At around page 50 in this book, I was tempted to put it down for good. Not that the writing isn't good, but the feeling of traveling down a much trodden path was too intense to ignore. The premises are very intriguing: Lord Byron, the utmost romantic: a vampire. Since Byron's life has always been surrounded by gothdom, this would almost make sense. Tom Holland writes with the authority of the scholar he is and with a style to resemble that one of his very own character Lord Byron. The real facts of Byron's life are intermingled with the fantastic to the point of blurring the line that divides history and fiction. And overall, it's a real page turner and a delightful read for fans of the genre.
My sole problem with the beginning, which I overcame with a bit of persistence and hope that it would turn to a different direction, was the similarity with Anne Rice's Interview With The Vampire. After some moments full of darkness and suspense right in the first few pages, the narrative shifts from third to first person as Byron tells his story to an avid listener. How closer could that setting be to that of Interview ?
My advice is: put this aside and keep on reading. Holland's mythos is quite different from Rice's and the book is well worth reading. Fans of Lestat de Lioncourt and Louis Point du Lac will probably enjoy this a lot, but it will take some effort to forget this is not about Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and enjoy it for what it is.
No comments:
Post a Comment