| Title | : | Seeds of Fear (Hot Blood, #5) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 0786016477 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9780786016471 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 295 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 1995 |
Dare to taste the forbidden fruits of wickedness and desire, and discover that true terror is best served ripe on the vine.
Seeds of Fear (Hot Blood, #5) Reviews
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This is a short-story anthology collection that combines horror and overt sexual themes. Consequently, it should go without saying, but I will say it anyway. These stories are adult-themed with expletives and sexual situations. Reader beware. These elements have combined well in the past to form a unique alchemy, but in this creation. . . not so much. Some of the stories are strong, but most of them are contrived and uninteresting riffs on the same formula popularized in 1980's slashers: promiscuity is bad and sex kills. I don't say avoid these stories completely because stories as offbeat as "I Am Joe's Penis" and "See Marilyn Monroe's Panties!" are stories that every true horror fan should check out. Despite those schlocky titles, there are stories here worthy of attention. A big plus is having Brinke Stevens (a very popular 80’s Scream Queen) write an 8-page introduction to the book. She is not very well-known for her acting, but for her topless character representations. Clearly, with the intro she demonstrates that she was more than a pretty face/body. Having her write the intro was a stroke of brilliance, Mr. Gelb. Good, but not great.
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I liked the story “Grub-Girl” when I first read it, about a gutsy zombie hooker. Then I found out that she had her own comic book (and X-rated movie). I read Grub Girl #1 (Verotika, June 1997), and loved it. I was terribly disappointed that, even though it was supposed to be a three-part series, Grub Girls #2 and 3 apparently never came out. And #1 ended on a cliffhanger. Damn!
Then I started reading Verotika, another Verotik imprint. I was thrilled when I realized that they adapted several stories from the Hot Blood series! Grub Girl’s story is told again in Verotika #8, and continued in #15. I love all the iterations. But I want more!
Edward Lee wrote another story called “Grub Girl in the Prison of Women.” It’s in his collection
Brain Cheese Buffet. It’s probably the same story in #15, but I still want to read it.
I love Grub Girl. She’s tough, fierce, strong, just, smart, sexy, brave, and still has a feeling heart, in spite of her life, death, torture, and second death. She is an unsquashable grub. I wish she had a name.
Verotika and Grub Girl can be read online, but they take a strong stomach to read. Some of them are by and for sick puppies. Avoid Verotika #4. -
Another in the "Hot Blood" series of horrorotica. As with any collection there's hits and misses.
The story that stuck with me the most was "Just A Phone Call Away" by John F. D. Taff.
Table of Contents:
Scream Queen - Ronald Kelly
Hideyhole - Billie Sue Mosiman
High Concept - J.N. Williamson
Just A Phone Call Away - John F.D. Taff
Black And White and Bed All Over - James Crawford
Handyman - Jeff Gelb
Airhead - Michael Newton
Five Seconds - J.L. Comean
Sympathy Call - Michael Garrett
Overeaters Ominous - Stephen R. George
Grub-Girl - Edward Lee
Hunger - Kathryn Ptacek
The Watcher - Rex Miller and Jeff Gelb
Lullaby & Goodnight - Wayne Allen Sallee
I Am Joe's Penis - Scott H. Urban
What You See - Paul Dale Anderson
The Beast - Larry Tritten
See Marilyn Monroe's Panties! - Bentley Little
Devil With A Blue Dress - P.D. Cacek -
The short stories in Seeds of Fear are a bit like "Tales of the Unexpected" with themes related (sometimes loosely) to sex and horror. They are a mixed bunch, varying from mediocre to okay. I'm not a big fan of short stories and this probably affects my enjoyment of this series. For broad minded readers who like short stories and the genres involved here, the Hot Blood series may have more to offer. This is my fifth outing with the series, and I've decided it will be my last. I'll stick to the full length stuff I prefer from now on.
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A horror collection with a difference. If you like your horror with a twist of sex and violence then give this a try. Many well known authors along with some not so well known have written some very good stories in here all with an unusual twist. Theres such a wide background to the many different takes on horror by these authors that theres bound to be something for most horror fans. Well worth your time so give it a go. You won't be disappointed .
