Vampire novels

Varney the Vampire is a classic, one of the first from Victorian penny dreafuls. So yes, terrible, but best understood in context.

My favorite isnt a book, but a short story in a collection. The collection is called The Bloody Tower by Angela Carter and the story is Lady in the House of Love. I adore the whole book. She uses classic fairy tales and gives them an erotic slant. Check it out.

I'm a bit late on this one... but everything I read is in the supernatural horror/romance genre.

I don't know if anyone is looking for anything like these (they blend all types of supernatural things), but I'll list them anyways.

Charlaine Harris - Sookie Stackhouse series
Laurell K. Hamilton - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series
Sherrilyn Kenyon - Dark Hunter series
Christine Feehan - "Dark" series (Carpathians - not my thing, personally)
Kim Harrison - Rachel Morgan series
L.A. Banks - Vampire Huntress Legend series
Kelley Armstrong - Women of the Otherworld series (not much about vampires in the beginning, but the vampire pops up more in later books & i'm sure she'll write about her in the future)
Katie MacAlister - vampire series
MaryJanice Davidson - Betsy Taylor series
J.R. Ward - the Black Dagger Brotherhood series
Raven Hart - "A Vampire's Seduction" is the first book of her vampire series.

Some of them are quite funny (MaryJanice & Kate Mac, particularly), some are typical romance (Feehan & Kenyon, though Kenyon writes better than Feehan, imo), and some are dark (Hamilton & Banks). Most of them combine it all. They're not particularly historical, but some have original stories and I think show where this genre is headed.

Just my .02.

Why are all those authors women? I'm just curious. Are there no men writing about vampires these days? Not that I'm complaining. I happen to like several of those authors, but it has me wondering what is the reason it seems to be female dominated genre.

Shadow_Ferret said:

Why are all those authors women? I'm just curious. Are there no men writing about vampires these days? Not that I'm complaining. I happen to like several of those authors, but it has me wondering what is the reason it seems to be female dominated genre.

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I've never read them, but E.E. Knight is a man. It's a post-apocalyptic type thing, and I don't have much of an interest in it, but he's a man. I only included authors that I'd read in my list.

I really think that they're more fascinating for women. Hence the reason all of those books have some sort of romantic tone. Even the early Anita Blakes had a sense of sexual tension, and LKH sure made her vampires sexy. I just think the idea of the vampire as an erotic creature is more appealing than them being disgusting, blood thirsty (not just literally) monsters. I think men would focus more on the super strength/super violent idea of vampires.

Did that make any sense?

elzoria said:

Anyone read any good vampire novels, besides Anne Rice's collection and Dracula? I'm trying to do research on the history of vampires in literature.

Am I posting this in the right place?

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I'm enjoying Darren Shan's Cirque Du Freak series at the moment.

Give me time.

Soon, if all goes well, you'll be wondering about a NEW book called...

Annabelle and Roland, The Night Children

Once an agent picks it up, that is.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I'm just curious. Are there no men writing about vampires these days?

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HEY!
What am I, chopped bat?

Just you wait!

Twilight Angel said:

Anyway--you could read my vampire novel---of course, there's the little issue with it not being published yet...

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We're in the same boat.

Maggie Shayne's Twilight Hunger is a great vampire story. I absolutely loved that one. In fact, her entire Twilight series is good.

*Shameless plug alert mods forgive me* Grayson Point is a vampire story as well.

Back in July, I read a terrific debut novel called Blood Ties: The Turning. It's the first in a triology. The author's name (yes, it's a woman!) is Jennifer Armintrout.

What I liked the most about this book is the gritty realism that the writer imparted to the stories. This is not all neat and easy.

The story is told in first person POV. The protagonist is a young medical intern who gets turned against her will -- and without even really knowing what's happened to her at first. The reactions are realistic, if one can apply the term "realistic" to a vamp novel. <G>

I'll be eagerly awaiting the next novel in the trilogy.

Susan G.

Akiahara said:

I really think that they're more fascinating for women. Hence the reason all of those books have some sort of romantic tone. Even the early Anita Blakes had a sense of sexual tension, and LKH sure made her vampires sexy. I just think the idea of the vampire as an erotic creature is more appealing than them being disgusting, blood thirsty (not just literally) monsters. I think men would focus more on the super strength/super violent idea of vampires.

Did that make any sense?

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I tend to make my female vampires very erotic and irresistably suductive.

I always like Jean Kalogridis' vampire trilogy. Its sorta a spin off or continuation of the original Dracula story.

Shadow_Ferret said:

I tend to make my female vampires very erotic and irresistably suductive.

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But how many other male authors do? Or... how large of an audience is there for that? Unless, of course, you include very erotic and irresistable male vampires, too.

I just think the chunk of vampire novels are aimed towards women, therefore, the authors are usually women. I could be wrong, I suppose, but I've never read a vampire book that was written by a man.