Buffy 2.0

Warner is planning a remake of the Buffy movie. Joss Whedon is not involved.

IN SEARCH OF DRACULA raymond mcnally and radu florescu

This is the 1994 edition of a book that was first published in 1989 as 'Dracula, prince of many faces: his life and his times'.  Most of the book focused on the historical figure of Vlad Tepes and his connection to the character of Dracula.  There is a lot of information and some helpful grey scale illustration.

The main limitation of this volume is it's rather haphazard structure which seems to relate more to how the authors discovered the material than how a reader might want to assimilate it.  The later section on vampire fiction and movies in general is already hopelessly out of date.  This is no long an area where effective comprehensive coverage is really possible.

This book might be a little tiresome for a casual Dracula enthusiast, good for a more dedicated one, but lacking the rigor and referencing a true expert would demand.


3/5

THE VAMPIRE WITH THE PINK HANDBAG sharee greene

I wanted to like The Vampire with the Pink Handbag, I really did. It is gay fiction, it has vampires--two of my favorite things. Oriole, a unfeasibly gorgeous male teenage vampire is going to a school specifically for vampires for the first time. He immediately becomes friends with two vampire girls, Jamie and Pear. He also immediately gets caught up in a tumultuous romantic relationship with another boy called Josh, and entangled in Josh's mysterious connection with two other powerful teen vampires, Roland and, um, Rayon. (Yes, a sexy mind-reading vampire named after a cheap synthetic fiber).

My first stumbling block was that none of the characters are very nice. They behave erratically and several of the 'love interest' males are extremely abusive, violent, judgemental, unfaithful and controlling. But that's fine so long as they love you, apparently. I get that vampires in this world are slow to mature and at the mercy of a turbo-charged form of adolescence, but that doesn't mean I find their melodramatic dialogue and sexual violence acceptable and entertaining. (By contrast Edward Cullen starts to look like a sensitive new age metrosexual.)

I suppose I could have gone with the premise and content of the book if the writing and formatting had allowed me to get swept up in the hyper-hormonal world of vampire college. Unfortunately Ms. Greene's prose is feels like it needs some time to mature. The narrative seems more focused on costume than motivation, and is rife with shifting points of view and jarring word choices. Add to that the lack of right justification and spacing between paragraphs that ranges from none to four of five lines for no apparent reason, and reading this book became something of a chore.

The Vampire with the Pink Handbag is a reasonable and timely idea for a teen vampire novel but it fails in the execution, quickly becoming a mire of head hopping and bed hopping lacking either the style or narrative momentum needed to make this a book a pleasure to read.

2/5

Cross-posted with POD People

BE STILL MY VAMPIRE HEART Kerrelyn Sparks

I like a good vampire trope as much as the next gal, but I do have my limits.  A red-haired Scottish vampire in a kilt is kind of pushing it.  Especially as he is meant to be 500 years old but treats the late Victorian costume kilt as if it was authentic.

That said the vampire hero is funny and charming, and the mortal slayer heroine is ironic and independent.  The romance between them is amusing enough, although the ending is even more of a forgone conclusion than usual and the adventure sub-plot is thin-to-non-existent.

Overall I would give this a 3/5.

FILM: The First Vampire

I downloaded this short film from iTunes to watch on a flight.  Set in 4th century Sweden The First Vampire (2004, IMDb) has a dark, sepia-toned feel a bit like a Breugel painting. 

The movie is 24-minutes long and opens with a man riding at night encountering a mysterious figure carrying a child who is near death.  He rescues the unconscious child but soon other people are sickened by attacks from 'the vampire'.  A doctor is summoned and soon questions the supernatural explanations of the disease, but can he solve the problem before the people's fears drive them to rash actions?

The first half of the film is rather muddled, dark and confusing--but it is worth hanging in there to see the rather interesting conclusion.

Movie: Bloodsuckers

Bloodsuckers a.k.a. Vampire-Wars_Battle-for-the-Universe is a low budget 2005 TV movie.  It starts of just plain bad and manages to finish with a certain (small) amount of kitchy charm. 

