Kim NewmanCritiques

What starts (to Sir Edward's annoyance) as a minor investigation into Queen's representative demise in a small town in England ends up as a first contact with the humanity's offshoot living with creatures in the local marshes.

Story is very much like it came off the Twilight Zone script or from old horror stories inspired by Lovecraft. Was it good? I found it interesting, very eerie and with that "old" horror feel.

In terms of art this is third volume with third artist working on the comic. Art is interesting, clear lines and very expressive. It is much closer to art in volume# 1 than in volume #2.

In overall, I highly recommend it to all fans of horror and weird/strange tales and of course Hellboy universe.

What would happen if Van Helsing had failed and Dracula had survived?

Finally found this book as a result of doing recent TBR culls and decided to read ahead of listening to "Dracula" on the Craftlit (http://www.craftlit.com) podcast.

It's Victorian England, Vampires are an established fact, and more and more people are "crossing over" to the Undead. Dracula is now the Prince Consort, married to a now un-dead Queen Victoria. His dirty blood line is being passed down into the lower dregs of society, into the prostitutes and lowlifes.

A killer, known as "The Silver Knife" has been killing vampire prostitutes in the fog bound London, and the newly dead Lestrade asks for help from an older Vampire to help investigate the killings. Meanwhile, the secret Diogenes Club sets its own "warm" investigator to persue his own inquiries. Soon they join forces to progress to find the killer who has been renamed in the press as "jack the ripper". It ultimately comes to a face off with a Dracula and his followers looking as you've never seen him before

Lots of fictional and non fictional characters have been included in the story. The Chinese elder vampire subplot I thought was a little redundant and could easily have been dropped - a lot of wordage was wasted purely to show how strong Genevive was (and how she recovered from her injuries). I think it could have been dropped in favour of the ending with Dracula.[return][return]Otherwise I think this is perhaps the best of the vampire books I've read. Certainly better than Twilight (spits into corner). I'll be interested to compare it to the original.

I just didn't like it. It all seemed somewhat forced and choppy. That said, I did like Moran. Awful human that he is, he was entertaining.

Amanda Thomsett is now in the Fourth Form at Drearcliff Grange School and she has been chosen to compete in the Great Game, in which teams from each of a number of special schools compete to find hidden objects in London. After recovering enough of the objects to win the game and restore the pride of the school, she is tricked out of her find and instead the school loses. Amy and her teammates are bitterly disappointed, but not more so than their schoolmates, who show their disdain in various ways. Although this is a difficult time for Amy, she has only just begun to face a hard year, particularly when the Broken Doll begins appearing in her dreams and then in real life…. This is a sequel to Kim Newman’s “The Secrets of Drearcliff Grange School,” and carries on the combination of genres that he displayed so well in that book - horror tropes and British girls’ school fiction, in this case set between the Wars. There are a huge number of characters in the book, which can be confusing because all of the school girls have their given names, nicknames and sometimes other monikers too, but fortunately only a handful of them are really central to the story and those are easy to keep straight. Mr. Newman also throws in references to some of his other work, in particular the Diogenes Club stories, but I don’t think the reader has to be familiar with those tales to get this one. Probably reading “The Secrets of….” first would be sensible, however; and I suspect, with so many characters left unexplored, we may see a third volume one day. Recommended.½

Los Angeles, 1930s: Billy Pratt has changed his name and found fame and fortune as Boris Karloff, while novelist Raymond Chandler has published short stories in Black Mask and other magazines and is about to publish “The Big Sleep.” They are friends, having attended the same posh English school, and they are both also friends with Joh Devlin, a district attorney and private eye; the latter is investigating the mysterious Home family and their attached medical clinic. When Billy and Ray are summoned to a pier where a body without a head has been taken out of a submerged car - Joh’s submerged car - and, impossibly, a young woman is found alive in the trunk, they feel honor-bound to investigate on their friend’s behalf, regardless of the dangers involved…. This is a stand-alone novel by Mr. Newman, who is perhaps best known for his wonderful Anno Dracula series; he also knows a whole lot about Hollywood history, and this book is proof of that. There were times while reading this when I felt that he was kind of showing off his film knowledge, but for the most part, I just enjoyed the hard-boiled atmosphere, the very strange world that is LA between the wars and the host of supporting characters, from Marx Brothers knock-offs to Chandler’s cat. This book is a lot of fun, though the squeamish might be warned that it’s very violent; recommended!

This book was good, but it could have been great with some more editing. Parts were way too long without furthering the story in any way, the jargon was confusing at times, and there are A LOT of characters.

I did enjoy the story and it kept my interest throughout. I can see the comparison others have pointed out between it and Miss Peregrine's, but I thought that it was different enough. I am a sucker for books set in old boarding schools so maybe that colored my view a little.

