Sons of Darkness: Tales of Men, Blood and Immortality

by Michael Rowe (Editor), Thomas S. Roche (Editor)

Like Daughters of Darkness and Dark Angels, Pam Keesey's successful series of lesbian vampire stories from Cleis Press, Sons of Darkness gathers first-rate horror fiction that reveals the inherent homoeroticism of the vampire myth.

Genres: Queer, Short Stories, Horror, Anthologies, Fantasy, Vampires

178 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1996

About the author

Michael Rowe is an independent international journalist who has lived in Beirut, Havana, Geneva, and Paris.

His work has appeared in the National Post, The Globe & Mail, The United Church Observer and numerous other publications. He has been a finalist for both the Canadian National Magazine Award and the Associated Church Press Award in the United States. The author of several books, including Writing Below the Belt, a critically acclaimed study of censorship, pornography, and popular culture, and the essay collections Looking For Brothers and Other Men's Sons, which won the 2008 Randy Shilts Award for Nonfiction, he has also won the Lambda Literary Award. He is currently a contributing writer to The Advocate and a political blogger for The Huffington Post.

--from the author's website

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anthologies are always a mixed bag. You never know exactly what you're going to get. Sometimes you get a couple good stories with a bunch of mediocre stories and some that don't really work at all (or they might just be down right terrible). But every once in awhile you come across an anthology that hits a home run with just about every selection. I don't know if I can readily say that each one here is a home run, but they are all at least getting to second base. ... With all this baseball talk you'd think, I was reviewing a book on sports stories. No, these are vampire tales. No sports in sight. Some are fairly traditional in their representation of vampires, others are taking things a very unconventional direction. But in any case, if you're looking for vampire tales with queer twist (or just out right man on man action with fangs) THIS is the collection you've always wanted. There's a little something for everyone.

[Dana Lam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall I enjoyed this anthology; of the 13 stories 6 I thought were good enough to reread, the rest were average. There were maybe like 2 or 3 that I thought were below average. I found this book in a thrift store and so I was really excited to read it. I really enjoyed my time with this book

Some of my thoughts on certain stories

Parting is Such a Sweet Sorrow - REALLY HOT haha, a good story to close a book on. I really liked the main character; I want to see more of this character

The Game - love the role reversal. Man, what a way to go

Click - very odd!! I like the reference to the bible but I was not expecting spread cheeks right in the second story

Wet - WHAT A WAY TO GO, MAN.

Tongues - OKAY THIS ONE IS THE BEST ONE--- I read this story to my friends. It's very odd but I love how the character writes. I will forever be quoting "amoebic angel," and "glyoxide -peroxode, sonic plague busting, minty fresh, etc, etc." It's very descriptive

[Ryan Lawrence · Rating 5 out of 5]

The theme of vampirism varies between tales. Some are more traditional in their representation of vampires, and some come across as more human serial killers. It’s definitely diverse horror. These stories aim to make the reader uncomfortable, aroused, and horrified all at once. It’s titillation mixed with terror. “Bela Lugosi’s Dead” by Canadian writer Ron Oliver is my favourite of the bunch. So twisted. So 80s/90s Lost Boys fantasy. These themes are not for everyone, but if you’re gay, queer or even just curious about homoerotic horror, this is a great anthology to start off with.

[Jarrod Scarbrough · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of gay themed vampire stories was average. To be fair, I'm not really big on vampires, but a really good standout story is always a plus for me. I didn't actually find that in this collection. There were some sexy stories; there were very few creepy moments. Overall, like I said it was just average to me.

[Matthias Williamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

great collection of gay vampire stories.