Basically, in a future where humans have gone into space and found it full of vampires, an earnest hero joins a team of semi-official vampire killers.  The team is, like the hero, pretty much a collection of cliches from central casting--reckless captain, vampire ninja babe, cowboy grunt and sassy sarcasticc chick.

The acting is not great, the sets are not great, the action sequences are not great and the special effects are terrible--but the plot gets a little more sophisticated as it goes on, from 'kill the vampires!' to 'be loyal to your friends and kill the vampires!' 

This would have been a semi-promising TV series pilot, but as a movie it is pretty lacklustre.  But if it is on sale or on TV, Bloodsuckler is and okay movie for someone who has some free time and is prepared to kick back and descend to its level.

• IMDb

Stephen King's Intro to 'American Vampire'....

What Stephen King thinks vampires should be:

"Killers, honey. Stone killers who never get enough of that tasty Type-A. Bad boys and girls. Hunters. In other words, Midnight America. Red white and blue, accent on the red."

FILM: Let Me In

ilmThere is a vampire movie remake in the works. Let Me In [IMDb] is a remake of Let the Right One [Wikipedia], a Swedish vampire movie (2008). Both movies are based on a novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, in which a young boy learns how to stand up to bullies after meeting a mysterious (vampire) girl. Release is scheduled for October 1.  Dark Horse Comics will be producing a tie in graphic novel.

Official site
 

DVD: Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet is a 1998 British series of six one-hour television episodes focused on a small paramilitary unit that deals with a vampire threat (Not to be mistaken for the 2006 movie of the same name). A police Sergeant, Michael Colefield, is the main protagonist, recruited by this unit after his best friend becomes a vampire (referred to in this mythos a 'leeches').  The team is rounded out by their leader, an ex-Catholic priest, a female doctor who lost her husband and daughter to the disease, and a ruthless ex-army operative.

The show and is characters had considerable potential, but this rather low key show never really hit its stride.  Often it seemed to me, that the acting and cinematography didn't really match the quality of the writing.  The stories raised great issues of what to do in situation of moral ambiguity, and in the absence of truly scary monsters (the vampires seemed rather under-powered) the sub-plot of a hero trying to balance his secret life with real world concerns had great potential. Ultraviolet is worth watching more as an exercise in what might have been, rather than what is actually achieved in six scant episodes.

3/5

Other reviews:
ULTRAVIOLET - 1999: [3/5] "This is a cool show and it's done in a fairly "realistic", police procedural way. There's a lot of interesting conflict as the brooding Michael tries to balance his life and his relationship with his friends...."

Links: Official website,  Wikipedia

Renaissance E Books seeks Undead Erotic Fiction

The Love that Never Dies: Undead Erotica

Editor: M.Christian
Publisher: Renaissance E Books
Deadline: December 1, 2010
Payment: $25, paid on publication

An anthology of gay, straight, and lesbian stories exploring the erotic allure of the undead, to be published by Renaissance E Books/Sizzler Editions.

Drop-dead (yet gorgeous) zombies, stylishly-immortal playboys cursed to promenade the earth for eternity, Egyptian Queens with enticing mummy wraps, bloodsucking old favorites ... there's a certain kinky 'something' about folks who may have kicked the bucket but are still walking around — and looking good.

Authors are encouraged to take new and imaginative approaches to what makes a character 'undead,' as well as to what their allure, and sexual appetites can be. For this anthology, 'undead' can refer to zombies, immortals, resurrectees, mummies, ghosts, revenants, golems, wights, and — yes — vampires. But please keep in mind that this is not a vampire book, so only one or two vampire stories will be included in the final anthology.

Stories may feature humor, horror, romance, or mystery but all submissions must be explicitly erotic. Stories featuring rape, underage characters, homophobia, bestiality or 'violence porn' will not be considered,

If you have questions about whether or not your story may work for this anthology, please contact M.Christian with your questions or concerns.

