Bloodsuckers: The Vampire Archives, Volume 1

Vampire Archives #1

by Otto Penzler (Editor)

“Sink your teeth in” ( People ) to the scariest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire tales ever assembled—with stories from Stephen King, Dan Simmons, Bram Stoker, and many more. 

Dark, stormy, and delicious, once you’re in its clutches there's no escape. From the first to last bite, it's a bloody good read.



·        The macabre dens of the immortal
·        Unexpected guests
·        Shadowy figures
·        Ancient mysteries

Genres: Horror, Vampires, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Audiobook, Paranormal

394 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Otto Penzler is an editor of mystery fiction in the United States, and proprietor of The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, where he lives.

Otto Penzler founded The Mysteriour Press in 1975 and was the publisher of The Armchair Detective, the Edgar-winning quarterly journal devoted to the study of mystery and suspense fiction, for seventeen years.

Penzler has won two Edgar Awards, for The Encyclopedia of Mystery and Detection in 1977, and The Lineup in 2010. The Mystery Writers of America awarded him the prestigious Ellery Queen Award in 1994, and the Raven--the group's highest non-writing award--in 2003.

Reviews

[Armand · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a truly, wickedly delicious vampire anthology. All the stories are of invariably high quality, which is a testament to the editor's discerning taste, and also to their prestige as classics of the genre.

The only flaw I can see here is that many of the stories have been oft-anthologized. Indeed I have read more than half of them somewhere else, in other vampire or horror collections. It's still a delight to dip into them again though, and really, the piquant pleasures offered by previously undiscovered gems more than make up for these.

What I especially liked is how almost half of the stories featured a femme fatale of some sort. In my book, nothing beats the heady, deadly glamour of a predatory vampiress bent on using its formidable wiles to slake its unholy appetites. I say - l'chaim!

The best of the lot are:

The Death of Ilalotha - a fervid, opulent, and noxious fever dream where a black widow of a queen fights for her boy toy du jour against the deathly seductions of her love rival, who happens to be a recently-deceased sorceress.

The Sea Was as Wet as Wet Can Be - a dark and gory modern take on Lewis Carroll's narrative poem, The Walrus and the Carpenter.

The Silver Collar - ranks among the best vampire stories I've ever read. It's pretty much traditional, but the haunting, melancholic voice of the narrator as the tale proceeds to its inexorable conclusion is something I've rarely encountered.

Carrion Comfort - two aging, psychopathic Southern belles who feed by manipulating people to their deaths shed all pretense of civility as they turn on each other in a fight to the death. This is the first part of a subsequent novel by Simmons, and while this novella is a marvel, its expanded form was rather tedious though still entertaining.

I'm looking forward to devouring the rest of the trilogy. I'm rating this 8.5/10 or 4 stars out of 5.

[Patricia Puckett · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting collection. Definitely worth a read for any vampire fan. Some of my favorite stories included, "The Sea Was as Wet as Wet Could Be," "The Man Upstairs," "Chastel," "La Belle Dame Sans Merci," and "Dracula's Guest." Some of the stories were a bit predictable in their result and some of the language was a bit more flowered than I prefer, but otherwise it was a fair collection.

[Cole · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don't be fooled by the description like I was. I thought it would be a good Halloween read...I was wrong.

[Charlotte · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of course, you have to like vampire stories to begin with. But these are some very original short stories with vampires in all sizes and sorts. Sometimes very unexpected kinds. And hardly any love-smitten teenagers in site.

It has been a while when I've been surprided by a book so many times.

[Lynell · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favorite story of all time is in this anthology.

Stephen King's Popsy. A modern day vampire story.

There are older stories like Bram Stoker's Dracula. There are old classics.

This is a good collection to read on a cold, rainy day.

[Maggie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful compilation of short stories!

[Mercedes-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

great collection of vampire tales.

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyed the different takes on vampirism.

[Hollowspine · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

The vampire stories contained in this collection were very hit and miss for me. There were a few that were interesting and a few that were at least entertaining, but for the most part they were formulaic and dull. And what is it with Stephen King and needing to write about child molesters and children that turn out to be monsters? He manages to be creepy, but not in a good way.

There were a few that were at least more interesting, like, "The Sea was as Wet as Wet Could Be," but the mediocre stories outweighed the good ones.

