Vampire fiction recommendations

mrmr

Greetings all. I'm in kind of a Vampire mood these days. About a year ago I played through Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines and loved it, and recently tried out Redemption off GOG.com for $3. Now I'm kinda in a vampire craze again and wonder what anyone could recommend in good vampire books. I have two sort of guidelines of what I'd be interested in:

1) What I liked so much about VtMB was the idea of vampire society and being hidden in plain sight (which I've always thought was a cool theme in any fiction, i.e. X-Men). So books with that sort of story would be good ideas. Not too interested in old school vampire books or ones focusing on the singular, antagonistic Dracula archetype (although on my last vampire bender I read Stephen King's 'Salem's Lot and loved it, so who knows). Modern times a plus, if it wasn't implied.

2) I'm also currently flipping through the New World of Darkness and Vampire: The Requiem game books, and I know there are books based off this world (and the old WoD/VtM) and wonder if any of them are good. Not a whole lot of expectations here, though. I tried reading one clan story from the oWoD and couldn't really keep myself focused on it. Wouldn't mind giving it another shot though.

Also, comics or graphic novels work just as well.

TychoCelchuuu

If you had asked me at any point in my life if I would ever recommend television shows to someone who had asked for books I would probably have laughed, but if you haven't seen them, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are worth it. Some people might also recommend True Blood or whatever but bleh, whatever. As for books my impression (from not having read almost any of it) is that most vampire books suck. PUN INTENDED.

SUCK LIKE SUCK BLOOD.

Bad books.

They're either bad romance novels or bad goth bait or more generally both. I haven't read Rice's work, though, so you could start with Interview With a Vampire?

E.Coyote

The older WoD fiction is worth reading if you're interested in the setting(better than the new stuff by far). There's a tcg and tv series for vampire too.

WhiteZinfandel

Books 1 and 3 in the Vampire: The Requiem line, written by Greg Stolze, are really good. Good enough that I recommend them even to people who know nothing about the setting. Pretty much all his works are quality, but those are the most accessible. For oWoD, I would point out the Clan Novel Saga. It can be a bit hit and miss, but the Setite and Giovanni books in particular were excellent.

WhiteZinfandel

Gah double post.

Sentry

The Christopher Moore vampire series, starting with Bloodsucking Fiends, a Love Story. Also, there are a few good Anne Rice books. Interview with the Vampire and the Vampire Lestat is good, also Blackwood Farm. I would stay away from all of her other books.

Quid

Sentry wrote:

The Christopher Moore vampire series, starting with Bloodsucking Fiends, a Love Story.

I was going to recommend these. They're not the traditional vampire mood and setting but quite funny and excellent in their own way.

noir_blood

If you don't mind some noir with your vamps, check out Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series of books. Vampires are treated less as romantic characters an more as fucked up people that contracted a virus.

The American Vampire comic book series is also really good.

Eupfhoria

Fevre Dream, by George RR Martin (who is, as you are no doubt aware of, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series)

Only 'vampire novel' I've ever read, but I really enjoyed it.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Let the right one in.

Beazle

Harry Dresden books buy Jim Butcher. Vampires are one of the main baddies in the book.

Skoal Cat

I really liked Interview but stopped halfway through Lestat. I'd at least pick up the first one.

A Dabble Of Thelonius

Carrion Comfort : Dan Simmons

The Strain (and sequels) : Guillermo Del Toro

Apothe0sis

Blood Oath (the first book of The Nathaniel Kade series) was really fun, I found I did not want to put it down. It's sort of an American version of the Hellsing animu at least at first blush.

Christopher Farnsworth is the author and apparently the second book has just been released.

AaronKI

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. No, seriously! I bought it as a joke to have on my bookshelf, but it turned out to be pretty darn good. The "vampires are a secret society hidden in plain sight among mortals" thing is a really heavy element/plot point. What I especially like is that it reads like a biography and Lincoln's life in the book is incredibly close to his real life.

Disclaimer: The only only other vampire fiction I've dabbled in was playing Vampire: The Masquerade: Bloodlines about a year after I read Lincoln. I can't gauge how it compares to other vampire books, but thinking back about AL:VH, I get a strong V:TM vibe from it. If V:TM was set during the early to mid 1800s America, that is. That might be the only strike against it for you.

mrmr

Shit, wikiing these books has me interested in a bunch. Blood Oath, Bloodsucking Fiends, Already Dead and Fevre Dream all sound pretty neat.

