James Nicoll Reviews

1975’s The Dracula Tape is the first volume in Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula Chronicles.

How did the guardian of Wallachia, Romania’s great hero, Vlad Dracula, come to be painted as a monster in popular fiction? Dracula, having snuck into the back seat of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Harker’s car, is more than happy to explain. To ensure his account is not lost, he records it on a handy portable tape recorder.

In this account, Dracula claims that his unfortunate modern-day reputation was set in motion by an ill-fated holiday, his lamentable choice of solicitor, and the most extraordinary run of regrettable coincidences.

Feeling the need for a break from his drafty castle and flighty companions, Dracula decides to travel to England. He engages a firm to secure a temporary home for him. Unfortunately for Dracula, the agent dispatched to deal with Dracula in person is solicitor Jonathan Harker.

Harker has a nervous disposition, an insatiable penchant for snooping, and a prodigious talent for embracing the worst possible interpretation of events. Harker soon concludes that his kindly host is an unnatural monster, a fiend who feeds live babies to his harem of wives.

Leaving his houseguest behind in the care of the ladies of Castle Dracula, Dracula sets off for England. Here fate scowls at him again. A series of misunderstandings combined with brute superstition inspire the crew of the Demeter, the ship conveying Dracula, to commit murder and suicide. A crewless Demeter barely makes it to England.

Dracula soon discovers that the beauty of English women is matched only by the pugnaciousness of England’s easily cuckolded men. Dracula also discovers something not mentioned in the books he consulted: virtually everyone in England seems to be connected in some way to Jonathan Harker.

Dracula’s harmless dalliances with Lucy Westenra and her friend Mina Murray inadvertently provoke more carnage. Mina Murray is none other than Jonathan Harker’s fiancée. In short order, Lucy is dead, twice-murdered by incompetent, delusional Dr. van Helsing. Dracula himself will have to be cunning indeed to escape the homicidal fury of Harker, van Helsing, and the rest of Harker’s murderous friends.

~oOo~

I would use the contrast between the past covers of this novel and the current cover to lament the current cover-art dark age in which we are living but to be honest, The Dracula Tape covers have never been notably inspired.

Like Interview with a Vampire (1976), The Dracula Tape (1975) features a tape-recorder-wielding vampire protagonist determined to make clear that he was just doing the best that he could and the results are not really his fault. Tape predates Interview but by only a year. Given publishing lead times, this has to be coincidence.

I don’t understand why Dracula chose this way to tell his tale. Mr. and Mrs. Harker couldn’t be expected to have any interest in Dracula’s attempted vindication. Did Dracula expect the tapes he left in the Harker car to somehow find their way to someone who cares about his version of the events of 1891? However, if there is one lesson to be learned from The Dracula Tapes, it is that Dracula’s plans were often poorly thought-out, particularly when it comes to foreseeing other people’s behavior.

Among the many differences between Vampire and Tape, Dracula’s tale is not an interview. It is a book-long soliloquy. Harker would no doubt call it a ​“villainous monologue.” Vampire​’s Louis and Tape​’s Dracula do share a profound sense that fate has been terribly unjust to them. They explain at great length how none of the tragic events left in their wake were their fault.

Where Vampire presents Louis’ claims seriously, Saberhagen seems to be making a joke. While Dracula does make some cogent points about van Helsing’s deficiencies as a doctor, Dracula’s contrived explanations of just why he shouldn’t be accused of this or that crime are increasingly implausible. He’s clearly not a reliable narrator, which leaves the reader free to wonder if Dracula’s account is truthful, mendacious, or just confused. But I suppose that’s the fun of the piece.

To underline that while the interpretation is novel, the facts are not, Saberhagen quotes extensively from Stoker’s Dracula. Perhaps as a result, the novel is a bit long for the joke¹. It certainly was not as successful as the Rice novel. Nevertheless, Tape was successful enough² to be followed by no less than nine sequels. Who knows? Perhaps one day there will be a film or television show.

The Dracula Tape is available here (Amazon US), here (Amazon Canada), here (Amazon UK), here (Apple Books), here (Barnes & Noble), and here (Kobo). Because it’s only available as an ebook, Words Worth Books does not appear to have The Dracula Tape. Chapters also does not offer it, save as an audio book.

1: 281 pages in the Ace MMPB I reread.

2: Tape has an interesting publication history. It was first published by Warner Paperback Library, made the jump to Ace in 1980, moved to Tor in 1989, then to Baen in 1999, back to Tor in 2010, followed by an ebook in 2011 from Joan Spicci Saberhagen’s JSS Literary Productions. 

I suspect Ace paid better than Warner, Tor better than Ace, and Baen is where books go when their sales flag. Or perhaps Saberhagen had fond memories of working with Jim Baen when Jim Baen was with Ace.

JSS specializes in reprinting Saberhagen novels. Their ISFDB entry reveals that JSS began its reprint of the Dracula series not with the first volume but the second. Looking at other publishers’ management of the Dracula series, I see the same pattern. I have a suspicion as to what is going on, but verification will have to wait a few months as I am currently vampired out.