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The Vampire Archives

The Most Complete Volume of Vampire Tales Ever Published

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The Vampire Archives

By: Clive Barker, Robert Bloch, Stephen King, Kim Newman - foreword, Neil Gaiman - preface, Otto Penzler - editor
Narrated by: Scott Brick, Jonathan Cowley, Erik Davies
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About this listen

The Vampire Archives is the biggest, hungriest, undeadliest collection of vampire stories, as well as the most comprehensive bibliography of vampire fiction ever assembled. Dark, stormy, and delicious, once it sinks its teeth into you there’s no escape.

Vampires! Whether imagined by Bram Stoker or Anne Rice, they are part of the human lexicon and as old as blood itself. They are your neighbors, your friends, and they are always lurking. Now Otto Penzler—editor of the best-selling Black Lizard Big Book of Pulps—has compiled the darkest, the scariest, and by far the most evil collection of vampire stories ever, with over 80 stories, including the works of Stephen King and D. H. Lawrence, alongside Lord Byron and Tanith Lee, not to mention Edgar Allan Poe and Harlan Ellison. The Vampire Archives will drive a stake through the heart of any other collection out there.

Other contributors include Arthur Conan Doyle, Ray Bradbury, Ambrose Bierce, H. P. Lovecraft, Harlan Ellison, Roger Zelazny, Robert Bloch, and Clive Barker.

©2009 Otto Penzler (P)2011 Random House Anthologies Anthologies & Short Stories Fantasy Fiction Horror Scary Vampire Paranormal

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All stars
Most relevant  
Jonathan Cowley should not be given voice over work again. Writers of the quality of D.H. Lawrence deserve better. His sub-stage school delivery ruins all his reads, without any depth of understanding; emphasis in the wrong places, consistently. Painful to listen to. All else is excellent.

Almost perfect, but for one thing...

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What an interesting and varied book! So many different types of vampires. Lovely to hear stories from the not too distant past, but out of print or vogue, although this subject is anything but!
Haven't been this glued for a long time! Thanks

WOW!

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Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

I would recommend this audiobook to a friend although some of the stories aren't that great a lot of them are well worth a listen.

Would you be willing to try another book from the authors? Why or why not?

Yes I would try other books by some of the authors as there are so many different styles of writing and I'm sure that full length stories would be much better.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances? How does this one compare?

Too many narrators to mention.

Did The Vampire Archives inspire you to do anything?

No not really, these stories are good if you only have a short time to listen each day.

Any additional comments?

Good collection of tales (some seem unfinished) and I know these are short stories but some of them seem rushed & muddled.

A huge volume of tales, sound good some not so goo

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I really loved this collection and hope Audible adds more similarly curated ones. There were some fantastic stories from authors I had not heard of before, as well as some from authors who are currently very well known. I also loved the little introductions to each story, which provided some information about the author. All read really well by an interesting range of actors.

incredible value for money & some hidden gem stories I never would have found otherwise

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I found this to be a very bloated and uninspired listen that offered nothing new to vampire enthusiasts like myself. This is a case of quantity over quality to me as very few of the stories were engaging and performed to a high standard. For vampire die hards I would say give this a miss and listen to the big finish version of Dracula with Mark Gatiss instead. This is not terrible by any means but is no where near paying over £60 for!!

"I'm going to suck..... Your blood!"

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After reading the mixed reviews I was expecting this to be very hit and miss, so I was pleasantly surprised to find a high quality and well read collection of macabre short stories... I really enjoyed the listen.

Impressive collection

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A very enjoyable series of vampire stories from many authors. Some of which are fascinating takes on the genre. Four stars as not all were of the same calibre but well worth using a credit for!

Great tales across the vampire spectrum

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If you like to work on a cost per minute basis then you won't be disappointed by this. The download is in 8 parts of 7-8 hours each making over 61 hours of listening. There are over 80 stories and poems and I've enjoyed the majority of them.



It's nice that there's a mixture of styles. As well as horror there's sci-fi, fantasy, humour, psychological etc. Some of the stories are classics that date back to before Bram Stoker's Dracula (in fact one of the stories is a chapter that wasn't incuded in the published version of Dracula). I was particularly pleased to come across a Stephen King short story that I don't recall coming across before.



I did find myself wondering when each story started when would the vampire be revealed? I guess that's to be expected though :).



My only serious negative observation is that the way that iTunes burns the tracks to CD it makes it difficult to skip to the start of then next story on a car CD player when you don't like a particular story.

There's so much

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If you could sum up The Vampire Archives in three words, what would they be?

Value Quality Dark - Great stories and narrators, stories from 17th Century to present day with stoires and authors from across cultures and the world.

What other book might you compare The Vampire Archives to, and why?

Vampire lestat, the ann rice series, dracula by bram stoker - so many stories it covers all vampire and horror stories.

Which character – as performed by the narrators – was your favourite?

too many to say

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

yes but its huge, still listening after 6 weeks of near constant use.

Any additional comments?

Great value for your monthly credits.

Credits well spent

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This is an excellent compilation of Vampire stories written by some of the great masters of Horror Fantasy & Fiction. Many hours of great listening.

EXCELLENT COMPILATION OF STORIES

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