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Author | Patrick Sheane Duncan |
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Language | English |
Genre | |
Publisher | Inkshares |
Publication date | October 25, 2016 |
Publication place | United States |
Media type |
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Pages | 500 |
ISBN | 978-1942645085 |
Dracula vs. Hitler is a 2016 historical horror novel by American screenwriter Patrick Sheane Duncan. It is a continuation of the story told in the 1897 horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker.
Soon after the events of Dracula, Dr. Abraham Van Helsing retrieves the corpse of the impaled vampire Count Dracula from a river. Dracula soon revives and slaughters most of the men helping Van Helsing transport him, but Van Helsing manages to kill the vampire again with a wagon wheel spoke. He buries Dracula in a local cemetery.
In 1941, Van Helsing is living in Brașov, a Nazi-occupied city in Transylvania, Romania, with his adult daughter, the fiery Lucille. The Van Helsings are part of a resistance cell working against the Nazis. Their new contact from the British Special Operations Executive is Jonathan Murray Harker, the grandson of Jonathan Harker and Mina Murray, who had aided Van Helsing in the original defeat of Dracula. Led by Major Reikel, the Nazis have committed countless atrocities against the locals, and are using Dracula's castle as a prison. Van Helsing reasons that the only way to defeat a monster like Reikel is with another monster: Dracula. Van Helsing takes Jonathan to the imposing crypt where he had imprisoned the vampire years before, his coffin secured with iron straps. After a night of preparations, they reawaken Dracula after daybreak by pulling out the spoke and pouring some of Jonathan's blood into the wound and the vampire's mouth. Dracula is held at bay by crisscrossing beams of sunlight reflected off mirror shards placed around the crypt. Van Helsing makes Dracula an offer: his freedom in exchange for Dracula's help in defeating the Nazis who are ravaging his homeland, and the promise of drinking as much Nazi blood as he wants. Dracula agrees, and begins helping the resistance sabotage vital Nazi infrastructure. He proves to be a brutal and powerful killer, but is soon conflicted by his complete lack of control when in the throes of his bloodlust. A connection develops between Dracula and Lucille, much to the chagrin of a lovesick Harker.
Harker's explosives expert, a Scottish soldier with a head injury whom Harker has dubbed "Renfield", proves the aptness of his nickname when he becomes immediately obsessed with Dracula and calls him "master". He is captured by the Nazis, and names resistance members under torture. Though Harker, Van Helsing and Lucille evade capture, Reikel manages to seize Dracula. With a knowledge of vampire lore, Reikel is able to keep Dracula imprisoned while testing his superhuman abilities. Adolf Hitler himself comes to see the vampire. With the help of gypsies they previously saved from the Nazis, Harker and the Van Helsings come to Dracula's rescue, just as the vampire finally breaks free and wreaks havoc in the castle. Renfield sacrifices himself for Dracula. Hitler barely escapes with Reikel, who has been bitten by the vampire.
