Rating: 
Summary: 'Provocative' may not be the right word
Review: If you are thinking they are using the word 'provocative' in a sexual way you'll find this book quite disappointing. Except for a few stories that cross slightly into the 'adult' areas, for example a nun describing the first time a priest put his hand up her skirt, this book is instead simply entertaining. The stories are well written and do not keep to a certain environment or time frame making each story unique and different than all the others.
All in all I'd say this is an excellent anthology that skips over the 'extreme sex and violence', which is becoming quite common in many of today's vampire books.
I'll certainly be giving it a second read in the future.
Rating: 
Summary: Just a brief comment...
Review: In the synopsis provided by Amazon about the excellent tale Waiting for the 400, I have to disagree with the last sentence that suggests that the ending is ambiguous. It was very obvious to me that this woman was a vampire in her own right, inveigling this poor half-cocked man who followed his heart rather than his head. Really, a definitive tale warning the easily deceived male about the lethal female and all she can achieve with the bat of an eyelash. Amazon is correct, however, by elevating this story to the top of the list, it was spun flawlessly.
Rating: 
Summary: Variety is the spice of an anthology
Review: Now, this is how an anthology should be done. The current trend toward hyper-specialized anthologies has resulted in a whole slew of books that contain one or two good variations on exact same theme and 10 or 12 crappy ones ("15 original stories about lesbian zombies in turn-of-the-century New Orleans" or "12 shared-world science fiction tales about John F. Kennedy's left nipple" -- I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to come up with good titles for those two; if you can, you're welcome to pitch them to White Wolf). The Darkest Thirst, on the other hand, apparently had only one editorial requirement: tell a good vampire story. The result is one of the best horror/dark fantasy/whatever-you-want-to-call-it anthologies in years. All the stories are good; the best one of the lot is William R. Trotter's Bram Stoker Award-nominated "The Bleeding of Hauptmann Gehlen" -- in fact, it's the best short vampire story I've ever read. In addition to being a twice-nominated horror writer, Trotter is also a respected, award-winning military historian, and he's very good at working loads of convincing details into a story without ever falling prey to the dreaded "look-how-much-research-I-did" syndrome that torpedoes so much historical fiction. The result is that "The Bleeding of Hautpmann Gehlen," set in World War Two Romania, feels more convincingly real than most present-day vampire stories. It's great stuff. If you're a member of the Horror Writers of America and will be voting on this year's awards, read this story -- or your unshriven soul will languish forever in Hell. Seriously. Oh, and most of the other stories are quite good, too.
Rating:
Summary: An all around great book
Review: The book The Darkest Thirst was an amazing book. The thing I like about it the most was the fact that it was a collection of stories and didn't have one specific author. I find I liked that a lot because then you never know what the next story is going to be like. Most books about vampire that I have read have their low and high spots, where this book was totally interesting from beginning to end due to the fact of the different authors. IF you are a lover of vampire novel like myself you probably have a certain "kind" of vampire story you like. This book is divided five sections: Dark Histories, Obsessions, The Haunted, Redemption, and Arts and Letters. Each section has its strong and weak stories. A few example of the strong ones that I liked where "Waiting for the 400" about a female who convinced her obsessed lover to kill someone who she claimed was a vampire, when it turns out SHE was the vampire. One of the weak stories in my opinion was "Before a Fall" about a mother who was attached by vampires and kill the leader to save her son. All in all, the book was really well written. I think the variety between the different stories of this book is what made it what it is. You can buy this book to read it for a specific section or read it all and enjoy every minute of it. I was high pleased with this book and I think everyone else will be.
Rating:
Summary: this entertaining anthology has anexceptional range
Review: The Darkest Thirst has 16 superlative stories rangeing from classic gothic, post-modern literary to tense psychological horror. Vampires in classical dark settings and vampires in shopping malls and trailer parks roam through this densely packed volumne. It is well worth the money and should become a cult classic
Rating:
Summary: Recommended reading for fans of the horror fantasy genre
Review: The Darkest Thirst: Sixteen Provocative Tales Of The Undead is an horrific anthology of vampire stories, filled from cover to cover with chilling tales of evil desires, bloodlust, yearning, savagery, and the vileness lurking within stages of history and seeming propriety. A darkly enrapturing read from Margaret L. Carter's "Merry" to Deborah Markus' "For The Love of Vampires", The Darkest Thirst is very highly entertaining and recommended reading for fans of the horror fantasy genre in general -- and vampire tales in particular.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Vampire Anthology
Review: This is a pretty good vampire anthology, with a collection of stories that range from the "fantastic! this is why I read these books!" to "really strange, but pretty good, I guess." Some of the highlights were "Before A Fall," "Waiting for the 400," and "The Alberscine Vigil." A few others were not quite as good ("The Debauched One" and "On Line" come to mind). The final story, "For the Love of Vampires," wraps up this anthology nicely. The stories are all a good length, long enough to be fully developed, short enough to be still considered "short stories." All in all, I was quite satisfied with this collection.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Vampire Anthology
Review: This is a pretty good vampire anthology, with a collection of stories that range from the "fantastic! this is why I read these books!" to "really strange, but pretty good, I guess." Some of the highlights were "Before A Fall," "Waiting for the 400," and "The Alberscine Vigil." A few others were not quite as good ("The Debauched One" and "On Line" come to mind). The final story, "For the Love of Vampires," wraps up this anthology nicely. The stories are all a good length, long enough to be fully developed, short enough to be still considered "short stories." All in all, I was quite satisfied with this collection.
Rating: 
Summary: Vampires with variety
Review: What's a vampire? I've debated that with friends, and you won't find an answer "The Darkest Thirst." Some are monsters, some are saviors, mine's a stockbroker. Beware of all of them.
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