Sunglasses After Dark

By: Nancy Collins

Narrated by: Melodee M. Spevack

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's Summary

Sunglasses After Dark, by award-winning author Nancy A. Collins, tells the story of Sonja Blue, a punk female vampire searching for the man who made her one of the undead, and her battle to overcome her very real inner demon in time to rescue an innocent man from the clutches of an unholy faith healer. While in London, American heiress Denise Thorne disappears from a nightclub, never to be seen again. On that very same night Sonja Blue, a tough-as-nails vampire hunter-slayer, conceived in terror and born of blood, rises from the city's gutters. Saved by modern medicine before she completed her transformation into one of the undead, she becomes a living vampire, determined to fight for what remains of her humanity. Sonja Blue travels the globe, hunting down and disposing of the shadowy creatures that prey on the innocent while searching for the vampire who created her. But as dangerous as hunting vampires may be, it's nothing compared to the threat posed by The Other, the demonic personality Sonja is locked in constant battle with for control of their shared body. Acknowledged as one of the first Urban Fantasy novels, Sunglasses After Dark has garnered wide-spread critical praise and won the Horror Writers Association's coveted Bram Stoker Award, as well as the British Fantasy Society's Icarus Award. Out of print for several years, the Radio Archives edition of Sunglasses After Dark uses the new edition of this novel, which has been extensively revised and edited by the author. It is considered to be the preferred text.

©2012 Nancy A. Collins (P)2014 RadioArchives.com

Simply the best.

Where does Sunglasses After Dark rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to several hundred audiobooks (probably close to a thousand by now) and this book is the best available vampire-audiobook out there (until Nancy Baker's books get reprinted and re-released).

What was one of the most memorable moments of Sunglasses After Dark?

All of it, I've been waiting for years for this book to appear as an audiobook.

Have you listened to any of Melodee M. Spevack’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No not that I remember, but she really manages to deliver with this performance, the main character is a monster after all.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Of Course, I usually read this series about once a year, as nothing compares and Nancy Collins wrote this before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon..

Any additional comments?

If you want a real classic of a vampire book, that's really, really dark and gritty and that's just not another one among the modern shit, then listen and/or read this one and the following two books.

I'm returning this.

What would have made Sunglasses After Dark better?

Fewer viewpoints and less nonsensical dream sequences.

What was most disappointing about Nancy Collins’s story?

Four chapters in, I know next to nothing about the main character and I keep having to puzzle together what she's doing from the viewpoints of other characters, not knowing which ones will be important and which ones won't. I just can't connect to her emotionally.

Would you listen to another book narrated by Melodee M. Spevack?

Sure, her narration isn't the problem.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

It started out setting a nice creepy mood.

Any additional comments?

The sample doesn't really reflect what the book is actually like.

Sunglasses after Dark

This was Nancy Collins' first novel, and it's very good, but a little uneven. Some of the language is rote, some of the scenes are somewhat flat. It takes a while to take off, but when it does, it's terrific.

Melodee Spevack's narration is similarly uneven, and settles down when the book itself is clearer about its tone. In the beginning the choices she makes seem wrong. The character has led a tough life, but she's made to sound sweet and harmlessly saucy, ending some of her sentences with an inoffensive softness, as if she were savoring the ironies of suburban life, and making sure that none of the men listening thought she was being too aggressive. It's strangely dissociated from the material, but the writing doesn't get the tone right at first either.

So at first it sounds as if it's going to stall out. Stick with it, though, and you'll be rewarded.

(Author) Revised Edition

It was really nice to revisit this series again in audio format. I’m disappointed that there are only two of the original three books I read, and another three that I hadn’t known about before. I do agree that the rape scenes are a little too detailed. But otherwise an enjoyable urban fantasy story.
I was going to write a scathing commentary on not being true to the authors vision. When I heard at the end of the credits that this was a revised edition by the author herself. Then I thought about it, and decided that it was revised to make it sound better. And who hasn’t wanted to tweak this or tweak that after the fact?