Wednesday, October 21, 2009

The Mammoth Book of Vampires edited by Stephen Jones

Book Details
The Mammoth Book of Vampires edited by Stephen Jones
Paperback, 553 pages
1992, Carroll & Graf Publishers, Inc.
ISBN: 0-88184-796-8

Synopsis
A collection of stories and short novels starring vampires features the work of Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Ramsey Campbell, F. Paul Wilson, Brian Stableford, R. Chetwynd-Hayes, David J. Schow, and others.

Review
Four stories really stood out from the crowd in this anthology:
  • Necros by Brian Lumley
  • Beyond Any Measure by Karl Edward Wagner
  • The Better Half by Melanie Tem
  • Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson
Each one had at least one twist to the vampire lore that I had never seen before and enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately, while those four stories were exceptional, the remaining 25 were not. While none of the stories were bad, they all seemed to lack something new or different. They failed at grabbing my attention. 75 pages of some of the best vampire fiction I've ever read just isn't enough to carry the rest of this book.

Rating

Links
Stephen Jones' website

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2 comments :

  1. LezlieOctober 22, 2009 at 8:46 AM

    Brian Lumley wrote a vampire series a while back that was really, really good. It started with the book Necroscope, if you're interested in checking it out.

    Lezlie

    ReplyDelete
  2. KMichelleC87February 11, 2010 at 5:02 PM

    I love reading anthologies. Thats how I find new authors and usually if I have to choose between a normal book and an anthology i'll pick the anthology but I usually read the romance ones.

    ReplyDelete

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