Vampires: The Greatest Stories
by Martin Harry Greenberg (Editor)
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Description
The bite on the neck. The pallor of undead skin. The human shape that casts no shadow and receives no reflection from the mirror. The nocturnal wanderer, the nighttime feeder, the bat... Vampires terrify us because they bridge the human and the non-human. They possess human desires - for nourishment, company, long life. Yet their nourishment is hideous - the human's life blood - and their centuries-long existence brings only pain and loneliness. They look like us yet they are of an alien show more species. They befriend us - worse yet, seduce and make love to us - while secretly they stalk us and plot out horrible vampiric transformation. Only the cross can protect us. Only a stake through the vampire's heart can save us. But sometimes, we are willing agents of our own doom. Complex and mysterious, the award-winning stories collected here highlight vampires' most curious aspects: their uncanny ability both to attract and repel human beings. We feel ourselves drawn to their strange ways and melancholy manner - even as we are disgusted by their thirst for blood and corpse-like existence. The vampires in this collection are not the fanged villains you've seen in late-night horror film marathons. These vampires are more often beautiful women with luminous eyes and long, flowing locks of hair. Their human lovers succumb willingly to the fatal bites - they prefer an eternity of other-worldly sensual experience to the ordinary life of a human being. These gorgeous vampires lead their prey through urban labyrinths readily familiar to us. They arrive in taxi cabs, they languish in pubs. It is often difficult to determine who is saving whom, who is stalking whom, and who, in the end - the human or the vampire - comes out the winner. Provocative, erotic, and chilling, these stories give new meaning to the idea of The Undead. The role of the Living in this dance of death binding the two worlds together is left for you to decide. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
Excellent selection of stories, with vampires portrayed as villain, hero, terrifying, sympathetic, or simply odd. Wide variety of styles, none "ticky-tacky": the plot and character development are never simplistic - although in a couple of the stories they barely miss being so. Some of the endings are diverted from the story itself to make a philosophical point, occasionally trite but never wholly inappropriate or uninteresting. Of the 15 stories, I greatly enjoyed 12 and was deeply moved by one.
A couple of the vampires barely fit the definition - by virtue of only a single vampiric trait, such as drinking human blood or reproducing by conversion of humans. I would have arranged the mix differently - for example, I the final story makes show more for a weak finale for the anthology; the next-to-last would have been better in that position.
The overall quality of story selection and writing was such that I stayed up well past my bedtime reading - and woke in the middle of the night to read some more. show less
A couple of the vampires barely fit the definition - by virtue of only a single vampiric trait, such as drinking human blood or reproducing by conversion of humans. I would have arranged the mix differently - for example, I the final story makes show more for a weak finale for the anthology; the next-to-last would have been better in that position.
The overall quality of story selection and writing was such that I stayed up well past my bedtime reading - and woke in the middle of the night to read some more. show less
Don't let the name fool you: these are *not* the best stories. Maybe the best unpublished stories that Greenberg read, but by no means the 'best of all time'. Child of an Ancient City was my favorite of all of them. It's something to pick up and read when you can't find anything better, but I don't think I'd go out of my way to buy it. I think the fancy cover is probably the thing about it that would best attract people. 2.5 out of 5 ideas in The Cookie Lady that were ripped off from a Gummi Bears episode.
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Author Information
Martin Harry Greenberg (March 1, 1941 - June 25, 2011) was an American academic and speculative fiction anthologist. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books; he was also a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel. Some of his anthologies included: Past Imperfect (2001), Once Upon a Galaxy show more (2002) and Sirius: The Dog Star (2004). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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- Original publication date
- 1997
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- 132
- Popularity
- 246,896
- Reviews
- 2
- Rating
- (3.42)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