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The Hot Blood series are tales of erotic horror, which is the best combination ever. When something as personal and sensitive as sex is mixed with horror, what could possible scare you shitless more? So I set out to explore them all, all 13 books of the series, thus Project Hot Blood.
First, some info about my rating system. The level of paranormal of each story is one to five, one meaning it surely can happen in real life, five meaning it’s utterly something paranormal. The level of sex describes how graphic is the sex in each story, one to five, one being tame a bedtime story told by a nun, five being a detailed script for a hardcore porn movie. My rating’s from one to ten, it’s based on the balance of horror and erotic, so getting five in ‘level of sex’ doesn’t automatically mean an above average rating from me. It’s based on the wtf-ness of the ending, how freaked out I am, how nightmare-generating it is. One being rubbish, ten being masterpiece. It’s time to move on to the fifth book in my Project Hot Blood. Let's begin.
Scream Queen
Ronald Kelly
The premises of the story was actually great. There you have your regular stalker-loner type who happens to be a huge horror movie fan, the good old creature features. So the build-up was brilliant when the reader got to follow this guy on his little road trip to… I guess make his dreams come true. There was a twist in the end, that would have been a brilliant one only if the execution would have been better. There wasn’t enough words left for the twist, and that fact alone made this into only a 5/10 story instead of a masterpiece.
Length: 17 pages
Level of Sex: 2 Mostly masturbation, sex scene pretty contained.
My rating: 5 out of 10
Hideyhole
Billie Sue Mosiman
Another stalker-story, quite disturbing this one. I know the problem with short stories is that they never have enough pages to get the back story out. But I think it’s not very responsible of the author to open such a big can of worms but then leave it half way. The ending was rushed and I expected a completely different path that the story would take, and the actual ending was the lamest I could think of. I still gave this a higher rating than the first story, cos the beginning was pretty entertaining.
Length: 23 pages
Level of Sex: 3 Dirty violent sex, but still vanilla.
My rating: 6 out of 10
High Concept
J. N. Williamson
So I’m just going to go ahead and ignore the huge plot hole that you can actually just go and make someone into a porn star just like that. Story in short, a quite slimey porn producer tried to seduce a giant woman to join the industry for obvious novelty reasons. It sounded like a shitty thing to do, but did that actually warrant the amount of violence in the end of the story? I don’t think so. But by the time this lengthy short story ended, I didn’t even care anymore.
Length: 21 pages
Level of Sex: 2 Long but tame sex scene, I expected more of a story about the porn industry.
My rating: 4 out of 10
Just a Phone Call Away
John F. D. Taff
Now that’s what I’m talking about. This story is one of those why I absolutely looooove The Hot Blood series. Basically, it’s a simple story about a woman who was being fired by her boss/fuckbuddy then decided to start a phone sex hotline operating from her house. All went well until an especially kinky customer called her and that changed her life. Being kinky myself, I do understand the pleasure she must be felt, but she was also a cautionary tale of why safe kink requires a sane mind.
Length: 21 pages
Level of Sex: 5 Only masturbation, but because this included some hardcore kinky shit, therefore the fiver.
My rating: 9 out of 10
Black and White and Bed All Over
James Crawford
This is soooo strange. And not in a good way? So there are these Animates that can be anything and they do movies? I’m not sure. They are like creatures from your imagination? I’m not sure. And because they are kinda like the product of the imagination, only the imagination being their only limit? I’m not sure. So many big questions unanswered. Just a bizarre idea not really fully explored. Then the author threw in some absurd sex scenes, not the acts themselves, but the surrounding? I’m not sure. Simply put, I didn’t like it. 😀
Length: 16 pages
Level of Sex: 3 Strange, bizarre and absurd, but still, it was just sex.
