The Urn

Dracula of the Apes #1

by G. Wells Taylor

DRACULA OF THE APES picks up where Bram Stoker’s Dracula left off and Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes began. Genres collide in this thrilling horror/adventure fiction hybrid. Dracula’s Gypsy servant Horvat has the special duty of preserving his master’s body if the worst should ever happen—and the worst has happened! Van Helsing’s team of vampire hunters has decapitated the count and reduced him to dust and ashes. Horvat’s instructions are simple. Dracula’s remains must be stored in a special urn and bathed in blood while en route to South Africa where a mysterious ally will see to his resurrection. But fate steps in off the African coast and a shipwreck casts Horvat and his precious burden into the jungle setting of another literary classic.

Genres: Horror

146 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 8, 2014

About the author

RAID ON THE BARTER DIAMOND by G. Wells Taylor is NOW AVAILABLE. Visit GWellsTaylor.com to download this ZONE BETWEEN SCIFI/HORROR and continuation of THE VARIANT EFFECT SERIES for just $3.99 or order the paperback.
Download FREE updated editions of Taylor’s popular Horror titles: When Graveyards Yawn (A Wildclown Origin Novel), SKIN EATERS (The Variant Effect Series Book One), PAINKILLER (A Variant Effect Novella), and The Urn (Dracula of the Apes Trilogy Book One).

G. Wells Taylor was born in Oakville, Ontario, Canada in 1962, but spent most of his early life north of there in Owen Sound where he went on to study Design Arts at a local college. He later traveled to North Bay, Ontario to complete Canadore College's Journalism program before receiving a degree in English from Nipissing University. Taylor worked as a freelance writer for small market newspapers and later wrote, designed and edited for several Canadian niche magazines.

He joined the digital publishing revolution early with an eBook version of his first novel When Graveyards Yawn that has been available FREE online since 2000. Taylor published and edited the Wildclown Chronicle e-zine from 2001-2003 that showcased his novels, book trailer animations and illustrations, short story writing and book reviews alongside titles from other up-and-coming horror, fantasy and science fiction writers.

Still based in Canada, Taylor continues with his publishing plans that include additions to the Wildclown Mysteries and sequels to the popular Variant Effect series .

He lists Raymond Chandler, Stephen King, Kurt Vonnegut, Mary Shelley, J. R. R. Tolkien, Jane Goodall, Jack L. Chalker, and Vladimir Nabokov among his inspirations.
Taylor's list of titles is available at Amazon, Apple Books, Google Play, Barnes&Noble, Kobo, Smashwords and more.

Reviews

[Chrystal Roe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is really cool.

Book one of this series is really interesting and makes a perfect setup for what follows. A much trusted servant of Dracula's is given the duty of overseeing his resurrection. Unfortunately trouble haunts the man constantly. He is tormented be men, supernatural creatures and even mother nature. I can't wait to read the next book.

[George A Gusick Sr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written masterpiece

Thank you G Wells Taylor for an excellent, well written story. I enjoyed the characters and the history behind the book. Looking forward to reading "Apes."

[Andrew Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Urn Review
The Ape Review

Slow-going at different points, the moments of suspense were well done, creepy if you can insert yourself within the reading. Being a fan of Bram Stoker and Edgar Rice Burroughs, and finding Well's writing a grim variation of the environment, I'm tempted to see how the rest of the series plays out but there is a sense of hope and morality with Bram and Edgar's tales that I don't get in this story. Some times you want the camaraderie and adventure that Van Helsing and crew were brewing with, some times you want the barbaric savagery of beating back the authoritarianism of civilization like Tarzan, and then at times you want a despicable character to be your vehicle through a brutal land to show us the horrors of the night. Horvat is the latter.

Horvat, a 51-year-old gypsy loyal to Dracula, from a Szgany section of the Roma who have served Dracula for 300 years, sets out to fulfill his master's wish upon death. The story is told in journal entries by Horvat, the same technique Bram Stoker used for Dracula.

In Bram Stoker's tale, the protagonists are intentional and thoughtful, educated where it counts and morally sound. Their science and technology are vehicles upon which they further their understandings of God's creation. Dracula is himself a shadowy, manipulative, soulless creature, who at times is nothing more than a lusty panther seeking blood. In G. Wells Taylor's take, Horvat is a backwoods type who demonizes science and technology as supplements for God, all while holding Dracula up as a god himself. Horvat is also seemingly soulless in that he murders for his master, and pledges allegiance to Dracula's existence.

The journey involves ever present danger from supernatural ghouls in Wallachia, to racist colonists and crew at sea, to African wildlife on the coast. Ironically, Horvat never seems to recognize that all of these fail to compare to the danger he carries.

Things that weren't enthralling to me:
Horvat makes a number of mentions about the attractiveness of his master, and even comments on the beauty of the captain of the Westerner. His infactuation with Dracula borders lust, lending also to his faith in Dracula as a god-type. This sets the stage for an obsessive character who is the driving force for the ultimate evil but still is an uncomfortable read to engage though not a gratuitous take on it at all.

Once the story got into more characters showing up, it turned into seeming that the white British men were obnoxious colonists of a powerful empire, and any other characters with darker skin, whether Gypsy or African, were honorable and mistreated, with mention of European enslavers of Africans but no mention of African enslavers nor of the large amount of slaves going to African destinations and South American destinations more than anywhere else in the world. Bit I digress.

Things to ponder for fun (Spoilers even more):
1. How do we know Gazda is truly Dracula? Maybe Gazda, like other creatures we have seen, is his own vampire type being from Africa.
2. Since Gazda, or Dracula, is without memory, and is needing to be reminded of his heritage, maybe Dracula's history was a fabrication that he was taught, or willfully made up himself.

[Vonda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great

This book, part one of a trilogy, delivered a fantastic tale of the most famous vampire ever. Though not the main character, The Gypsy Horvath, tells his story very well.

[Paul Baumeister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well then… Did Not Expect This

Honestly, I looked at this book as some easy fluff, nothing too serious, maybe a little on the pulpy side. While there are definite shades of pulp roots, there’s a lot more behind this story than I was expecting. No flimsy, shoddy ripoff, author G. Wells Taylor does a great job of mirroring the writing style of Stoker, telling his story in journal form from the perspective of a servant of Dracula, the Gypsy Horvat. Picking up where Stoker’s book left off, The Urn follows Horvat along as he does his level best to enact his master’s last ditch efforts to survive. That journey finds them shipwrecked on a remote African shore… and now I’m on to book 2!

[Brad Hodges · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the writing here; it mimics the florid Gothic style, but beware—this is the first book of a series. Normally I don’t mind that but this one really doesn’t have a resolution and since it’s so short the whole thing should have been published as one volume.

[Ron D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Such A Promising Start

Such a promising start, ultimately to finish in disappointment. The plot is what drew me in, and for a while I thought we’d see the return of a Dracula type villain. Instead we get to hear the thoughts of Jungle Apes, and they’re plotting of intentions. I wished I had never wasted my time.

[Lucinda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't know

The book is a serial and slow paced. I kept waiting for something to really start happening and it never did. The next book looks interesting, but I'm not willing to pay to read it.

[N.K. Aning · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book started out nice and interesting but nothing really happened. I was curious to know what happened to the master but I didn't enjoy how the story dragged on and on about exploit in the jungle. Who knows I might get around to read the rest of the series but for now I was a bit let down by this.