Sunday, June 5, 2011

Mini-book review: Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith

We all know that Abraham Lincoln was one of the greatest presidents this country has ever had: strong, hard-working, self-made from nothing, superlatively articulate and a visionary for the ages.  What we didn't know, until this book, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, was that he was one of the greatest killers of vampires this country has ever had as well.

After his mother was killed by a vampire when Abe was a young boy, due to his layabout father's owing money to said vampire, Abe embarked on a mission to rid his country of vampires.  As he grew older and was guided on the path to political leadership by powerful allies, Lincoln learned that the scourge of the South - slavery - was closely intertwined with the undead scourge.  Driven out of Europe by vampire hunters, the creatures found America to be a place of freedom, where they could have access to nearly limitless slave blood if they supported the Southern slaveowners.  What the human slaveholders didn't know was that the vampires intended to enslave them as well, enslave all Americans and live fat and happy off their blood.  When Abe learned of this plot, he realized that by abolishing slavery he could abolish the vampires too, and thus began his crusade.

Written as a biography based on the now-found lost journals of our sixteenth president, Seth Grahame-Smith does a good job of sounding factual, using "excerpts" from the journals and incorporating Photoshopped "historical" photographs and drawings.  There is a nice balance of real Lincoln history interspersed with the chopping off of heads - plenty of fact and fiction to satisfy both the biography fan and the vampire fan in me.

P.S.  The book is being made into a movie - should be fun!

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