Virtuous Vampires

by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz (Editor, Contributor)

Departing from a tradition that predates Bram Stoker's famous vampire novel, the stories in this unique collection depict the characters of Dracula and his descendants as benevolent, altruistic, even heroic. In these pages, readers will encounter vampires who are tortured by angst or self-doubt; vampires who act compassionately toward their own race or toward human beings; and vampires whose sympathy, tolerance, and generosity could put humanity to shame. Iconoclastic and fascinating, these stories represent the best work of many contemporary writers, including Ray Bradbury, Suzy McKee Charnas, Roger Zelazny, Tanya Huff, and others.

Introduction · Stefan R. Dziemianowicz
The Cloak · Robert Bloch
The Homecoming · Ray Bradbury
Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep · Suzy McKee Charnas
Yellow Fog [Don Sebastian] · Les Daniels
A Surfeit of Melancholic Humours · Sharon N. Farber
This Town Ain't Big Enough [Victory "Vicki" Nelson] · Tanya Huff
Masquerade · Henry Kuttner
Scarlet Dream [Northwest Smith] · C.L. Moore
Ever After · Susan Palwick
The Healer's Touch [Spareen] · Susan C. Petrey
Restless Souls [Jules de Grandin] · Seabury Quinn
Pyotr's Story [Callahan's Place] · Spider Robinson
ollowing the Way · Alan Ryan
The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires [Edward Copplestone] · Brian Stableford
She Only Goes Out at Night · William Tenn
Gentlemen of the Shade · Harry Turtledove
The Spider Glass: An Edwardian Story [Saint-Germain] · Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
The Stainless Steel Leech [as by Harrison Denmark] · Roger Zelazny

Genres: Vampires, Horror, Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fantasy

470 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Born in 1957, Stefan Dziemianowicz works for the publisher Barnes & Noble as an editor.

Reviews

[Didi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, this book was interesting to read, but only for the sake of the few stories I actively liked. The majority of the short stories in this anthology were mediocre in my opinion. I think that mainly, my disappointment with this book comes from my expectation that I would be reading more classic style vampire stories, but much of what’s included in here is not that at all. If you’re looking for more unconventional vampire stories, then you might enjoy this anthology more than I did.

This next part of the review is gonna be super long and contain spoilers. I’ll be ranking each short story in the anthology based on how much I liked it (most to least) and comment my thoughts on each individual story.


1) A Surfeit of Melancholic Tumors by Sharon N. Farber: A really sweet and interesting take on vampirism in the context of medieval England during the black plague. The notes written by the doctor (narrator/protagonist) were written in Middle English, which was a nice touch that I really enjoyed. The ending was very cute as well – it’s rare that a vampire story has a happy ending that technically benefits all parties involved. This story makes me want to read more of Farber’s work. This story is my favorite of all the stories involved in this anthology because, for one, I absolutely love the medieval, and this story does such a good job with the setting. For two, the writing was just lovely and well-crafted. I could imagine the scenes and characters easily, and the dialogue felt historically accurate without being difficult to understand. Overall just a great piece of fiction, with a lot of reread value.

2) Yellow Fog by Les Daniels: This was a quintessential gothic horror vampire story! Lovely Victorian aesthetic, gore, ghosts, murder, twisted romance, and morally grey characters at every turn. There were a few times where I actually reacted in person to what I was reading, whether that was a jaw drop or small gasp or quiet vocal exclamation. I found myself feeling the urge to illustrate some of the scenes; I could easily imagine this story as a comic.

3) The Stainless Steel Leach by Robert Zelazny: Short but great. The concept of a vampire robot is really interesting, as well as the exploration of how one reacts to being an outsider or otherwise unique. Asks the question: how can an immortal continue to live when there’s no more blood to feed on? The found family aspect of the story was so heartwarming, and I picked up some subtle theming around legacy and forgiveness. I wanted to read even more about this world – I wouldn’t be mad at a novel-length version of this story.

