|
Post by andydecker on Jun 26, 2020 14:38:41 GMT
Poppy Z. Brite – Love in Vein (HarperPrism 1995, 397 p.) The classic horror tale is about fear. But now there is a controversial new literature of the macabre that goes deeper than horror, beyond fear, to explore our darkest, most intimate hungers. The ones even lovers are forbidden to share. Acclaimed dark fantasy author Poppy Z. Brite has brought together the new genre's most powerful and seductive authors in an original collection of vampire erotica, a shameless celebration of unspeakable intimacies. It is not for everyone. But neither is the night.Contents: Introduction - Poppy Z. Brite Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu - Norman Partridge Geraldine - Ian McDowell In the Greenhouse -Kathe Koja and Barry N. Malzberg Cafe Endless: Spring Rain - Nancy Holder Empty Vessels - David B. Silva The Final Fete of Abba Adi - Jessica Amanda Salmonson Cherry - Christa Faust White Chapel - Douglas Clegg Delicious Antique Whore - W. H. Pugmire Triptych di Amore - Thomas F. Monteleone Queen of the Night - Gene Wolfe The Marriage - Melanie Tem and Steve Rasnic Tem In This Soul of a Woman - Charles de Lint The Alchemy of the Throat - Brian Hodge Love Me Forever - Mike Baker And the Horses Hiss at Midnight - A. R. Morlan Elixir - Elizabeth Engstrom The Gift of Neptune - Danielle Willis From Hunger - Wayne Allen Sallee A Slow Red Whisper of Sand - Robert Devereaux
Most of the stories didn't see another publication except in authors collections. The back text aims pretty high, you know you will get a lot of polished to pretentious prose and stories without a plot after the label Dark Fantasy. But at least the first two stories are not without interest. The first story Do Not Hasten to Bid Me Adieu is despite its pretentious title not without interest, yet another version of Dracula, this time Quincy Morris lives and brings the dead Lucy to Texas to resurrect her because she is his love. A Dracula/Weird Western, which isn't the opening you expect. Geraldine is the tale of a lesbian lamia who keeps a strange diet. On the plus side it is pretty original and graphic - I guess some readers would be pretty disgusted -, on the other hand it name checks everthing from Anne Rice over Neal Gaiman to Tory Amos. I am not sure it works with its detached, cold style, but it is not without interest.
Still it seems go out of its way to shock, which is a problem with 90s tales.
|
|