Vampires

The Recent Undead

By: Charlaine Harris, Rachel Caine, Jeanne C. Stein, Carrie Vaughn, Holly Black, Karen Russell, Tanya Huff, Charles de Lint

Narrated by: Bahni Turpin, Jonathan Davis, Khristine Hvam, Suzanne Toren, Marc Vietor, Josh Hurley, Edoardo Ballerini

Length: 19 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

The undead are more alive today than ever. Immortal? Indeed! Nothing has sunk its teeth into 21st century popular culture as pervasively as the vampire. The fangsters have the freedom to fly across all genres and all mediums - there's even apps for vamps. Whether roaming into romance, haunting horror, sneaking into science fiction, capering into humor, meandering through mystery - no icon is more versatile than the vampire. Slake your insatiable thirst with the best sanguinary stories of the new millennium: terrifying or tender, deadly or delicious, bad-ass or beneficent, classic or cutting-edge.

Full list of authors: Holly Black, Michael Marshall Smith, Charles de Lint, J.A. Konrath, Kelley Armstrong, Tanith Lee, Rachel Caine, Jeanne C. Stein, Stephen Dedman, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Tanya Huff, Conrad Williams, Susan Sizemore, Tina Rath, Mary Turzillo, Carrie Vaughn, Barbara Roden, Charlaine Harris, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Albert Cowdrey, Nisi Shawl, Kim Newman, Grove Karen Russell, Nancy Kilpatrick, and John Langan.

The full list of narrators includes: Bahni Turpin, Jonathan Davis, Kevin Pariseau, Susan Duerden, Khristine Hvam, Victor Villar-Hauser, Suzanne Toren, Marc Vietor, Josh Hurley, and Edoardo Ballerini.

©2011 Paula Guran (P)2011 Audible, Inc.

Don't waste your time or credit on this mess!

Would you try another book from the authors and/or the narrators?

The reason I bought this book was to sample a wider group of authors. I did enjoy a few of the stories but most of those were by authors I already know and enjoy. I was disappointed.

What was most disappointing about the authors’s story?

Several of the short stories seem unfinished. Some seem to be sketchy outlines with little content while others just end as if the author gave up in the middle.

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The narration was not the issue with this book.

Was Vampires worth the listening time?

This is a long book, 19 or 20 hours. So it is a big investment of time. I would have to say that the few good, well written stories do not make up for the rest of it.

Great Number of Above Average Stories

While there are a few stories that seem like the author didn't know how to properly end them, the majority are excellent tales. Very different takes on what it is to be Vampire.

i love vampire stories but this...

What disappointed you about Vampires?

I really thought i would love listening to those shorter stories, because i really enjoy listening to audio books before going to sleep, but this simply did not work out for me at all. I enjoyed one story i think all the other story lines just did not make it for me. some seemed pretty much not even thought through

Would you ever listen to anything by the authors again?

Well I guess if there was an actual story... a longer would i might give them another try. The problem might have been just me not digging to shallow plot...

What does the narrators bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I like the emotions in peoples voices and mostly like the narrating in this book so i can't actually complain about that, even though i guess you always either enjoy a narrator or you don't.

what a great read

If you like vampires, this collection of short stories will really tickle your fancy. It also introduced me to several great authors that I now love. I had such fun listening to these stories, and the great collection on narrators. Have fun!

A little dar for me

Some great stories, Some very bad stories. Very disturbed by a story about a monster that cut up a 13 year old girl, small enough for her body to fit in a box, because he didn't like his toys to fight back. Would not recommend to the average reader.

Inconsistent

Some really good stories here, but also several that were just no fun to read.

Something for everyone

This is a collection of some of the most talented writers in the genera along with some of the best readers. Highly recommended.

excellent vampire story spectrum

The differing presentation and thoroughly imaginative scenarios, styles, and perspectives of vampire kind make this anthology particularly enjoyable. With the beginning of each story you have a clear pallette because there are almost no stereotypical leanings throughout. If you can ignore the hackneyed cover art I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys vampire fiction at its broadest and most creative. If you are looking for vampire action and bloodbath escapades in eastern European settings - I would suggest dipping in a different pool of authors.

Good value for a lot of stories

Any additional comments?

This is a overall great collection there are som duds there are some gems.

Audio Book Incomplete

Would you try another book from the authors and/or the narrators?

Yes

Was Vampires worth the listening time?

Yes

Any additional comments?

The last story in Part 2 of the book was incomplete. No continuation of the story in Part 3 of the book.

Badly formatted, mostly unoriginal, a few good'uns

I can't say I've really enjoyed listening to this. One of the narrators (the posh English lady) is really terrible. And there is absolutely no time between the stories, no pause or music or intro to the next author, no time to digest the story. There are a couple of good stories, but most of them follow a formula which gets very boring very quickly:

1. Starts in media res, with a human being chased around/in pain/in the middle of encountering something weird
2. Spends some time explaining how REAL VAMPIRES are different from STUPID POP CULTURE VAMPIRES in this particular universe. Do they actually love Italian food with lots of garlic? Is the sun a big deal? Do they use fangs or some kind of bony protuberance under their tongue? Do I care?
3. A human is changed into a vampire, and angsts about whether to change their family members to save them from life-threatening conditions, or gradually watch everyone die around them. OR, a vampire angsts about this having happened. OR, everyone angsts about vampires being cold and numb both physically and emotionally and therefore UNABLE TO LOVE SOB SOB SOB.
4. We have a scene focusing on the vampire discussing the ramifications of being so long-lived, and having flashbacks to another time, or a human who is now very old having flashbacks to encountering an ageless vampire when they were a child.
5. Incredibly sudden ending, leaving me to poke at my iPod and see if I had reached a place where the audiobook was broken into smaller files - but no, it actually just ended there.

Ahem. To be fair, I think a lot of that is unavoidable from anything but a really excellent author, just because vampires don't really lend themselves to short stories. (Unless you're going for absolute classic vampires which need no explanation.) There are a couple of good ones in there, though.

Not worth your time

Any additional comments?

Only a very few good short stories among many bad ones. Narrotors were mostly fine.

A top collection.

I'm not sure why this collection has got such a low review as I found it to be really good! It's a hard thing to get an anthology right when it's one particular monster that your focusing on and the mix in this book worked really well. There are some really dark story's here but also some with a bit of fantasy, humour and action. Its a wide spectrum and I never got bored. In fact I wish thay would put out another volume.

My only criticism is that one story set in England ( the one with Van Helsing) is so horribly read and performed with such terrible accents that I skip it every time as I cannot stand the narrator. But if I only hate one story out of this collection then I think it's forgivable and I would still recommend it to all.

Great value collection!

Really good collection of short stories ranging from 15-20 mins up to over an hour and set in various times and locations. Probably something for everyone who enjoys vampires or fiction.