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pbraue13's review
4.0
A solid and THICK collection of fun vampire short stories - even one from Anne Rice!
maa_pix's review
4.0
Too massive to read in a single check-out from the library, I skipped large portions of the book. As it's an anthology, it's difficult to assign one overall rating. Some of the stories are five-stars, others are barely two. So I give the tome four stars as a nod to it's exhaustive scope. If you're a true and total fan of everything vampire, go ahead and plow through it. Otherwise, just pick and choose.
The first section of the anthology contains the older, "pre-Dracula" vampire stories which I found to be a bit repetitive. They all seemed to follow the same pattern of a long buildup to a climactic reveal that, yes, the antagonist is a vampire(!). Since we know from the cover that these are all stories about vampires, those reveals come across as less dramatic than they might if you had found the stories outside this anthology. The later entires generally assume you know these characters are vampires and rely on other devices to build their stories. I found these later offerings to be much better reading.
The first section of the anthology contains the older, "pre-Dracula" vampire stories which I found to be a bit repetitive. They all seemed to follow the same pattern of a long buildup to a climactic reveal that, yes, the antagonist is a vampire(!). Since we know from the cover that these are all stories about vampires, those reveals come across as less dramatic than they might if you had found the stories outside this anthology. The later entires generally assume you know these characters are vampires and rely on other devices to build their stories. I found these later offerings to be much better reading.
lisawreading's review
5.0
This 1000+ page book is a treasure trove of vampire lore, with an incredibly rich array of vampire stories spanning the ages from classic to modern. Stories by Bram Stoker and Arthur Conan Doyle are included, as well as Roger Zelazny, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. The bibiography alone is worth the price of the book. This 30-something page guide to all written vampire works is a masterpiece, and is pure entertainment in and of itself. A must-have for all lovers of the vampire fiction genre.
mehitabels's review against another edition
2.0
"Fleur de feu. Oh flower of fire. That fire is not hate or fear, which makes flowers come, not terror or anger or lust, it is love that is the fire of the Bite-Me-Not, love which cannot abandon, love which cannot harm. Love which never dies."
jnicweb's review
Read the stories I wanted and liked some of them, especially The Parasite and Midnight Mass, and Carmilla.
caraway_and_rye's review against another edition
3.0
Mixed bag of stories.
For reference, this is the list of contents:
Pre-Dracula:
Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert
A Mystery of the Campagna by Anne Crawford
The Fate of Madame Cabanel by Eliza Lynn Linton
Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley
The Vampire by Vasile Alecsandri
The Death of Halpin Frayser by Ambrose Bierce
Ken's Mystery by Julian Hawthorne
Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu
The Tomb of Sarah by F. G. Loring
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
The Old Portrait and the Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet
True stories:
The Sad Story of a Vampire by Eric Stanislaus Count Stenbock
A Case of Alleged Vampirism by Luigi Capuana
An Authenticated Vampire Story by Franz Hartman
Graveyards, castles, churches, ruins:
Revelations in Black by Karl Jacoby
The Master of Rampling Gate by Anne Rice
The Vampire of Kaldenstein by Frederick Cowles
An episode of Cathedral History by M. R. James
Schloss Wabenberg by Scott Moncrieff
The Hound by H. P. Lovecraft
Bite-me-not or Fleur de Feu by Tanith Lee
The Horror at Chilham Castle by Joseph Payne Brennan
The Singular Death of Morton by Algernon Henry Blackwood
The Death of Illa Lotha by Clark Ashton Smith
That's poetic:
The Bride of Corinth by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
Giaur by Lord Byron
La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
Hard time for vampires:
Place for Meeting by Charles Beaumont
Duty by Ed Gorman
A week in the unlife by David James Shaw
Classic tales:
Four Wooden Stakes by Victor Roman
The room in a tower by E. F. Benson
