Fiction
A recurring feature of Newman's fiction is his fondness for reinterpreting historical figures (particularly from the entertainment industry) and other authors' characters in new settings, either realistic alternate-history or outright fantasy. Some of these characters (e.g. Dracula) are easily recognised. Many more, particularly minor characters, are deliberately obscured and may be considered Easter eggs for perceptive readers. An example is the appearance of the American John Reid who just so happened to own a silver mine and who exported silver bullets to Great Britain in Anno Dracula (a nod to the Lone Ranger). Or the appearance of an American actor named Kent who would be cast as "Hercules" in an Italian production of the same name (apparently a nod to both George Reeves and Steve Reeves who played Superman and Hercules, respectively. (In the novel Dracula Cha Cha Cha aka Judgment of Tears: Anno Dracula 1959.)
Read more about this topic: Kim Newman
Famous quotes containing the word fiction:
“Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today—but the core of science fiction, its essence ... has become crucial to our salvation if we are to be saved at all.”
—Isaac Asimov (1920–1992)
“A reader who quarrels with postulates, who dislikes Hamlet because he does not believe that there are ghosts or that people speak in pentameters, clearly has no business in literature. He cannot distinguish fiction from fact, and belongs in the same category as the people who send cheques to radio stations for the relief of suffering heroines in soap operas.”
—Northrop Frye (b. 1912)
“We can never safely exceed the actual facts in our narratives. Of pure invention, such as some suppose, there is no instance. To write a true work of fiction even is only to take leisure and liberty to describe some things more exactly as they are.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)