Blood Lines: Vampire Stories from New England

by Lawrence Schimel, Martin Harry Greenberg (Editor), Lawrence Schimel (Introduction)

Overview

Frightening, heart-stopping, and often shocking...
Blood Lines New Englanders have a sense of lineage unmatched in any other region of America. This fondness for ancestry is akin to the longevity of the vampire, whose life (or unlife) is extended by draining the lives and blood of others. The stories in Blood Lines explore the ancient mysteries of vampirism, along with the rich literary tradition begun with Lord Byron and with Bram Stoker's Dracula, first published in 1897 long after New England's aristocratic bloodlines were established. The stories—all set in New England—are written by master storytellers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781888952506
Publisher:	TURNER PUB CO
Publication date:	09/01/1997
Series:	American Vampire Series
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.09(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

Editorial Reviews

As the editors observe in their introduction, vampirism of one kind or another is a central motif of New England's post-Puritan nightmares. Unfortunately, the 10 stories of this collectionthe first volume of Cumberland's American Vampire Seriesdon't quite do the nightmare justice. Too often attention to voice or setting drains the blood out of a promising tale, while most settle for stock foreshadowing deviceswatch out for light-sensitive Hungarians in black. All but one of the stories have been previously published, and only a few deserve the honor. Chief among these are H.P. Lovecraft's eerie 1937 tale "The Shunned House," which bears the master's singular stamp and ties itself off with a neat twist, and Kristine Kathryn Rusch's recent "The Beautiful and the Damned," narrated by the grandson of Gatsby narrator Nick Carraway. Although Rusch is no Fitzgerald, it's fun to watch her literalize the metaphorical vampirism that haunts so much of his fiction. The rest are most likely to please those enthusiasts of the upper mainland states who don't mind when a vampire story fails to keep them up at night. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly