Book Review: Dracula's Guest, by Amaya Tenshi

Not the usual urban fantasy novel

One of the nice things about conventions is that you run into authors in person who you would never find in a bookstore (anymore), and that the algorithms of Amazon would never show you.

Amaya Tenshi is one of those authors. She came across as knowledgeable on a great many topics.

But most importantly for this occasion, she was clearly very well adept at one topic in particular.

The biography of Vlad Țepeș, Voivode of Wallachia.

Better known as Dracula.

The Story

Camellia Lilly, or “Cammy,” comes home from her job as a barista to find that she and her roommate have been kicked out of their Seattle apartment. When the roommate tells her to take a new rideshare app, the driver takes her to a mobscene who take her out of the car. They’re about to do horrible things to her, when it looks like the dark practically eats them, disappearing or decapitating them one by one. When the last of the mob of vampires is dead, Cammy realizes that she’s been saved by Dracula. Not the Bram Stoker creation, but Vlad Tepes himself.

And now Dracula, the poor bastard, is stuck with her.

Cammy has decided that working with him would be cool. And how hard can it be?

The short version is that Dracula’s Guest is a fun little novel. (After reading a 550 page Jim Butcher, and a similarly sized Ringo, 350 pages feels “little.”) It has some urban fantasy elements, insofar as it’s Seattle, and Dracula has enough fantasy monsters around him to populate the entire Witcher series. The action pieces are very well executed, with speed and precision, clear to the reader, no matter how disorienting it might be to the people in the action sequences.

Dracula’s Guest is told from mostly from the point of view of Cammy and Dracula. For Dracula, he’s in espionage thriller with urban fantasy elements. When he’s locked in, we get spycraft out of Jon le Carre. Cammy … is in a world all of her own, where she has fallen down the rabbit hole, and every other thing can and will kill her if it gets a chance. She is very much the alien here.

This largely a character and world driven novel. That’s not to say the plot exists to have the characters happen, but there are moments spent with Cammy where one does wonder. But the plot will get her whether she likes it or not.

I’m not sure I can say enough good things about the writing here. Tenshi’s writing is highly efficient, with full sensory emersion in each scene. She does her best to nail Dracula’s accent, down to the vowel sounds and phonetic spelling. She does a great job establishing the world… both worlds. Because Cammy and Dracula are very much in two different worlds. Dracula is still using the height of 1990s technology (a flip phone) and Cammy is up to date on all the apps. He is so rational and reasonable in an insane world, and she’s so … touchy.

Also, how can you not like writing like:

“Touch her, and you die.”

“Did you just threaten me?”

“No. I don’t make threats. I gave you a warning. I explained what would happen if you touched her.”

Tenshi has gone into a lot of research to not only recreate Vlad Tepes as he was then, but put in a lot of effort to express how that man would develop over time.

How can you not like someone who goes through the trouble to catalog varieties of vampire species?

Also, vampire watermelons … you had to be there.

I’m looking forward to reading book two, just to see how much more of Dracula’s biography she can fit into the series.

The Characters

Cammy is not quite a special snowflake, but she has moments where one does wonder. She’s the product of a mother who’s a bloodsucker (IE: lawyer) and the reader wonders if we’ll get to see the mother run through with a stake to the heart. Cammy herself is strangely observant at times, and has some smarts … but she also lacks the preservation instincts that God gave a baby duck. She’s even a vegetarian, because of course she is. She doesn’t understand what Vlad has been through, and every time she opens her mouth, I wonder if we’re going to need a new female lead.

Cammy’s friend Brian is a police officer. He’s important to the story, but just so. He’s so close to the truth, but boy, does he have a long way to climb.

Then there’s Vlad, who steals the show from start to finish. He is old-fashioned, he is polite, observant, and he is very much still one of the nobility. For some reason, there are too many people eager to underestimate him. He hates thieves, and he understands what the duties to a guest truly are. Also, he does not drink … coffee. But he does drink wine. And he’s a little snobby about it.

Also, whatever you do, don’t slander the Crusades in front of him. Seriously.

There are a collection of other, more minor characters. And each one of them is presented vividly. I can believe a lot of these people. I’m reasonably certain I’ve met some, and am related to one of them.

The World

This may be one of the more complex and thorough fantasy worlds I’ve read in quite some time. Tenshi goes into dozens of creatures and monsters, and it’s clear that each creature has its own psychology—she wants you to understand some of them, and that they are all freaking dangerous. In one page, I think she has noted at least as many varieties of monsters from all over the map as were mentioned in the entire Witcher series. In short, monsters are not people, do not think like people, no matter how much they look like people.

I’m trying to remember the last time I heard of someone even refer to a Tanuki. I think it was Super Mario Brothers 3.

We also have world building on both sides of the coin. That there are governments who work to deal with monsters in the dark as best they can, as well as other private civilian organizations doing the same. Granted, the government side looks like they’re trying to be Man from UNCLE, but still…

Meanwhile, on the other hand, Tenshi has just enough mysteries left in the world to play around with what’s there. I especially like her presentation of the supernatural. That the supernatural is not science, it is ever shifting in ways not even Dracula understands.

Politics

If you are a special snowflake who thinks that violence is something that should never be resorted to under any circumstances, this book is making fun of you, personally.

Also, Tenshi might have a few issues with doctors. I can relate.

Content Warning

There will be blood. But frankly, it’s not even that gory. Violence level is somewhere around Lord of the Rings.

Who is it for?

If you read good, solid urban fantasy like Fred Saberhagen’s Dracula Files, with a little bit of George La Carre spy thriller in there, this is for you.

Why buy it?

Dracula’s Guest has great writing, even better characterization, by an author who has done her homework. It’s frankly the best Dracula novel I’ve read since Fred Saberhagen.