Books by Fred Saberhagen
“It’s a retelling of Dracula from Dracula’s point of view. One of the beautiful things about Bram Stoker’s book is everyone gets a point of view – we have Jonathan Harker’s point of view, and Mina Harker’s, and Dr Seward’s – everyone’s except Dracula’s. This book gives us Dracula’s point of view, and it is fabulous. Dracula’s line is, “Look, guys, I’m just this nice European count. I just wanted to come to England. I met this woman, we fell in love, and everyone acted like a xenophobic monster. I’m the victim here. I didn’t kill Mina Harker; these idiots who didn’t understand blood types killed her by giving her a blood transfusion she didn’t need with the wrong type of blood. These guys are religious fanatics. They hate women, they’re sexist pigs, they fear foreigners, and I’m just a guy trying to make my way in the world…” It’s so wounded, and you can just hear him rolling his eyes between the lines as he writes, as he gives his version of the story. Vampires are often depicted as malevolent – they can be romantic, they can be attractive, they can be sexy – but I love the idea of a vampire who’s just totally and completely fed up with humans and thinks we’re all a bunch of idiots. If he’s immortal, then of course from his point of view, we’re all morons.” Read more...
Interviews where books by Fred Saberhagen were recommended
The Best Vampire Books, recommended by Grady Hendrix
There are two essential features of a vampire, says award-winning author Grady Hendrix: they look just like us, and they need us. Beyond this, they are highly adaptable, and have stood in for pandemics, economic exploitation, addiction, abuse, true crime and lust. Here, Hendrix introduces five novels that have shaped this complicated monster.
