HOW TO EAT A HUMAN BEING dan dillard

How to Eat a Human Being is an anthology of one poem and six short stories. The poem is fresh and funny and launches you into the collection.  Many of the stories have a Stephen King-like tone and set up a great scenario, but the pay offs are a little weak.

There is a bit of a recurring theme of hero who starts off a bit unlikeable, and end up damned, and women who are either perfect wives or dissolute sluts.  One story called 'Stray' was very effective perhaps because it broke that mold, but it was little over-explained at the end. Overall, an interested if rough-hewn collection.

Now actual vampires in this one, but everyone needs some variety in their life.

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

BOYS OF THE BITE: A GAY VAMPIRE ANTHOLOGY Cecilia Tan (ed)

This is an anthology by new e-publisher Ravenous Romance. I accepted a review copy based largely on the strength of Tan's reputation as an editor. As is often the case with anthologies, Boys of the Bite includes stories of mixed tone and quality.

Wanting Having Needing by R R Angell has excellent contemporary world building and a believable protagonist, but the plot--such as it is--depends on a twist that is broadcast well in advance.

To Be Beloved by Pepper Espinoza is a Dracula-esque historical story with a very appealing first-person protagonist. This story updates the Victorian approach by more strongly evoking the the morbid pleasures writers of that time could only elude to--as the victim sinking all to willingly into the the fatal embrace fo a vampire.This story is exquisitely well written but without the moralist ending that would once have resolved the tale it feels rather unfinished.

Lost in Translation by Tammy Jo Eckhart is well written but essentially just a story of a modern surfer becoming the slave of a vampire scholar, which is not the sort of story I enjoy.

The Love of a Faithful Servant by Teresa Noelle Roberts is again wonderfully written but basically a 'being made into a vamp' story. At this point I am beginning to wonder why so many authors write a wonderful vignette and so few produce a fully plotted (beginning-middle-end) short story.

The Cold Color of the Heart by Eric Del Carlo and Amber Jane Dodd is a emo first love story with a well-imagined vampiric twist.

The Sin Eater's Prince by Keta Diablo is another first time story combined with strong high fantasy world building.

The Conservative Dark by Connor McKay is yet another first time story with the standard OMG-what-if-I-hurt-my-mortal-lover plot.

The Last Brother by Ken Panadero describes a high fantasy order of vampire monks, but is also yet another falling in love story. I support this is a romance publisher, but in the absence of other plots the stories are starting to feel monotonous. Each is in a different world, a different culture, a different kind of vampire, a different kind of man, and a different writing style, and yet.... it is not just that each story is a vampire and a human, but the human is a nervous virgin etc. Perhaps I am too demanding having been raised on classic collections of sci fi short stories which each made a different kind of conceptual point rather than the same basic point ('love redeems') in different ways.

The Devil's Half Acre by Ryan Field introduces a world weary vampire moving into a town, segues to a pick up and sex scene and then ends. Of all those stories it has some of the best erotic content but is the furthest from really being a fully realised story.

VAMMP: Conquerring Dissension by Bryl R Tyne was a story I found very hard to follow and make sense of. The editing also seemed a little off; there were many awkwardly constructed sentences. For example: "Alan sensed the scrutiny tossed at his still-booted feet and warmth flushed his face." And only in this story did the intricate world building seem really rather supernumerary to the plot of (surprise surprise) lust and longing finally requited (the ol' destined life mates thang).

Based on her previous anthologies I know Tan knows good writing when she sees it. However I think the last story ends this collection on a low note. The world building the writing style of each writer is excellent and idiosyncratic, but the old vampire and M/M tropes become repetitious by the end. It might be best read in snatches rather than in one sitting. A reader who has read these two genres less exhaustively might not feel the same ennui.

Overall I would rate Boys of the Bite well worth the price of entry, and a nice sampler of gay erotic romance stories that put a twist in the old tropes but never escapes or subverts them. I would certainly be interested in reading longer works by most of the authors included in this collection.

4/5

See also:
BOYS OF THE BITE Receives Great Review From the Fleam

DARK THIRST various authors

DARK THIRST
various authors
Pocket Books Fiction
3/5

I have read a hell of a lot of vampire books and a lot of them, to be perfectly honest, are terrible. But I am always interested in seeing if someone can breathe new death into the old vampire cliches. 'Dark Thirst' is a collection of stories by African American writers, some of them established romance writers. Although this is not a romance anthology it certain does have more than a pinch of romance and a large dollop of erotica.

My favorite story was 'The Family Business' by Kevin S. Brockenbrough. This story basically drags the vampires and werewolves up to date by writing a rapid fire, action-filled story. The author also slides in a point about the true nature of monsters.

A close second would be 'The Ultimate Diet' by Monica Jackson which riffs on the Buffyesque vampire cliches. Jackson's story has a couple or truly delicious characters who drift palpably apart with the arrival of a vampire in the neighbour. The ending is telegraphed way in advance but the execution is pitch perfect and highly entertaining.

These two great tales bookend four other stories that were fun enough at the time but difficult to remember in retrospect. 'Vamp Noir' by Angela C. Allen throws together a gorgeous vampire vixen and the mafia, but an idea that seems promising at the outset never quite gels. 'Human Heat' by the Urban Griot is about a gorgeous man who becomes a vampire, has some sex, and kills some people (I found italicised sound effects like Uurrgghh!, Eeeaarrrkkkk! and Blooommm! impossible to take seriously). 'Whispers During Still Moments' by Linda Addison is about a gorgeous vampire who is hunted by a half-vampire. 'The Touch' by Donna Hill is a nice enough but unsubtle story about a gorgeous vampire's quest to find redeeming love.

Overall I think this book is certainly worth the cover price as an addition to my extensive collection--but if all the stories had been as deft and diverse as my favorite two 'Dark Thirst' could have been astounding.