[Dane Divine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little collection of blood suckers. I read this over a month, so now reviewing it the stories are coming back to me, slowly and deliciously. It's all about the vampires and each one is different. It adds a strangely perfumed air to the contemporary vampire tales. Beautiful- if it's a genre you love.
I can't think which was my favourite tale because they're so different. Great stuff.

[Katrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quite enjoyable collection of vampire stories. Some of them are quite alternative, meaning that they don't follow the classic vampire theme and idea. Very nice to see some variety and different approaches to the vampire idea, although of course some stories were not really my style. Short stories are sometimes great to have, so the stories are in bite size, haha.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of Vampire short stories was just the thing to read during the month of October. I was very pleased that I'd only read one of the short stories before, the one by Stephen King. The selection was nicely varied, and now I have what I always hope to get from an anthology, a list of author names to investigate for additional writings.

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this a lot. Not a weak story in the bunch. Many of the stories are about what you might call unconventional vampires. Part 1 of a larger volume The Vampire Archives

[Paula · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like anthologies/story collections because you will always find something to enjoy. This collection of vampire stories definitely had more hits than misses. I'm looking forward to reading the second and third volumes.

[Stefan Koepeknie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly old school.
All these are included in the huge -1000 + pages/60 + hour audio book.
'The Vampire Archives' Edited by Otto Penzler.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

[Rainsadventure · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great collection of well written tales. No story in here is the same minus the fact that they are all surrounded by the living dead. If your a fan of vampire novels it's a must read from the best authors of fantasy.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

What an interesting, eclectic collection of stories. Some were so very bizarre, others ran along the typical lines of what you would expect would be a vampire story. My favorites were Bram Stoker's and Stephen King's.

[Troy Beals · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't read all of the stories but the ones I read I liked.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it....

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of these stories were good, but not really my style. One was outstanding. These are written on the more classic tale style of the late 1800s.

[Nizan Sanders · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories were good in here. Some I have no idea how they were related to vampires, and others were so boring I fell asleep reading them.

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales of the undead from various authors my favorite story from this is volume is definitely Carrion Comfort.

[Kristin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few really good stories, a few less so. Averaged the rating. Split down the middle.

[Laurissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this little collection of vampire stories. It's a good one to pick up and read one of the short stories here and there between other books I am reading.

[R Chronis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun short vampire stories. Some were definitely better than others, but it was still a good time.

[Ray Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been on a vampire kick and it was something of a revelation to be reminded that Dracula was not the first vampire story. I knew the origin of the eastern European count who tortured captives as well as military leaders to posted heads on pikes and so forth, but actual published vampire works that pre-date Dracula I did not know. So, from the description, I thought this was a collection of old collected short stories and novellas. While many of these stories where old or set in the 19th century, they were not authentic pre-Dracula tales. A diverse collection ranging from Ray Bradbury's stark mid-western boarding house with a vampire living upstairs to an English millionairess in Italy who didn't realize her doctor was keeping her alive with blood, there were creepy little stories and creepy longer adventures. None of these made my blood boil. As is the case with many short stories, they are too short to develop any feeling for the characters and thus, it is easy to remain aloof. Still, an entertaining read. I won't be purchasing volumes 2 & 3.

[Sharyl Friend Pavlisko · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like the diversity of THE STORIES. mANY, iF NOT ALL OF THESE STORIES, i HAVEN'T READ BEFORE. i'M TRULY ENJOYING THIS BOOK! a great sUMMER READ! nEXT, i PLAN TO READ THE SECOND BOOK OF tHE aRCHIVES STORIES; fANG. sTEPHEN kING IS THE AUTHOR OF fANG'S iNTRODUCTION, i BELIEVE. hE HAS A STORY IN THE bLOOD SUCKERS EDITION AS WELL.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I don't have much respect for old classics. Most of these bored me and we not entertaining. The thing I actually enjoyed much more than the stories was the background of each author. Scott Brick does the reading for those and that was facinating to hear about where some of these classic authors came from.

[H.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

By no means one of the better things I've read. Most of the stories could not keep my attention for very long. The few stories that did were, amazingly enough, able to make me think highly enough of this book to debate reading another volume. The writing was generally good but some of it just didn't feel like it could be related to vampires in my eyes.

[Jason · Rating 5 out of 5]

Freaking loved The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be. Still remember a year later that I was also enamored by The Man Upstairs, Stragella, Popsy, Blood (though I wonder if I missed some great point– all it did was make me snort), Revelations in Black, When Gretchen Was Human, and Carrion Comfort.