Just in time for Halloween, I found this 1994 vampire anthology, Love in Vein. Most of the stories feature a vampire (or two) although some writers throw in other creatures like ghouls.
My favorite story in Love in Vein is Charles de Lint’s “In This Soul of a Woman.” Nita, an “exotic dancer” in a night club, finds herself approached by a woman who calls herself Imogen. Imogen has an odd request for Nita…a matter of Life or Death.
I also liked Thomas F. Monteleone’s “Triptych di Amore” where a vampire drains geniuses like Mozart until she finds herself exposed and neutralized…until World War II. I also liked Gene Wolfe’s “Queen of the Night” but felt like it was a fragment from a much longer and involving story.
Are you a fan of vampire stories? GRADE: B
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Introduction / Poppy Z. Bright — vii
- Do not hasten to bid me adieu / Norman Partridge — 1
- Geraldine / Ian McDowell — 25
- In the greenhouse / Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg — 55
- Cafe endless: Spring rain / Nancy Holder — 63
- Empty vessels / David B. Silva — 79
- The final fete of Abba Adi / Jessica Amanda Salmonson — 101
- Cherry / Christa Faust — 121
- White chapel / Douglas Clegg — 137
- Delicious antique whore / Wilum H. Pugmire — 169
- Tiptych di Amore / Thomas F. Monteleone — 173
- Queen of the night / Gene Wolfe — 209
- The marriage / Steve Rasnic Tem and Melanie Tem — 227
- In this soul of a woman / Charles de Lint — 237
- The alchemy of the throat / Brian Hodge — 259
- Love me forever / Mike Baker — 289
- And the horses hiss at midnight / A.R. Morlan — 309
- Elixir / Elizabeth Engstrom — 319
- The gift of Neptune / Danielle Willis — 337
- From hunger / Wayne Allen Sallee — 345
- A slow red whisper of sand / Robert Devereaux — 363
Brite. I’m glad I’m not the only one with fumble finger, George.
Jerry, not fumble fingers but WORDPRESS Spellchecker! Grrrrrrrrr!
Not likely I’ll ever read, or even see this, but it’s a pretty good lineup of contributors. Vampires are certainly the most interesting of the traditional horror monsters, and they’ll probably always be with us. There are two new vampire series on Sunday night, AMC’s INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE, and Showtime’s LET THE RIGHT ONE IN, both based on well known novels/movies of the same name. After one or two episodes, both seem to be pretty well done.
Michael, vampires continue to fascinate audiences both on screen, on TV, and in books. Every Halloween, we’re visited by a few vampires, both male and female, looking for candy not blood.
Well, George, you hope candy…
Jerry, I usually wear a garlic choker on Halloween!
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN in its first episode did ring some interesting if more-conventional changes on the initial story…I’ll probably give it a chance. Rice’s novel and the film version of it were less to my taste, but I might give it a look.
Phil really liked her work. Nor much a fan of any imaginary beings. Probably read them too literally.
Patti, Poppy Z. Brite edited several anthologies. I’ll feature a few more in the months ahead.
No interest in this. I have read stuff like the original DRACULA and King’s ‘SALEM’S LOT but not generally a fan of vampire stories.
Jeff, the erotic elements factored into the selling of this anthology.
I haven’t read a lot of vampire stories (long or short) but I don’t have anything against them. I am sure I would find some stories here I would like, even though I am not sure about combining vampires with erotica.
Well, Brite, and not him (these days) alone, see vampirism as hard to divorce from eroticism (though as several wags have noted over the decades, kissing a cold corpse that survives on blood is unlikely to flip most people’s hormones into overdrive).
Todd, there were erotic scenes in INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE, both the movie and the TV series.
Yeah, if not terribly good ones in the film.
Tracy, I think the erotic elements played to the vampires’s strengths in this volume.