Both previously published and original works will be considered.

Story length: 1,000 to 5,000 words
Deadline for Submissions: December 1, 2010
Rights: First North American Anthology Rights
Payment: $25, paid on publication

Email submissions should be sent to: zobop@aol.com (rtf format only, be sure to include contact information on all attachments)

Questions? Contact M. Christian (zobop@aol.com)

True Blood + Rolling Stone = WTF/snore

I don't have any basic gripe about the concept Rolling Stone is going with here.  But there is one big problem with this cover.  It doesn't look good. And quite how anyone managed to take a photograph of these three people naked and not make it look good I don't know.

But, hey, I'm sure a ot of people will blog and gossip about it.  So that's the important thing. But would it kill them to be contraversial and take a nice shot at the same time?  I am actually titilated and bored by this at the same time.

See also:

• True Blood stars Alexander Skarsgard, Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer go naked for Rolling Stone
• True Blood Rolling Stone Cover- Possible Interpretations
• True Blood Cast Gets Sexy And Bloody–Remind You of Anything?

BLOOD GAME Rae Monet

BLOOD GAME by Rae Monet is a vampire romance published by eRedSage. The core story is that vampire Byron is taken by the enemy (a rebel vampire clan). He hides from the torture in his own dream world until Sara Weston uses a device so she can meet him on the astroplane. After he recovers she goes into hiding, sure that a gorgeous vampire will not be interested in a wheelchair-bound woman. After being an evil vampire’s lab rat Byron has a few problems of his own.

'Blood Game' is a good length at around 40,000 words. The cover is a typical male torso but they digitally added tattoo isn’t even close to the one Byron is described as having. The writing is easy to read, the romance story moves along smoothly with two clearly drawn characters go through the usual throes of mutual misunderstanding before finding true love and multiple orgasms.

It may be because I did not read the first in the series but the setting, one-hundred years in the future seems superficial, sometimes painfully so. Vampires live underground, human up top, but nothing is said about how this is achieved.

Technology seems the same as now but unnecessarily renamed (Bluetooth is an autointerface, hypodermics are autoinjectors and traffic tickets are… autotickets—the future, apparently, is automatic). Add to this blasters, turbocycles, vidmovies and helocopters and the future also sounds decidedly retro. This might not have bothered me quite so much without the three page glossary, mainly covering words not used in the book, and in no way necessary unless you are the kind of reader who needs gems like “Organics=Vegetables grown without pesticides” and “Android=Mechanical android programmed in whatever capac¬ity they are needed.” And unfortunately I was equally irritated by the pseudo-science such as “massive irregular heart arrhythmia” and the idea that a vague sort of numb paralysis of the legs, and no other symptoms, could be caused by a virus entering the eye and destroying 60% of a person’s myelin.

But enough of that.

'Blood Game' is a professionally presented and serviceable paranormal romance with sex at the appropriate place in the relationship and two flawed people who truly seem to need each other. It is a competent book but not, for me, a keeper. To be fair I have a preference for science and disability being portrayed accurately and alphas that don’t go as far as stalking and throwing things around the room. Your mileage may vary. I feel this books is let down by plotting and world-building that is sketchy and, in places, implausible. In keeping with my general feeling of benign confusion the first book in this series is available not at eRedSage, but at Cerridwen Press.

1.5/5

Other Reviews:

• 
  
  Manic Readers [4/5]: "I love a tortured hero, and Byron is certainly that—physically, and mentally"
• 
  
  JERR: "Byron is the type of male character I really enjoy; he wouldn’t give up on love, even when the outcome looked bleak."

See also:

• Fictionwise
• Rae Monet talks about Blood Game
• Amazon kindle 

THE KEEPER Armstrong & Piet

THE KEEPER by SL Armstrong and K Piet is an a novella that puts a new twist on the gay vampire romance. There is a pretty common story type where a mortal meets a vampire, works out exactly what he is, angst ensues, and they end up together. In this case the mortal is Hadi, a 24-year-old involved in the world of high fashion who is sent to a remote household in Algeria to fulfil a family obligation--being 'the keeper' for the mysterious Dhakir. 

