Many Bloody Returns [Paperback]

Charlaine Harris (Editor), Toni L. P. Kelner (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 3, 2009

"Clever...entertaining... excellent"(Library Journal) original vampire stories by Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Kelley Armstrong, and more.

From cakes to stakes, a celebration of everyone's favorite bloodsucking subculture by a baker's dozen of favorite authors. Each of these thirteen original stories offers a fresh and unique take on what birthdays mean to the undead. From Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse attending a birthday party for Dracula to Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden battling bloodsucking party crashers, these suspenseful, surprising, sometimes dark, sometimes humorous stories will ensure paranormal fans will never think of vampires or birthdays quite the same again.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This patchwork anthology of 13 new vampire stories proves that heavyweight contributors can give some substance to a relatively slight theme. Harris (the Sookie Stackhouse novels), Kelner (the Laura Fleming mysteries) and 11 other writers with serious vamp credentials craft stories around the concept of birthdays for bloodsuckers. Most of the tales only blow out candles in passing, as with P.N. Elrod's Grave-Robbed, which mixes pathos and comedy as vampire PI Jack Fleming busts a phony medium mid-séance, and Tanya Huff's Blood Wrapped, in which Henry Fitzroy's search for the ideal gift for a vampire's 40th mixes with his pursuit of a human kidnapper. Christopher Golden takes birthdays to heart in his poignant coming-of-age story, The Mournful Cry of Owls, while Kelley Armstrong proposes in Twilight that a vampire's real birthday is the date of transformation from mortal to immortal. Fans of the many series vampires on parade here will be undeterred by the variable quality of their adventures. (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Experienced genre hands ensure the high quality of 13 stories about birthdays and vampires. The opening story uses Charlaine Harris' series star Sookie Stackhouse, who, as the only nonvampire at a Dracula's birthday ball, finds herself on the menu. Dropping by a role-playing party with his brother's present, Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden must deal with deadly party crashers. A pair of vampires tracks down a serial killer in Toni L. P. Kelner's "How Stella Got Her Grave Back." More chillingly, a vampire knows she must kill to live another year but is strangely reluctant in Kelly Armstrong's "Twilight," and in Elaine Viets' humorous "Vampire Hours," a woman deliberately chooses damnation. Murray, Frieda --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Ace Trade; Reprint edition (February 3, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441016758
• ISBN-13: 978-0441016754
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (113 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #232,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 82 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Superstars Shine...mostly, September 6, 2007

By 

R. A. MCDANIEL (Colorado) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Many Bloody Returns (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood) (Hardcover)

This anthology features some of the superstars of the paranormal genre writing about their most popular characters - Charlaine Harris (Sookie Stackhouse), Jim Butcher (Harry Dresden), Kelley Armstrong (Cassandra du Charme from the women of the Otherworld universe), PN Elrod (Jack Fleming), Tanya Huff (Tony and Henry Fitzroy), and Rachel Caine (Eve Rosser from the Morganville Vampires books) - along with some other fairly recognizable authors such as Christopher Golden and Jeanne Stein. It was the superstars who made this anthology worth buying. Their stories were, with the exception of Ms. Harris' contribution (which seemed quickly thrown together and unsatisfying), well crafted and engrossing, providing deeper insight into the characters which will make reading future installments of their series even more enjoyable. Some of the other stories left me cold (such as The Mournful Cry of Owls) and others, like Jeanne Stein's "The Witch and the Wicked" were so interesting and original I will definitely be looking at the author's other works.

All anthologies have their weak moments but this one has less than usual due to the high caliber of the contributors, with a good 2/3 of the stories being excellent or better. It's a must read for devoted fans of any of the series included.

69 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Vampires, Witches and Birthday Wishes, October 14, 2007

By 

Cherise Everhard (Michigan, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Many Bloody Returns (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood) (Hardcover)

This is an anthology of 13 stories, each containing some sort of supernatural element and birthday theme.

Dracula Night by Charlaine Harris
The Mournful Cry of Owls by Christopher Golden
I Was a Teenage Vampire by Bill Crider
Twilight by Kelley Armstrong
It's My Birthday, Too by Jim Butcher
Grave-Robbed by P.N. Elrod
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life by Rachel Caine
The Witch and the Wicked by Jeanne C. Stein
Blood Wrapped by Tanya Huff
The Wish by Carolyn Haines
Fire and Ice and Linguini for Two by Tate Hallaway
Vampire Hours by Elaine Viets
How Stella got her Grave Back by Toni L.P. Kelner

I bought this collection of short stories for the tales told by Charlaine Harris and Tate Hallaway as each is part of a their series I read religiously. I had never heard of or read anything by the other 11 authors, but after reading these short stories I will be checking out many of their other books. None of the stories were horrible; in fact almost all were magnificent, leaving only one or two that were just OK. This past week I really didn't have time to read a 'normal' book; this was the perfect book to pick up when I had a few minutes. I found this book wonderfully imaginative and very enjoyable.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice set of short stories, November 10, 2007

By 

N "N" (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Many Bloody Returns (Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood) (Hardcover)

I bought this simply because of the Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher and Tanya Huff stories that were in it. However, I ended up enjoying almost every other story in it. It caused me to go out and purchase Tate Hallaway's books as well. The Jim Butcher tale was awesome. The Tanya Huff story was cute. It also gave me a new appreciation for Kelley Armstrong, whom I'd previously read but disliked. In general, I don't tend to like short stories, but I absolutely loved this collection and would recommend it to anyone who likes Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Tate Hallway or Tanya Huff.