So what are you reading, now? Part V
- Thread starter DimesDan
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I've got to disagree with you here. Like I said, I've just recently started getting into the UF thing, and there really is just as much variety and individuality in the ways the different authors treat things like vampire, and werewolves as there is in ways that sci-fi writers treat aliens and spaceships. And even if the basic rules of vampirism and lycanthropy are the same, the author still tends to put there owns twists on the worlds that they inhabit and the characters that inhabit them. There is no way you could say that the worlds of The Dresden Files, Southern Vampire mysteries or The Hollows are all the same. And Harry Dresden, Rachel Morgan, and Sookie Stackhouse, are three very different characters
I will gladly change my opinion, if I see something where vampires are given a different treatment than in the usual suspects because I have sampled numerous vampire novels, and they all, to me, treat vampires as nothing more than sexual objects.
I would love to see someone write vampires as "real people" like Angel was originally intended to be. Multi-layered, three-dimensional characterizations and thrust into unexpected situations, not just the typical "I'm investigating a paranormal crime and falling in love with a vampire who is probably the bad guy" drivel that so many paranormal and YA paranormal authors write.
Greg, I understand where you're coming from, and you're most definitely closer to the genre than I am, being a reader and writer-trying-to-make-it, but I would appreciate any books you could recommend on vampires treated differently.
I would love to see someone write vampires as "real people" like Angel was originally intended to be. Multi-layered, three-dimensional characterizations and thrust into unexpected situations, not just the typical "I'm investigating a paranormal crime and falling in love with a vampire who is probably the bad guy" drivel that so many paranormal and YA paranormal authors write.
Greg, I understand where you're coming from, and you're most definitely closer to the genre than I am, being a reader and writer-trying-to-make-it, but I would appreciate any books you could recommend on vampires treated differently.
One set of "vampire" novels I enjoyed were those by Christopher Moore. Bloodsucking Fiends, You Suck, and Bite Me.
The first plays it out as a "serious" comedy novel. The second moves more toward parody of the Vampire genre. Not read the third yet, but it gets the best reviews of all three.
The first plays it out as a "serious" comedy novel. The second moves more toward parody of the Vampire genre. Not read the third yet, but it gets the best reviews of all three.
Not a vampire comedy person, but thanks anyway.
Just off the top of my head:
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon
The Vampire Tapestries by Suzy McKee Charnas
Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin
Anno Dracula by Kim Newman
Necroscope by Brian Lumley
Vampire Junction by S. P. Somtow
The Dracula Tapes by Fred Saberhagen
That's cherry-picking the last several decades, of course, but just in the last few years there have been several high-profile vampire books that were very different from each other, and bore no resemblance to Charlaine Harris and/or Stephanie Meyer (who bear little resemblance to each other, really):
The Historian
The Strain
The Passage
The Radleys
(Sorry. Don't have time to look up the authors' names.)
The point is, vampires are like time-travel or alien invasions. Every year there are multiple takes on the theme, ranging from high lit to potboilers. It would be mistake to assume they all have cooties just because of TWILIGHT (which is the vibe I get from some fans, not necessarily you.)
Well, there's The Dresden Files, where there are several different "courts" or species of vampires. The most prominent are the White Court, which are very sexual but don't have a lot of the traditional vampiric traits; they're actually more like succubi/incubi, feeding on lust and draining life force through sex. They have no problem with sunlight or stakes or garlic; their weakness is that they can't withstand touching anyone who feels true love. There's also the Red Court, who can appear human on the surface but are quite grotesque underneath, and they're at war with the wizards' council for much of the series. And there's the Black Court, who are the traditional type of vampire, but whose influence has waned ever since Bram Stoker "outed" them in Dracula and revealed their weaknesses to the world (although there's a historical error there, because some of those weaknesses involve things introduced in movies rather than in Stoker's book -- for instance, the "destroyed by sunlight" trope originated in the movie Nosferatu). And the vamps aren't dominant in the Dresden books, but are just one of countless supernatural races alongside werewolves and trolls and Sidhe and Valkyries and so on.
