Book Review: Michael Rowe and Thomas Roche, editors, Brothers of the Night
61) Brothers of the Night, edited by Michael Rowe and Thomas S. Roche, 165 pages
The sequel to Sons of Darkness, this book contains eleven more male-on-male vampire stories.
The quality of this anthology was, overall, just as good as the one that came before, with exceptional entries by Simon Sheppard, David Quinn, Edo van Belkom, and Michael Rowe. The real prize is Kevin Andrew Murphy's "The Nightwatch Is A Lonely Vigil." In this moving tale of a crusader's knighthood vigil, the homoerotic angle is only lightly touched upon. This could have passed in mainstream fiction. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful story, and was worth the price of the collection to me. (Nechtan, I thought of you when I read this one. I think you'd really, really like it.)
It's great to read such a variety of takes on such an old theme, and it's very interesting to see what changes AIDS and the death of '70's gay culture have wrought upon the vampire myth. Ultimately, what makes the vampire such a powerful metaphor is the fact that, invisible in mirrors or not, he is a reflection of us, of our wants and desires and our deepest fears.
Recommended for fans of vampire fiction. If it sounds like your thing, it probably is.
The sequel to Sons of Darkness, this book contains eleven more male-on-male vampire stories.
The quality of this anthology was, overall, just as good as the one that came before, with exceptional entries by Simon Sheppard, David Quinn, Edo van Belkom, and Michael Rowe. The real prize is Kevin Andrew Murphy's "The Nightwatch Is A Lonely Vigil." In this moving tale of a crusader's knighthood vigil, the homoerotic angle is only lightly touched upon. This could have passed in mainstream fiction. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful story, and was worth the price of the collection to me. (Nechtan, I thought of you when I read this one. I think you'd really, really like it.)
It's great to read such a variety of takes on such an old theme, and it's very interesting to see what changes AIDS and the death of '70's gay culture have wrought upon the vampire myth. Ultimately, what makes the vampire such a powerful metaphor is the fact that, invisible in mirrors or not, he is a reflection of us, of our wants and desires and our deepest fears.
Recommended for fans of vampire fiction. If it sounds like your thing, it probably is.