James Nicoll Reviews

1978’s The Holmes-Dracula File is the second volume in Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula Chronicles.

The unluckiest Wallachian in Victorian England strolls down the wrong street at the wrong time. The two scoundrels who bludgeon him happen to do so with a material to which the Wallachian has a peculiar sensitivity. Thus, the miscreants knock the old fellow cold and abduct him.

They have no idea who they have abducted. More importantly, they have no idea what they have abducted. Thanks to trauma-induced amnesia, neither does their victim, who is none other than Count Dracula, 

VAMPIRE!

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1975’s The Dracula Tape is the first volume in Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula Chronicles.

How did the guardian of Wallachia, Romania’s great hero, Vlad Dracula, come to be painted as a monster in popular fiction? Dracula, having snuck into the back seat of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Harker’s car, is more than happy to explain. To ensure his account is not lost, he records it on a handy portable tape recorder.

In this account, Dracula claims that his unfortunate modern-day reputation was set in motion by an ill-fated holiday, his lamentable choice of solicitor, and the most extraordinary run of regrettable coincidences.

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1979’s Empire of the East is an omnibus edition of Fred Saberhagen’s Empire of the East trilogy¹. The individual novels included are The Broken Lands (1968), The Black Mountains (1971), and Ardneh’s World² (1973).

As was the custom in those days, the 1979 omnibus has glowing introductions from two luminaries of the field, Larry Niven and Roger Zelazny. Niven liked Empire of the East more than Lord of the Rings, although he admits it’s a matter of taste. Zelazny is more detailed in his praise, singling out details of Saberhagen’s writing as particularly worthy of praise.

Thousands of years after the Old World’s fall, the malevolent Empire of the East invades and conquers the West. Only a remnant of free men remains. Is hope dead?

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