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Post by andydecker on Sept 30, 2009 13:27:49 GMT
Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - Vampire Detectives (DAW Books, 1995, 316 p.)
DAW Books 1995; Cover by Jim Warren Ed Gorman - Introduction
William F. Nolan - Vampire Dollars
Tanya Huff - This Town ain´t big enough
Kathe Koja&Barry Malzberg - Girl´s Night Out
Peter Crowther - Home Comforts
J.N.Williamson - Origin of a Species
Douglas Borton - Fangs
Max Allan Collins - The Night of their Lives
Gary Alan Ruse - Night Tidings
James Kisner - God-Less Men
Edward D. Hoch - No Blood for a Vampire
William Sanders - The Count´s Mailbox
John Maclay - Tom Rudolph´s Last Tape
Jack Ketchum - The Turning
P.N.Elrod - You´ll Catch Your Death
John Lutz - Shell Game
Barbara Paul - The Secret
Wayne Allen Sallee - Blind Pig on North Halsted
Richard Laymon - Phil, the Vampire
Nancy Holder - Undercover
Another week, another Greenberg anthology. Considering how popular vampires are it is a little bit surprising that this one is from 1995. Exactly when was the rise of the vampire as a sales category? Is it really that long?
This is an odd one. At first glance it is uninspired mass-market stuff, forgotten a week after it came out. As it hasn´t any writer´s info inside and a terrible cover, the impression holds. If the editors don´t care, why should I? And Gorman´s one-page-introduction is, well, strange. Naming Poe as an intro for vampire detectives is kind of reaching. But on the other hand this has a lot of basically crime writers trying their hand at horror. M.A. Collins, Barbara Paul, John Lutz wrote - or write - mostly crime. Which is at least interesting. Some of these stories are blah, but some are fun. Edward Hoch has a one of his Simon Ark stories which has nothing supernatural happen - except that his hero is supposedly 2000 years old -, but is still disgusting in a good way, and Laymon´s "Phil, the Vampire" is more a comedy but a good laugh. So it is not all bad. |
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Post by dem on Oct 3, 2009 21:30:04 GMT
i think it was 1990 when it really started going crazy, both in the US and over here. In one of the early Best New Horrors, Stephen Jones mentions that vampire fiction accounted for a fifth of all horror published in 1993 or 1994 but it seemed far more than that - market saturation. and then there was all the 'non-fiction'. it's a shame, really, as i'm sure that much good work got buried under the dross because no-one could keep up with it. Anyway, Greenberg (and friends) had already published at least two all-vampire anthologies before Vampire Detectives. Vamps came out in in 1987, then there was Dracula: Prince Of Darkness in 1992 .... i remember Vampire Detectives and Celebrity Vampires arrived together on the shelves in Forbidden Planet. i only had enough money for one, so i chose the latter which looked like it would be more more fun.
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Post by andydecker on Oct 4, 2009 12:27:57 GMT
Yep, 100% right.
I bought a couple of them at the time, and while a lot was boring trash, some where not bad at all. The writers are forgotten today or the house-name got discontinued. And most of them seemed to be published by Zebra or Pinnacle in the US.
Hmmm .... fodder for a new thread? Vampire novels that suck?
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