1975 horror, first in Saberhagen's loose Dracula series. Count
Dracula tells the real story of the events that led to the novel.
Well, one can certainly see where Anne Rice's inspiration came
from. This Dracula is, if not a good guy, at least an honourable man,
but the vampire lore of the story is set up to require certain odd
behaviours, and the vampire hunting posse (being, after all, Victorian
gentlemen) always takes the worst possible view of anything.
Also this Dracula makes a lot of mistakes, as he has to in order for
events to play out to match the book. But Lucy dies from van Helsing's
(pre-Landsteiner) blood transfusions rather than from excessive
draining, and (perhaps inevitably) Mina's relationship with this
Dracula is rather more complex than the original portrays.
It's ground that's been re-trodden since many, many times, and of
course this wasn't the first attempt to bring Dracula into a world
more modern than 1897, but it's one that works, and in particular
doesn't forget that its main character has had many human lifetimes of
experience and simply thinks in a longer term than the mayfly hhumans
who come to oppose him.
On the other hand, if a vampire isn't horrific, what's left? Fun but
very light.