I'll put those on my list to read, since I am interested in finding something different, but I have one question.
How does Matheson's book differ from the two versions of the movie? I've seen both and wasn't really impressed. Is the book orders of magnitude better? (Though I should add that I am not generally a fan of Matheson's work, but who knows.)
How does Matheson's book differ from the two versions of the movie? I've seen both and wasn't really impressed. Is the book orders of magnitude better? (Though I should add that I am not generally a fan of Matheson's work, but who knows.)
FYI: The book is much less action-oriented than the last two movie versions. (For the record, there are three official adaptations; the first was THE LAST MAN ON EARTH with Vincent Price). The emphasis is on his day-to-day isolation, and Matheson's scientific explanation for vampirism (which was a new idea back in 1954). The Vincent Price version is probably the most faithful to the book, although it was filmed cheaply in Italy.
I'm biased, of course, being Matheson's editor, but many people prefer the book to the movies.
Trying to start Reap the Whirlwind. I've already been spoilered that a favorite character will be leaving the station by book's end, though, so I'm a bit...reluctant to keep pressing on.
Elizabeth Kostova.
Guillermo del Toro. (Yes, the film director.) This one is seriously bad-ass; imagine vampirism as a global flu pandemic, and you're in the neighborhood.
One of the coolest vampire books I've ever read is Brian Stableford's The Empire of Fear. It's an alternate history of the Middle Ages, where the ruling families of Europe are vampires.
Not unlike Kim Newman's Anno Dracula, which is an alternate history in which Dracula married Queen Victoria and took over the British Empire. There are two sequels, set in World War I and 1959, respectively.
Great stuff.
I loved the last man on earth fantastic vampire movie plus it had vincent frankn' price in it . also loved what dreams may come and I am legend was a great vampire book .
and I totaly agree with you on the fact that most books are way better than the movies . Jurasik park for example great book and then they choped it to pieces and the part they kept original was the sceane with the guy who played newman on sienfield . I love movies I do I just wish they would keep author's original verision of there story intact. look at " stephen king the shining " I like jack nicholson I do but his shining has almost nothing to do with the book especialy how it ends!!!
currently pissed about the cancelation of the cape
currently reading laurell K hamilton's bloody bones vol. 5 of 20
currently watching supernatural season 5
and I totaly agree with you on the fact that most books are way better than the movies . Jurasik park for example great book and then they choped it to pieces and the part they kept original was the sceane with the guy who played newman on sienfield . I love movies I do I just wish they would keep author's original verision of there story intact. look at " stephen king the shining " I like jack nicholson I do but his shining has almost nothing to do with the book especialy how it ends!!!
currently pissed about the cancelation of the cape currently reading laurell K hamilton's bloody bones vol. 5 of 20
currently watching supernatural season 5
Historically, I AM LEGEND was also the first major vampire novel after DRACULA, which had pretty much killed the vampire novel for about seventy years. Nobody had even tried to do something different with vampires, at least at novel-length, until Matheson came along in the 1950's. (And Sturgeon, around the same time, although his book was less influential.)
And then, of course, Anne Rice arrived in the seventies and the floodgates opened . . . .
(Did I mention that I once wrote a book on the history of vampire literature?)
The Transylvanian Library: A Consumer's Guide to Vampire Literature.
Alas, it's been out-of-print for years now and is badly out of date. But you might be able to find a used copy. Thanks for asking.
The Learning Channel interviewed me regarding vampires many, many years ago, but I never actually saw the program. (Alas, I didn't have cable at the time.) We did the interview in a cemetery down by Trinity Church in NYC!
I also coedited an anthology of science fiction vampire stories titled Tomorrow Sucks!
(Yes, the title was my idea.)
Oh no seriously. Seriously. Whirlwind is amazing. Whatever you've been spoiled on, it doesn't mean or do what you think.
I finished Seeds of Dissent (and Myriad Universes: Infinity's Prism as a whole) the other day and started on Burn Notice: The End Game.
I'm halfway in. Doesn't "Tommy Lee Jones" get into some trouble? I know he's replaced from conversations here and the book descriptions of the books that follow..
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