Publisher: Night Shade Books
Publication Date: August 2009
Type: Anthology
Reviewed by: Jennifer Brozek
Rating: 5/5

Vampires are the apex predator in fiction today. They are deadly, sexy, enticing, terrifying, and ideal as both a menace and an attraction. We love to read about these intriguing monsters. Love to defeat them. Love to be defeated by them. In By Blood We Live, John Joseph Adams has put together a collection of vampire stories that not only flows well together but shows off the best and worst aspects of our favorite creature of the night.

With over 200,000 words in this anthology, there works by old favorites such as Neil Gaiman, Anne Rice, and Stephen King. There are also works from new favorites like Elizabeth Bear, Jane Yolen, and Joe Hill. Every story fits with every other story but every story is original and fresh on its own. Frankly, there isn’t a clunker in the bunch and that made this anthology for review a real treat to read.

For me, there are three outstanding stories in this collection that shine above the rest. It is their writing, perspective, and originality that made these stories stick in my head long after I finished reading them.

“Child of an Ancient City” by Tad Williams – This story tells a tale of an ancient vampire from an Islamic point of view that brings to mind the tale of Scheherazade and the tales she told to save her life. The blackened skin of the terrifying, hunched creature eschews the seductive quality of the vampire while heightening its horror.

“Lifeblood” by Michael A. Burstein – This story tells the tale of combating a vampire with faith – Jewish faith rather than the traditional Christian faith. The use of song and prayer within the song is a brilliant reinterpretation of brandishing the crucifix.

“The Wide, Carnivorous Sky” by John Langan – A previously unpublished story about a group of military men who encounter a vampiric creature in the heat of battle is especially intriguing for many reasons: the psychic connection between the monster and the men, the origin of the creature, and the philosophical discussion between the military men on where the monster came from and why it was here hunting on Earth.

All of the stories in the anthology have something to recommend them. Harry Turtledove’s story “Under St. Peter’s” is delightfully blasphemous. Kristine Kathryn Rusch’s “The Beautiful, The Damned” is lush and vibrant with its references to The Great Gatsby, and who would not want to return to the ‘Lot in Stephen King’s nostalgic and creepy story, “One for the Road.”

I received a PDF version of this anthology for review and I plan to buy it as soon as it hits the shelves. Night Shade Books and John Joseph Adams created another winner with this anthology of vampires. It is one not to miss.

Jennifer Brozek, the creator and co-editor of the Grants Pass anthology, is a freelance author for many RPG companies including Margaret Weis Productions, Rogue Games and Catalyst Labs. Her contributions to RPG sourcebooks include Dragonlance, Castlemourn, Colonial Gothic, Shadowrun, and Serenity. She has also co-authored three books (A Player’s Guide to Castlemourn with Ed Greenwood, 2006; Dragonvarld Adventures with Margaret Weis, 2008 and Chill, 3rd Edition with Mike Callahan, 2008). She is published in several anthologies and is the creator and editor of the semi-pro webzine The Edge of Propinquity. When she is not writing her heart out, she is a loving wife to her husband, Jeff, and an indulgent ‘mother’ to their three cats while gallivanting around the Pacific Northwest in its wonderfully mercurial weather. You can visit her blog at http://jennifer-brozek.livejournal.com.

Most of us view the world through a frame of self-importance. I know I do. So when I look at the horror genre in the past five years, I see four important figures: Tom Piccirilli, Joe Hill, Sarah Langan, and Brian Keene. To me, they represent all that is great when it comes to writing horror fiction in terms of talent and vision. They also bring a great deal of respect to an often-maligned genre. Tom Piccirilli is the poet-writer, a man who’s a master of prose and surreal frights. Joe Hill and Sarah Langan have a mainstream appeal due to the poignancy and humanity of their plots. Brian Keene, well, he’s the man who sits on top of the genre and vocally surveys all that he sees, all the while writing two or three outstanding mass market paperbacks a year.

I’ve read most of the Brian Keene bibliography up to and including Dark Hollow. Granted, to read every parcel of fiction (and non-fiction!) from Brian Keene would be a momentous task, though I’m sure there are plenty of rabid FUKU members (Keene’s fan club) who have. It’s been a joy to watch him grow from the raw and visceral writer of The Rising to become a writer of some renown. Some call him the Richard Laymon of our generation. Certainly, arguments can be made in support of that claim.

Dark Hollow was released in the winter of 2008 by Leisure Books and runs 305 pages. The plot centers around mystery writer Adam Senft. Senft is a meta-fictional character. It doesn’t take much to imagine Brian Keene as Senft, personality wise. Senft is in a rocky marriage (due to two miscarriages), and Senft finds succor in his relationship with his dog, Big Steve. The plot is brought to life when Senft takes Big Steve on a walk through the woods nearby his house. They stumble across a most bizarre scene: a beautiful woman performing fellatio on a satyr. In a line that made me chuckle (“Come celebrate the season”) the satyr offers to let Senft join the fun. Senft and his dog rush away in fright.

It’s not soon after that nightmarish scene that the women in town start disappearing. When Senft’s wife vanishes, he forms a posse of friends to track down the satyr and his wife.

