Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
a book review by Steve Payne
Reviewer
says: published in March 2010 by Seth Grahame-Smith, the author of
"Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", this alternate (and also secret)
history starts off quite promisingly with the contemporary discovery of
ten volumes beginning "This is the journal of Abraham Lincoln". In the
following three hundred and fifty pages, the central purpose of Abe's
life is revealed to be vampire hunting, a pursuit which neatly dovetails
with his role in US history because we learn that that the Civil War
was, gasp! actually an attempt to enslave all Americans for the
purposes of bloodsucking. Unfortunately, my interest didn't quite last
that long... |
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Good points:
- Overarching concept for the novel is very innovative
- Context setting
- Confederate vampires turn the tide at the first Bull Run (best scene
in the novel)
Bad points:
- Limited surprise factor / lack of suspense (I certainly wasn't
scared which is kinda of a pre-req for Vampire novels?)
- No meaningful story development or integration with the first person
reader (he could have meet the undead Lincoln)
- Black and White Photos great idea in thoery but ultimately
dissapointing because of poor quality
- Rushed Civil War section
- Portrayal as a political leader (appears too fake especially the
Cabinet meetings which have no atmosphere)
Of
course the biggest risk in shooting a movie would of course be not echoing
some of the bigger ideas of Anne Rice's far superior "Interview with the
Vampire".
And having taken the lead as the Count in the 1991
movie Dracula, only Gary Oldman could play this Abraham Lincoln, but at
five foot nine he's ludicrously short. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter in
Platform shoes perhaps?
Author
says to read some radically different reviews of this novel please visit
the
Amazon web site.
Steve Payne, Editor of Today in
Alternate History, a Daily Updating Blog of Important Events In History
That Never Occurred Today. Follow us on
Facebook, Myspace and
Twitter.
Imagine what would be, if history had occurred a bit
differently. Who says it didn't, somewhere? These fictional news items
explore that possibility. Possibilities such as America becoming a Marxist
superpower, aliens influencing human history in the 18th century and Teddy
Roosevelt winning his 3rd term as president abound in this interesting
fictional blog.
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