Publishers Weekly: Screenwriter Duncan (Mr. Holland’s Opus) knows how to pepper a story with cinematic fight scenes and lush descriptions, but in this alternate take on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the massive lump of backstory proves indigestible. Dr. Abraham Van Helsing, contrary to canon, has preserved his monstrous nemesis for future scientific study. Life, love, and war delay his research until he’s goaded to action by Nazi depredations in Romania. With the help of Jonathan Harker’s grandson (who’s dallying with Van Helsing’s daughter, Lucy, on the side), Dracula is resurrected and proves remarkably amenable to bargaining: he gets freedom and all the Nazi blood he wants, so long as he focuses his hunger on “the Hun.” It’s an enjoyable Faustian contrivance—and takes 100 pages to launch. En route are interminable journal entries, military reports, and even a novel within the novel, all designed to fill the reader in on Nazi atrocities, the resistance to them, and the provenance of the characters. A distracting and sometimes painful variety of print fonts will send readers running for the digital edition. This novel is only recommended for those willing to take a very deep dive into what-if.[1]
Seattle Book Review: Abraham Van Helsing is used to horrors, but this is something altogether new. Hitler’s forces are running rampant in Romania, and the local resistance is struggling. To turn the tide, they must do something drastic. So Van Helsing unleashes Dracula on the world once more, offering him his fill of Romania’s enemies in exchange for helping them liberate the country. Will one monster help them topple another, or will Van Helsing regret this Hail Mary play? Dracula Vs. Hitler sounds like a b-movie, but Patrick Sheane Duncan takes the idea and treats it with respect, putting readers on the ground with farmers and business owners defending their homeland. This feels like a proper historical fiction novel with a curious dash of the supernatural woven in, weaving in Bram Stoker’s classic tale and putting a unique spin on the story all at once. Like many versus projects — Freddy vs. Jason, King Kong vs. Godzilla — the versus doesn’t come into play until very late in the book, and even then it’s a tad underwhelming. But the rest of the novel more than makes up for it with solid characterization and engaging storytelling.[2]
Dread Central: Written by the amazing Patrick Sheane Duncan, who is known for Courage Under Fire, Mr. Holland’s Opus, and Nick of Time, comes an amazing tale of action and adventure in a time when people were losing faith and the battle for mankind. Being destroyed and ravaged by the Nazi Secret Service during World War II, Romanian resistance forces turn to Professor Van Helsing for any way out. To fight these horrid monstrous forces, Van Helsing raises a legendary monster from centuries of slumber… Prince Dracula himself. Once he was the ruler of Transylvania, and Prince Vlad Dracul, is, above all else, a patriot. He proves more than willing to once again drive out his country’s invaders. I found this story to be not only exciting but fascinating. At first I was a little put off because of the title, but as I read each page, I realized that this isn’t your typical storyline. This is something much more and builds upon elements of the original Bram Stoker novel. It has romance, warfare, and blood galore and is everything you want in a horror novel. It contains a story within a story within a story, and it’s brilliant. It starts off with Mr. Duncan finding top secret documents on a battle that happened in WWII and then having them analyzed. Each portion is written in a different font style to differentiate the stories or action, so on one end you have the Nazi party communication as well as the Van Helsing letters, and then you have the war journal entries as well as excerpts from an unpublished novel written by Lucy Van Helsing, all making up one glorious badass story that will keep you wanting more. In fact, I found the story so intriguing that I swear as I read on, my mind felt like it was watching a movie and nothing could distract me from the visions of the words that were flowing into my head so gloriously. I wouldn’t be surprised if this became an on-screen classic eventually, and I for one am hoping that it does.[3]
Rowan Mayfair | |
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Lives of the Mayfair Witches character | |
First appearance | |
Created by | Anne Rice |
Based on | Lives of the Mayfair Witches by Anne Rice |
Portrayed by | Alexandra Daddario |
In-universe information | |
Occupation | Surgeon |
Family | Mayfair family |
Spouse | Michael Curry |
Significant other | Lestat de Lioncourt |
Children |
|
Nationality | American |
Rowan Mayfair is a principal character in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy (1990–1994) by Anne Rice. A surgeon who discovers she has special powers and is the heiress to a dynasty of witches, Rowan later appears in Rice's The Vampire Chronicles, a series of supernatural horror novels featuring the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, specifically in Blackwood Farm (2002) and Blood Canticle (2003).
Alexandra Daddario portrays Rowan in the AMC television series adaptation, Mayfair Witches.
Reviews: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] [21]
References
Mot Olotor | |
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Education | Boston University College of Communication |
Occupations | |
Years active | 1994–present |
Mot Olotor is
Olotor attended Boston University's College of Communication, where he co-created the long-running drama series Bay State for BUTV in 1991.[1][2][3]
Olotor served as an associate producer on and as production manager on
Since 2014, he has been the senior production manager on the ABC soap opera General Hospital.
In 2021, as part of the 48th Daytime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, Olotor was awarded a Chairman's Crystal Pillar Award by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his efforts related to daytime television production safety during the COVID-19 pandemic.[4]
{{DEFAULTSORT:}} [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Boston University College of Communication alumni]] [[Category:People from Toms River, New Jersey]]
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