The basic plot of THE KEEPER is as I described above, but the novel aspects are a convincing back story for the 'vampire' and his feeding representing a real imposition on the donor.  The angst, reversals and obstacles to the relationship make sense for both characters. The limitations, at least for me, are that the the outlook and expression of the vampire do not fit someone who has lived for so long. Also, once the obstacles to the relationship are resolved the story continues too long in my opinion.  But I am notorious for losing interest during HEA sex scenes, which other people thoroughly enjoy.

THE KEEPER puts enough of a twist on the familiar vampire/mortal romance story to make it interesting without undermining the cozy trajectory of the trope.

3/5

See also:

• Smashwords
• Storm Moon Press

[DVD] NICK NIGHT

NICK NIGHT (1989; IMDb) is a movie pilot that predates the long running television series FOREVER KNIGHT.  It is not a prequel because the first episodes of the TV series reprise all of the events of this movie.  However it is interesting to see a slightly different and early take on the same story.

Rick Springfield is a more conventional attractive lead, but lack some of the edge that Geraint Wyn Davies later bought to the part.  The filming of this fail pilot was also looser and sometimes introduced serious flaws. 

For example there a pivotal scene where Knight must choose whether to save the girl or save the ancient cup that might allow him mortal again.  In both version the villain holds the cup and the girl on a high walkway.  In this version the cup is dropped and hits the ground before Knight acts, essentially making nonsense of the dilemma.  In the Forever Knight version the villain drops the cup and Knight saves the girl before it hits the ground and shatters--making it clear that he had time to rescue one or the other.

There were really only two elements that I feel are more successful in NICK KNIGHT than in FOREVER KNIGHT.  One is the gimmick of Knight rigging up camera so her could watch the sun rise on dozens of televisions.  This seemed to sum up Knight's obsession with regaining mortality, on which the series hangs.  The pother is that the sidekick Det. Don Schanke (played by John Kapelos in both versions) has more of a threatening side to him that is lost in the buffoonish character he became in the series (perhaps necessary to have a long running character who never works out that his partner is a vampire).

On the whole this is a movie for FOREVER KNIGHT enthusiasts only, it completes the collection but adds relatively little to it.

Where is Buffy when you need her?

It is Friday the 13th and rabid vampire bats are atacking a village in Peru.

IN THE DARK Rob Grahan

IN THE DARK is well written but it messed with my head. It has four distinct sections. In the first we meet the vampire hero Georges but learn almost nothing about him. Although it was neutrally written the villains as black men using drugs and sexual prowess to, um, wipe out the white race made me really, really uncomfortable. When this was followed by a section where the male vampire seduces himself a lesbian girlfriend and confronts a lesbian villain--and what subsequently happens to her--well....

 

The third part is about Georges and his girlfriend Diane being reunited in more ways than one is more comfortable reading. Georges finally became more of a rounded character with vulnerabilities and character. In the final part they journey back to Diane's home and both characters and the relationship become three dimensional and their world and lifestyle are fleshed out, just in time for the book to end.

 

Frankly this book didn't do much for me. I felt like maybe the writer developed and matured during the writing and if there was a sequel it would hit the ground running with two fully rounded characters as well as a supporting cast of secondary character with potential (but who didn't do very much in this story). I would say this story is worth a look but the four sections are mismatched in genre and quality and some of the content in the earlier parts is politically incorrect to say the least.

Note: this title is now out of print

3/5

 

Other Reviews of IN THE DARK

• Bitten by Books [3/5]: "This book wasn’t quite for me, but I encourage others to read it and see if it is for you."
• Two Lips Reviews [4.5/5]: "Rob Graham’s style is smoothly enchanting and leads the reader like a moth to the flame."
• Romantic Observer [3/5]: "The first section seemingly doesn’t relate to the following three, which makes one wonder why it is there...."
• goodreads [3.5]

See also:

• Let Me Tell You a Story About Vampires: "I contacted Rob and he was not only willing, he was enthusiastic. As I was a fan of his vampire novel "In the Dark," I suggested a vampire romance novel--but a historical one."

