Collects 33 stories of horror and dark fantasy that acknowledge the undead as ineradicable members of Australian society. The best selections twine the vampire incursion with Australian history, as in Shona Husk’s “Mutiny on the Scarborough,” whose vampire narrator reveals himself to have been one of the earliest convicts transported Down Under. Angela Slatter’s “Sun Falls,” about a luckless vamp dependent upon his smart-aleck human slave, and “The Tide,” a multi-authored story that charts vampires’ rise from second-class citizen to the nation’s ruling elite, mix horror with humor.

The stories

• “The Tide”, Martin Livings and friends*
• “Mutiny on the Scarborough”, Shona Husk
• “Sun Falls”, Angela Slatter
• “Such is Life”, Jeremy Sadler
• “Apologetoi”, Chris Lawson
• “Punishment of the Sun”, Alan Baxter
• “Red Delicious”, Felicity Dowker
• “Just a Matter of Economics”, Yvonne Eve Walus
• “Quarantine”, Patty Jansen
• “Out of the Grave”, Amanda Pillar
• “Desert Blood”, Marty Young
• “Thin Air”, Simon Brown
• “Kissed by the Sun”, Jodi Cleghorn
• “Bats”, Jane Routley
• “Black Heart”, Joanna Fay
• “Renfield’s Wife”, Damon Cavalchini
• “Listening to Tracy”, Jen White
• “Breaking the Drought”, Jay Caselberg
• “Children of the Cane”, Jason Nahrung
• “The Sea at Night”, Joanne Anderton
• “Sky in the Morning”, Sonia Marcon
• “Taking it for the Team”, Tracie McBride
• “All that Glisters”, Pete Kempshall
• “The Rider”, Martin Livings
• “Vitality”, George Ivanoff
• “Coming Home”, Kathryn Hore
• “The Little Red Man”, Ray Gates
• “Deathborn Light”, Helen Stubbs
• “The Life Stealer”, Donna Maree Hanson
• “Behind the Black Mask”, Jacob Edwards
• “Interview with the Jiangshi”, Anne Mok
• “White and Red in the Black”, Lisa L Hannett
• “Lady Yang’s Lament”, Penelope Love

*Carol Ryles, Lezli Robyn, Kaaron Warren, Patty Jansen, Alan Baxter, Devin Jeythurai, Felicity Dowker, Andrew J McKiernan, Gillian Pollack, Chuck McKenzie

In the first volume of this award-winning series, editors Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene have compiled an impressive list of fantastic stories first published in 2010, from New Zealand’s and Australia’s finest writers.

The 33 stories selected are

• RJ Astruc: “Johnny and Babushka”
• Peter M Ball: “L’esprit de L’escalier”
• Alan Baxter: “The King’s Accord”
• Jenny Blackford: “Mirror”
• Gitte Christensen: “A Sweet Story”
• Matthew Chrulew: “Schubert By Candlelight”
• Bill Congreve: “Ghia Likes Food”
• Rjurik Davidson: “Lovers In Caeli-Amur”
• Felicity Dowker: “After the Jump”
• Dale Elvy: “Night Shift”
• Jason Fischer: “The School Bus”
• Dirk Flinthart: “Walker”
• Bob Franklin: “Children’s Story”
• Christopher Green: “Where We Go To Be Made Lighter”
• Paul Haines: “High Tide At Hot Water Beach”
• Lisa L. Hannett: “Soil From My Fingers”
• Stephen Irwin: “Hive”
• Gary Kemble: “Feast Or Famine”
• Pete Kempshall: “Brave Face”
• Tessa Kum: “Acception”
• Martin Livings: “Home”
• Maxine McArthur: “A Pearling Tale”
• Kirstyn McDermott: “She Said”
• Andrew McKiernan: “The Memory Of Water”
• Ben Peek: “White Crocodile Jazz”
• Simon Petrie: “Dark Rendezvous”
• Lezli Robyn: “Anne-droid of Green Gables”
• Angela Rega: “Slow Cookin’ “
• Angela Slatter: “The Bone Mother”
• Angela Slatter & Lisa L. Hannett: “The February Dragon”
• Grant Stone: “Wood”
• Kaaron Warren: “That Girl”
• Janeen Webb: “Manifest Destiny”