Suggestions For Vampire Novels.
 

Like most people I've always had a thing for vampires in fiction. I enjoy a good vampire movie, TV show and recently I've started to read a series of vampire novels. The series is "The Blood Books" by Tanya Huff. She is a Canadian author living in Toronto. She has put some of Toronto's settings within her novels which also appeals to me, being a Canadian myself. The only reason I discovered these novels was by watching the TV show Blood Ties. I discovered that the show was based on her novels and therefore had to check it out.

I know everyone recently is in love with Twilight. As well as when looking for vampire novels one usually looks to Ann Rice. I really don't want to go down those roads.

Dose anyone have any other suggestions?

There's a new movie coming out this summer about an insanely-popular (in Japan) comic involving the plot of the last remaining vampire hunter, of which she labors in order to survive by drinking the slain's blood, who is struggling with her ordinance and desire to be accepted. (I am mostly speculating on the plotline; sorry).

If the above piqued your interest, then the jump will provide more relevant information than I could provide on something I have not yet consumed.

Blood: The Last Vampire - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I don't think it should be too hard to find a worthy translated graphic novel; I believe Viz Media (based in Canada) might have produced this series already.

You might want to try a series of books by Sergei Lukyanenko, a Russian author. He is the author of a popular quadrilogy, Night Watch, Day Watch, Twilight Watch, and The Last Watch. The series is predominantly set in Moscow and concerns two para-military organizations, Day Watch and Night Watch. The watches are made up of "others": vampires, sorcerers, mages, werewolves, shapeshifters, who owe allegiance to either Light or Dark. The two sides fought a titanic battle to a standstill long ago and realized that no side could win. So they agreed on a truce and formed two organizations to keep an eye on the other side. The Day Watch is made up of Dark others and watches the Light ones; The Night Watch is made up of Light others and watches the dark ones.
The first book has been made into two movies: Night Watch and Day Watch. The books and movies are hugely popular in Russia. Both books and movies are available in North America, but the movies don't make a lot of sense unless you are familiar with the storyline from the books. Also they are really badly dubbed in English (would have been so much better left in Russian with subtitles). The books are very good and have a great backstory. His use of language is clearly different from English, and you'll know when you are reading it that you are reading a translation. It's very good, but doesn't quite flow like an English language book.

How do you feel about zombies? I'm reading a book right now called

Breathers: A Zombie's Lament

Breathers: A Zombie's Lament

by S. G. Browne that is AWESOME.

I HIGHLY recommend Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite

The Dresden Files series of supernatural detective novels, featuring Harry Dresden (wizard and PI), by author Jim Butcher, feature several subplots involving vampires, as well, of course, as many other interesting supernatural creatures.

I cannot recommend the series highly enough: I find them extremely enjoyable reads. They also improve in quality fairly steadily, which bodes well, I think.

Brian Lumley's Necroscope series. Very creepy.

* Necroscope
* Necroscope II: Vamphyri!
* Necroscope III: The Source
* Necroscope IV: Deadspeak
* Necroscope V: Deadspawn

If you prefer some humor with your horror, try Christopher Moore. His vampire books are (which was OK) and the sequel (haven't read it yet).

The missus is reading the Sookie Stackhouse novels (Charmaine Harris I think) which seems to have some vampiric themes.

The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward is an adult, erotic vampire series.

I would recommend it.

This is what the TV series "True Blood" is based on. Having seen the first series on TV, I'd say that this has *lots* of vampires :)

Twilight.

Let The Right One In
Unique twist on vampires

I am Legend by Richard Matheson is an obvious choice (NOT the Will Smith movie though).
If you're looking for humor, I haven't read Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett but I'm a huge fan of his other Discworld stuff.
If you're into comics try 30 Days of Night.

The series ruined the books for me. I hate the way they say her name (Sookie), and now when I read them I imagine the characters from the show, who I don't like nearly as much as my first imaginings.

The first season covers the first book, but with a LOT of changes.

+1 for Dresden, even though it isn't vampires. Also, Kim Harrison's Hollows series is very good (it focuses on a witch, but has a lot of vampire main characters).
Also +1 for Moore. I've only read a couple of his books, but they were great.

Look into the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter series from Laurell K. Hamilton. My wife likes them a lot, along with the Sookie Stackhouse series.

Another big recommendation for Dresden. It's an awesome series.

The wife and i have enjoyed the KimHarrison novels. They are kinda sassy, a little on the erotic side (pg-13ish rather than much harder) and have at least a couple of audiobook version that were great for an iPod at work for me.

I just remembered reading "Fevre Dream" by George RR Martin. One of his early novels, but I quite enjoyed it.

I hated these books. I read the first two, as they were so highly recommended by a friend, dresdens female cop friend was the most unrealistic character I have *ever* read in a book in my life. The plots were uninspired, the dialogue was pretty weak, and the character development was awful. Not trying to bash you levite, just putting my .02 in about this series.

I quite enjoyed them, but (wizards, vampires etc aside...) they seemed fairly unbelievable -

Spoiler: Dresden gets flogged to an inch of his life, has no energy left for anything, miraculously recovers to save the day.

Pretty formulaic and gets tired pretty quickly.

---------- Post added at 04:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:38 PM ----------

And reading this thread again made me think of something else. "Knights of Dark Renown" by David Gemmell. One of my favourite books.

vampire of the mists - christie golden
I, Strahd: the memoirs of a vampire - P. N. Elrod
Baroness of Blood by Elaine Bergstrom
I, Strahd: The War Against Azalin by P.N. Elrod

or just visit this website:
The Vampire Library - Fiction Series

I have to second this. Also, as Hal mentioned above: Let The Right One In.

Anita Blake Novels are great but also rated a solid HARD R. Leave your inhibitions at the front cover. Enjoy!

I'll 1-Up you.

I have to agree. I just posted this very suggestion in another thread for fantasy stories.

The NECROSCOPE SAGA - Brian Lumley.com

Necroscope (series) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


I like these books because of the less fantastical take on vampires, being a more biological perspective.

No one's mentioned Steve King's second novel: Salem's Lot. Great vampire novel.

no sparkles

If werewolves are close enough, I'd recommend "Kornwolf" by Tristan Egoff. Think werewolves + Amish + Rumspringa. Just read it, enjoyed it immensely.

This is an interesting thread. TV and movies really turned me off to vampires because they're all about cheesy romance or vampires acting like emo babies (even Lestat had this childish self-interest and ego). Are there any novels where the vampires are brilliant, evil, horrible creatures and we're supposed to relate more to the human victims? It seems a more traditional type of monster roll that gets watered down too often.

I'd also say I Am Legend is worth checking out.

Also "The Historian" by Elizabeth Kostova

The Vampire Chronicles by P. N. Elrod are kind of a noir-ish depression error take on a "good" vampire.