The only thing that truly annoyed me is that the time period is never concretely set. This is more of a pet peeve of mine, but I can never fully concentrate on a story unless I know when it's taking place. I figured out through context that it's probably the 1940's, but I would have liked someone to mention a date somewhere so I didn't spend a quarter of the book wondering when it was taking place.

Makes many well-informed connections. Well done!

En 1885, el conde Drácula, tras pasar cuatrocientos años en su castillo de Transilvania, llegó a Londres decidido a propagar la peste del vampirismo en el corazón de la Inglaterra victoriana. El monstruo fue derrotado y destruido por el doctor Van Helsing y sus valerosos compañeros y el mundo quedó a salvo de mayores horrores. Pero ¿y si Van Helsing hubiese fracasado y el plan de conquista de Drácula hubiese sido un éxito?

3.5 rounded up to 4

I loved the opportunity to pick out notable figures, both historical and literary, as they came along in the story. I also really enjoyed the attention to detail with the Jack the Ripper case and found myself doing research into the real happenings to compare.

However some stuff was a bit... Off. The Chinese vampire who stalked Gene was too easily sorted. And the ending just felt a bit too cut and dry for me.

As a long time fan of the original Dracula I really enjoyed reading this book. I'm just not sure if it lived up to the hype I'd heard about it.

A great set of linked short stories. The first is influenced by The Phantom of the Opera and Docter Jeckyll and Mister Hyde, and maybe a bit of Halloween too. Its gory, gruesome, melodramatic, and a damn good read. The second is an elegant and loving pastiche of the gothic horror genre, featuring the best and bloodiest bits from dozens of books. It's witty and blood-drenched and really very good. The third short story is perhaps the most traditional Warhammer story (for 1993 anyway) and features Genevieve as vampire-assassin on a unicorn hun with the dark magic of the Drakwald Forest as backdrop. Fantastic stuff, as good as Warhammer fiction gets.

It’s been a while since I read anything in this universe, and it was fun to revisit it in a graphic novel. It had great artwork, and Kate’s narration was quite entertaining.

Sir Edward Grey is excellent. This omnibus is slightly less assured and coherent than the second one. It contains Sir Edward's first adventures, and his first encounters with the Heliopic Brotherhood of Ra. My favourite tale in here was the weird Western Lost and Gone Forever. I had read The Mysteries of Unland separately before and it's also good.

Las calles oscuras y abarrotadas de Altdorf, la principal ciiudad del Viejo Mundo, siempre han estado frecuentadas por rufianes y matones. Pero, en esta ocasión, la Guardia de la Ciudad se enfrenta a un mayor desafío: un asesino tan salvaje que se ha ganado el sobrenombre de la Bestia. Mientras la histeria y el miedo no hacen más que aumentar, tres aliados bien distintos deben cooperar para atrapar al criminal. Una serie de pistan sangrientas llevan a la corte imperial. ¿Conseguirán capturar a la Bestia antes de que el Imperio sea pasto de las llamas de la revolución?

Detlef Sierck, el autoproclamado mejor dramaturgo del mundo, ha declarado que su próxima producción será una recreación del final del Gran Encantador Drachenfels, que se representará en el mismo lugar de su muerte, la propia Fortaleza de Drachenfels. ¡Pero las paredes oscuras del castillo aún esconden un terrible secreto que puede hacer que la noche de apertura sea una noche para recordad!

Vukotich volvió a tensarse y Genevieve le posó una mano sobre el pecho para contenerlo. Sintió que el corazón le latía con rapidez, y reparó en que estaban creciéndole las uñas, transformándose en garras. Recobró el control y las dagas de sus dedos mermaron. Vukotich estaba sangrando ligeramente por la boca, y se dio cuenta de que lo había herido al besarlo. Un estremecimiento de placer le recorrió el cuerpo cuando saboreó los restos de sangre. La tragó y se sintió reconfortada.

Should be re-titled 'nuclear movies and some other apocalypses', would really love to read a book that focus' on apocalypse movies because this one just brushed over what I consider them to be. About 75% of the book was about movies about the bomb and people dropping it or threatening to drop it. Very disappointed.

I started this book night before last and it is not what I thought. Way over the top detail on the horror movie industry and who did what behind the scenes along with which producers jumped from one movie to another. The book might be for some people but it is not for me so sticking it on my dnf shelf.

It's always fun to go back and look at these dated "Best" catalogs. First there are the contemporary or recent past books that are largely, and often justly now, forgotten. Then there are the contributors, that are largely, and often justly now, forgotten. Even so there is enough good here, especially in the older stuff, to make this a decent reference book.

