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Post by dem bones on May 6, 2020 9:28:26 GMT
Martin H. Greenberg (ed.) - Children Of The Night: Stories of Ghosts, Vampires, Werewolves & 'Lost Children' (Cumberland House, 1999) Introduction
Suzy McKee Charnas - Boobs ( The New Hugo Winners: Volume III, 1994) Larry Segriff - Specters In The Moonlight ( Phantoms of the Night, 1996) Charles de Lint - There's No Such Thing ( Vampires, 1991) J. S. Le Fanu - The Child That Went With The Fairies ( Nursery Crimes, 1993) Al Sarrantonio - Wish ( Nursery Crimes, 1993) Lee Hoffman - The Third Nation ( Confederacy of the Dead, 1993) Fritz Leiber - The Girl With The Hungry Eyes ( Vamps: An Anthology Of Female Vampire Stories, 1987) Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Food Chain ( Sisters of the Night, 1995) Josepha Sherman - The Magic Stealer ( Vampires, 1991) Cyril M. Kornbluth - The Words Of Guru ( Devil Worshippers, 1990) Orson Scott Card - The Lost Boys ( Back From The Dead, 1991) Author BiographiesBlurb: Frightening, Heart-Stopping, and Often Shocking... Children Of The Night.
The children in the eleven stories collected in this volume have one thing in common: They are affected by the fears of all mankind, children and adults alike. Most know how to handle the dangers that befall them. How they handle these crises — or get help in handling them — may surprise you.
As mentioned before, all stories recycled from previous anthologies co-edited by Marty Greenberg. Short (two page) introduction is to the point. "There is a dark side of human nature that is also waiting to entrap children, from drug pushers to pedophiles to child pornographers. There is always someone, somewhere, waiting to use a little boy or girl and throw them away ...." Larry Segriff - Specters In The Moonlight: A hotel room haunted by the ghost of a Rose, who took a fatal overdose aged fourteen, to escape the sweaty clutches of her paedo father. Thirty year on from his monstrous crime, the old man insists he is ready to atone in kind if only the guest will feed him the pills. It's not often a story gives me a jolt, but this one did. Nasty. Charles de Lint - There's No Such Thing: "The woman had given her the gift in the parking lot behind the Civic Center after a Bryan Adams concert." Cassie insists her babysitter, Ken Parry is a vampire. Big sister, Apples, resolves to find out for herself. As she suspected, the teen is way more despicable than any blood-sucker. Al Sarrantonio - Wish: ".... And the ghoul-bells chimed ..." Too late Daisy is forced to accept that "Christmas forever" is far from the paradise she'd anticipated, and Santa must die. Author appears to have fallen under spell of Ray Bradbury, which isn't always a good thing.
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Post by bluetomb on May 6, 2020 16:29:49 GMT
I remember Boobs from The Mammoth Book of Werewolves. I presume any subtext and probably point in general was lost on ten year old me (was a birthday present) and I've not read it since, but I definitely appreciated the gore.
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Post by dem bones on May 6, 2020 16:57:15 GMT
I remember Boobs from The Mammoth Book of Werewolves. I presume any subtext and probably point in general was lost on ten year old me (was a birthday present) and I've not read it since, but I definitely appreciated the gore. Yes, I fondly remember Boobs from the later Mammoth Book of the Wolfman edition. I far prefer it to her Dr. Weyland, sympathetic(ish) vampire novellas. Lee Hoffman - The Third Nation: Incident in a Savannah cemetery during the civil war. Hull, a Yankee soldier who has squandered away a fortune at the gaming table, breaks into a vault intent on robbing a corpse of her rubies. The ghosts of children killed during the conflict rise up to inflict poetic justice. Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Food Chain: "I will go out and taste the air searching for a particular flavour of despair. I will follow it to its source, and I will take that source away from everything she has ever known and bring her here." Cissy the eternal child vampire selects her donors from those mothers who lost their children in infancy. They seem pathetically grateful. Cyril M. Kornbluth - The Words Of Guru: ( Stirring Science Stories, June 1941[/i]). Child prodigy Robert is mentored by the evil Guru who flies him to a Sabbat in a cavern outside time and spaces, and teaches him the word that will end all life on earth. The Third Nation and Specters in the Moonlight have been personal favourites to date.
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Post by dem bones on May 7, 2020 17:29:21 GMT
Fritz Leiber - The Girl with the Hungry Eyes: (Anon ed,], The Girl with the Hungry Eyes, and Other Stories, 1949). Included under false pretences (no children) but who's complaining? Dave, down at heel fashion photographer, makes a fortune from filming an enigmatic model who one day breezes into his office. Soon her image is selling brassieres and soft drinks from billboards across the States, but the lensman is uneasy. Why won't she trust him with a name or any contact details? What is her connection to a recent series of suspected murders?
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