My rating: 5 out of 10
Handyman
Jeff Gelb
Jeff Gelb the editor of The Hot Blood series always write a story himself in every book, sometimes they are good, sometimes they are mediocre. Handyman belonged to the latter group, unfortunately. It’s about this neat trick a man tries on a woman in bar, sounded something straight from Barney Stinson’s playbook. The guy introducing himself as a Handyman, providing lonely sex-hungry women with sex with no attachment, no disease, no worries. Just good old fucking.
Length: 10 pages
Level of Sex: 3 Good old fucking.
My rating: 6 out of 10
Airhead
Michael Newton
A story about a wannabe rapist and his sex doll that he uses as practice before the real deal. I know, some sick shit. Though it did take a strange turn in the end, but this time it was done right. “I Spit On Your Grave” style but weirder. The ending was a blast nonetheless. 😀 I’m a sick fuck, so I actually wanted it to prolong the ending, that’s why this is only an eight and not higher.
Length: 13 pages
Level of Sex: 5 Everything you can imagine, they got it here. A little kinky too.
My rating: 8 out of 10
Five Seconds
J. L. Comeau
This is a peculiar little one. Going into a crazy person’s head is a real treat for horror fans, and the lady of the hour is one cray cray gal. I love how she revealed her history, her part and her true nature bit by bit. It’s a short one, I wished it was better. I was having a great time in her head.
Length: 8 pages
Level of Sex: 2 Not very detailed but the images that popped up in my head were nonetheless creepy as fuck.
My rating: 7 out of 10
Sympathy Call
Michael Garrett
Like the story above, it’s one of those that revealed itself slowly. Okay, from the beginning, it was already hella creepy, but it just got worse and worse as the story went on. Basically, it’s about this man who went to his old girlfriend’s parents house, because the ex girlfriend died in an accident. So the whole point of the visit was to reminisce together with the girl’s parents. So, a strange premise already. But I didn’t think it would go so far, and the ending was all kinds of awesome.
Length: 13 pages
Level of Sex: 5 Wasn’t really detailed, thank fuck for that. But a fiver for how freaking disturbing it was.
My rating: 9 out of 10
Overeaters Ominous
Stephen R. George
Although I think it’s a little excessively done for the reader to really really despise the husband, so we wouldn’t feel any sympathy for him. And that what the wife did was completely justified. This has some serious WTF moments which I loved. The ending was a little bittersweet even, guess everything does come with a price.
Length: 17 pages
Level of Sex: 2 Not much sex, just a blowjob. But there was one little nasty thing… so a two it is.
My rating: 7 out of 10
Grub-Girl
Edward Lee
Okay this is a special one. It’s written in a dialogue kinda way, except you only get to read one person’s side. So here’s a thought, how about living dead working as prostitutes? Guess it is a good sale speech for blowjobs; no diseases, no need for air, and basically never get tired. I wonder whether necrophiles would like these working gals, cos basically they are dead, but basically living too. It’s really a cute little story that I would have loved to read more.
Length: 8 pages
Level of Sex: 0 Practically none, just a promise of a blowjob
My rating: 7 out of 10
Hunger
Kathryn Ptacek
The story of a nymphomaniac. Actually I thought it was a story of a vampire, I kept waiting for some blood-sucking action but it was just fucking. Tiny bit anticlimatic. But then there was a tiny little twist in the end that quickly turned the story to a dark territory then straight to pitch black. Nasty nasty ending. Got me covering my lady parts like it was me who got hit. 😀
Length: 14 pages
Level of Sex: 3 Decent amount, not very graphic
My rating: 7 out of 10
The Watcher
Rex Miller and Jeff Gelb
What man hasn’t dreamt about watching two girls doing it, right? I would love to watch some man on man action too. The story is about a husband who had long since lost his interest in his own wife, except the thought of her with another woman excited him to no end. So if you want something enough, you would do you damnest to make it happen. Of course, this is ‘Hot Blood’, so naturally it all backfired. There is some good old fashion betrayal and revenge going on here, it’s definitely a fun read with a satisfying ending.
