Fangs: The Vampire Archives, Volume 2 Book

As with the previous volume, the twenty stories in this book present some of the best vampire short fiction ever written. I noticed a slight dip in the overall quality but it's nothing much, really. There is not one tale which I felt was a waste of my time. This is high praise indeed, for a majority of the horror anthologies that I've encountered were for the most part mixed bags, and it's rare that I read one without a piece that I'm at most indifferent to.

Some stories stretch the vampiric theme but not to the point of absurdity. Many of them are actually refreshingly creative variations on the motif.

I especially recommend the following tales:

Princess of Darkness - a stolid British gentleman is stalked by a seductive aristocratic monstress, so he decides to bring the battle to her home turf with the aid of an Eastern European doctor of the occult. Sounds familiar eh? This is anything but a by-the-numbers vampire adventure though. . .

Human Remains - initially included in Barker's seminal Books of Blood and one of my favorite horror stories of all time. It's about a gorgeous hustler who's trailed by a doppelganger bent on assuming his life, warts and all.

The Stone Chamber - the final crimes of an extinct dynasty are resurrected in the irregularities attending the impending engagement of the new lord of the family seat.

Aylmer Vance and the Vampire - evil sleeps in the blood, and a curse passed on through generations has the young husband of one of its scions in its malevolent grip.

I'm rating this 9/10 or 4 stars out of 5.