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"Worth the six year wait"

He has lived for over five centuries by keeping up with technology so Vlad Tepes better known as Dracula and AKA Matthew Maule asks Andy Keogh to help him design a website. Andy, descended from the bloodline of Mina Harker, agrees to help his "Uncle Matt", whom he thinks is human. While at Uncle Matt's apartment, a nosferatu named Dickon, along with a human, ask for Vlad to help in their quest for learning alchemy.

Someone puts a spell over everyone in the apartment and when Dracula awakens, Dickon is gone, the human is dead, Andy is dazed and an Egyptian statue is smashed. The next day Sobeck, a being once worshipped by the Egyptians as a God, confronts Matthew Maule. He wants the Philosopher's Stone, a magical artifact hidden in one of six small statues smuggled into the country. Dracula declines to help but Andy becomes involved when Dickon asks his dead partner's granddaughter Dolly to assist him. Andy's father and Uncle Matt search for the Philosopher's Stone while trying to keep Andy and Dolly out of danger. Thy also hope to send Sobeck back where he belongs.

It's been six long years since Fred Saberhagen has written a Dracula book but the wait was well worth it. His eighth installment in this series is imaginative, colorful and sometimes even quirky. Dickon is comic relief as a millennium old vampire afraid of his own shadow. The race for the Philosopher's Stone is filled with action and adventure as the protagonists keep running head long into villains coveting the same artifact.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by PNR Group Member
Posted October 3, 2002

Matthew Maule has seen many horrific things in his five hundred years as one of the most powerful vampires in the world. But even his formidable talents cannot predict the unthinkable acts about to occur within his own home. When the vampire Dickon and his human partner appear in the middle of the night frightened for their lives, Matthew offers them protection. They carry with them a small Egyptian statue of great value and many secrets. By morning, Matthew has woken from a mysterious trance to discover that Dickon's human friend has been brutally murdered, the vampire has gone missing, and their statue has been smashed to pieces. Matthew has also made a dangerous new enemy, one who possesses strength even Matthew may be no match for.

For the statue is no ordinary artifact, but one of six replicas. However, only one contains a gem in the center, a stone of unimaginable magical power that could spell the end of humanity if it ever fell in the wrong hands.

Matthew sets out on a heart-pounding journey to track down the remaining statues before his ancient foe finds them. Racing across the country, the vampire teams up with both the living and the undead, though not all are the allies they pretend to be. Using his wits, he must unearth the answers to a millennia-old mystery in order to prepare himself for a final showdown against the evil stalking him at every turn. Acclaimed fantasy and science fiction author Fred Saberhagen takes readers along for a trek of unbelievable suspense, action, and pure page-turning entertainment.