William Patrick Maynard

I wasn't part of TC for long, but it was an honor to be part of it at all. Thanks again to Leo and Deuce for the opportunity, to my fellow bloggers for making me feel welcome, and to everyone in REH fandom who enjoyed the site. It was special. Deuce is one of those guys I feel indebted to and hope I have a chance to re-pay.

William Maynard's final look at The Insidious Doctor Fu-Manchu:


http://www.thecimmerian.com/?p=14097

Not so 'final', since Bill's Blogging The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer, Part Seven ? ?Karamaneh? is now up on TC.

It was wishful thinking on Deuce's part?

Having read the recent remarks on both DRACULA and Hammett, I feel compelled to recommend two titles that might be of interest:

The first is SPADE & ARCHER by Joe Gores. I'm a huge Hammett fan and still wince at the idea of a prequel to THE MALTESE FALCON, but Gores did a great job with the task. He was reverent and didn't spoil any of the original's mystique (the usual failing when another writer tackles a prequel or sequel to a classic). He packs his episodic book with incidents pulled from Hammett's legendary background as a Pinkerton and tosses in fun nods to both Nick Charles and the Continental Detective Agency. The book is greatly rewarding to the Hammett fan who has read everything and wants to enjoy a talented writer perfectly capturing the classic characters and Hammett's style to great effect.

On the Dracula front, I would recommend DRACULA THE UNDEAD by Freda Warrington which explores the Scholomance in great detail. Warrington nicely emulates Stoker's style and is much more faithful to the characters than the new Dacre Stoker/Ian Holt book with the same title. I thought Warrington went just slightly over the top by the conclusion, but overall the book left me wishing she had done another whereas most DRACULA books I read end up on eBay the second I finish them.

My favorite Stoker pastiche writer remains Peter Tremayne whose DRACULA LIVES trilogy from the seventies has long been out-of-print. Anyone who enjoys Stoker, Universal Horror, and Hammer Horror should pick up Tremayne's books. He's a solid writer who delivered entertaining DRACULA titles that were never thwarted by over-ambition or a desire to re-write Stoker. Good fun reads even if Tremayne never approaches the level of literary accomplishment of Stoker.  

Just my two cents.

Sounds like something up their alley if it can be arranged legally. I'll mention it to David White who did a great job handling the 1920 American Fantomas serial as a novel.

I find Wold Newton articles intersting. I prefer not to be strictly bound by such things, but enjoy it for its scholarship or to learn about works that I would otherwise be unfamiliar with. That said, as someone who watches Godzilla films with his kids - I would struggle to see Toho's radiation-breathing mutated dinosaur co-existing with the Si-Fan, but then I've not read your story. Good luck with it at any rate.