I REALLY liked this collection of stories about vampires. My favorites, out of the six, were probably Vanilla Blood by S.P. Somtow, The Isle is Full of Noises by Tanith Lee and Sheena by Brian Stableford, though the other three, Some Velvet Morning by Nancy Collins, In the Face of Death by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and The Other Side of Midnight by Kim Newman were also really good and made it very difficult for me to pick favorites.
I love stories about vampires. This book was made for me. I may or may not have taken to keeping with it under my pillow next to Dracula. Of course, in my mind, none of these stories measure up to Dracula, indeed many of them feature vastly different types of vampires than everyone's favorite nosferatu.
The Other Side of Midnight had some great humor, including a "vampire hunter" suspiciously like Buffy, but annoying and and cliché as viewed through the eyes of a vampire detective named Genevieve. This story has mystery, action and amazing jokes, with a strong main character and interesting (and often amusing) secondaries. I recommend it.
Some Velvet Morning was about a countess who bathed in blood to make herself young. She was hunted by a woman apparently introduced in earlier stories, namely Sunglasses After Dark (which is not included in this compilation and I didn't read, so I was a bit confused.) It reads well and has an nice plot.
Sheena was amazing. The girl (Sheena) was incredible, and the man who fell in love with her, and through whose eyes the story was told, was relateable, as was Sheena's family. This is one of those stories that's kind of hard to sum up or describe without giving away, and I want all of you reading this to go read Sheena as soon as you can. Some of you may not like it, it is suited to a particular style and a certain interpretation of some sentences, but I think that overall this is one of the things you should love.
Vanilla Blood was humorous in that it was funny in ways one really doesn't want to laugh at... but then does chuckle quietly. The story follows the trial of a boy who killed his family and is told through witness accounts. There is some fairly explicit sexual stuff in here, so be warned, but it's all presented in a language that downplays the gravity scenes like that could otherwise have. If you're looking for entertainment and don't mind the sex things, great, read this story. I certainly liked it.
In the Face of Death is a historical fiction about a vampire lady's affair with William Tecumseh Sherman. It's pretty good, well-written and a nice plot, with believable characters. If you like historical fiction and vampires who bite their lovers with little to no self-recrimination, this story is definitely for you.
The Isle is Full of Noises was a psychological thriller of sorts, one where the killer is as apparent as the victims' helplessness. Another one with some sex stuff, don't read if you're offended by sexual descriptors. I really liked this one, it had really excellent descriptions of everything, created the perfect mood for a vampire story and had purposely complex characters whose minds were not open books unless they were meant to be; a truly great main character and a perfect ending.
This collection was worth buying, to me, just for Sheena and the Isle is Full of Noises, the rest of the stories being delightful bonus material. I will definitely be rereading this one. I got my copy at a local used books store, I saw a couple copies at Powell's in Portland, and I'm sure amazon or ebay would have a fairly cheap copy. There is no original retail price sticker on my copy, but I got it for 7 US dollars, a great bargain for such a wonderful book.
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