Until the Sun Rises: new gay vampire erotica

June 14, 2014

It seems years have gone by since the last gay vampire fiction anthology, so the arrival of Until the Sun Rises edited by Winston Gieseke comes as welcome relief, yet while the book is filled with several steamy stories, no one story stood out. I do recommend Until the Sun Rises, but it did leaving me longing for the more imaginative tales in collections like Lovers Who Stay With You or Late Night Boyfriends.

Amazon has been teaming with plenty of gay vampire fiction lately, but of low-quality storytelling and imagination, so it’s wonderful to see a professionally edited collection after so long a wait. I’ve been looking forward to this latest collection for some time as it has been available for pre-order for several months.

I didn’t devour the entire book in one sitting, each of the 14 short tales can be sucked up in a matter of minutes, but reading too many in one sitting will both wear you out, but also it becomes easy for the details to blur together between each story. This is erotica, it’s well written, though not brilliant prose, each with one of more steamy scenes with a vampire central to its story. Some are darker and more violent, while a few are romantic and others a slightly silly, but they don’t all end the same way. I did noticed that a few of the stories seemed to close suddenly, as if the author had more to say but had run out of room. With Birthday by Natty Soltesz, the protagonist begins to tell the story of his turning, that he was reborn in 1997, though that little fact doesn’t seem to matter much throughout the story as the narrator doesn’t return to the present to reflect on the flashback. Movie Monster Mayhem! also concluded too quickly and I found I wasn’t clear how the story quite resolved in the face of the sudden closure.

Any grips aside, Until the Sun Rises is a good collection of some steamy erotica, featuring vampires, which any fan of gay vampire fiction should enjoy. Check out Until the Sun Rises at Amazon (or amazon.co.uk) for yourself and if you agree or disagree with my summation, feel free to leave a comment.

Probably the best bit of the book was the blurb that convinced me to buy it, other than my too easy desire to lap up any and every gay vampire book published on the market.

What’s so alluring about the undead? Vampires are sexy, virile, and forever young – frozen in time at their sexual peak. They have a flair for seduction, an eagerness to penetrate with more than their eyes, and an insatiable need to suck things. Their libidos and youth are rejuvenated by your blood – and to get it, they use their charm and massive strength to overpower you. What could be a bigger turn-on? Featuring explicit tales from some of gay erotica’s most prolific and acclaimed authors, Until the Sun Rises overflows with kinky scenarios of thirsty vampires who are eager for much more than a taste of your blood.

Such words are tantalizing and do get me excited for the possibilities of new vampire fantasies hidden between the covers (a cover featuring BelAmi model Dolph Lambert with fangs… clearing a work of photoshop and sadly not from a larger photo shoot). I was probably expecting too much from the anthology and if I’m honest, the bits that excite me most are the scenes of a vampire nature, not the graphic details which is so obviously necessary for the stories to be called erotica. That said, none of the stories used the vampire as a way for the sex to be kinkier or edgier, biting remained as an after-thought or for the climax.

Summary:
Until the Sun Rises edited by Winston Gieseke and published in 2014 by Bruno Gmünder, but only in paperback it seems (no ebook for you!).

In the Casket by Gregory L. Norris, Shade of Night by Brent Lockhard, Birthday by Natty Soltesz, My Vampire Guru by Gerard Wozek, Moon Doggie and the Nightsurfers of Hammerhead Beach by Michael Bracken, Irresistible by David Aprys, Little Sucker by Rob Rosen, Black Snow by Mark Wildyr, The Coming Storm by Vincent Lambert, Swarm by Chip Masterson, Movie Monster Mayhem! by Landon Dixon, Inhuman Ecstasy by P.A. Friday, Sexual Transitioning by Ryan Field, and Twice Shy by Pink Rushmore.