Dracula: The Un-Dead by Dacre Stoker and Ian HoltPublisher: Penguin
I received this from the publisher through Shelf Awareness.
About the book: (this is from Dracula: The Un-dead website) Dracula: The Un-Dead, by Dacre Stoker and Ian Holt, is the sequel to Bram Stoker's classic novel Dracula, written by his direct descendant.
Bram Stoker's Dracula is the prototypical horror novel, an inspiration for the world's seemingly limitless fascination with vampires. Though many have tried to replicate Stoker's horror classic-in books, television shows, and movies-only the 1931 Bela Lugosi film bore the Stoker family's support. Until now.
Dracula The Un-Dead is a bone-chilling sequel based on Bram Stoker's own handwritten notes for characters and plot threads excised from the original edition. Written with the blessing and cooperation of the Stoker family, Dracula The Un-Dead begins in 1912, twenty-five years after Dracula "crumbled into dust." Van Helsing's protégé, Dr. Jack Seward, is now a disgraced morphine addict obsessed with stamping out evil across Europe. Meanwhile, an unknowing Quincey Harker, the grown son of Jonathan and Mina, leaves law school for the London stage, only to stumble upon the troubled production of "Dracula," directed and produced by Bram Stoker himself.
The play plunges Quincey into the world of his parents' terrible secrets, but before he can confront them he experiences evil in a way he had never imagined. One by one, the band of heroes that defeated Dracula a quarter-century ago is being hunted down. Could it be that Dracula somehow survived their attack and is seeking revenge? Or is their another force at work whose relentless purpose is to destroy anything and anyone associated with Dracula?
Dracula The Un-Dead is deeply researched, rich in character, thrills and scares, and lovingly crafted as both an extension and celebration of one of the most classic popular novels in literature.
About the authors: Dacre Stoker, a Canadian citizen and resident of the U.S., is the great-grandnephew of Bram Stoker. He is also the godson of H.G. Dacre Stoker, the commander of the AE2 submarine, whose tactics were instrumental in Gallipoli in Word War I.
Dacre, who now calls Aiken, South Carolina home, was a member of the Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon Team, Senior World Championships in 1979 and coach of the Canadian Men's Modern Pentathlon Olympic Team, Seoul, South Korea in 1988. Dacre is married to Jenne Stoker and is the father of two children. He is the Executive Director of the Aiken County Open Land Trust.
Dracula: The Un-Dead is Dacre's first novel.
Ian Holt is a graduate of New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, Ian studied creative writing, dramatic arts and acting with intensive character development and script theory under the late great Stella Adler.
Seeking more creative control over his work, Ian left acting behind to pursue a career in screenwriting. A Dracula/Bela Lugosi fan since childhood, Ian acquired the rights to and developed a screenplay for the 1972 best-selling non-fiction book, "IN SEARCH OF DRACULA," by Fulbright Scholars Prof. Raymond McNally and Prof. Radu Florescu (Prince Dracula's descendant) that Francis Ford Coppola used to research his 1992 film, Bram Stoker's Dracula.
McNally and Florescu became mentors to Ian who toured the country with the professors giving lectures, appearing on news programs and writing scholarly papers on the life of the historic Prince Dracula and the cultural implications and influence of Bram Stoker's novel on western society.
Based on his travels with McNally and Florescu, Ian was asked to join The Transylvanian Society Of Dracula and attend their First World Dracula Congress in 1995 in Romania—a gathering of the top history and literature scholars from around the world to discuss the fantastic influence on the arts, specifically horror stories and films. While in Romania Ian spent the night in the ruins of Dracula's Castle in Poenari and traveled to his palace in Tirgoviste where he stood on the balcony of Dracula's Chindia tower. It was from this balcony that Dracula, the great Impaler himself, looked out upon his Forest Of The Impaled—forty-thousand impaled Turkish prisoners. Ian even visited Dracula's birthplace in Sighisoara and his "empty grave" at Snagov Island Monastery.
Ian's life changed forever when he was invited by the world's premiere Bram Stoker and Dracula authority, Prof. Elizabeth Miller to speak at DRACULA'97 in Los Angeles—a celebration of the 100th anniversary of the release of Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, "Dracula." It was at this monster mash that Ian delivered his "legendary" paper among Dracula scholars, HOW DRACULA MAY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DISCOVERY OF AMERICA. It was also at Dracula '97 that Ian dreamed up the idea of doing a screenplay sequel to Bram Stoker's immortal novel.
From connections made at Dracula '97, Ian, five years later, met Dacre Stoker —Bram's great-grandnephew. Dacre also had dreamed for many years of ideas for a new Dracula story. It was a match made in heaven. Dacre suggested the proper way to go about a sequel and honor Bram would be to not write a screenplay first, but a book. Ian agreed. After years of research and dedication, the result of Ian and Dacre's labors became their first novel, Dracula The Un-Dead.
