I've read Bram Stoker's Dracula but not Mary Shelley's Frankenstein so was interested in how this 'mash-up' would deal with the different stories.

The gender reversals on the main characters gave the narrative a new perspective and this is an easier read than the originals.

This is well worth a read whether you have read the originals or not and might even whet your appetite for the source material

If you've ever been curious about Dracula or Frankenstein but didn't feel up to reading the gothic novels then this will give you all you need to know to blag your way. ( )

I enjoyed this blending of two of the most classic horror stories ever written. It would be a completely different experience for readers dependent on whether they have read either or both of the source novels.

Loved the gender spin applied to the main characters and there was just enough original content to keep anyone who knows the source material interested in the plot.

A strange project to undertake but overall it really works ( )

Dracula: The Modern Prometheus is a retelling of both Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Bram Stroker's Dracula with a few new twists by Rafael Chandler. I'm not going to spend time describing the story here because if you've read Frankenstein and Dracula you already know it. The reason you would want to get this book is to find out how the author put an original spin on these two literary classics.

I got this book off of Netgalley, what drew me to it was seeing that it was a combination of two horror classics that I love. I also thought it was interesting that the author put the names of the original writers on his book followed by his own. When you first start reading this book it's obvious that Rafael Chandler wrote it as a labor of love and he has great affection for the source material along with the time period both books were written in. The language used, the way the characters are presented and the way the book is written makes it feel like the book was written in the 1800's.

The best part about this book was that it reminded me how much I love the source material and I loved seeing the changes to both that Rafael made. The worst part of the book is that some parts are too close to the source material. There were points that I felt bored reading it because I felt like I've heard it before and knew what was coming. A lot of the dialogue between the characters could have been cut and more time should have been spent on Dracula and the monster.

All in all though if you love these two classics then Rafael Chandler's book is something you are going to want to read. I enjoyed the fact that Harker, The Monster and Dracula were all female. I also liked the changes Rafeal made to the material and how he blended both stories. The book may have benefited a little by having the author put more of an original spin on it but there was enough of his own voice here to keep me reading. When I finished this book I felt the need to go reread Dracula and Frankenstein and look for an original work by Rafael Chandler. ( )

Mina Harker, newly qualified solicitor, was just going to Transylvania to aid in the transfer of property – the Countess is certainly a little unusual but she is also educated and worldly and she certainly appreciates that

Until it becomes clear she’s stumbled onto something very unworldly, one she barely escapes – but when that threat follows her to London she gathers her fellows and is determined to fight

Even while the Countess’s grizzly experiments rise from the grave with her own desperate purpose.

This book has that very elaborate writing that is quite common with a lot of books set in the Victorian era. This does a lot to convey a greater sense of time and place – which did work very well to create that sense of place that these books needed. But it does make for a book that is quite long winded – it does slow the plot down.

This slow speed is a particular problem because, certainly in the beginning, we kind of know what the story is going to be like. Yes, bits have been changed and the book combines both Dracula and Frankenstein. We all know when Mina Harker arrives at Countess Dracula’s castle roughly how this plot is going to play out. Elaborate and beautiful language may be good for the setting – but we know this setting – and it may set the tone but it makes the book very slow to start and get past the basic plot lines we don’t already recognise.

Once we do get past that beginning it develops excellently, weaving the two stories together into a coherent whole. The Countess and her drive to bring back her beloved sister resorts to any means she can – both mystical and “scientific” – regardless of the cost and with her obsessive focus and brilliant intellect, leading to both vampirism and the monster being created.

How the heroes came together to oppose her was decently done, though I do think it was convenient that the poor, discarded Lucy had 3 separate fiances ready to recruit for the cause and that two of them were so well placed to be useful.

Still the group worked really well together – extremely well. And they fought the Countess with dual not so much of might and magic but cunning and traps and resources trying to push each other into a trap without facing the strengths either had (the Countess’s mystical might and all the religious defences the Van Helsing’s group could bring together in response).

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