actually a prequel, Mina (1994) by Elaine
BERGSTROMwriting as Mira Kiraly, an account of
Mina Harker’s subsequent slide toward vampirism
because she is not completely free of Dracula’s
taint, and Dracula Unbound(1992) by Brian W.
Aldiss, which describes Dracula as a time traveler
from the far future when humans have evolved
into blood drinkers. Fred Saberhagen has written a
series of interesting novels with the premise that
Dracula was not as bad as Stoker portrayed him
and that he survived to the present day. Perhaps
the oddest series of Dracula novels was written by
Robert Lory. In which a pair of modern-day vigi-
lantes capture Dracula and enslave him with a
wooden pacemaker, then use him as a weapon
against organized crime.
Dracula’s presence in the movies is, if any-
thing, even more pronounced. There have been at
least half a dozen versions of the original story and
scores of sequels, most with little connection to
the original characters and settings. The earliest
was the silent film Nosferatu(1930), an unautho-
rized adaptation, and the most famous followed in
1931 starring Bela Lugosi in the role for which he
will always be remembered. Later versions have
varied from the interesting but flawed Bram
Stoker’s Dracula(1992) to the ridiculousness of
Billy the Kid vs Dracula(1965). Stoker’s novel may
not be a literary triumph on a level with most of
the classics of his time, but he struck a chord that
resonates intensely and created one of the most fa-
miliar and terrifying of archetypical villains.
The Dragonlance Series
The immense popularity of the Dungeons & Drag-
ons game system inevitably led to a line of tie-in
novels from TSR Publishing, which began in the
early 1980s and has continued ever since, although
the imprint is now called Wizards of the Coast.
The Dragonlance novels and the universe they are
set in was adapted from the scenarios used in the
games and given depth primarily by the early nov-
els produced by the collaborative team of Margaret
WEISand Tracy Hickman. The major setting is the
land of Krynn, heavily influenced by the works of
J. R. R. TOLKIENin that it is home to a wide vari-
ety of intelligent races in addition to humans, in-
cluding elves, trolls, orcs, and goblins. The series
concentrates on violent conflicts, often wars, and
is filled with standard fantasy devices including
quests, magical artifacts, usurped thrones, evil sor-
cerers, and barbarian warriors.
There have to date been more than 120 titles
in the series, including a considerable number of
anthologies of short stories. Although the rough
history of Krynn has been worked out as a back-
drop, most of the details were deliberately left
vague to make it easier for authors to insert stories
without contradicting one another. There are a few
recurring characters used by more than one writer
such as Dalamar the Dark, a good wizard, but for
the most part the authors create their own casts of
characters. Almost all the novels are arranged in
subsets, with either a continuous story line or a se-
ries of linked themes. Many of the subordinate se-
ries are written by a single author, as is the case
with The Defenders of Magic by Mary Kirchoff,
the Dhamon series by Jean Rabe, the Icewall series
by Douglas Niles, and the War of Souls by Mar-
garet Weis and Tracy Hickman. Others use a vari-
ety of authors for individual volumes, including the
Age of Mortals, Bridge of Time, Chaos War, Lost
Histories, and Preludes sequences.
Although most Dragonlance authors began
their career writing tie-in novels for either this or
the similar Forgotten Realms series from the same
publisher, a few writers with previous titles to their
credit have occasionally contributed, including
Nancy Varian Berberick, Richard A. KNAAK, Dan
Parkinson, and Roland Green. A few who started
writing for TSR have subsequently placed books
with other publishers, including Douglas Niles,
Jean Rabe, Mark ANTHONY, and J. Robert King.
Although the Dragonlance novels are generally
considered to be at the low end of the fantasy fic-
tion spectrum because of their repetitive plots and
sometimes awkward writing, there are individual
titles that compare favorably to mainstream fan-
tasy fiction, and in recent years the overall quality
of the writing has improved noticeably.Drake, David(1945– )
David Drake began writing professionally in the early
1970s, and for most of that decade he producedDrake, David 93