4) Ever After by Susan Palwick: A vampiric take on a Cinderella retelling, with a focus more on the drama that results from the politics and world-building of the setting. When I read, I considered that the vampirism could be a metaphor for growing up, particularly from girlhood to womanhood. I’m not sure how accurate that it is to the intended message of the work, but the usage of fairy tales to ease (and trick) young women into becoming vampires, as well as the lack of knowledge the girls themselves have of their transformations, and the leaving behind of their old lives felt akin to a dark coming of age story to me. Like the Zelazny story, I would have been willing to read a novel-length piece of writing with this premise.

5) Pyotr’s Story by Spider Robinson: The prose of this story was highly characterized, and made me feel like I was actually in the mind of an 80’s rocker! The friendships between all the bar-goers was very sweet, and the ending was cute. The subplot of the broken guitar was an interesting choice to include, but I felt like it served the story well; it seemed to me like the guitar being fixed added to the resurrection aspect of the story, both in terms of the boy at the end recovering from potential alcohol poisoning as well as Pyotr’s undead state itself. Not totally sure how the narrator was able to figure out for certain that Pyotr was a vampire, though, that part felt underdeveloped to me. I wasn’t sure what the precedent was for this world’s setting that the narrator was able to come to that conclusion so easily. I think I would’ve just liked to see more build-up throughout the piece around the narrator’s thoughts on that topic, rather than having it all dumped together at the end in a singular and sudden reveal.

6) Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep by Suzy McKee Charnas: The concept that vampires are the ghosts of people not yet ready to move on, who make bodies for themselves out of astral filament and need the blood of living people to keep themselves grounded to earth so they don’t float away into the heavens is very unique! That premise alone is so creatively engaging to me that I had to put it in the upper section of this ranking list. The story itself is existential, introspective, and bittersweet. The personality of the protagonist definitely felt realistic. But I didn’t feel like there was a ton going on in the activity of the plot, in my opinion. The ending was lovely, though.

7) The Healer’s Touch by Susan C. Petrey: The world building aspect of this story was compelling to me. I got the sense that the author really thought it through, which made the setting and the characters feel all the more immersive. The plot itself wasn’t terribly interesting to me, but that’s more so because my taste can be fickle at times. The writing itself was good quality.

8) Homecoming by Ray Bradbury: Reminded me a bit of the Addams family. The ending was on the sadder side of bittersweet, but I think it was fitting for the story. The way that the boy’s family loves him so much is so touching, and the characters were lively despite their immortal undeath. It felt like a real family reunion with messy occult shenanigans.

9) The Spider Glass: An Edwardian Story by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro: Having the story be told through dialogue in a group of men observing an heirloom (the spider glass in question) was an interesting way to frame the story (pun partially intended), but I think I would’ve preferred to just read it in the conventional way, through the eyes of the character the story was about, or through the diary entries that the group’s main speaker references as his source of knowledge.

10) She Only Goes Out at Night by William Tenn: It felt like this story was over as soon as it began – it was very short and straight to the point. It had a nice premise, and the quality of the writing was good, I just thought the pacing was too quick and blunt for my taste. I generally prefer purple prose over orange prose, because if I’m making time to sit down and read, I want to be able to feel immersed and revel in the world I’m entering. If I don’t get that feeling, I just think to myself: “well, what’s the point?”

11) This Town Ain’t Big Enough by Tanya Huff: This story felt like it could be a DC or Dark Horse comic. A vampire detective seems cool, but the story itself didn’t have much mystery or intrigue in it, in my opinion. And I’ve read and watched A LOT of murder mysteries and detective stories throughout my life. The investigating itself wasn’t really done by the protagonist, and she figured out what was going on pretty quickly. It was more of a vampire action drama than anything else, and the protagonist just so happened to be a former cop turned private eye. I was overall just kinda bored.

12) Gentlemen of the Shade by Harry Turtledove: If #10 wasn’t wordy enough, this story was far too wordy. I got SO bored SO quickly, and found my attention phasing in and out as I read. I ended up skimming a few parts. I’m also just tired of Jack the Ripper stories.

13) Following the Way by Alan Ryan: While the concept of a vampire priest is fine enough, it didn’t feel like there was any plot to hook the reader into. It sorta just felt like a prologue that introduced a character’s backstory, rather than a story in its own right.