Length: 18 pages
Level of Sex: 3 Some girl on girl action
My rating: 8 out of 10
Lullaby & Goodnight
Wayne Allen Sallee
So a police story. It reveals itself slowly. Sloooooowly. The build-up is actually super interesting, I mean a hooker with special talent, every perverted thing went through my mind. Child porn? Virgin fetish? School girl attraction? Something even more taboo? I was sitting on the edge of the imaginary chair and biting my nails about what it’s going to be. Then it was revealed, and it was none of the things that went through my mind. It was utterliar strange in a disgusting way, for sure. But it wasn’t that well executed that I would really feel gross out about it. And the story itself, unveiling itself equally slowly wasn’t that interesting either. Waste of 12 pages.
Length: 12 pages
Level of Sex: 1 Very little action, although the prospect of it was quite out of the world
My rating: 5 out of 10
I Am Joe’s Penis
Scott H. Urban
Oh I haven’t read a talking penis story in a long while. They are always great entertaining, and ‘Joe’s Penis’ was not exception. At least the beginning of the story was. But then Joe’s penis had had enough and decided to take control. That’s when the story got interesting. Very very interesting. What would you do, if you are penis who gets to take the lead? 😛
Length: 7 pages
Level of Sex: 4 A four for its intensity and the theme
My rating: 9 out of 10
What You See
Paul Dale Anderson
A woman with multiple personalities? Or something stranger? Even in the end I couldn’t be sure. It sure is interesting, but again, the eternal problem with short stories, I wished there could be more. Right when it got to the fascinating part, aka the gore probably, the story ended. I know I know, the saying goes that sometimes it’s more terrifying to be left to the reader’s own imagination. But I like stories that give it to me straight, all the gore, all the details, everything.
Length: 17 pages
Level of Sex: 3 It was a decent amount, not anything overtly graphic
My rating: 6 out of 10
The Beast
Larry Tritten
Schizophrenia? Maybe. Let’s pretend it is. So it’s inside the mind of a schizophrenic boy who was convinced an animal is after him, and it sometimes possesses his mother. So you probably guess where this is going… This doesn’t seem like a story that belongs to the ‘Hot Blood’ series though.
Length: 7 pages
Level of Sex: 1 Ugh, parent sex.
My rating: 6 out of 10
See Marilyn Monroe’s Panties!
Bentley Little
Oh God, this was strange. In short, road side tiny museum that is clearly all just bullshit, Marilyn Monroe’s panties that are actually alive? Yeah, I know, strange. And then the panties kinda have a strange pull on men, like a siren. Is it alien? Maybe. The ending is down right bizarre… and quite creepy too.
Length: 21 pages
Level of Sex: 2 Masturbation. Kinda. With panties?
My rating: 6 out of 10
Devil With a Blue Dress
P. D. Cacek
Now THIS was Hot Blood. A story of a veteran who went a little crazy over the unspeakable things he did back in Vietnam. They say a war would change a man, sometimes a war would just reveal one’s true colors. The things some men were capable off. The violence is not the worst I’ve ever read, but it surprised me, and I love to be surprised. It would have got a ten out of me, if it would have dived into the veteran’s head even more. Let all the crazy out on the page. This story should have been written in the first person format, although I usually dislike that, it would have been perfect inside crazy people’s heads.
Length: 25 pages
Level of Sex: 4 Just oral but hey, the level of gruesomeness more than covers it
My rating: 9 out of 10
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Review of the whole book
Although ‘Seeds of Fear’ had many decent stories, its stories weren’t very ‘Hot Blood’. It’s a very specific tone and gives off a very specific vibe. So although book 5 is packed with great stories, it’s so far my least favorite Hot Blood book.
