Elrod & Greenberg - The Time of the Vampires

[andydecker]

P. N. Elrod & Martin H. Greenberg - The Time of the Vampires (DAW Books, 1996, 319 pages)



Harvey Parker

Content:

P. N. Elrod - Introduction
Lois Tilton - A Vision of Darkness
Susan Booth - Scent of Blood
Teresa Patterson - The Gift
Bradley H. Sinor - Oaths
Lillian Stewart Carl - The Blood of the Lamb
P. N. Elrod - The Devil's Mark
Catt Kingsgrave-Ernstein - Bloodthirsty Tyrants
Tanya Huff - What Manner of Man
Nick Pollotta - A Matter of Taste
Margaret L. Carter - Voice from the Void
Nancy Kilpatrick - In Memory of
Rebecca Ann Brothers - Death Mask
Roxanne Longstreet - Faith Like Wine
Lawrence Schimel - Black Sounds
Elaine Bergstrom - The Ghost of St. Mark's
Jean Graham - Walking Tour
Julie Barrett - Night of the Vampire Scare
James Schutte - Toothless Vampires Can Still Give Hickeys


As is often the case with these commissioned theme anthologies, there is a lot of mediocre to dull stuff in this. Among the contributors are some familiar names like Huff, Elrod, Bergstrom or Pollotta - who later came to write quite a few paperback action adventure originals like Deathlands - and some unknowns. If one can believe the ISFDB, very few of those stories were ever seen again except in writer's collections.

[helrunar]

Thanks, Andreas; interesting to see.

I knew Lawrence Schimel briefly circa 1994-95. He was quite friendly and a nice fellow. And I liked his work, what I was able to read of it. Hope he's healthy and well.

It's strange how remote this era of the mid to late 1990s now feels.

Best, Steve

[andydecker]

Lois Tilton – A Vision of Darkness:
Again it is Socrates meets the vampire. According to the writer's notes the concept is about vampires as shadows like in the Odyssey. At least its short.

Susan Booth – Scent of Blood
Roman legionaires led by Hadrian meet a vampire while pillaging Dacia. It's a straight story, but where is Titus Pullo when you need him?

P. N. Elrod – The Devil's Mark
Self-appointed witchfinder Bainbridge in British Civil War times visits small villages, convinces the council that there are evil witches among them and earns a nice sum with burning them. But when he accuses beautiful Gweneth Skye as a witch and finds her witch mark in public, he must discover that he has come to a community of vampires who don't like all the attention the Witch-Finder General makes.

Trust P. N. Elrod to make a story about a witch probe dull. I didn't expect Laurence James exploitation, this is DAW Books after all, but this reads like a 50s by-the-numbers EC horror story with a groaning twist at the end which you guess on page 2. I guess it is supposed to be comical, and Elrod is famous or infamous for her cozy vampires, but this is just sad.

Tanya Huff – What Manner of Man
Henry Fitzroy, bastard son of Henry VIII and a vampire, stumbles in Napoleonic times in London upon a spy affair and has to cross the spies plans to deliver some important documents to the continent while nipping from Lord Byron.

A story of Huff's Blood series. The writer amuses herself with giving everybody vampire fiction names which is either original or tedious according to ones taste. While the story is not great and Fitzroy is a lousy detective, it is smoothly written. Maybe one of best tales in this anthology because of its professionality.

Nick Pollotta – A Matter of Taste
A (nameless) Bow Street Runner leads a mob of Highlanders in Scotland against a vampire in its lair. After a frenzied fight in a mine the vampire escapes but promises to come back in a year. The Bow Street Runner makes preparations.

Pollotta manages to cram as many allusions to the period in his 6 pages of story as is possible, along with some gun-porn like in his later Executioner or Deathlands novels. So you get dialogue like "'It's a rum deal, my culleys', sneered the inhuman beast" and a frantic pace, while the off-stage conclusion reads like a afterthought. As the author introduction concentrates on his SF/humor stories, I guess this is supposed to be another 'comic' vampire story.

[dem bones]

Thanks for taking us through this one, Andreas. Don't suppose we get a story set during the French Revolution? Greenberg had a hand in so many vampire anthologies throughout the 'nineties - I'm not even sure these are all of them.

Vampires: The Greatest Stories 1991, Vampires, 1991, Dracula, Prince of Darkness 1992, Weird Vampire Tales, 1992, A Taste for Blood, 1992, Celebrity Vampires, 1995, Sisters of the Night, 1995, Vampire Detectives, 1995, Blood Muse, 1995, Rivals of Dracula, 1996, Vampire Slayers. 1999, Children of the Night, 1999 (this one added werewolves and lost children for variation’s sake).

I like the 100 ... tales books he co-edited with Stefan Dziemianowicz and Robert Weinberg, also the excellent Weird Vampire Tales. On the evidence of those few I've read, can only agree that the commissioned efforts contain as many drab misses as hits. Celebrity Vampires and Dracula, Prince of Darkness have their moments. I think more than one author made their solitary professional sale to a Greenberg anthology.