14) The Cloak by Robert Bloch: This story felt like it was either under-written or over-edited. The scenes just sorta jump from one to the next in a way that was kinda jarring and confusing to read. I didn’t entirely understand the character’s motivations, and the reveal at the end that the girl was a vampire just felt… meh. I was like “…ok…? Whatever…” She and the protagonist/narrator had only just met at the party and known each other for an hour at most, maybe, and were already waxing poetic to each other about their dynamic being oh so complementary vis a vis an angel-devil duality, as well as talking about having kids together. Like, huh? I think that maybe that was meant to be indicative of how dreamlike and powerful her seductive abilities are as a vampire, but it was just so confusing to me in the moment of reading that it totally broke immersion for me and pulled me out of the story. Also, the premise of a vampire’s old cloak turning the human wearer into a vampire (or vampire adjacent? Or just sensitive to vampiric desires? It’s not really clear) is uhhhh not compelling to me.

15) The Hunger and Ecstasy of Vampires by Brian Stableford: This story uses real life historical figures as characters, as well as fictional characters from literature of the same time period. Particularly, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The most prominent historical figure (because he’s the companion of the narrator) is Oscar Wilde, which shocked me so much I said out loud “Oscar Wilde?!” when I first read his name at the beginning of the story. If I’m being honest, I have a bit of a bias against real-person fiction, kinda on principle. Simply put, I just think it’s weird. I’m very picky about fictional stories that include real historical figures. I don’t discount a story altogether just because it might include real events and people, but I’m not often impressed by it. And then to combine it with fictional characters from other works of the time? Not my vibe. The story itself was also boring to me, and also didn’t really seem all that vampiric to me, frankly; though I understand the narrator was meant to be a vampire (or whatever this story’s world’s version of a vampire is), but it still didn’t intrigue me. I found myself skimming at times, just wanting the chapter to be over so I could move on to the next. And every time I read the characters’ names, it broke immersion for me so readily and frequently that it was almost comical.

16) Scarlet Dream by C.L. Moore: The futuristic sci-fi feel of this story interested me at first, but as it progressed I felt increasingly frustrated by how much of it felt nonsensical (I get the narrator was meant to be trapped in a dream dimension of sorts, but the nonsense aspect of it felt (to me!) more like it was pointless and confusing than abstract and surreal). I couldn’t tell you what the main plot points were if I tried. And the love interest character frustrated me. Despite apparently being a native of this dream world, she’s submissive to the protagonist and has a sorta “born-sexy-yesterday” vibe to her. Also, I get it! Her skin is creamy brown, her eyes are sherry, and her hair is orange! I GET IT. You don’t need to repeat those exact descriptions every time she moves or speaks. Maybe that level of repetition would be passable in long-form writing where enough space could be given between each occurrence, but in a short story where everything is condensed, it’s just annoying. Also, why couldn’t her body language or mannerisms be used to describe her? Why only surface-level appearance? Maybe then she would’ve actually felt like she had a personality outside of the narrator’s horny-tinted glasses. Also, the narrator meets the girl while she’s crying and freaking out because her sister just died, and then neither her grief nor her sister’s death is really touched on in any substantial way again? Oh, and we never learn the girl’s name! How the hell did the narrator spend his time surviving beside her and canoodling without ever learning her name? It doesn’t make sense!

17) Masquerade by Henry Kuttner: This story was not for me. I found the narrator incredibly irritating. I have to believe the author intended him to be an unlikable personality, that’s how annoying he was. One of his lines in the narration was how his wife was the only woman smarter than him that he didn’t hate. Bro WHAT?! Even by 40’s standards, that’s a crazy statement to make (To be clear, it’s not like I believe narrators need to be likable. It’s impossible for a single personality to be amenable to everyone, anyway. But there are ways to write aggravating characters without making the writing itself aggravating to read…). The personalities of the other characters in his group are immemorable to me. The most interesting person in the story was Ruth Carta; I would’ve liked to read a proper piece of writing about her and her point of view! And the “reveal” at the end where the narrator proclaims that he and his group were vampires was so bland to me. They’re apparently freaked out by the Carta family, and throughout the story the reader watches them tell the Carta family small lies in an effort to protect themselves (as the narrator claims/implies). So when the Cartas find the dead bodies (that have been fed on by vampires) and get scared, is the narrator lying about being a vampire because he thinks it will protect them from the Cartas by making them scared of him? If so, then the story isn’t over, because there’s still some mysterious vampires running around! But if instead it’s true that his group ARE the vampires, then where were the hints? Where was the build-up? I was too bored and frustrated by the whole story, though, to care about which I’m meant to surmise as the truth, or whether it’s purposely ambiguous. The story is titled “Masquerade” after all.

