Customer Reviews

Love in Vein: Twenty Original Tales of Vampiric Erotica

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

This isn't a great book. Some stories are really good, some are really bad. I decided to just go through and summarize since nobody
else did.

1) Do Not Hasten To Bid Me Adieu, by Norman Partridge:
This story continues the love story between Quincey and Lucy from Dracula. Lucy is dead though, you say? Well, that's okay. She
lives on blood and Quincey is full of it...

2) Geraldine, by Ian McDowell:
This is a pretty good story about a lesbian vampire and the bi-sexual woman that falls in love with her, Chris. Chris was molested
by her father and still has issues about and because of it. Geraldine has the power to take all of those painful memories away.

3) In The Green House, by Kate Koja and Barry Malzberg:
Like I said, there are some bad stories in here too. This is one of them. I skimmed through it and couldn't make sense of it, so I
didn't try to read the entire thing.

4) Cafe Endless: Spring Rain, by Nancy Holder:
This story is pretty good. It's about a sado-masochistic Japanese vampire. Not the best story in here though.

5) Empty Vessels, by David Silva:
This one's about a vampire who feeds on human emotions. He attacks a prostitute and drains her. Years later her son tracks him
down.

6) The Final Fete Of Abba Adi, by Jessica Amanda Salmonson:
I never could get past the descriptions of the triplets, but I did read one of the pages in the middle and would like to say that I don't
see how a dismembered corpse relates to vampires.

7) Cherry, by Christa Faust:
This is my second favorite story in this collection. Alex is a bi-sexual teenager who ran away from home and dresses as a girl to
work as a prostitute. He dreams about a vampire falling in love with him. One night as he is turning tricks a Mercedes with a
"vampire" pulls up and tells him to get in. Alex learns a lot that night....

8) White Chapel, by Douglas Clegg:
This one is weird. Not badly written, but weird. It was like the author was trying to pack too many things into such a tiny space.
He should have stuck to novels.

9) Delicious Antique Whore, by William Pugmire:
This story is the shortest in the collection. It is only about a page and one quarter page long. However it is very good. Found the
perfect mixture of terror of erotica. If only some other authors would take notes....

10) Triptych Di Amore, by Thomas Monteleone:
This is another one that was so bad and boring and long that I couldn't read it.

11) Queen Of The Night, by Gene Wolfe
This one might appeal to some people. I personally thought it was stupid. Something about a little boy living with ghosts or vampires
in a cemetery.

12) The Marriage, by Steve and Melanie Tem:
A vampire feeds off of his mortal wife's emotions. Now he has to find a new source becasue she is dying. I really don't like this
one.

13) In This Soul Of A Woman, by Charles de Lint:
This story was very good. It's about and exotice dancer who has no money and is about to lose her daughter becasue her
ex-husband's father saw her in the strip club where she worked. One night on the street she meets a vampire who wants to die and
leave her with all of the wealth the vampire accumulated. So the woman goes home with her, and they wait for dawn together.

14) The Alchemy Of The Throat, by Brian Hodge:
This is a mediocre story about a homosexual castratti singer. Hodge should have left the castrattis to Anne Rice. She knows what
to do with them.

15) Love Me Forever, by Mike Baker:
This vampire feeds on love. She always has violet eyes, but other than that she is able to change her shape. She preys on a trio of
friends, Chet, Mark and Peter. One kills himself, one wastes away and the other kills her.

16) ---And The Horses Hiss At Midnight, by A.R. Morlan:
The narrator and the tattooed girl from a carnival decide to go off and have sex after the carnival winds down for the night. The
narrator got more than he bargained for on the ride.

17) Elixir, by Elizabeth Engstrom:
A prostitute with a third nipple holds the secret to curing a veterinarian's color blindness.

18) The Gift Of Neptune, by Danielle Willis
This a very short story about a freakshow that has a vampire and a mermaid in it. They are both abused by the freak show owner
and eventually escape.

19) From Hunger, by Wayne Allen Sallee:
This was my favorite story. It's about two vampires, "one who knew too much about the world, and one who knew too little." The
one who knows too much is a sado-masochistic ex-cop and the one who knew too little is a "hatcheck girl who occasionally lets
men follow her home." This story is sad at the end and I thought is was a little bit romantic too.

20) A Slow Red Whisper of Sand, by Robert Devereaux:
This is a terrible story. It had too many characters and the two story lines never fit together. Plus Esme, the only character I
came to feel for, was killed by a vampire who played sex games with women names after rabbits. The women were named
Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail, by the way.

Over all it is worth the seven bucks if you can find it at your local bookstore.

