Vampire/Zombie books

[isacked]

anyone heard of Vampire D? I'm fond of it, although I'm fond of anime and 'new' stuff like that.

 

[j d worthington]

Off topic, but just wanted to issue a welcome to you, isacked... glad to see input so early on!

 

[Cloud]

zombies, hmm . . . other than Laurell K. Hamilton's books, in which the main character is a zombie raiser, the only other ones I can think of are Piers Anthony's Xanth series, which feature zombies as characters, (although they aren't "zombie books" per se.)

Others which have not been mentioned are P.N. Elrods Vampire Files books, which feature a vamp P.I. and Charlaine Harris's Southern Vampire series, which are really fun and well written. They feature a girl who is a telepath who gets sucked into vampire and werepeople stuff.

 

[Nesacat]

I can't think of any zombie novels offhand other than the aforementioned Xanth series which have them as characters.

There are a couple of vampire novels though, since I am very fonmd of both the vampire and the werewolf.

Dan Simmon's Carrion Comfort has gor 'mind vampires' that are quite different from the traditional vampires. He's also got a collection of tales called LoveDeath that deal with various kinds of vampirism not necessarily the blood-sucking kind.

Stephen King's short story Poppy is one of the best I've read and I believe it should be in the Stephen Jones anthology. I might be mistaken though but it's a very good tale indeed.

The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova is a new novel with a different take on the father of all vampires. Vlad Dracula himself. But the portrayal here is closer to the historical prince the legend began with and it's very well done. I personally would not have been able to turn down his offer.

Brian Stableford's Empire of Fear is also a good read. It sort of turn the story on it's head and has a different idea for the creation of vampires.

One of my favourite vampires of all time is the creation of Les Daniels in the Don Sebastian Vampire Chronicles. The books span a huge chunck of history and feature all the main events of the period, for instance the executions during the French revolution; the witch trials of the Spanish Inquisition and the Aztec culture.

A very recent edition to the vampire annals would be Robin McKinley's Sunshine. Again a very different look at vampires and one that does not in any way attempt to romanticise them. Here you clearly have an alien being but you also have a situation where both the human and the vampire have to somehow find a way to work and live together.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

Lucius Shepard THE GOLDEN is excellent more of a who dunnit detective among the vampire comunity than the slash and suck type.

Also in the Warhammer series are: Genevieve And Genevieve Undead by Jack Yeovil.

Blood is not Enough - 17 short Vampire stories edited by Ellen Datlow.

 

[The Lone Stranger]

Michael Romkey is very good.

Rice is a bit sissy and sensitive.

Steven Spruill is excellent.

 

[Riselka]

When it comes to vampire novels, Christopher Golden's 4 book Shadow Saga is brilliant.

 

[Leandra]

I'd like to recommend the already-mentioned Dracula (Bram Stoker) and Carmilla (J. Sheridan Le Fanu). As for others, one of my favourite vampire stories is Shadows in the Mirror (Inger Edelfeldt), though it's a more subtle style. No gore or blood or anything, but very nicely written.

As for zombies, the only story I've encountered them in is The Death of Halpin Fraser (Ambrose Bierce), and some R. L. Stine, but I wouldn't want to read that again!

 

[Nesacat]

anyone heard of Vampire D? I'm fond of it, although I'm fond of anime and 'new' stuff like that.

Am very fond of Vampire Hunter D, both the books and the films. Bought the books about a year or so ago and I must say the illustrations are wonderful.

If you liked Vampire Hunter D you might want to give Hellsing a try as well. It's an anime and manga series by Kouta Hirano and it chronicles the efforts of the mysterious and secret Royal Order of Protestant Knights, Hellsing, as it combats vampires, ghouls, and other supernatural foes who threaten England.

 

[murphy]

Then there's Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and her Comte Saint-Germain who is a vampire. He rarely kills anyone; only when they deserve it. The first book written was Hotel Transylvania.

 

[j d worthington]

Then there's Chelsea Quinn Yarbro and her Comte Saint-Germain who is a vampire. He rarely kills anyone; only when they deserve it. The first book written was Hotel Transylvania.

While not a big follower of her work, I know several who are, and she's garnered some very good comments over the years for them. Here's a listing of her work from fantasticfiction.com:

Chelsea Quinn Yarbro

And here's a list of them in series-chronological order, I believe:

C.Q. Yarbro Books - St Germain

 

[Coolhand]

You could try World War Z by Max Brooks. It's about a Land of the Dead style Zombie apocalypse, and is set AFTER the war. It's written in the form of interviews with the suvivors who fought in various parts of the world to reclaim the planet from the undead hords. It's funny, creepy and quite nicely satirical at times.

Good stuff.

 

[murphy]

C. S. Friedman wrote a book called the Madness Season about a vampire battling space aliens who had taken over the world. Very weird. She also wrote a trilogy about a psychic vampire that started with Black Sun Rising, followed by When True Night Falls and ending with Crown of Shadows. A pretty chilling story about a planet where your worst fears come to life.

 

[Beaker]

Just finished "I am Legend".
If you're looking for a story about the exploits of a super intelligent Vampire "taking over the world" or such like, this is not the novel for you.
In it's own right I think it is brilliant. I picked it up because I was intrigued by the idea of one man in a world of Vampires and it is a short book, so if it wasn't any good there was nothing to loose.

 

[j d worthington]

No, Matheson's novel is much more quietly insidious in its horror, I agree. And the true horror is right there from the beginning, in the title, with the total inversion of all our perceptions..... It remains a classic because it's so understated, yet it truly -- as with nearly all of Matheson's work -- is discomfiting by making us view through the protagonist's eyes, and then completely subverting everything we've ever known....

 

[bob cold]

Hi Murphy,

I bought C.S.Friedman's the Madness Season, following your recommendation, just for a laugh. After a slow couple of chapters I suddenly found I couldn't put it down.

Ta very much.
Bob

 

[murphy]

Hi Murphy,

I bought C.S.Friedman's the Madness Season, following your recommendation, just for a laugh. After a slow couple of chapters I suddenly found I couldn't put it down.

Ta very much.
Bob

I assume that means you enjoyed it. Are you going to try the Coldfire Trilogy by Friedman. That starts off with a bang. A nice torture murder scene.

 

[bryanspellman]

Zombies:
I'll 2nd World War Z and also add Book of The Dead (1 and 2). Short stories by top authors in Romero's world (older books). Also Monster Island by David Wellington, part of a triliogy available ONLINE for free. Cell is King's latest. part zombie part I do not want to spoil it.

And for a Zombie main character try Necropolis by Tim Waggoner.

 

[bob cold]

Murphy => I'll get around to those books at some point. Friedman is now on my list of authors to read.

Bob

 

[DL_Snell]

Zombie novels: has anyone mentioned Brian Keene’s novel The Rising? It won a Bram Stoker Award and virtually spawned the recent interest in zombies. Or what about Permuted Press’ envelope-pushing anthology, The Undead?

You should check out the The Ultimate Zombie Book List, which lists hundreds of zombie books, along with reviews, ratings, and ordering information: do a Google search to find it, since I can't post links yet