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Brian Aldiss spent his career writing whatever he felt like, and Dracula Unbound is one of the late-period results. The pitch is irresistible. A near-future paleontologist invents a time machine, accidentally returns with proto-vampires, and ends up coopting Bram Stoker himself for the rescue operation. It should not work and in places it really does.
Aldiss's real interest is meta. He is using the vampire mythos to think about evolution and the future of the species, and the best chapters in the book are the ones where he stops fighting his urge to lecture and just lectures, well. The Dracula and Stoker scenes are also quite fun, particularly a sequence in late-Victorian London that Aldiss clearly enjoyed setting up.
The weaknesses are the human characters in the framing story, who are flat where the book wants them to be archetypal. Three stars. Worth reading if you have a soft spot for Aldiss's late work or for science-fictional Dracula riffs. Otherwise start with Helliconia.
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