Amph Recommend me some good Vampire books

Age range doesn't particularly matter a huge amount. I'm just looking for good, well written Vampire fiction to enjoy Halloween with. Among others I've read lately have been the Twilight series, Dracula, Anne Rice's vampire series, all of Kim Newman's vampire books, among others.

I'm just looking for a few more good ones.

 

Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series. There's currently a TV show on HBO based on the books, but I prefer the books.

 

Oh really? I didn't know they made those into a TV series.

IMO the first book was good, but the second was meh and I didn't get very far in the third.

 

My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick

It takes a rather unorthodox look at vampires, doesn't even call them vampires, but it's a good book.

 

Nat, the series is called True Blood and it's on Sunday nights on HBO.

I skimmed the second and third books in a book store. I didn't really get into the series until the fifth one, I think. The last one (eighth?) was the best, imo. I'm curious what she's going to do with a certain plot point we learn at the end.

 

Seconded. Fine novel.

John Steakley's Vampire$ was fun, but I read it years ago, so don't know how well it would hold up.

Robert R. McCammon's They Thirst.

Lucius Shepard's The Golden.

Charlie Huston's Joe Pitt novels: Already Dead, No Dominion, Half the Blood of Brooklyn, Every Last Drop. The fifth and final one shouldn't be too many more months a-coming. I love Huston.

Not your tradition bloodsuckers, more "mind vampires," but Dan Simmons' Carrion Comfort is a favorite of mine. He's also done regular vampires in the less good but not bad Children of the Night.

Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum

Robin McKinley's Sunshine.

Scott Wessterfeld's Peeps - YA novels wherein the vampirism is an STD.

Bear in mind I think Twilight is loathsome so our tastes may differ.

 

I'm going to have to agree with you on this one. I can't stand that series. Glad to know I'm not alone.

I've heard that P.C Cast's vampire books are good, although I've never read them.

- Serena

 

She wrote vampire books?

 

Yep. A whole bunch of them. They're geared towards older teens and young adults, though - not for the tween readers like Twilight.

 

I Am Legend - Richard Matheson (one of the best of all time)
'Salems Lot - Stephen King (scary stuff... one of King's better works)
Lost Souls - Poppy Z. Brite (kind of an emo book... before there were emos)

 

Most definately The Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward. Those books are just great! You have action, romance, humor...everything actually.
Then there's The Breed Series by Lara Adrian. Enjoyed those books a whole lot, as well.

The Dark Hunter books are great, too. A different sort of Vampire books, since the author turned the greek Goddess Artemis into a blood sucking extraordinarily evil witch. But highly interesting.

These are my personal favorites.
I really adore everything that has Vampires in it, preferably the male kind, I have to admit though.

But, these are adult books. So absolutely not comparable to Twilight. Thank goodness.

 

when i was younger, i enjoyed christie golden's of saints and shadows. i guess it's the first in a series of other novels, all dealing with vampires.

 

Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi (yes i know that name from the top of my head )
It reads well, though the content might be - a matter of taste. I find it borderline disgusting (not the violence, mind you) but read it anyway. I just like the adventures too much.

 

13 Bullets by David Wllington. He actually serialized it on his site. If you liked 30 days of Night, then this will be right up your alley.

 

Twilight, duh

The captive, I guess too

 

Raven, did you select any good vampire books?

 

After being disapointed by the HBO show, I tried Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse series, and was equally disapointed. Before I posted the thread I'd already read John Steakley's Vampires (I neither liked nor disliked it), Terry Pratchett's Carpe Jugulum (which reinforced my dislike of Terry Pratchett books), Robin McKinley's Sunshine (which I had just rerereread and still love, dispite the book having a weak middle). I Am Legend is great, with one of the greatest endings in horror fiction, and thankfully I read it long before I saw the movie. Similar to my experiance with Carpe Jugulum, 'Salems Lot is one of the reasons I dislike Stephen King.

Vampire Hunter D I saw on book shelves a few years ago, flipped through, and decided against. As for some of the other selections, I'm not really after emo or young adult right now.

I intend to order My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick, Already Dead by Charlie Huston, and whatever the first book of the The Black Dagger Brotherhood series happens to be.

 

i'd like to clarify that my recommendation wasn't for young adult. reading it when i was younger meant i'd read it in my early 20s.

 

Like are looking for the more two-fanged European type vampires, or like the razor blade mouthed monster vampires of more recent fiction?

 

Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin. Tale of a 19th century riverboat captain and his friendship with a vampire. Good stuff.

(Regarding HBO and True Blood, it's nice to see them warm up for CGI effects with collies before moving on to direwolves and dragons and stuff)

 

I'd like to recommend 'The Society of S' by Susan Hubbard.
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Society-of-S/Susan-Hubbard/e/9781416534587
and the sequel "Year of Disappearances"
A 3rd book is in progress.

 

Well pretty much all the good stuff has been said, but I recommend the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. It has vampires, the second book is focussed on them, but it also has lots of werewolves and the main character is a half Native American mechanic who shape-shifts into a coyote.

 

Susan Mckee Charnas' "Vampire Tapestry" is a very good book, however it is extremely hard 2 track down..."out of print".

It's a very dry book but worth examining. Richard Matheson's "I am Legend" is a sci-fi/horror vampire benchmark. Also, there was a great show in the 90's that played with the vampire genre as a mafia family ie...Sopranos, don't remember the tv show name off hand but will get it ltr. Books are one thing/ television/movies is another...."Dark Shadows",Near Dark, Lost Boys...etc.

 

I really enjoyed Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson. I really wish there had been a sequel.

Not about a vampire, although there are vampires in it, I've really enjoyed Carrie Vaughn's series that began with Kitty and the Midnight Hour.

~lordmaul13

 

the show was actually based off of the vampire:the gathering game by white wolf. it was called kindred: the embraced.