Post: #1

So it would seem that almost every book at Barnes & Noble, Black Library not included, that has to do with vampires also has to do with gross romance stuff. Has anyone read any fun vampire books?

Post: #2

Do Barnes and Noble not carry anything written before 1973 then?

For classics of vampire literature, try:
The Vampyre (John Polidori)
Varney the Vampire (James Malcolm Rymer)
Carmilla (Sheridan le Fanu)
Dracula (Bram Stoker)

Or if you're after something a bit more modern (1992 start, still going strong), Kim Newman's Anno Dracula series is good honest pulpy fun. His Warhammer books (under the name Jack Yeovil) are pretty damn good too (the best thing the Black Library ever did was reprint the whole lot in one volume).

On the subject of the Warhammer books, I'd personally avoid Steven Savile's. They're not bad, per se, but you will be sick of the statements 'His brow contorted', 'he unleashed the beast within' and 'he was the wolf' by the middle of the second book - nice characters, but repetitive and padded writing style, could have all been done in one book. Not sure about The Red Duke, not had the chance to properly read it.

Oh, and for all that she can be blamed for starting this whole 'vampires as angst-ridden romantic wish-fulfilment fantasy' trend off, Anne Rice's Interview with the Vampire is actually quite good. I'd avoid the rest, though; The Vampire Lestat is where the rot sets in and by the time you hit The Tale of the Body Thief it's all bad porn, self-retconning and ludicrous contrivances.

Post: #3

i started a thread like this while back so ill throw in Lucifera's Pet and the sequel Lesser, hardly no romance there more like a hungering evil lust for blood

Post: #4

Well one floods to mind but the main character is a female necromancer....
It does have love in at time but most the time she is kicking arse and blowing s**t up.
There are allot of vampires in the book including her other half as you would put it.

Its a large series of books by Laurell K. Hamilton called the Anita Blake Series.
You may like it, may not but give it a crack.

Post: #5

Thanks for the input. I ripped one vampire book on CD before a long road trip. About ten minutes in I realized I had been tricked, but I had nothing else to listen to on the trip (radio didn't work), so I continued on. I have been scarred. One good thing did come out of it. I later found out the author had written some ungodly number of these books. I then realized that I could write a vampire book with a lot of penis references and make a crap ton of money.

Post: #6

(01-15-2012 05:08 PM)Duke Danse Macabre Wrote:  Well one floods to mind but the main character is a female necromancer....
It does have love in at time but most the time she is kicking arse and blowing s**t up.
There are allot of vampires in the book including her other half as you would put it.

Its a large series of books by Laurell K. Hamilton called the Anita Blake Series.
You may like it, may not but give it a crack.

I'll 2nd LKH's Anita Blake series, there admittedly is still romance but think more a 40's-esk detective novel romance with the hero's gender swaped. The story has romance but it's more a complication/drive for Anita than the focus of the novels.

P.S. her Merry Gentry series IS romance... ok "mildly kinky I have to sleep with EVERYONE to try to have an heir Fae Politics" romance but still romance.

Post: #7

There is guns, swords, explosives, magic and vampires......
Fun for the whole Family....

Also there is shape shifters of every description...

Post: #8

There's something based on a pen-and-paper rpg-universe created by White Wolf publishing. The setting is called 'World of Darkness' and there's an old as well as a 'new' version of it. It has a ton of books with hard core vampire mayhem. Some books are focused on vampire politics, some on survival, but all have some levels of vampiric power games at the centre. On the positive note they have little or less of any love-angle between protagonists and the overblown sex-angle that many vampire books are filled nowadays is thin or nonexistent in some books.

The older World of Darkness novels are in two sets. One is a 13-book series setting in the Dark Ages. Mainly in Europe and Middle East (crusades and such) and the other set, a 13-book one as well, in modern times, across the globe. The reason they're 13 books a set, is that there are many clans and bloodlines and each book portrays one of them meanwhile advancing a greater narrative. I liked these both very much, I began with the Dark Ages and after that read the modern too.

There's some smaller sets in Victorian ages setting for the 'old' WoD too.

Of the newer World of Darkness and it's featured novels I am not too fond of. They're a good read, but I like the old setting better.

Check it out if you can find them anywhere, especially the Dark Ages books.

Post: #9

I keep meaning to try those Victorian ones. White Wolf put a lot of effort into researching the Victorian frame of mind for Victorian Age Vampire. I'd like to see how well that manifests in the tie-ins.

Post: #10

Never read those WoD novels, might give them a try now. I was afraid they wouldn't live up to the setting. My RPG group played the newer setting and I brought them back from it and they also enjoy Dark Ages, Victorian Age and Masquerade a lot more than Requiem.

I just never found any decent vamp books. I prefer the classic works mostly and like Von said Anne Rice quickly goes downhill.

An interesting read is Poppy Z. Brite's book Lost Souls. It might not be the usual vampires you know but the book is great in making characters believable.
I've lived in one of the areas she describes and she reflects the overall mood very well but adds a twisted, dark underworld feel to it without it becoming over the top. It could still very well be our world.
It is very graphic with pretty gruesome sex scenes in it so be warned. Brite isn't known for subtlety but her stories are so good it's forgive able; it isn't just done for shock value. It was really popular in the old Goth scene as she reflects its mood so well. I fondly recall the scene where they listen to the Cure and a character is high and imagines being swallowed by Robert Smith's red painted lips. The night clubs playing Bela Lugosi is Dead. So many references to that scene.
Her vampires aren't your typical undead but they are monsters as they simply become jaded over the centuries.

