The master of Horror, Bram Stocker’s ’The Jewel of Seven Stars’ is a nail baiting horror suspense thriller, I cannot say from start to end but from start till the climax. In fact there is only a small piece of horror but the suspense is been created to the effect that something great is coming up.
It is basically a Mummy story. Bram stocker assembled lot of material to create this suspense, researching and otherwise. Science and mysticism go hand in hand and the writer does the basic groundwork for the reader to bring some kind of believability in certain part of the story. We will be shuttled between 4 millenniums in this attempt to make us tempt to toss the possibilities. (Of course we will not accept hundred percent logic, when it come to ghost.)
The book however falls short of excellence, for a simple basic reason. The climax undone all good job done in most part of the book. What has created as a great prospect has been ridiculed as dust, literally pathetic. Another problem with the book is that many characters of it are underdeveloped and situations rushed. The pace of the novel is fast forward and description style is compelling. Even its flawed ending, the book is way above many books written in this genre. Then, when we have a classic like Dracula to benchmark, no amount of success will match the perfection we are looking for. It is not probably scary, but definitely interesting in most part of it.
It is another Bram Stocker novel and the glimpse of talent is visible. It is not a Dracula, so the expectations to be kept low. Just give this a try to get the feel of Bram Stocker again and to know how important climax is, even for a very well written book otherwise.