Now I really wanna go to Barnes and Noble :P

November Fifth

I would recommend Those Who Hunt the Night by Barbara Hambly.

It's set in London around 1900 and has kind of a Sherlock Holmes feel to it.

Clint Eastwood

twilight

Page-

You're in luck! The Anno Dracula books are all being reprinted.

Wonderful Vampire alternate histories. The first, Anno Dracula, picks up in an alternate history where Stoker's Dracula won, killing Van Helsing and the rest, and then returns to London and begins taking over. By the book's start he's married Queen Victoria and all of London knows that vampires exist. Things kick off when Jack the Ripper starts offing vampire prostitutes.

It's a wonderful book even without the vampires. When I read it I had no interest in them, but was really into alternative histories. The book has references or direct interactions with pretty much every real or fictional personality of the time, from Dr. Jekyll and Mycroft Holmes, to Lestrade Oscar Wilde, and obviously Jack the Ripper.

SammyF

30 Days of Night, either the graphic novel or movie. Just for a random departure from Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyers' insistence that all vampires must be fuckable.

B_R

SammyF wrote:

30 Days of Night, either the graphic novel or movie. Just for a random departure from Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyers' insistence that all vampires must be fuckable.

The graphic novels are much better.

Mike Danger

Only tangentially related, but I want to mention it anyhow: The Tain, by China Miéville, from his short story collection Looking for Jake, has my favorite explanation for where the stories of vampires came from.

SammyF

B_R wrote:

SammyF wrote:

30 Days of Night, either the graphic novel or movie. Just for a random departure from Anne Rice and Stephanie Meyers' insistence that all vampires must be fuckable.

The graphic novels are much better.

Particularly w/r/t the sequels. There's a movie sequel to 30 Days of Night which I didn't know about until it was run on SyFy a few days before Halloween, and it is atrocious. It's screaming-at-the-screen bad.

Stella: Why did you start writing me those letters?
Dane: Why did you start reading them?
Me: Because you wrote them to her, fucktard! That's how mail fucking works!

zeeny

noir_blood wrote:

If you don't mind some noir with your vamps, check out Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series of books. Vampires are treated less as romantic characters an more as fucked up people that contracted a virus.

The American Vampire comic book series is also really good.

This took way too long. It's the best strictly vampire fiction out there.

Page-

And Peter Watts' Blindsight for an explanation and use of vampires that is both unique and refreshing.

Taya

I enjoyed the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. Most of the stories are flashbacks explaining how various characters became vampires and their following vampire shenanigans. I think Queen of Damned and Body Thief are the only books that have plots taking place in the present. Like Skoal Cat said, you should at least try Interview With The Vampire.

mrmr

I actually tried Interview a few years back and didn't finish it. Might try again.

Thanks for the recommendations guys. Got a bunch in my amazon cart now haha.

LB

Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. One of the best vampire books out there!

Zephonate

Gonna echo a few that've already been mentioned, with a wee bit more elaboration.

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (http://www.amazon.com/Let-Right-One-Novel-Paperback/dp/B002YICW7U/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321266299&sr=1-2) is not only one of the best vampire books ever written, it's also an utterly fantastic, heartfelt, and touching coming-of-age story on its own, completely divorced from its supernatural elements. The Swedish film adaptation is also my favorite movie of all time –cannot recommend the story highly enough, no matter which medium you may decide to pursue it in.

Carrion Comfort by Dan Simmons (http://www.amazon.com/Carrion-Comfort-Dan-Simmons/dp/0312567073/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321266517&sr=1-1) is a very dark and intriguing story. It's a very different take on the concept of vampires; in this novel, they feed off of psychic energy and human suffering rather than blood. Haven't finished it yet, but so far it's very, very good.

