Byron Preiss (1953–2005)

After reading the first lousy story in this “book”, I knew the potential of me enjoying the rest of the stories was at an all-time low. After reading this, it will not be long enough since hearing/reading the name Vlad or the phrase, “I vant to suck your blood”. The stories use the name of Vlad Tepes ad nauseam. The use of the previously mentioned phrase completely contradicts the tone of certain other stories mixing that cheesy phrase with nastier graphic elements
These stories also seem to try to compensate for the lack of structure, theme, characters, and plot with shock. The authors, in some instances, try to rely on real-life horrors such as the Ceausescu regime and especially the AIDS epidemic. There is a lot of Dracula-AIDS-victim in this, I understand the plague-bearer angle to the vampire myth but this was just a shock element not even relevant to the stories in any other capacity where it was used. The plot is another thing almost all of these stories lack and as none of them had any character-work they are just boring blobs of prose with some uninteresting gore-shock and maybe some semi-graphic sex sprinkled in.
There were a few decent stories that I enjoyed on a pulp-fiction level, which is what I was looking for with this book btw. Dracula 1944 by Edward D. Hoch was interesting and held my attention though this idea is better executed in [b:The Strain|6065215|The Strain (The Strain Trilogy, #1)|Guillermo del Toro|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1326225354l/6065215._SY75_.jpg|6241525]. Here, Dracula (as Vlad, of course) is masquerading as a prisoner in Bergen-Belsen, blood-drained concentration camp guards and Nazi-vampires ensue (go figure). Much At Stake by Kevin J. Anderson was another Twilight-Zone-esque story that I just appreciated for its pulpy elements and I have a soft spot for Bela Lugosi and the old Universal Studios lore (so sue me). The last story that I somewhat enjoyed and possibly the strongest story here was The Name of Fear by Lawrence Watt-Evans. It involves the historical Vlad Tepes, has lots of scene appropriate gore by the bucket and maintains the vampire legend as fact. It has a pretty cool twist at the end that still makes me snicker. Had all of the stories been at this level the book would have been awesome unfortunately these are the strongest three.
Essentially, this is hacky edge-lordy writing and not worth the time required to read it. Hopefully, the three stories (and really only the last is worth seeking out) that I liked can be had somewhere else, in another collection. This book stinks I cannot recommend it to anyone.
In addition, I did not mention the lead story written by Anne Rice because it is among the weakest stories here, in fact, her name is the only reason to mention it at all. Although, I guess the marketing people knew that already.
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Loved this book. Read it in HS and I was just absolutely drawn into the plot and the high fantasy world. There was something about this book that I literally could not put down (Not that I wanted to). It definitely centers around human conflicts and wars, so if you are expecting a dragon every single chapter- that isn't the case here (which would be the only downfall of this book). The artwork was nice and highly detailed- some art even had a double page spread going on- which complimented this book nicely since the story and world is so rich. It's lengthy and may seem repetitive sometimes- but what do you expect? It's a 545 page fantasy novel, so you should expect some tropes/scenarios to be a slight reskin of the other (This especially happens when the fantasy novel concerns war and conflict since you usually read about all sides concerned). Personally, I think anyone who rates it below 3.5 is being way too picky about their fantasy tropes since a lot of complaints I hear are identical to same plot devices in many other fantasy books. I think it is an underloved/overlooked book that many more should give a try- it's rare I find anyone who has even heard of this book.… (more)