Good Books About Vampires
- Thread starter Julianking93
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I'm actually working on a series idea, and in it there IS a species of vampire that sparkles in sunlight. Right before they burst into flame and DIE. Another one can sparkle as well, but that's a psychotropic effect, sort of a glamor they project to make their prey love them and not resist.AhumbleKnight said:I will second you on "Carpe Jugulum". That was a really good vampire story.Broken Blade said:
On a side note. My wife descided to write a vampire story after reading Twilight. Her reasons? TO SHOW THE STUPID ***** HOW IT IS DONE.She hates Twilight as much as the rest of us.
Abraham Lincoln; Vampire Hunter is a fun-as-hell little silly read that I absolutely love. While you're at it, read that author's other book, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
I like the first three Anne Rice vampire saga books-- Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned (all three very heavy, Tolkien-esque reads, but all three better than the piece o' shite movies that came out for them)
For a more fantasy-setting but fantastic read, try Christie Golden's Vampire of the Mists, from the Ravenloft series. (Ravenloft is a spin-off from the Forgotten Realms in the D&Dverse) I, Strahd from that same series is also a good one, but read Vampire of the Mists first.
I like the first three Anne Rice vampire saga books-- Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, and Queen of the Damned (all three very heavy, Tolkien-esque reads, but all three better than the piece o' shite movies that came out for them)
For a more fantasy-setting but fantastic read, try Christie Golden's Vampire of the Mists, from the Ravenloft series. (Ravenloft is a spin-off from the Forgotten Realms in the D&Dverse) I, Strahd from that same series is also a good one, but read Vampire of the Mists first.
try the Anne Rice vampire novels. i havent read them myself, but my girlfriend tells me they are pretty good. or salems lot (the only vampire novel ive ever read)
The novel 'Vamipre$' by John Steakley is pretty good. The vampires in that one are complete, sadistic monsters that treat humans as playthings and walking buffets. The books also features a group/ company of Vampire slayers that resemble the 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' (t.v. show, I've never really watched the movie) style as the Vampires resemble 'Twilight' vamps. It's a fairly dark and violent book but very well written.
You remember correctly. Salem's Lot was about vampires at their worst: manipulative beast that crave control and blood (and quite a bit of it). Good read, if you prefer your vampires to make you a bit sick, not 'horny.'tiredinnuendo said:
Hmm, 'Dead until Dusk' is very good.
The first in the series which the TV show 'True Blood' is based on.
Even better than the show in my opinion, which is prety good going.
It's set in the southern USA, where Vamps have come out, and they live alongside humans, or not so much sometimes.
The series is very good, a fresh look at Vampires, as people, to an extent, those who haven't lost their humanity. Not your classic Vamps, but good all the same.
The first in the series which the TV show 'True Blood' is based on.
Even better than the show in my opinion, which is prety good going.
It's set in the southern USA, where Vamps have come out, and they live alongside humans, or not so much sometimes.
The series is very good, a fresh look at Vampires, as people, to an extent, those who haven't lost their humanity. Not your classic Vamps, but good all the same.
Dracula is a Racist is a good one if you want some humour. I was skeptical this was a real book since the first announcement came on April 1st, buuut it seems to have actually materialised. I'm not finished reading it yet, but I enjoyed it thusfar.Julianking93 said:
I'll get tarred, feathered, and tossed in boiling oil for it, in some circles, but I like reading the old White Wolf stuff set in the Vampire: The Masquerade world. The backstory though a bit pretentious at points, but I enjoy how it takes all these different superstitutions and plays off them. And I think the thing I enjoy most about it is unlike some of these "I'm so goth I shit bats" stories, to borrow paulgruberman's words, it doesn't take itself too seriously. It knows when to take the piss out of itself.
BLASPHEMY!! Pike's Last Vampire books are the ultimate antidote to Meyer's Twilight FAIL!!!marter said:
I would like to warn people that Anne Rice's books are NOT very exciting, action backed or thrilling. I (personally) couldn't stand the books to hear these vampire moan on for hours and HOURS about their apparently sucky emo lives.William Ossiss said:
It is all too similar to sob-fiction to me.
I want to scream at the character "You are immortal superhuman predators! Living through some of the most interesting historical eras and events yet all you do is sit around teasing each other wind bullshit mind games! Why don't you do something INTERESTING!"
At this time in Pike's The Last Vampire the vampire protagonist was musing about going on adventures with pirates and how she wasn't at the very top of the food chain as a shark almost succeeded in eating her.
And why do Rice's vampire have to be so Emo about the Sun, of they ***** about missing daylight so much it just reinforces the idea that being a vampire is totally lame when it should be cool.
I also suggest the Darren Shan Saga, bit more suited to younger readers than Pike and it really does emphasis the fun Tolkein-ish adventure aspect, only without treading into Harry-Potter-Cliché-ville. You know what, the Darren Shan saga is also a good antidote for people fed up with Harry Potter, I know it do me a treat.
