Tuesday, March 20, 2001
Title: Andy Warhol's Dracula/The Vaccinator
Author: Kim Newman/Michael Marshall Smith
Publisher: Millennium
Andy Warhol's Dracula is a 90 odd page novella by Kim Newman published as a split book. It is an alternative history, something which I have read Newman doing a couple of times before. This time the story is set in 1970s New York and marks the arrival of Johnny Pop in the city. The story starts as he devours a young punk girl called Nancy, then enslaves her boyfriend Sid and makes him mutilate the body taking responsibility for the killing. From there he goes to the famous disco 54 where he holds court and attracts the attention of the "vampire queen" of New York Andy Warhol. Of particular interest is the fact that Johnny is clearly descended from Count Dracula, and is in fact the last pure get of that line - as such carrying the spirit of the elder. The rest of the story intertwines the documentation of Warhol's flirtation with vampirism and fame and his eventual turning with the rise of Johnny in New York and his relation with Warhol. This is a clever story - mixing in a knowledge of the vampire genre and its characteristics and an influential piece of American culture. Particularly amusing is the way he turns that culture to the dark side, mixing in the popularity of "drac" a drug stemming from vampire blood and revelations of which stars were really vampires. Then one step further Newman manages to mix in fictional characters with a couple of references - Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), Travis (Taxi Driver), hte Wayne Foundation (Batman).
The Vaccinator by Michael Marshall Smith is the other half of the book. Flip the book over and there you have it a 70 odd page novella in typical Smith fashion and reading it really puts me in the mood to read more, so don't be surprised if I suddenly reread One Of Us (cause its the only one I ain't reread already!). So - you are doing alright for yourself. You made a bit of money. But that makes you a target. Someone is going to have a go. So you get the idea someone is going to try and kidnap you or yours. What do you do? Well you sit in a bar drinkin and happen to say to the bar man, a bar man who just happens to know a man. So you speak to a man and he offers to set up a vaccination for you. He meets the kidnappers, offers them money straight up - they take it no hassle to them, no "hassle" to you. But wasn't it easier when it was just the Columbians? So there your man is, sitting in a boat, waiting for the light from above and for time to slow down and you just know things aren't going to go quite as you expected..... M.M.Smith on form. Eddie is so typical of his work - a hard man character, fairly easy going but with a dark past and you'd rather he was for you than against you. A bit of tongue in cheek of course and just an all round nice story. Half expect this to be expanded into a full novel, except that Smith's trick is also the suspense, and if the gig is blown here then its probably not worth doin it.
RVWR: PTR
March 2001
