Thursday, February 9, 2012

Many Bloody Returns.

Title/Author: Many Bloody Returns. Edited by Charlaine Harris and Toni L.P. Kelner.
Dracula Night by Charlaine Harris
The Mournful Cry of Owls by Christopher Golden
I Was a Teenage Vampire by Bill Crider
Twilight by Kelley Armstrong
It's My Birthday, Too by Jim Butcher
Grave-Robbed by P.N. Elrod
The First Day of the Rest of Your Life by Rachel Caine
The Witch and the Wicked by Jeanne C. Stein
Blood Wrapped by Tanya Huff
The Wish by Carolyn Haines
Fire and Ice and Linguini for Two by Tate Hallaway
Vampire Hours by Elaine Viets
How Stella got her Grave Back by Toni L.P. Kelner

Narrated by: Luke Daniels and Teri Clark Linden.

Genre: UF.

Publisher: Brilliance Audio.

Source: Library.

Synopsis: This anthology of short stories have two criteria: Vampires and birthdays.

My Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this collection. The stories are varied in style & plot, but with the recurring theme of vampires and birthdays. Some are funny and some are melancholy. Some are deliberate and cerebral and some are fast and action packed.

I stopped reading the Sookie Stackhouse series after the second book because I wasn’t loving it as much as I would have liked. However, Dracula Night, with Sookie is clever and funny. One of my favorites is Christopher Golden’s The Cry of Owls, a beautiful and unique folk tale. I was a Teenage Vampire is humorous and Vampire Hours is a commentary on aging, especially aging women that is written with an astute pen.

I finally “met” Harry Dresden and I love his humor and the whole slew of Jim Butcher’s characters. I’ve heard wonderful things about his books and I hope to get to read them soon. I also got a taste of the Morganville Vampire world. I had little desire to read this series before, but after reading The First Day of the Rest of Your Life by Rachel Caine, now I must!

The narrators did an amazing job. They told the stories and spoke the dialogue seamlessly, naturally with humor when it was called for. They differentiated between voices and portrayed all accents and ages well. Some narrators are stiff or over the top, but these two made the listening experience fun and enhanced the stories.

There were a few stories that I felt disappointed when they ended and wished I could have had more of a satisfying conclusion, but overall I loved this book.

Afterthoughts: There is a very mixed bag of opinions about this book on Amazon and Goodreads. But of course, you should check it out yourself to decide!

Other editions:


Challenges:









5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Nice review, Midnyte! I was tempted to check this one out when it first released, but I've also heard mixed reviews so was kind of unsure; glad to hear you liked some of the stories, though!

Darkeva

Missie, The Unread Reader said...

I have this book, but I only read the Sookie story. LOL

I didn't know there was a Harry Dresden story in it. At the time I read it for the CH story, I didn't realize who JB was. But now that I do, I think I'll give the story a go. I've been wanting to meet Harry. :)

Kimberly @ Caffeinated Reviewer said...

Great review..i love collections like this

Karen said...

I read this several years ago but I remember enjoying Charlaine Harris and Kelley Armstrong's stories. Probably because I was familiar with both of their characters already but this was a good collection.

Teri Clark Linden said...

Thanks for the narration props. This collection was one of my favorites to voice to date.

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