Vampires: The Recent Undead
The Morganville Vampires: Extras #9 (Dead Man Stalking )
by Paula Guran, Albert E. Cowdrey, J.A. Konrath, Jeanne C. Stein, Karen Russell, Kelley Armstrong, Kim Newman, Mary Turzillo, Michael Marshall Smith, Nancy Kilpatrick, Nisi Shawl, Barbara Roden, Rachel Caine, Stephen Dedman, Susan Sizemore, Tanith Lee, Tanya Huff, Tina Rath, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Carrie Vaughn, Charlaine Harris, Charles de Lint, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Conrad Williams, Holly Black, John Langan
Why You'll Love This
Twenty-six writers reimagine the vampire — and collectively prove the monster still has teeth worth fearing.
- Great if you want: genre-hopping vampire fiction from horror to romance to dark comedy
- The experience: anthology pacing — punchy, varied, best read in deliberate sittings
- The writing: styles clash productively: Lee's lush gothic against Smith's cold noir
- Skip if: uneven anthology quality frustrates you — some stories outshine others significantly
About This Book
The vampire has never been just one thing — and this anthology, edited by Paula Guran, leans hard into that truth. Drawing from the best short fiction of the early twenty-first century, it gathers stories that range from genuinely unnerving to wryly comic, from tender to brutal, refusing to let the genre settle into any single mood. These aren't creatures locked in gothic castles or sparkle-lit high schools; they bleed into romance, horror, mystery, and science fiction with equal ease, reflecting something restless and hungry in the culture that keeps returning to them.
What rewards readers here is the sheer range of craft on display across twenty-five contributors — Tanith Lee's sensuous prose sits alongside Kim Newman's knowing wit, Holly Black's cool precision, and Caitlín R. Kiernan's unsettling interior voice, among many others. The stories don't feel curated to agree with one another; they argue, contradict, and complicate, which gives the collection real texture. Dipping in and out works fine, but reading straight through reveals just how many angles this figure can sustain before it finally, stubbornly, refuses to die.