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. ( )

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?

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. ( )

I was really enjoying this book, until I got the end, which I thought was completely clumsy and over-the-top. I was so mad, I swore never to read a Kim Smith again.

Contrary to what some people advise, I am not willing to say, well, I enjoyed most of it, and the ending doesn't ruin that. ( )

I gave up on page 90. I realized that there was no point trying to read something that I'd tried to read four times and couldn't. There's something about this book that just won't grab me. I don't know what it is. The characters? Maybe. The plot is interesting enough, something something Dracula marries queen Victoria and England is well and truly fucked something something. But I just... Can't get into it. So, after four tries, bye bye Anno Dracula, sorry I couldn't get into your story. ( )