Dick, Jane and the Vampires

I came across a blog post about this book by Nancy Knight, and it has gone right to the top of my 'to buiy' list. 

I mean, seriously, Dick and Jane and the Vampires.  Who could resist that?

I may have to wait a while though, Amazon reports it has not been released yet, 

Anne Rice, Atheist for Jesus

Well, not an atheist per se, but Anne Rice claims she is leaving Christianity. "“Today I quit being a Christian," she reportedly said.  Now I, personally, have had trouble taking Rice's theology very seriously ever since reading Memnoch the Devil, but her argument seems to go something like this: Christ=good, Church=bad.

Personally it seem to me, as something of an outsider, that if you grock Christ, you are a Christian, and the church (or churches) out there really don't have to have anything to do with it.  I suppose some members of some churches would disagree that you can get to Christ anyway but through them.  But I see no reason to resign the field and let them win that argument.

If indeed this is what Rice is doing--rather than making one more grab for that elusive limelight.

It's Twilight, Baby

So apparently people are calling their babies names out of Twilight.  I will admit this make me sad.  It makes me think of the idea that babies could be affected but what their mothers saw late in pregnancy, like if she was scared by a spotted pony the baby would have spotted skin. 

Biology doesn't work that way, but apparently psychology does.  Whatever you mother is impressed by just before your birth, that is the name you might get stuck with.

Bella, Cullen, Jasper, Alice and (oh my God) Emmett are sky-rocketing up the name popularity charts.  I suppose it could be worse.  It could be Renfield or Buffy.  Or if your mother was impressed by a Transformers story instead you could end up little baby Cliffjumper, Grimlock or Road Rebel instead.

Actually, if the choice was between Bella and Grimlock....

THE VAMPIRE'S HEART mark a roeder

The Vampire's Heart is a very creditable young adult story.  It would be rather glib to refer to it as a 'gay twilight', especially as this book came out (so to speak) in 2002--but there is an element of truth in the comparison. Graham is a puny thirteen-year-old with a crush on a arrogant high school jock. A gorgeous but strange new arrival at his school, 15-year-old Josiah divides Grahams loyalties. In a newly discovered world of vampires, it is hard to find out who he can trust--and making the wrong choice is likely to cost Graham his life.

Graham is a likable but rather self-obsessed and self-pitying first person narrator and quite a lot of the text his devoted to his musings rather than directly reported action.  Even so, the story is an easy and engaging read, perhaps more suited to a reader still in his or her teen years. Older readers shouldn't be put off too easily by the first few chapters.  Mainly of the plot elements that might seem implausible (such as why a nine-hundred-year old vampire would need or want to attend a high school) are convincingly explained as Graham gradually uncovers the truth of what is going on.

For me this book is an 4.5 out of 5, but for a reader more in the target audience I don;t think 5/5 would be out of the question.

News

• Richelle Mead’s Vampire Academy book series is destined to hit the big screen.

So what is a fleam?

Main Entry: fleam

Pronunciation: \ˈflēm\

Function: noun
: a sharp lancet formerly used for bloodletting
[Merriam Webster]

In case you were wondering about the name of this blog.... A fleam is a device used for bloodletting.  It can be a simple blade of a set of posts with differences sized points on the side of them.  They are normally used to make a rapid puncture over a major vein and let out blood.  Bloodletting was thought to improve health by balancing the vital humors of the body.  As a writer of paranormal fiction, going by the pen name "Veinglory", The Fleam seemed like an apt name for my blog about vampire fiction.

Dreams of Decadence Relaunch

Dreams of Decadence was a landmark vampire fiction magazine, used as the basis for several great vampire fiction anthologies.  I was thrilled to hear it was relaunching, not so thrilled to learn that it will be a general paranormal magazine rather than specifically vampire-themed.

