Sat 22 Jul 2017
Reviewed by Walter Albert: ELLEN DATLOW, Editor – Blood Is Not Enough.
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Science Fiction & Fantasy[2] Comments
ELLEN DATLOW, Editor – Blood Is Not Enough: 17 Stories of Vampirism. William Morrow, hardcover, 1989. Cover by Don Maitz. Berkley, paperback, July 1990; Ace, paperback, October 1994.
A collection of vampire stories. I think the older stories (Leonid Andeyev’s “Lazarus” and Fritz Leiber’s “The Girl with the Hungry Eyes”) are more memorable than the new ones. However, I read everything, and there’s not a real dud in the lot.
These are mostly untraditional treatments of the vampire, as one might expect from writers as varied as Harlan Ellison and Gahan Wilson. I especially liked Scott Baker’s “Varicose Worms” and “Down Among the Dead Men” by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, a Holocaust story.
Contents:
Carrion Comfort • (1983) • novelette by Dan Simmons
The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be • (1967) • short story by Gahan Wilson
The Silver Collar • (1989) • short story by Garry Kilworth
Try a Dull Knife • (1968) • short story by Harlan Ellison
Varicose Worms • novelette by Scott Baker
Lazarus • (1921) • short story by Leonid Andreyev
L’Chaim! • (1989) • short story by Harvey Jacobs
Return of the Dust Vampires • (1985) • short story by Sharon N. Farber
Good Kids • (1989) • short story by Edward Bryant
The Girl with the Hungry Eyes • (1949) • short story by Fritz Leiber
The Janfia Tree • (1989) • short story by Tanith Lee
A Child of Darkness • (1989) • short story by Susan Casper
Nocturne • (1989) • poem by Steve Rasnic Tem
Down Among the Dead Men • (1982) • novelette by Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann
… To Feel Another’s Woe • (1989) • short story by Chet Williamson
Time Lapse • (1989) • poem by Joe Haldeman
Dirty Work • (1989) • novelette by Pat Cadigan
July 24th, 2017 at 1:14 pm
I don’t go out of my way to read vampire stories myself, and in fact, other than the classics of the genre, I generally tend to avoid them.
But I think it’s worth pointing out that this particular anthology may have been the first of its kind in the modern era, as you’ll see by looking down through this online checklist:
http://www.michelerhauf.com/vampantho.html
1989 seems to mark the beginning of a small deluge of vampire fiction that’s still underway.
Of note are the 15 vampire anthologies edited (or co-edited) by Martin Greenberg, and even more, the omission of Otto Penzler’s huge Vampire Archives doorstop of book from 2009 (1056 pages packed full with 86 poems and stories).
July 24th, 2017 at 9:39 pm
Outstanding collection even for the very casual vampire reader like myself.