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Vampire fiction recommendations
mrmr
nameless protagonistRegistered User regular
nameless protagonistRegistered User regular
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.
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.
mrmr on
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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?
I was going to recommend these. They're not the traditional vampire mood and setting but quite funny and excellent in their own way.
The American Vampire comic book series is also really good.
Only 'vampire novel' I've ever read, but I really enjoyed it.
The Strain (and sequels) : Guillermo Del Toro
Steam - Talon Valdez :Blizz - Talonious#1860 : Xbox Live & LoL - Talonious Monk @TaloniousMonk Hail Satan
Christopher Farnsworth is the author and apparently the second book has just been released.
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.
Now I really wanna go to Barnes and Noble :P
It's set in London around 1900 and has kind of a Sherlock Holmes feel to it.
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.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
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!
This took way too long. It's the best strictly vampire fiction out there.
Anyone want to beta read a paranormal mystery novella? Here's your chance.
stream
Thanks for the recommendations guys. Got a bunch in my amazon cart now haha.
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.
"For a few seconds Oskar saw through Eli's eyes. And what he saw was...himself. Only much better, more handsome, stronger than what he thought of himself. Seen with love."
--John Ajvide Lindqvist, Let the Right One In (Page 446).
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.
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.
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.
I found it sort of interesting, but sort of crap. The vampires were great, they did some shit. The human characters, not so much.
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.
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)