Free Vampire Ebooks

I am going to list links to vampire ebooks or online reading that is available for free.  If you know of any others, please leave a comment and let me know!

• After the Interview -- Candy Nicks
• Dracula -- Bram Stoker [Page by Page]
• Drain the Blood -- Alex Severin [Alinar Publishing]
• House Of The Vampire, the -- by George Sylvester Viereck
• Vampire, the -- Henry Steel Olcott
• Vampire, the: Or, The Bride Of The Isles -- by James Planche

MIT Science Fiction Society's Review of Twilight

[link]

FLESH AND BLOOD Reay Tannahill

Flesh and Blood: A History of the Cannibal Complex is readable enough for the purposes of entertainment. It feels like the book compiled mainly to satisfy prurient interest. One chapter near the end deals with both werewolves and vampires. It is a rather disorganised collection of early myths and stories relating to these creatures. The version I have is the hardback from 1975, the cover shown is for a later paperback edition. This book is an inoffensive novelty but worth acquiring only if you want a really complete collection of vampire non-fiction. It contains nothing that cannot be found in other, superior volumes.

2/10

R.I.P. Corey Haim (1971-2010)

The Lost Boys was an archetypal eighties vampire movie. Released in 1987 (the same year as Near Dark) the Lost Boys combined teenage chic and vampire menace with a classic tale of outsiders standing up for themselves and brothers looking after each other.

Corey Haim played the younger brother, Sam. But life imitated art when Haim was introduced to drugs on the set of the Lost Boys. The drugs plagued and it seems finally took his life, at the age of 38. Unlike the fictional vampires, drugs were a monster he fought but ultimately succumbed too. Corey Haim was found dead in his mother's apartment, from an apparent overdose.

5 Worst Vampire Covers

This is my round up of my least favorite covers of vampire novels. You can click on the pictures to see them at a larger size.

#5) Bloodcircle

This cover isn't terrible but it stands in for the common sort of lazy cliched and poorly executed covers put on vampire novels. In fact PN Elrod book seems to be particularly prone to them. However the art on this cover isn;t very good either, and the composition looks like a bad photo mash-up, made more perplexing by the fact that it is fully painted.

I get that they want an identifiable vampire on the cover. But of the protagonist does not have pointed ears, gray skin or fangs like a starving viper, painting him this way is just silly. Also when the book is a cross over vampire/detective novel surely at least one element indicating detective fiction should appear?


#4) A Clash of Fangs

"Do you think they can tell I just drew the fang on?"
"No, dude. It's like totally seamless"

I am also wondering on what planet Mr. Mullet is mean to be a sexy gay romance hero? And of course the plain white circle standing in, presumably, for the moon just ties it all together (not).

But speaking of other planets....


#3) Tomorrow Sucks

The title sucks. The tag line ("SF in a Jugular Vein") sucks. The cover is a collection of vampire and sci fi cliched assembled into a whole that is worse than the sum of its parts.

Which is sad because this is a pretty good anthology of some classic stories.

#2) The Last Vampire
Like my first one this kind of stands in for a type of cover. One that takes a piece of crappy art and tries to make it not so bad by making it small and/or applying a cheap trick like reversing colours, zapping it with nuclear level of saturation--or as in this case mirroring it to make it kind of look like a face. Only not really. If the font is big enough, raised and metallic and celebrity authors are being quoted, nobody will notice how rubbish the art is, right?

#1) They Thirst
But for full bore, unmitigated, 24-carat ugly I don't think anything can beat this.

The idea of undead monsters shambling around town isn't half as scary as this combination of silver, yellow and purple.

I can only imagine this is meant to depict just how bad jaundice and facial acne can get if you are immortal.

Just to be fair, watch out for my post on 'Five Best Vampire Book Covers'. If you have a most or least favorite vampire cover, please let me know!

Website or blog?

Blogger now has a function to create "pages". I am considering moving the reviews currently on my website to this blog. They would be easier to update as blog pages. But I wonder if they are easier to find on my website. Any suggestions?