Okay Now I have to say, I bought this book under the premise that this would be al sorts of sordid sexy erotic vampire stories. Instead I got a really nice anthology of all things vampires. Some sexy, others not so much. It covers your range of vampires from emotional feeding vamps, to blood suckers, to fetus eaters, to face eaters. See I don't technically count all of the characters within to be traditional vampires, but they do live off of the lives of others so I guess it works. Some of the stories are excellent, others are an authors attempt at cramming too much information into too few pages. I expected more of stories chosen by Poppy. Overall I was disappointed in this book. The stories are okay, but nothing really stuck with me except Nancy Holder's vision of Japan it's worth the price of the book. I'm getting around to the second edition and I'm hoping it's a bit more satisfying.

Poppy Z. Brite, one of the best new authors of dark fiction, has taken the time to gather some wonderful tales of vampiry together and bind them into a satisfying book. This baby has not collected dust on my shelf--nor will it on yours. Believe me, you'll want all of your friends to read it.
Perhaps the best tale of the lot is Brian Hodge's "alchemy of the throat", a beautifully crafted story of a castrati's venture into a paridoxical world of terror and unmitigated joy. He is bought by an old man with a shady history and becomes his lover only to discover that (what else?) the guy's a vampire.
Don't let this alarm you though--most of these stories aren't at all cheesy. There were only about two that i found truly tedious and pointless; the rest are gems. The cool part of the book is not the actual bloodsucking, but the variety of ways in which authors have chosen to express the concept of a vampire.
It's not always Dracula or Lestat. Sometimes, it's someone or something who takes one's power away, one's life force. And that is something that we can all identify with. Read Brite's own works for further enjoyment--you won't be sorry.

Poppy Brite is a better writer than she was an editor. This book is the proof. These stories are actually quite lame, and don't do much to stimulate either the intellect or any of the other parts erotica is supposed to stimulate. Skip this one. Her follow-up book Love in Vein II is vastly superior, with a collection of well-written, and much more erotic, vampire fiction.

I've had this book on my shelf for a while. I took it on a trip last week, expecting a great read -- like the Poppy Z Brite books I've read. I was completely disappointed. I've liked virtually every vampire book I've read - until this one. I kept reading one story after another, hoping they'd get better. But, I got to the end of the book and they hadn't!

The stories were strange variations of the vampire theme. I'm all for variations on a theme, but not as an excuse for poor writing. Most seemed to be written for their shock value rather than with the intent of composing a strong story.

I found only a couple stories even vaguely erotic. Most were more disguisting that erotic. I found Nancy Holder's story to be quite strong - but not as good as her other writing. That along with the The S&M themed story were the most erotic of the bunch!

The quality of the writing was disappointing. In many cases the stories were quite disjointed and where there were multiple threads, they were often not pulled together at the end of the story. On one occasion, I literally found myself wondering whether they had failed to print the end of the story, as at just ended for no apparent reason.

I don't read lots of short stories, but I don't believe that I was disappointed in these just because they were short stories. I believe that this collection is fatally flawed.

Save your money. I've got Love in Vein II on my shelf waiting to be read. I sure hope it is better!

If your looking for "Darker" vampire erotica then Love In Vein is your book. Some of the stories such as "White Chapel" are a bit graphic, and border on B movie gore, but overall it's a worthwhile read. It is certainly not a book for the "Timid."

I liked to be scared and sexy at the same time, so this book was the perfect experience for me. What I liked the most was the Delicous Antique Whor and the Alchemy of the Throat, although sometimes I didn't understand them. I am scared already to think about this book! Wooo!

This book showcases some new budding talent in a topic that has been widly writen about over time. These writers offer a wide arrray of different types of Vampires in several different settings. These stories were well written and supported but one of the greatest authors in Modern Vampire theorys. Many of these stories made me keep reading. I have read and re-read this book over and over. I loved this book and I suggest it to any vampires enthusiasts and those who are open to new ideas about the vampire myths and traditions.

while some of the stories aren't that great.... certain ones will have you wanting more and more from the writers. I love books like this because usually i become a fan of a few of the writers in there. The book starts off very strong with the continuation of dracula... gets a little lame in the middle... and picks up speed again. MOST of the stories in here you'll love. This book is a definate pick me up... and for those of you (like me) that are a HUGE Poppy Z. Brite fan, you should try reading Love in Vein II.

I'll tell you right off, I'm a vampire fan. I've read dozens of vampire books. Some good some downright awful.

These stories will not disappoint true vampire fans. Even if you're not a fan I urge you to try this book and see what all the fuss is about.

My favorite story in the bunch is Triptych di Amore by Thomas F. Monteleone. It is a very sensual story that drags readers into a very rich, full world of it's own.