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Summary: The continuing adventures of Sonja Blue.-
Review: "When you keep the hours that I do, you often find yourself in other people's stories." -Sonja Blue
With the exception of "Knifepoint," which takes place before she was "born," and "Cold Turkey," which provides telling insight into her "otherness," the words above perfectly capture the tenor of the remaining stories in this collection, which feature Nancy Collins' vampiric vampire killer, Sonja Blue, as a cynical, world weary adventurer, who, when she's not hunting her own kind, is cleaning up her little corner of the world, a la Clint Eastwood's "Man with No Name." In "Tender Tigers," she rescues a child from her abusive stepmother, an ogre; In "Vampire King of the Goth Chicks," she gives a vampire wannabe his comeuppance; "Variations on a Theme" finds her in James O'Barr's "Crow" universe; "Some Velvet Morning" features her in her "angel of vengeance" mode, hunting down one of the oldest of her kind; finally, in "The Nonesuch Horror," she teams up with the werewolf sheriff of a remote western town to rid the hamlet of an unwelcome visitor. Always the pro, Collins makes each of these pieces work, milking her themes and situations for all they're worth. Doing so, she delivers a handful of solid entertainments that should inspire longstanding fans to revisit her worthy Sonja Blue novels, and those new to her work to sample them for the first time.
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Summary: great stories, but collection lack cohesive feel
Review: I fell in love with the character, Sonja Blue, in Collins's MIDNIGHT BLUE, so finding this collection was very exciting for me. For the uninitiated, Sonja Blue is an unhappy and unstable vampire who has dedicated her afterlife to killing vamps and other monsters. She's tough, stronger than most vamps because she can walk in daylight, and completely punk rock. But she has a dark side, the `other', who is like a split personality, appearing and creating chaos in Sonja's otherwise orderly existence.
Nancy Collins is a great writer. She really takes you into the story and makes you care for the characters. The only reason I'm not giving DEAD ROSES five stars is because I thought this collection wasn't as cohesive as it could've been. It was more like reading a file of journal entries on Sonja, than stories that took you from point A to point B. If you are new to Collins and Blue, I would suggest reading MIDNIGHT BLUE first, just so you can get a better feel for what's going on.
If you like vamps, comics, punk rock, strong women, monsters, good writing, or all of the above, you should pick up this book. You won't be sorry.
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Summary: Beautifully contrived...
Review: I think that NAC usurped her own works into this book well. I think that I could "press" myself into reading more by her! This is a must have for your personal library! I also recommend "Eternal Undying Love" by Brett Keane
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Summary: Silver Threads Among The Graves
Review: Nancy Collins may not have originated Southern punk vampire stories (if you will admit that such a thing exists) but she has played a key role in the development of the genre. Her narratives are more pithy and less meandering than Poppy Brite and Caitlin Kiernan (who is heir and grand master to all of them). Sonja Blue is in many ways a comic book style character. Made a vampire unwillingly, full of anger, she has set about destroying the monsters of the world. The monsters like her.
She is conflicted struggling much like a dark Angel to keep from giving into the evil that has set up a home within her, she lurks on the edges of society defending it against the predators, even as she wonders whether it is worth saving. There isn't a lot of hope in Sonja Blue. Even in Nonesuch, the longest story in this collection, the prospect of a society where pretenders and humans can live together is poisoned by the knowledge that it is a flower in the desert, and not a pretty one.
For the most part these tales tell of Sonja Blues quirky kind of justice which sometimes destroys a monster lurking on the street and at other times shatters the fragile beauty of old death. The narrator is sometimes Sonya, sometimes another character, and sometimes Collins herself. Because the book is drawn partially from existing storys and part from new material, the writing style seems a bit inconsistent. Collins remains a matter-of-fact writer throughout, rarely getting lost in excessive prose.
I found the book half satisfying. It falls short of some of Collins other work (Sunglasses After Dark and In The Blood, for example). It you are looking for the best introduction to Collins' work try Midnight Blue, which collects all the early Sonja Blue material. This collection is a bit more for already made fans, who can tolerate the unevenness to get to the juicy bits.
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