The Historian by... er someone. I forget.
Darren Shan books were ok when I was younger, but I re-read a couple the other day and I hated it (although I'm pretty sure it's the first book I ever cried reading.)
EDIT:
Also, Salem's Lot by Stephen King is pretty fantastic. Like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers but with vampires.
Darren Shan books were ok when I was younger, but I re-read a couple the other day and I hated it (although I'm pretty sure it's the first book I ever cried reading.)
the bit where he dies and hears his family saying their goodbyes
EDIT:
Sneaky ninja! who can also remember what it's called.SuccessAndBiscuts said:
Also, Salem's Lot by Stephen King is pretty fantastic. Like Invasion Of The Body Snatchers but with vampires.
*laughs heartily*paulgruberman said:
Depends on how Dark you want them.
The Historian is AWESOME. Truly scary. (Elizabeth Kostova)
Lumley's Necroscope series is really good,
Rachel Caine's Morganville series is Twilight with actual plot, character and sense,
Laurell K Hamilton's Anita Blake series is ...well... a heady mix of erotica and uber-violence.
Doctor Who has had a number of different variants: State of Decay is your classics, the Plasmavore in Smith and Jones is decidedly RTDish, the Haemovores in The Curse of Fenric are post-apocalyptic...
I Am Legend, of course, (book, not film)
Vampires of Venice coming up in Who,
Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak is hit and miss,
Lovecraft's work is chockful of Ghouls and Vampires with a twist, like the Hounds of Tindalos,
Lesbian Vampires started off in Carmilla back in 1872 (so not a new phenomenom),
The old Hammer House of Horror...
Jim Butcher's Dresden Files series has a number of really nasty ones,
White Wolf's Masquerade and Requiem has some damn fine "I shit bats" Vamps...especially given Washington DC's Prince.
And lots more info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire_literature
Oh hell yeah, which also reminds me of Clive Barker (Just Clive Barker really) but Nightbreed(Cabal).Pulse Reality said:
Vampire Academy is pretty good. So is the Sookie Stackhouse series, Vampire Kisses, and the Cirque du Freak series. I know, as soon as Twilight came out, Vampires went for cold blooded, murderous hunters of the night to sparkly angst-ridden fags.
It's all so, so very sad.
I'm also trying to write a vampire series of my own, and get back to what vampires USED to be before Twilight ruined it. If anyone's interested, I'll post a link as soon as I publish it.
It's all so, so very sad.
I'm also trying to write a vampire series of my own, and get back to what vampires USED to be before Twilight ruined it. If anyone's interested, I'll post a link as soon as I publish it.
The Night Flier is a novella by Stephen King (it's in the collection Nightmares and Dreamscapes). It's about a reporter investigating a serial killer that flies a small plane between different airports at night, and kills his victims in a vampire-like fashion. Pretty good story.
There actually is an order to them. Butcher is also building towards an epic climax to the series (specifically, an apocalyptic trilogy because "who doesn't like apocalyptic trilogies"), so it would probably be best to read them in order. I don't remember it off the top of my head, but the wikipedia article should reveal all. Also, only one vampire shows up in the first book, but she is? definitely not your friendly neighborhood Count von Count.[/quote]Broken Blade said:
1. Storm Front
2. Fool Moon
3. Grave Peril
4. Summer Knight
5. Death Masks
6. Blood Rites
7. Dead Beat
8. Proven Guilty
9. White Night
10. Small Favor
11. Turn Coat
12. Changes
13. Ghost Story (unreleased)
They're a fantastic series, very funny, very entertaining, and with some of the best characters in books I can remember. They read a bit like the Anita Blake series back before it sucked, but still infinitely better.
Read them. You won't be disappointed.
I thought the Night Watch series by Sergei Lukyanenko was really good.
I'll admit it wasn't specifically about vampires and they weren't really the main characters but they were there and the books were good.
I'll admit it wasn't specifically about vampires and they weren't really the main characters but they were there and the books were good.
I hate to quibble, but it was commissioned by the White Council (the governing body of wizards) as a how-to manual for destroying a specific court of vampires (the black court, who are the kind of grotesque Nosferatu vampires).Broken Blade said:
The other two major courts we know about are:
1. The Red Court, who control most of the more uncivilized parts of the world, work sort of like a drug cartel, and are basically giant bat monsters who can make a shell of human skin to wear. Their saliva is a narcotic, and they're really pretty evil. They can only "force" a partial transformation on their victims, who do not become vampires until they willingly feed on a human (and kill the human).
2. The White Court. These are psychic vampires. Dependent on the family of the vampire within the White Court, they can feed on lust (House Raith), fear (House Malvora), or Despair (House Skavis). They're mostly human, with a demon inside of them who can fuel their preternatural powers, but which becomes desperately hungry.