Books, one new, one re-read

[cupcake_goth]

The new book I read (bringing the total of new books for the year up to a whopping 2) was Renfield (clicky link, of course) by Barbara Hambly, a re-telling/expansion of Dracula. Barbara Hambly wrote what I consider to be two of the best vampire novels ever (Those Who Hunt the Night and Traveling With the Dead), so when I discovered that she had written something using Dracula as the source text, I clapped my little paws with glee and promptly asked for it for Christmas. It was as good as I had hoped for. Y'see, I'm a complete sucker for books that use Dracula as the source text; while I am a big fan of the original novel, I will freely admit that it's not The! Best! Vampire! Novel! Ever!, 'cos honestly? It's not. There are huge sections of it that are tedious or only barely engaging. However, not only are there parts of it that are Really Good, but it IS the Great-Great-Grandaddy of all vampire texts. I feel that if you have even a passing interest in vampire fiction, you should read Dracula to get a sense of What Started It All.

(And yes, I'm well-aware that Dracula was not the first vampire story to be published. But it is the one that casts the longest bat-winged shadow over modern horror fiction.)

Renfield is a good book. I guessed one of the twists about three chapters before it was revealed, but then, I've not only read a lot of vampire books, I've also read a lot of horror novels set in the Victorian era. My brain went "Oooh, X happening would be really disturbing and heartbreaking. I wonder how she'd write that?"; the (non-spoilery) answer is "Very well indeed." If you like historical vampire fiction, do yourself a favor and read Renfield

The book I re-read (bringing the total of re-read books for the year up to 4) was Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing Coffins (clicky link!) by Ellen Schreiber. Vampire Kisses is a Young Adult series of books, and I LOVE them beyond all reason. They're as sweetly spooky as a Halloween cupcake, and are some of my favorite comfort books. The main character is a perky babygoth girl named Raven, who lives in a boring and suburban small town; there are abandoned mansions, a cute&broody goth boy, goth clubs, and vampires. (OMG VAMPIRES!!!!Eleventyone!!11!) These books are cute, cute, cute, and if they had been around when I was a fledgling Teen of Darkness, I would have over-identified with Raven to a painful degree. As it is, I read them now with glee and only a faint sense of wanting to pinch the cheeks of most of the characters. (Ooooh, and Vampires Kisses 4: Dance With a Vampire (clicky link!) is available for pre-order! Yes!)

... Hmmm. So out of 6 books so far, only one of them was not a vampire book. I bet none of you are surprised by that.

Comments

[going-not-gone.livejournal.com]

Random bizarro fact you would enjoy: a descendant of C.W. Post (as in Post cereals, General Foods, etc) is married to a descendant of Vlad Dracul (and his son Vlad Tepes, AKA Vlad the Impaler), on whom the Dracula legend is based.

Said Vlad Dracul descendant also counts Ulysses S. Grant as an ancestor.

I kid you not.

[keridwen.livejournal.com]

You must have read The Historian (http://www.amazon.com/Historian-Elizabeth-Kostova/dp/0316154547/sr=8-2/qid=1168460937/ref=pd_bbs_2/104-5721635-0010322?ie=UTF8&s=books), by Elizabeth Kostova by now, yes?

Of course you've read...

[tolkiencub.livejournal.com]

...Saberhagen's Dracula sequence, right?

I liked it. It's Saberhagen, so dry and...idiosyncratic. But I liked it.

Then again, I re-read 'Armageddon, the Musical' because it has a SINGING TIME-TRAVELING BRUSSELS' SPROUT as a main character.

[ex-pennydrea364.livejournal.com]

oooooo that Vampire Kissess Series looks good! I will have to get it as light reading on my upcoming plane trip!

[seven-veils.livejournal.com]

You may remember that I'm a aficionado of vampire literature myself. It's a guilty pleasure of mine. (A goth cliche' that I can't resist) I liked "Those Who Hunt the Night", but not as much as some of the authors I've read in my (lengthy) post on vampire literature. I do however want to check out the Vampire Kisses series. It sounds fun!!

http://seven-veils.livejournal.com/321862.htm

Hmph!!

[seven-veils.livejournal.com]

Stupid copy and paste. Lost the l on the link to my vampire post. In any case, here's the text of that post of your reading convenience and pleasure.

******************************

I Vant to Suck Your Blood!!

OH HOW I LOVE, LOVE LOVE BOOKS! Vampire books especially!

My favorite author is, Laurell K. Hamilton.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/laurell-k-hamilton/
Or
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/

Her "Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter" book series, is the best sci-fi fantasy/ vampire fiction I've ever read. She really researches everything in the book so that the details are as accurate as possible. I really love the lead characters, Anita Blake and Jean Claude (the vampire - master of the city). Anita is a necromancer, not so much vampire hunter as bad guy preternatural monster slayer and consultant for the Regional Preternatural Investigation Team (RPIT), a division of the St. Louis Police force that deals with supernatural crimes in the books, so she also helps solve crimes. I truly enjoy the whole present day alternate reality thing she does in this series. It's very enjoyable light reading as is all the vampy books I read.

Overview of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter Series:
http://www.laurellkhamilton.org/Anita/AnitaOverview.htm

Here's a list of titles in the Anita Blake Vampire Series from first to the last one published.
http://www.amazon.com/Anita-Blake-Vampire-Series/lm/3JDGCYBPRG09I/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt/102-8730876-4988932

I also really like-

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/y/chelsea-quinn-yarbro/

Her Saint-Germain Chronicles, is a series of historical novels written about the character Saint-Germain. A vampire who travels around the world in different centuries. He's known in the books as Ragoczy Sanct' Germain Franciscus or Le Comte de Saint-Germain. He is cultured, well-traveled, articulate, elegant, learned, an alchemist, and a man of many secrets. Saint-Germain at the end of the 15th century already claims to be over 4000 years old.

Laurell K. Hamilton says "Nobody does historical vampire fiction better than Chelsea Quinn Yarbro." Here's the list of titles in the series from the first to the last one published.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Saint-Germain-Series-in-order/lm/270QY2HOI9139/ref=cm_srch_res_rpli_alt/102-8730876-4988932

Michael Romkey's work is fantastic. Smart, interesting, fun and gorgeous to read. He really develops a detailed and beautiful world in a person's mind visually. The story is just creepy enough and suspenseful.

The "I, Vampire" series is great!! The story is full of rich and cultured vampires, full of detailed history, the best bit is the idea of historical characters reappearing as modern day vampires (such as Mozart, Rasputin, Jack the Ripper, and Tatiana Romanov (Czar Nicholas Romanov's daughter).

Here's the list of titles in the series from the first to the last one published.
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/michael-romkey/

I love books of fiction written about vampires. Here's a couple of great list of books on that topic.

Vampire Horror: Checklist and Bibliography
http://frogpicks.com/vampire_horror.htm

A Bibliography of Vampire Dark Fantasy
http://frogpicks.com/Vampire.htm

For those that love vampires but don't like to read, here's a list of every possible vampire movie ever-

http://www.frogpicks.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=F&Category_Code=MOVVampire

And if those links aren't enough-

Here's a fun site called "Vampire Realm of Darkness"
http://www.vampires.nu/pages/Library.cfm/PageID/7

A fun site of links for everything vampire.
http://members.aol.com/MLCVamp/other.htm

Here are 4,637 different lists that people have made on Amazon.com of a million different vampire books and movies.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/community-content-search/results/ref=cm_srch_q_ref_rpli/102-8730876-4988932?index=rp-listmania&pageSize=5&query=vampire&x=10&y=3