19 stories
Average rating: 6.8
Stories with a rating below or is 6 out of 10: 9
Stories with a rating 7-8 out of 10: 6
Stories with a rating 9 out of 10: 4
Best stories:
Just a Phone Call Away
Sympathy Call
I Am Joe’s Penis
Devil With a Blue Dress
Most erotic story: Just a Phone Call Away
Most memorable story: Just a Phone Call Away -
I don't think that I've once been disappointed by any of the HOT BLOOD collections, and I'm still not. This is another collection of stories to get your adrenaline pumping, your nerves cringing and your loins throbbing. One of the other things about this collection is that I end up not wanting to put it down. I keep telling myself just one more story then go to bed. But one turns into two, then three. And suddenly it's three in the morning and I have to get some sleep for work the next morning! I just hate putting it down. So if erotic horror does the same for you, be sure to read this collection. Some of my favorites are below.
"Just A Phone Call Away" by John F. D. Taff - This one had me physically cringing through a good part of it
"I Am Joe's Penis" by Scott H. Urban - If for no other reason than the title
"Overeaters Ominous" by Stephen R. George - A new method of weight control
"Grub-Girl" by Edward Lee - A twist on the zombie
"Black And White And Bed All Over" by James Crawford - A side of 'toons that we haven't seen before
"The Watcher" by Rex Miller and Jeff Gelb - Something to make us guys not want a menage a trois -
This is erotica hotly laced with horror: psychological, physiological, perverted as hell. These are the
I Shudder at Your Touch meets The Books of Blood series. Sex taken to extremes, sex taken to the edge and over it are splashed across these pages. Lust, porn, snuff flicks, dirty pictures, murderous exes—it’s all here and then some.
There are no vampires, werewolves or succubi (although we meet zombies and a witch or two), just human desire run amok. (There are a lot of stories of dangerous women killing men to get their own personal fixes. Many of these stories are penned by male writers. Make of that what you will.)
There’s no humor as such (then again your notion of what’s funny may differ from mine) and I thought the anthology could have used it. Face it, sex can be played for laughs and a skilled writer can mix it in with horror. But that’s not what you get here so gear yourself up for chilling and thrilling sexplay that rivals anything Hugh Hefner could have produced. -
Scream Queen - Ronald Kelly
Hideyhole - Billie Sue Mosiman
High Concept - J.N. Williamson
Just A Phone Call Away - John F.D. Taff
Black And White and Bed All Over - James Crawford
Handyman - Jeff Gelb
Airhead - Michael Newton
Five Seconds - J.L. Comean
Sympathy Call - Michael Garrett
Overeaters Ominous - Stephen R. George
Grub-Girl - Edward Lee
Hunger - Kathryn Ptacek
The Watcher - Rex Miller and Jeff Gelb
Lullaby & Goodnight - Wayne Allen Sallee
I Am Joe's Penis - Scott H. Urban
What You See - Paul Dale Anderson
The Beast - Larry Tritten
See Marilyn Monroe's Panties! - Bentley Little
Devil With A Blue Dress - P.D. Cacek -
I saw this book and was intrigued... a whole collection of my two favorite genres; Erotica & Horror, but was skeptical how good they would actually be. I bought book 5 in this series because it featured Edward Lee's Grub Girl as one of the stories. While that was great, the rest of it was a pretty cheesy, predictable read. Lee's Grub Girl, Marilyn Monroe’s Panties by Bentley Little, Just A Phone Call Away by John F.D. Taff, and Overeaters Ominous by Stephen R. George were probably the strongest of the books mixed bag. I doubt I will read the rest of this series.
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Can't say that there was any story in this book that I really did not like. There were none I loved but they were all ok.
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"Hunger" by Kathryn Ptacek - A woman is driven by her insatiable sex drive to douche with Drano.
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I stumbled across this series while browsing books in a second hand store. The series revolves around stories which combine horror and eros in whatever way they can, no holds barred! This is guilty pleasure and nothing more, and I feel guilty of wasting time (in a moderately pleasurable way!). Only a very few stories worth reading, and it would be a fit only for a horror genre fan.
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Anthologies can sometimes be a mixed bag, and this one's no exception. Jeff Gelb's Hot Blood series work best at their trashiest and weirdest. A few entries in this volume certainly fit the bill.
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A nice collection of short stories that are more erotic than horror. Recommended
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Really good collection of stories. I enjoyed it.