Mrs Amworth by E. F. Benson
Dr. Porthos by Basil Copper
For the blood is the life by F. Marian Crawford
Count Magnus by M. R. James
When it was moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman
The drifting snow by August Derleth
Aylmer Vance and the Vampire by Alice and Claude Askew
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stocker
The Transfer by Algernon Blackwood
The Stone Chamber by H. B. Marian Watson
The Vampire by Ian Neruda
The end of the story by Clark Ashton Smith
Psychic vampires:
The lovely lady
The parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lonely women are the vessels of time
Something feels funny:
Blood by Frederik Brown
Popsie by Stephen King
The werewolf and the vampire
Drink my red blood
Day blood
Love, forever:
Replacements
Princess of Darkness
The silver collar
The old man's story
Will
Bloodlust
The Canal
When Gretchen was human
The story of Chugaro
They gather:
The men and women of Rivendell
Winter flowers
The man who loved a vampire lady
Midnight mass
Is that a vampire?:
The adventure of the Sussex vampire
A dead finger
Wailing well
Human remains
The vampire
Strigella
Marcius in Flanders
The Horla
The girl with the hungry eyes
This is war:
The living dead
Down among the dead men
Modern masters:
Necros
The man upstairs
Chastelle
Dracula's Chair
Special
Carrion Comfort
The sea was wet as wet could be
For reference, this is the list of contents:
Pre-Dracula:
Good Lady Ducayne by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
The Last Lords of Gardonal by William Gilbert
A Mystery of the Campagna by Anne Crawford
The Fate of Madame Cabanel by Eliza Lynn Linton
Let Loose by Mary Cholmondeley
The Vampire by Vasile Alecsandri
The Death of Halpin Frayser by Ambrose Bierce
Ken's Mystery by Julian Hawthorne
Carmilla by Sheridan LeFanu
The Tomb of Sarah by F. G. Loring
Ligeia by Edgar Allan Poe
The Old Portrait and the Vampire Maid by Hume Nisbet
True stories:
The Sad Story of a Vampire by Eric Stanislaus Count Stenbock
A Case of Alleged Vampirism by Luigi Capuana
An Authenticated Vampire Story by Franz Hartman
Graveyards, castles, churches, ruins:
Revelations in Black by Karl Jacoby
The Master of Rampling Gate by Anne Rice
The Vampire of Kaldenstein by Frederick Cowles
An episode of Cathedral History by M. R. James
Schloss Wabenberg by Scott Moncrieff
The Hound by H. P. Lovecraft
Bite-me-not or Fleur de Feu by Tanith Lee
The Horror at Chilham Castle by Joseph Payne Brennan
The Singular Death of Morton by Algernon Henry Blackwood
The Death of Illa Lotha by Clark Ashton Smith
That's poetic:
The Bride of Corinth by Johann Wolfgang van Goethe
Giaur by Lord Byron
La Belle Dame Sans Merci by John Keats
Hard time for vampires:
Place for Meeting by Charles Beaumont
Duty by Ed Gorman
A week in the unlife by David James Shaw
Classic tales:
Four Wooden Stakes by Victor Roman
The room in a tower by E. F. Benson
Mrs Amworth by E. F. Benson
Dr. Porthos by Basil Copper
For the blood is the life by F. Marian Crawford
Count Magnus by M. R. James
When it was moonlight by Manly Wade Wellman
The drifting snow by August Derleth
Aylmer Vance and the Vampire by Alice and Claude Askew
Dracula's Guest by Bram Stocker
The Transfer by Algernon Blackwood
The Stone Chamber by H. B. Marian Watson
The Vampire by Ian Neruda
The end of the story by Clark Ashton Smith
Psychic vampires:
The lovely lady
The parasite by Arthur Conan Doyle
Lonely women are the vessels of time
Something feels funny:
Blood by Frederik Brown
Popsie by Stephen King
The werewolf and the vampire
Drink my red blood
Day blood
Love, forever:
Replacements
Princess of Darkness
The silver collar
The old man's story
Will
Bloodlust
The Canal
When Gretchen was human
The story of Chugaro
They gather:
The men and women of Rivendell
Winter flowers
The man who loved a vampire lady
Midnight mass
Is that a vampire?:
The adventure of the Sussex vampire
A dead finger
Wailing well
Human remains
The vampire
Strigella
Marcius in Flanders
The Horla
The girl with the hungry eyes
This is war:
The living dead
Down among the dead men
Modern masters:
Necros
The man upstairs
Chastelle
Dracula's Chair
Special
Carrion Comfort
The sea was wet as wet could be
rothcoe's review
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
khoar's review
2.0
An anthology filled with short stories about vampires. I checked this one out because it had stories by Stephen King and Neil Gaiman. It was just an okay read, not something that I would check out again.