an appearance as a bat-eared clerk in a vampiric bureaucracy, pointing to 'Metamorphosis' and 'The Castle'. A 'starch-spined little corporal with a dash of a moustache and a stiff-armed salute' is eerily familiar. Bulldog Drummond shows up as a pompously naive captain, blustering on a train'. Aged Sherlock Holmes seeks validation for a theory at a funeral.

Each chapter seems to yield some unexpected treat.

Pierre Mare
[[ASIN:B007WDNQW2 The Writing is on the Coffee Cup]]

Fun, witty, fast paced with memorable characters. Both stories while different in the me still were well connected. A very good read.

Follow up was as good as the first and could just as well stand on its own.

More fun than the first book in the series (and better than the next one), the Twentieth Century crashes into the AD universe with interesting cameos throughout.

i am a fan of kim newmans first book so i decided to try this, its a good read a bit slower paced than her first book which is why i gave it 4 stars, still if you are a fan and happen to like the history behind the first world war this is hard to beat.