18) Restless Souls by Seabury Quinn: First of all, why the hell is a pulp fiction piece included in this anthology? In general, it seems like the editors were more concerned with compiling stories that were similar in topic than they were similar in theme, mood, or style; resulting in a rollercoaster of varying tone and quality throughout the book. The plot itself of the story was uninteresting to me, and the descriptions of the characters was so odd, especially the description of Fulvia Heatherington. For example, her nostrils being “sensitive” or a vein on her foot resembling moonlight. Like, what? The story itself is told from the perspective of the companion of the protagonist, Jules de Grandin. This is pretty standard for literature of the time, I know, but the trouble comes when something important happens in the story and the narrator isn’t there to witness it! Like when Grandin kills Fulvia (who the plot centers around) when the two of them are alone. The reader only learns what happens through dialogue, when Grandin recounts the event to the narrator. The story in general is obsessed with dialogue, to even the detriment of the writing’s quality, in my opinion. The author also spells words as they may sound according to whatever accent the speaking character may have, to the point of even indicating the perceived class of the character. Typing out accents is a pet peeve of mine. The prose also carries some blatant racism which, while maybe typical of the time period this story was written, should still be pointed out. Outdated terminology for Black people (that are offensive by today’s standards) are used in the text in multiple places, but anti-Black racism is also present in the structure of the story itself in a few different places. There’s also the matter of the antagonist, Palenezke. His character, as it’s written in my eyes, is so xenophobic that it reminds me of the pro-nativist political cartoons that I would see in my American history and ethnic studies classes. His physical description is on point for the drawings in those cartoons, for one thing. But his character in general is teeming with traditional xenophobic stereotypes. The way that Palenezke is described in the story posits that the reader is supposed to believe he’s simultaneously an idiot but also deviously conniving. Is Palenezke cosmopolitan and manipulative or is he boorish and a dumb brute? How is it that he’s both? Palenezke is a gross caricature bursting with contradiction. Maybe something can be said about the anti-immigrant sentiment of the 1920’s (particularly when it comes to European ethnicities that were common targets of nativist vitriol during that time) and how it manifests in the story. This story was altogether a strange telescope-like look into 1920’s cultural attitudes, cornered on all sides by just plain weak writing.

[Shawn]

PLACEHOLDER REVIEWS

"Restless Souls" - that energetic little French occult detective/monster hunter Jules De Grandin is with his stolid companion, Dr. Trowbridge, dining at a club on Halloween, and on de Grandin's hunch end up follow a strange, listless couple who don't eat their food, when they leave and take a taxi to a graveyard, where one disappears! From there its the story of a college-age youth with a fatal heart ailment, and two dead people who still seem to be walking around..

So, in a series like the Jules De Grandin stories, there comes a point where the mere formula (in this case, varied monsters, spirits and creatures harass/kill people) isn't enough and the author has to get inventive - but this kind of gimmicky story writing can easily go bad. What you have here is a traditional (though I don't know how long it had been around by this point) maudlin/romantic vampire story (all "my love, for all eternity...*sob*" shtick) grafted onto the gimmick that the man who falls in love with the creature has a fatal medical condition and will soon die. The lead creature, when he appears, rants like a stage villain. Trowbridge is more thick than usual (the better to be the audience surrogate). De Grandin does get to insufferably strut his stuff in triumph at the end, though, right in the monster's face. Still, not one of the better stories.

[Oliver · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent collection of stories.

[Brett]

Horror

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are a few decent stories, but only a few.