"The touch of cold fangs. The pallor of undead skin. The human shape that casts no shadow and receives no reflection. The nocturnal wanderer, the nighttime feeder, like the owl, the bat, and the snake ... Vampires have always been with us, in our nightmares. From the cannibal, the werewolf, and the ghoul, extract various features and mix in the right proportion, to yield that most evil, most terrifying of all human-like creatures, the vampire: among us, but not one of us; resembling us, mingling with us, but secretly stalking us. Everyone wants to live forever. Or so they think. Perhaps we would pause before accepting immortality if we knew the price was to feed forever on other human lives, on human blood. Perhaps some vampires are tortured by guilt or self-disgust. But whether or not the agonies of conscience add to a vampire's nightmare existence, from a human perspective vampires are distinctly unfriendly. Many of the world's best authors have written of the vampire, and in this collection, edited by award-winning editor Martin H. Greenberg, you will find the best of the best."--Jacket

Nineteen vampire tales include the story of a Toronto vampire detective who is pitted against one of her own kind, a Hollywood private eye who finds a script becoming dangerously real, and a cop on the trail of a bloodthirsty killer. Original.

Updates Lentz's previous work (which Library journal said was producers, screenwriters, cinematographers, special effects technicians, make-up artists, art directors. III: film index. IV: TV series index. V: alternate title index. Science fiction writer Spinrad presents 13 essays, some previously published, examining particular works in the genre, aspects of the industry, and how they influence each other. Topics include critical standards, the visual expression in comic books and movies, modes of content, politics, and profiles of individual authors. No bibliography. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The Ultimate Collection of Vampire Facts and Fiction From Vlad the Impaler to Barnabas Collins to Edward Cullen to Dracula and Bill Compton, renowned religion expert and fearless vampire authority J. Gordon Melton, PhD takes the reader on a vast, alphabetic tour of the psychosexual, macabre world of the blood-sucking undead. Digging deep into the lore, myths, pop culture, and reported realities of vampires and vampire legends from across the globe, The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead exposes everything about the blood thirsty predator. Death and immortality, sexual prowess and surrender, intimacy and alienation, rebellion and temptation. The allure of the vampire is eternal, and The Vampire Book explores it all. The historical, literary, mythological, biographical, and popular aspects of one of the world's most mesmerizing paranormal subject. This vast reference is an alphabetical tour of the psychosexual, macabre world of the soul-sucking undead. In the first fully revised and updated edition in a decade, Dr. J. Gordon Melton (president of the American chapter of the Transylvania Society of Dracula) bites even deeper into vampire lore, myths, reported realities, and legends that come from all around the world. From Transylvania to plague-infested Europe to Nostradamus and from modern literature to movies and TV series, this exhaustive guide furnishes more than 500 essays to quench your thirst for facts, biographies, definitions, and more.

Examines the enormous popular appeal of vampires from early Greek and Slavic folklore to present-day popular culture.