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Did I recall seeing in someone's post a while back a discussion or review of The Historian? Because I liked it very much.
For once, a history/mystery novel that's readable--and about vampires! Kostova does the scholarship as well as Eco, and makes you realize again why noone should read Dan Brown and imitators. What I especially liked was the way she took all the well-known vampire cliches and gave them new life with the scholarship--all the details of Vlad Tepes' life especially. He turns out to be more complex than I'd have thought. And the atmosphere of Cold War Eastern Europe--very believably done, and partly because Kostova evidently bases that part on her own experiences.
Liked the characters too, and the delayed appearance of Dracula himself. Dracula as historian, a very interesting metaphor.
Someone said it wasn't scary. I found it just right--I could read it late at night, alone in a house a pretty long way from anywhere--but I read with shivers.
For once, a history/mystery novel that's readable--and about vampires! Kostova does the scholarship as well as Eco, and makes you realize again why noone should read Dan Brown and imitators. What I especially liked was the way she took all the well-known vampire cliches and gave them new life with the scholarship--all the details of Vlad Tepes' life especially. He turns out to be more complex than I'd have thought. And the atmosphere of Cold War Eastern Europe--very believably done, and partly because Kostova evidently bases that part on her own experiences.
Liked the characters too, and the delayed appearance of Dracula himself. Dracula as historian, a very interesting metaphor.
Someone said it wasn't scary. I found it just right--I could read it late at night, alone in a house a pretty long way from anywhere--but I read with shivers.
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I liked it, too, but it went on forever...
Still, the mood was hypnotic.
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