Subject: Review of The Bloody Red Baron by Kim Newman (SF/horror)

From: [email-masked] (Rick Kleffel)
Date: 31 Jan 1996 16:02:50 GMT

The Bloody Red Baron
Kim Newman
ISBN 0-7867-0252-4
Carroll & Graf
$21.00; hard cover; 358 pages

by Rick Kleffel, copyright 1996

Despite its premise that vampires came out into the open when 
Dracula invaded England in the late 1880's, Kim Newman's 'Anno 
Dracula' was more of an 'alternate history' than a 'vampire novel'.  
This is even more true of 'The Bloody Red Baron', a sequel set in the 
same world nearly 30 years later, in 1918.  On the other hand, this is 
certainly an alternate history with teeth, and enough of the red to 
more than live up to its title.  As an alternate history, it's filled to the 
brim with a mixture of fictional and real characters.  Every scene is 
embroidered with recognizable names, and as the novel begins, it 
seems at times distracting.  But, as in 'Anno Dracula', Newman 
manages to invest his main fictional and real characters with enough 
verve and artistry to bring them alive beyond the printed page, to 
make them real beyond the myriad associations they hold for the 
reader.  And his plot-driven wonders go far beyond the thrill of 
seeing familiar personalities in ironic situations.  Newman's strife-
filled alternate Europe is remarkably reminiscent of today's map of 
despair, and his quick tour of Bosnia and Serbia is especially chilling. 
	Newman's protagonists in this novel are Edwin Winthrop, a 
'warm' (living) young intelligence agent drawn to become a vampire 
but unwilling to go the length, Kate Reed, a radical journalist who 
became a vampire 30 years ago and helped send Dracula packing out 
of England, and Edgar Poe, hired by Dracula to write the glorious 
biography of Baron Manfred Von Richtoven.  While Winthrop and 
Reed risk their lives to find out exactly what the Bloody Red Baron's 
secret is, Poe is ushered into the heart of Dracula's obscene 
experiment, whining continuously and entertainingly about his state.  
	Throughout the novel, whether he's describing a battle 
between World War I vintage aircraft, or recounting the sad, sordid 
history of Mata Hari, Newman's historical research rings 
resoundingly true.  He seamlessly interlaces fictional characters into 
realistic settings, and in doing so, creates some incredibly horrific 
scenes.  Edwin finds Doctor Moreau with his friend and student, 
Doctor Herbert West, operating on wounded vampires in a 
subterranean emergency ward just behind the front lines.  Newman 
is certainly not one to let his history lessons get in the way of 
splatterpunk-style scenes of horror.
	But more importantly, he's not one to let either his familiarly 
with history or his flair for the grotesque get in the way of his story 
or his characters.  Dracula's experiment with the Red Baron is truly 
majestic, but it is Edgar Poe's perceptions and personality that carry 
the narrative.  And, while Edwin's sleuthing unearths the monstrous 
and the profane, it is his struggle to overcome the monster within 
himself that grips the reader and keeps the pages turning.  
Surprisingly, Newman is even able to finish his story in a relatively 
modest amount of space, no mean feat in this day of seemingly 
endless novels and series.  'The Bloody Red Baron' is best read after 
Newman's earlier 'Anno Dracula', but thankfully doesn't end on a 
cliffhanger for the next novel set in Newman's fabricated universe.  
It's self contained and satisfying, the perfect way to slake any 
reader's red thirst.

%T The Bloody Red Baron
%A Kim Newman
%G ISBN 0-7867-0252-4
%I Carroll & Graf
%P358 pages
%O $21.00; hard cover 

--
Rick Kleffel*System Administrator*E-Mu [email-masked]*
*Not representing E-Mu*Representing myself only*