Post: #11

(01-16-2012 09:01 AM)Zephyr Wrote:  An interesting read is Poppy Z. Brite's book Lost Souls. It might not be the usual vampires you know but the book is great in making characters believable.
I've lived in one of the areas she describes and she reflects the overall mood very well but adds a twisted, dark underworld feel to it without it becoming over the top. It could still very well be our world.
...
Her vampires aren't your typical undead but they are monsters as they simply become jaded over the centuries.

Hell, yes, Lost Souls is pretty good stuff too. Knew I'd forgotten something.

I'm trying to remember what Tanith Lee's done in the vampire line...

Post: #12

I actually quite like the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. They are primarily based from the female perspective, but the women tend to be strong-kick-the-crap out of you instead of moping around. It does have some romance, reasonably descriptive sex scenes but I find they mesh with the storyline / expected actions of the characters rather than just jarring in for no reason.

To be fair the vampires role in the series of books is quite small, but it has a whole supernatural theme and so far I have enjoyed all the books.

Post: #13

(01-16-2012 09:40 PM)Disciple of Nagash Wrote:  I actually quite like the Otherworld series by Kelley Armstrong. They are primarily based from the female perspective, but the women tend to be strong-kick-the-crap out of you instead of moping around. It does have some romance, reasonably descriptive sex scenes but I find they mesh with the storyline / expected actions of the characters rather than just jarring in for no reason.

To be fair the vampires role in the series of books is quite small, but it has a whole supernatural theme and so far I have enjoyed all the books.

Haha!
DoN I could kiss you.

They are all great, I like the take on half demons though more than anything else.
Not many vamps but its a new take on them and they are damn near invulnerable so that makes up for it.

It does get a bit annoying at times with super powered women kicking 8ft muscle bound guys about abut at least the guys have the Wizards and Warlocks to kick right on back!

Post: #14

(01-16-2012 10:02 PM)Duke Danse Macabre Wrote:  Haha!
DoN I could kiss you.

Well I said I was never going to do it again....but eh, what the hell *puckers up*

Post: #15

*Gives a big slobbery kiss* Worth it.

Post: #16

(01-15-2012 05:08 PM)Duke Danse Macabre Wrote:  Well one floods to mind but the main character is a female necromancer....
It does have love in at time but most the time she is kicking arse and blowing s**t up.
There are allot of vampires in the book including her other half as you would put it.

Its a large series of books by Laurell K. Hamilton called the Anita Blake Series.
You may like it, may not but give it a crack.

I highly recommend the Anita Blake series as well, but would preface it with a warning that around somewhere of 6 - 8 books in, the series does take a bit of a dramatic turn in direction.

It starts off all being about zombie raising, vampires, werewolves, a lot of violence, and the main character, Anita, a petite, curvy young necromancer being a serial killer of sorts with the way that she can kill people for just crossing her path and not really having any qualms doing it. And whilst the main Vampire character in the series Jean Claude is chasing her, Anita is very much celibate and a bit of a prude.

Fast forward to what we are now up to I think around book 20 of the series, and Anita is now so fucking powerful that she can control Vampires like Zombies, she is also a Vampire herself of sorts, a Succubus that feeds on lust (ie. she now constantly fucks so that she can feed on peoples desire like Vamps feed on blood) who has if I remember correctly around 10 - 12 lovers that are made up of Vamps, werewolves, wereleopards, weretigers, werelions and a few other were animals (including a wereswan if I remember correctly), and she has particularly liking for threesomes and being spit roasted..

As I said, the series does take a major change of direction about a third of the way in, and Anita is now definitely a ho. But it's still a good series, and it's really gotten back to what made it great in the first place in the last few books (violence and a good mystery/crime thriller feel to it) after Laurell took things just that bit too far (Incubus Dreams, about 5 or 6 books ago, was the first time that I have ever said that a book had far too much sex in it and that I wished they would just concentrate on the crime/mystery that was meant to be solved).

Put it this way, I'm very happy to say that Anita is the type of character that would happily smile looking into the face of Edward Cullen whilst bringing to bare her Browning Hi Power, pulling the trigger and emptying her clip load of silver bullets point blank range and leaving where used to be his head just a big pulpy mess of blood, muscle and brain tissue, whilst muttering 'Vampires don't sparkle you fucking pussy..'. Oh, and then she would take a long silver knife that she keeps in a sheath at the small of her back and behead him and cut out his heart before setting his remains on fire and distributing his ashes over running water, just to ensure that he never came back. And then she would take a shower to wash out all the brain tissue and dark things that were clumped and matted in her hair.

It really is great stuff!

Post: #17

How can she behead him? The head is in pieces scattered over a wide area after being blasted with the aforementioned Browning!

Post: #18

(01-25-2012 12:01 PM)spineyrequiem Wrote:  How can she behead him? The head is in pieces scattered over a wide area after being blasted with the aforementioned Browning!

There is still various tissue and muscle sinew that is intact from the neck region that is attached to what is left of the head.

I guess you need to imagine the remnants and bone structure of what was once a head with a huge hole where the nose and mouth and eyes and forehead would be, all sort of caved in. Bits of brains and bone fragments and tissue scattered all over, but still a pulpy mess, attached to the body/torso. The head is not disintegrated to the point of where there is nothing left.

Geeze... where is your imagination?!

By the way, it's Edward Cullen we are talking about, surely nothing could not be horrible enough for him!

Post: #19

Bram Stoker's Dracula everytime. Hate the current trueblood/twilight vampire crap. The Red Duke novel is a pretty compelling read if you want warhammer vampires.

Post: #20

(01-25-2012 05:14 PM)El Syf Wrote:  Bram Stoker's Dracula everytime. Hate the current trueblood/twilight vampire crap. The Red Duke novel is a pretty compelling read if you want warhammer vampires.

I agree with Twilight being crap, but True Blood is gold... sorry.