It’s New Year’s Eve, 1999, and Diogenes Club member Richard Jeperson is attending a party being thrown by Christina Light, heiress supreme, in the Bund, Tokyo’s prime vampire territory. Accompanying him is Nezumi, ancient ronin and vampire who looks like a little girl but who is really an accomplished assassin. The Treaty of Light, which granted Christina this territory for 100 years, is expiring with the end of the millenium, and there are many, many forces in the region that want to cause havoc and mayhem at the very least; indeed, this is at least partially why Richard is here…. Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula series has been around for some decades now, and I’m sure that anyone who’s read him will know how they feel about the series; there are always horrifically disgusting events and crazy-nasty methods of killing folks, and all manner of imminent destruction of the universe scenarios going on. I don’t read a lot of horror anymore, but I generally make an exception for Mr. Newman because his stories are *so* over-the-top and often flat-out hilarious. Mainly, though, I enjoy reading his novels because his imagined alternate history (in which Dracula is real and more or less takes over the British Empire in Victorian times, moving forward in time from there) is just so delectable; there’s plenty of scope for just about any “reality” once the reader accepts the basic premise. “Daikaiju” won’t change anybody’s mind about Mr. Newman’s work, but those of us who enjoy it will have a good time with this entry! ( )