Beware, the entries often give away too much about the books featured.

Far from a definitive list up to 1988, this is a good place to find some things you just might have overlooked.

Not the worst book I have ever read, but the first quater was a mix of annoying and boring. Mostly because the author seems to think that filling up each chapter with references to other works (some of them his own which apparently I am expected to know even through they are independent from this story) excuses him from actually doing some characterization himself. The idea is interesting, and since I like 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' I had high hopes for 'Anno Dracula', but it just didn't work for me.

* * * POSSIBLE SPOILERS BELOW * * *

I had to give up on this novel after 200 pages. While I'm familiar with 1930's pop culture, I'm not obsessed with it, as apparently the author is. Could have been a half-decent novel with the concept of Boris Karloff and Raymond Chandler solving a supernatural case, but Newman isn't up to the task. There was one interlude, which was supposed to resemble a BLACK MASK short story, but it felt like filler to me; and the part where Chandler and Karloff visit an asylum then get stuck inside struck me as absurd. Never mind that why didn't their wives and families wonder why they were missing for a week? And the mad movie mogul finances those Frankenstein-like experiments but the law turns a blind eye . . . really?

The book did remind me of the 1990's movie GODS AND MONSTERS, about the last days of Frankenstein director James Whale. I was reading Whale's Wikipedia page and it mentioned the "Karloff cult", which Newman is certainly a member of.

On the plus side, SOMETHING MORE THAN NIGHT got me thinking of Chandler's THE BIG SLEEP and Robert B. Parker's POODLE SPRINGS (Chandler's last book that the Spenser author finished). Think I'll reread those two mystery novels.

A great book this is an anthology of stories featuring Richard Jeperson, the most values member of the Diogenes Club. The stories are a mashup,of spy/horror/mystery/history and well balanced
The Diogenes Club was first described in Sherlock Holmes stories and has been developed by Kim Newman from there. The main protagonist is a pastiche of 1960’s and 1970’s characters Jason King and John Steed, but is also a ‘talent’ able to sense individuals’ thoughts, moods and feelings. There is a kind of timeline of the stories from the 70’s to the 2000’s that shows changes in the political landscape towards the Diogenes Club. The last one is quite sad, showing an ageing Jeperson, essentially having been put out to pasture.
Stories are self contained but have the theme running through them. They are a great read, mixing speculative fiction and history. There are some obvious references to the political landscape of the late 1960’s and 1970’s. I understand from other reviewers that there are overlaps with Newman’s other works. I’m going to find out! There’s a nice glossary at the back-originally requested for the American publication, but useful for some of the references and certainly for readers of a younger vintage than myself-who probably remember much that is in there, having grown up in the seventies. Definitely worth reading.

A selection of stories about Moriarty’s firm written from the perspective of Sebastian “Basher” Moran. These are cleverly written pastiche of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories. What is really clever is that one knows the names from Holmes, but the Great Detective doesn’t need to appear (until the last act) to give context.
One of the stories is even a tip of the hat to HG Wells’ War of the Worlds, using the opening paragraphs subtly changed.
An excellent selection and well worth the read!

I read this book as an electronic advance reading copy provided by Edelweiss, and I have submitted my comments to the publisher via that web site.

An uneven plot makes this book "more mess than mystery," as the narrator describes one of the numerous horror films included in the story. Recommended for readers who enjoy the chaos and shock value of horror rather than the logic and social commentary of mystery (it should be obvious which genre I prefer).

Seeing this collection reissued recently made me realise that I had never read two of the short stories and that needed to be changed! There are five stories in this collection, three have appeared in earlier collections whilst two are new. The three that have previously appeared are amongst the best short stories GW ever published. Kim Newman's blend of po-faced bombast and classic genre tropes really are wonderful. His writing shines and his descriptions are fantastic - this is writing that is both serious and silly all at once, just like the Warhammer setting. If you take it seriously you're missing half the fun! All three have their weaknesses, for example there is a jarring between the Old Woman and the child characters in No Gold that is designed to try and keep a secret of the obvious twist, or that there is a whole swathe of canon written in Ignorant Armies that is never touched on again (but should have been IMO). Of the final two, The Warhawk is the best, though the ending feels like a bit of a letdown, the final villain killed ironically but too easily perhaps. Ibby is supposed to be a fun story, but it feels like the writer is ashamed of his earlier work taking the setting seriously. There's a great story in there for sure, but the fourth wall is down and all the actors are trying to let the audience know how silly this is and that they know and you know and they know you know. Still, it doesn't break anything even if it is the last we ever hear of any of the characters, which is a shame. Bring 'em back and give them tragedy!