TOMORROW SUCKS greg cox & t k f weisskopf [eds]

This review is part of a blog review book chain. The previous link is Foucault's Pendulum and the next link is Shades of Twilight.

Tomorrow Sucks: in the introduction of this vampire sci fi themed collection, Greg Cox makes an interesting suggestion. He writes that after science fiction explanations could be used "vampires didn't have to be evil anymore. No longer a creature of hell by definition vampires could be villains, victims, or even heroes."

I certainly agree that vampire fiction has changed in this way but I wonder how much is due to encroaching science, and how much is just waning religiosity--as fantasy/magic-based vampirism remains a more common theme than any kind of plausible speculative science.

Regardless, this anthology of stories dating from 1933 to 1988 is a pretty good introduction to short stories on the intersections of vampire fiction and science fiction.

Several of the better stories lost something by being in a vampire anthology as it spoiled a twist of the plot. But in each case the story, by an established master, stood up well (e.g. And Not Quite Human by Joe L Hensley, Pyotr's Story by Spider Robinson).

Some of the stories effectively used the vampire to illuminated some kind concept about humanity. Such as Ray Bradbury's Pillar of Fire in which the last vampire awakes in a utopia without lies, crimes, graveyards... novels, imagination or belief. The Stainless Steel Leech by Roger Zelazny shows how the last vampire passes on his nature to a cybernetic future. And Shambleau by CL Moore is just a great evocation of the horror and desire a vampiric creature could produce.

Two of the stories explore an alternative version of the word and centre around romances. Both The Man Who Loved a Vampire Lady by Brian Stableford and Leechcraft by Susan Petry give a window into worlds they authors explored more fully in later novels.

There were three other stories in the anthology that fell rather flat with me as did the second editors postscript which I feel would have been more successful as a second introduction, but--for me--7/11 is a good hit rate for enjoying an anthology. Overall this book is well worth reading if only to see so many high-powered writers put their own twist in the vampire mythos.

3.5/5

SABELLA tanith lee

Sabella is one of the earliest vampire books that I read, and it is written at an fairly accessible YA level. The basic story is of Sabella struggling with her desires and guilt over her victims. She does not understand why she is different from everyone else, but does what she can to survive--including using sex to exploit men. The setting is on another planet with all those rich, exotic details that Lee writes so well.

[SPOILERS FOLLOW]

My reaction as a young girl is pretty much the same as it is now. As viable as the ending might be, the solution to Sabella's problems is literal subordination to a man of her own kind. She is cows down to him, or goes on killing other men--these are her only options. This just makes me acutely uncomfortable. I guess Sabella is just the Twilight of my generation.
[END SPOILERS]

I give Sabella 3/5 for the readability and quality of writing. Sabella is a real vampire to the point that she kills to live and struggles with her own morality. But it would be an 4 if I hadn't hated the ending so much--which is just a visceral thing and most other people would probably not react to it like I did.

RATING: 3/5

Amazon: 4/5

RUNNING AVERAGE: 3.5/5

A Self-Promotional Interlude

Strangely enough, I have been posting on this blog for a while and not yet mentioned any of my own vampire fiction. Bad author, missing a chance for self-promotion. Of course there will be no review and no rating, but here is the cover and blurb.

The Wicca Man: Tongue-Tied
by Emily Veinglory

When Sean, a conservative psychology professor, is cornered one night by a very buff creature of the night, he does the first thing he can think of. Casts a spell. Not just any spell. A love spell. And it works.

Now the vampire, Thane, is head over heels for Sean and causing chaos in his life. Even worse, Sean’s falling in love with him, too. But is it real or just the magic?

The witches are pissed Sean used coercive black magic. The vampires want Thane back. And Sean knows, if you love something, you’ve got to set it free. If it comes back, it’s meant to be, right? The only problem is, the being he’s setting free is a bloodthirsty vampire, and there’s a lot more at stake than just matters of the heart.

...I am currently working on the sequel: The Wicca Born II--Blood Borne