This is, by far, the worst of the Worlds of Power books. The writer has some of the worst descriptions I've ever read. Every monster or dark place in the Castlevania world smells of old fish and dirty socks, apparently. Also, it seems that the strongest weapon one can use against Dracula, Lord of all Vampires, is a bad pun.

One of the reasons I really dislike this story is that it incorporates a kid from Earth as the sidekick of Simon Belmont. In an unintentional parody of The Last Starfighter, Simon arrives on Earth to find the "greatest Castlevania player on Earth" to help him defeat Dracula a second time (this kid, by the way, even though he's played and won the first Castlevania game nineteen times, seems to know nothing about the world of Castlevania). The "chosen one" is a joking, chocolate obsessed kid who is, I assume, is supposed to be easily replaced by the reader.

Here's the thing, when I was a kid, I did imagine getting swept into these fictional worlds of the games I played and the books I read, but I was never myself. I was a more capable version of myself, one I knew would survive in the world I went to. This kid, Tim Bradley, wouldn't last five minutes in the Castlevania I remember.

I really loved the Castlevania games as a kid, so seeing this watered-down world where a fourteen year old kid (who is somehow only in the eighth grade) can defeat Dracula with bad jokes and puns is heartbreaking.

Also, the fact that every hero and monster is described as having "muscles like Arnold" shows exactly what was wrong with almost every story for boys in the late 80s, early 90s. Every hero (and villain) had to be some overly musclebound meat head.

There was no redeeming quality in this book. It's awful from start to finish. ( )