The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (http://www.amazon.com/Strain-Book-One-Trilogy/dp/B0053U7BN6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1321266590&sr=1-1), part one of an epic trilogy, is my newest obsession. This book is amazing. A very new and fresh take on the vampire mythos, loads of awesome characters, an insane amount of detail, current day, and has plenty of alternate history + a little bit of Dracula thrown in just for the sake of being badass. Considering your criteria in your original post, I would say this one is definitely the most up your alley. Once you get past the opening, you won't be able to put it down. I devoured each of the three books in about two days each.

zeeny

The Strain is unreadable. Never recommend it again. k10xbye.

mts

you can try the passage by cronin its a good read, less blood sucking vampire and more lie i am legend type vampire. really well done

Hypatia

Books following one of the basic formulas that have cropped up a lot (detective/PI/psychic/some combination deals with the supernatural where vampires feature prominently at some point or another, solves crimes, etc.)

Tanya Huff - Blood Price, Blood Trail, Blood Lines, Blood Pact
Laurel Hamilton - the Anita Blake books, if you decide to read these only read the first...4. Don't bother reading further into the series because while they start off ok, they eventually devolve into porn.
Jim Butcher - The Dresden Chronicles, takes a couple of books to get rolling and break out of more formulaic writing
Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse books, they have vampires, they aren't my favorite but some people really like them
Kim Harrison - The Hollows books
Mercedes Lackey - Children of the Night (single book)
Patricia Briggs - Mercy Thompson books
Sergei Lukyanenko - The Watch Books

Darker stuff:
Anne Rice - Interview with a Vampire, Vampire Lestat, etc, decent but may feel a little dated in writing style compared to a lot of the more recent works
Poppy Z. Brite - Lost Souls (single book), a dark and and a lot more savage take on vampires in the world, they're also somewhat homoerotic
Robin McKinley - Sunshine (single book), darker but I would recommend this one, it's a little more unique than a lot of the others

I hesitate to strongly recommend any one over another other than Sunshine, because people tend to like their vampires certain ways. I just really like Sunshine because it's more unique and stands out in a sea of vampire books.

noir_blood

If you read Sunshine, I really hope you enjoy long passages about food/baking.

mrmr

A quick visit to my local Half Price Books I nabbed Blood Oath and Already Dead for $15. From the little I've read so far of A.D. I'm really liking it.

And Sunshine seems to have come up a few times, so I'll throw that on my list along with trying Interview wtV again. At some point. I'm a slow reader.

Apothe0sis

Page- wrote:

And Peter Watts' Blindsight for an explanation and use of vampires that is both unique and refreshing.

How could I forget this one? Blindsight is amazing. And a huge departure from normal fare.

You mig alsoht like 13 Bullets the vampires in this are brutal, but also well known to exist.

From the wiki wrote:

Thirteen Bullets takes place in Pennsylvania in the year 2003, in a setting similar to the real world, but where vampires and other supernatural forces are rare but accepted phenomena. It is widely believed that vampires were all but wiped out twenty years ago by Special Deputy Jameson Arkeley. The last vampire still in existence, Justinia Malvern, long imprisoned in a nearly abandoned sanitarium, has somehow managed to bestow her vampiric curse to the outside world and is working to free herself of human confinment. Pennsylvania State Trooper Laura Caxton is assigned to assist Arkeley hunt down the vampires running loose in rural Pennsylvania.

I found it sort of interesting, but sort of crap. The vampires were great, they did some shit. The human characters, not so much.

rockmonkey

zeeny wrote:

noir_blood wrote:

If you don't mind some noir with your vamps, check out Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt series of books. Vampires are treated less as romantic characters an more as fucked up people that contracted a virus.

The American Vampire comic book series is also really good.

This took way too long. It's the best strictly vampire fiction out there.

I'll 3rd or 4th this or whatever.

Joe Pitt series is what you are looking for. It's not upper vampire society with fancy balls and manisons. It's gritty urban vampires living slightly under the surface (figuratively) of society with territory and a society of their own with gangs. Joe Pitt struggles just to make ends meet and generally gets sucked (heh) into more bad situations then you can imagine.

I'll also give a 2nd BAD recommendation for The Strain and it's sequels. I've got the first two books and I had hopes for them but UGG it's was a pain to sludge through the first two books and I regret not just giving up, it's more in line with the single dracula style vamp who infects people that turn into lesser subservient minion vamps anyways.

essy_lad

my three cents worth:
Fevre dream - george martin (classic that never dies, much like vampires themselves)
30 days of night - actually like the film more
School for Vampires - quinn conlan (new one on kindle. Thought it would be tweeny but it's actually pretty meaty)

ceres

Please don't necropost.