Reviewing first novels can end up an uncomfortable exercise. The promise of something truly good awaits–consider that both Interview With a Vampire and Twilight were first novels by their respective authors. So too have been a more than a few that vanished without a trace. And good riddance! Melabeth the Vampire happily manages to avoid…
Tag: undead
Where Are All the Lesbian Vampires?
Someone contacted us here and asked an interesting question–namely, where are all the lesbian vampires? In one way, this seems very nearly ridiculous. Almost to the point of whining! True Blood comes back in a couple of months, featuring a regular lesbian vampire character (Pam) who now looks to be in a relationship with another…
Bites Most Erotic
Regardless of how folklore portrayed them, in our imaginations the vampire radiates sex appeal. With certain exceptions to be sure. Yet by and large we see a sexual, erotic element to the seduction of a victim, the clandestine visit to his or her bedroom, a beautiful creature with lust-filled eyes placing their mouth upon someone’s…
Review of Renfield The Undead
Years ago, some friends of mine attended a summer school that had a pair of cordon bleu chefs on staff. One can imagine the meals! Rich, delicious, works of art really. Then, one morning, they walked into the cafeteria to see something new. Bowls. Spoons. Pitchers of milk. And lined up, in a neat row,…
What if Vampires were real?
In the style of another online magazine, Cracked, I invite you to consider the implications of vampires if they actually existed! Wait! You may say. What kind of vampire are we talking about here? A valid point! For purposes of this discussion we shall use the most classic image of the vampire from our popular…
Raptors
Stories about the undead grow in number every day. Most remain forgettable. Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing’s four part Raptors graphic novel turns out to be anything but. A few words about the artwork. Something about it feels European, and indeed such proves to be the case. What I read was an English translation, but the…
Science Fiction Undead
Go to virtually any bookstore and a seemingly odd decision awaits your eyes. Amid Biography, Western, Romance, Self Help and loads of other genres, two invariably get lumped together–Science Fiction and Fantasy. Yet as fans of either (or both) can tell you, many are the differences between the two. Why then group them together? An…
Make Believe
Shoulda Woulda Coulda… Make believe is fun. In fact without it this delightful thing we call fiction simply would not exist. So let us now make-believe–as in “let us create a belief”–some beloved or well-known characters to be undead. Why not? For one, Sherlock Holmes. Leaving aside that the physical description of him is perilously…
Wamphyrie
Brian Lumley’s “Necroscope” series pretty much serve as an antidote to anyone disgusted by syrupy sweetness in tales of the undead. Imagine vampires not as fallen angels. Not as darkly mysterious creatures of the night. Imagine vampires as mutated (and mutating) demons. The undead as imagined by H.P. Lovecraft crossed with the more disturbing sexuality…
Why Lesbian Vampires?
For all practical purposes, the trope Vampire Lesbian emerged with Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s novella “Carmilla.” Eventually, with the rise of a new medium–motion pictures–an adaptation of that story appeared. “Crypt of the Vampire” became one of the still-relatively few such. The trope, however, could be seen in “Dracula’s Daughter” as well as the eerie “Vampyr.”…