A VELVET OF VAMPYRES: Tales of Horror, by Don Webb. It's a «murder» of crows and a «parliament» of owls. For bats, the genus is «velvet,» and hence also for vampires. We like the older spelling, the one John Polidori gave us when he alerted the world to their presence. They’re here–dominating our dreams, our fears, our media. But what if they aren't boy-band-pretty with diamond sparkly skin? What if they're more dangerous because they’re Desire herself? What if they're behind deep erotic urges AND the desire to write a poem? What if they live in the need to tear open a bright shiny Christams present AND the desire to drink hot red blood burning bright in the night? Seven great tales of the living undead by a Master of the Order of the Vampyre of the Temple of Set. Caveat lector!
The alien Belatrin are the «Other.» They look like us, they organize their society like ours, yet even the slightest contact with them leads humans to madness. Here are seven encounters from a war in space that leads to a species-changing moment of synthesis and transformation, including the classic, award-winning novella, «The Five Biographies of General Gerrhan.» First-rate space opera in the grand style!
"In Don Webb’s «„Weird Wild West,“» Henry James avenges his brother Jesse, Robert E. Howard’s serpent people are a modern gang, Satan flies a Zeppelin, and hobos liberate a zebra from a stolen train. Great weird fiction set in the west! <P> “Don Webb can write straight tales or he can go out to the fringe, where the cutting edge hasn’t even cut yet, [where he] plays head-churning games and word games: [he’s] a full spectrum writer.” —Roger Zelazny"