There’s a lot to like about Dark Hollow. Keene interweaves magick and Greek mythology in an interesting way. He also ties the satyr, Hylinus, to his evil meta-verse, appeasing those long-time readers. If you’re a dog lover, you’ll enjoy the brotherly bond between Big Steve and Senft.

On the flip side, there’s a lot a picky reader can complain about here. I felt some of the dialog between Senft and his band of merry friends to be slight and silly considering the situation. Also, the climatic showdown between Hylinus and Senft was confusing and hard to picture, if not a bit manic. There are plenty of cliches being tossed about, from a disbelieving detective to the disgruntled writer.

But the final line is that this is a good ol’ fashioned horror novel. Certainly not Keene’s best work, but this one is good enough for me to recommend for Apex readers.

Jason Sizemore is the editor-in-chief of Apex Publications.

Welcome to the Apex Community Blog! We’re going to be pretty informal around here, but some structure is better than none, so I’ve come up with a schedule for the content. Here you go:

Monday: SF/H debates
Tuesday: SF/H content on the Web
Wednesday: Weekly article from authors and editors
Thursday: SF/H media reviews and recommendations
Friday: The Secrets of Publishing
Saturday: Where do you get your ideas?
Sunday: A summary of the week’s Apex news

This schedule is flexible, and may change depending on the type of content we receive. Our content is contributed by Apex authors and editors. If you have a topic you would like us to cover, please leave a comment or contact me at sarah@apexbookcompany.com.

Today being a Thursday, and being the first day of the blog, we have not one, not two, but several recommendations for you from Apex Managing Editor and Publisher Jason Sizemore.

Jason’s Favorite Books of 2008

20th Century Ghosts by Joe Hill – All the stories are winners in Hill’s debut collection, yet the haunting story of “Pop Art” is the one that sticks in my mind. A young boy befriends Arthur, an inflatable toy. Art can only speak using crayons (because pens or pencils might puncture his body) and tends to float off when the wind blows. Reality and the surreal intertwine in such a way that you’re never sure if Art is real or just a figment of the boy’s imagination.

Other favorite stories included “Year’s Best Horror,” “The Black Box,” and “My Father’s Mask.”

As I told a friend recently, this is the type of book you want in hardcover, because it deserves a permanent spot on the bookshelf.

I also read Hill’s first novel, Heart Shaped Box, and came away disappointed. The book does contain some chilling moments, but the plot and characters were old hat. Just like the saying ‘old hat’.

Watermind by MM Buckner—Mary Buckner writes some of the best hard SF in the business. The various Philip K. Dick Award juries agree, as her first novel, Hyperthought, earned a PKD Award nomination. Her third novel, War Surf, won the award in 2006.

Oddly enough, her second book (Neurolink) was my favorite until now.

Watermind is centered around the struggles of three people trying to contain a growing mass of intelligent e-waste travelling down the Mississippi River, where they trap it between two locks short of the Gulf of Mexico. The unique plot moves at a cinematic pace (a common trait of Buckner’s novels), and you’ll be delighted by the Bayou setting as Buckner brings the region to life via its music and personality.

If you’re still not sold on the book, then consider this: zydeco music plays a central role throughout the novel. How many SF novels combine hard SF and zydeco?

The Alchemy of Stone by Ekaterina Sedia—I’m a sucker for robot stories and with The Alchemy of Stone E. Sedia has me wrapped around her writing pen. The novel revolves around Mattie, an automaton who has been granted independence from the mechanic Loharri, yet Loharri still possesses the key to her heart and she wants it back. There are gargoyles seeking freedom from the city they built. A civil war is brewing between the practical-minded mechanics and the more adventurous alchemists.

Politics. Terrorism. Love. Betrayal. War. Friendship. Slavery. A depressing ending. This book has it all in just 300 pages.

Ekaterina Sedia is a writer to watch.

Gypsies Stole My Tequila by Adrienne Jones—The Midwest Book Review calls Adrienne Jones “an exciting and creative writer.” After reading Gypsies Stole My Tequila, I’d call her quite crazy.

Gypsies is a 132 page novella from Necro Publications and Jones’s follow up to her popular first novel The Hoax. Joe Blood is a washed-up punk rock singer. He’s turning 40 and has a job at a butcher shop where he works in a cow uniform. And his calendar is turning into a demon demanding that he commit suicide. Wild, funny, and mind-blowingly creative, the couple of hours you’ll spend with Joe Blood are definitely worth the money.

Heartsick by Chelsea Cain—I was skeptical going into this one. Silence of the Lambs is one of my favorite novels and psycho-killers have been done to death. But Cain’s villain, Gretchen Lowell, and the way she works Detective Archie Sheridan like a marionette, is quite intriguing. The flashbacks to her tortures of Sheridan will turn your stomach. The murder mystery will keep you guessing and the smartass young reporter who shares the spotlight with Sheridan (Susan Ward) adds a nice bit of dark humor to a grim story.

A young writer and editor from Appalachia Kentucky, Jason Sizemore has seen his fiction appear in nearly two dozen books and magazines. He’s a prolific non-fiction writer, having dozens of essays, reviews, and editorials published in print and on the web on varied subjects such as gaming, geek culture, and politics. He earned his college degree from Transylvania University, making him an ideal candidate to head a horror magazine. He was a 2006 Stoker Award nominee for his work on the Aegri Somnia anthology.

Jason invites you to visit his personal webspace.