Not quite Anne Rice and I dont remember the authors name (I’m sure one of the dopers will know 
) “The light at the end”…pretty scary.
Another vote for Vampire$ and the Saint Germain books.
I personally really enjoyed Michael Romkey’s “I, Vampire”- I’ve only read two of the sequels (Vampire Papers and Vampire Princess) and they were okay but not as good.
A truly excellent vampire novel is Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula. It is set in London where Dracula defeated Van Helsing, vampirized Queen Victoria, and made himself King of England. The novel features a cast of historical and fictional Londoners, so you have Oscar Wilde interacting with Sherlock Holmes. One of the joys of the novel is spotting the literary references because Newman is very sly with oblique references to famous characters.
I take my board name from the character created by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. I highly recommend her books. I also second or third Salem’s Lot.
StG
I also admit to having a fondness for Robert R. McCammon’s They Thirst.
Charlaine Harris has written 3 novels so far in her Southern Vampire Mystery series. The first book is Dead Until Dark. The setting is comtemporary rural Louisiana, the protagonist is a local barmaid who becomes involved with one of the undead. Fairly unique, and pretty well written, even though the series is starting to resemble Laurell K. Hamilton’s series.
P. N. Elrod has written a vampire series, but it’s about as far from Anne Rice has you can get.
I’ll second Tanya Huff, though her written is uneven. The best books in the series are Blood Price #1, Blood Trail #2, and Blood Debt #5.
canadian writer nancy baker isnt that anne ricey but readable. modern day vamp tale set against the stuffy world of academia and the porn industry. …kinda.
I can recommend Jeanne Kalogridis
She’s written a trilogy called The Diaries of the Family Dracul out of which I unfortunately only have read the last one, “Lord of the Vampires” - which is based on Bram Stoker’s original novel, but she has added more mythology to it.
That’d be John Skipp and Craig Spector. Fun coupla’ guys.
One more vote here for Anno Dracula. Oddly enough, I just finished reading this one last night. Very unique take on Jack the Ripper, in a sort of alternate history version of London.
Lumley’s Necroscope series was decent, to a point, but it all got rather boring for me by the end of the series. Specifically, avoid The Next Necroscope which was just beating a dead horse, IMHO.
Also by Skipp and Spector, (well edited by them) was a collection of short stories, Under the Fang. Some neat reading in that one, including a SK story tied into Salem’s Lot for fans of that book.
Otto, I don’t think so. Not yet, anyway. Coppola’s Dracula is in Stephen Jones Mammoth Book of Best New Horror #9, published in 1998, ISBN 078670585X. That’s a very good series, but you probably knew that.
In Jones’ Mammoth thing #10, there’s another Newman story (not an AD story though), and the intro to that one says that his short fiction is collected in The Original Dr. Shade and Other Stories, Famous Monsters and Seven Stars and Unforgivable Stories. There are two chapbooks out, Andy Warhol’s Dracula and Where the Bodies Are Buried.
Since I was going to mention this series, I’ll just expand on what WereOtter has to say.
P.N Elrod’s Vampire Files series is a fun departure from normal vampire stories. They’re kind of “film-noir” detective novels, which just happen to have a vampire as one of the detectives. The vampire, Jack, is very recently dead (which is a nice departure from the centuries old characters that seem to populate most vampire fiction), and does his best to lead a “normal” life. If you enjoy detective novels, you’ll probably enjoy these books. If not, skip them.
Oh, and cool pun in the OP.
Otto, I think the short stories will be compiled in Newman’s projected novel JOHNNY ALUCARD. Do a Net search tho- COPPOLA’s DRACULA and ANDY WALHOL’S DRACULA and a couple of others are online.
AuntiePam- when reading Coppola’s Dracula, were you thinking what I was thinking? “Damn, I’d love to see this filmed!” For those who haven’t read it, it mixed Dracula with Apocalypse Now-
Sheen was Harker, Duvall- Van Helsing, Brando- The Count, and
best of all, Dennis Hopper as Renfield!
CalMeacham- that was Leonard Wolf, not John Leonard (I have all his Dracula books)
FriarTed, yep – definitely. Thanks for the tip on the Warhol Dracula, I haven’t read that one.
So you think Johnny Alucard is going to be a compilation? That’d be great. I like the short stories better than the novels.
BLOOD COUNTESS by Andrei Codescu. It’s actually more historical fiction than vampire, but it’s based on the true story of Elizabeth Bathory, cousin of Vlad “Dracul” Tepes and famous for bathing in the blood of virgins killed in her castle to keep herself immortal. The story alternates twixt her and a modern day Hungarian boy with an S&M fetish for torture devices.
Call me a traditionalist. I’m gonna recommend Carl Jacobi’s short story “Revelations in Black.”
Ike, I’ve never heard of that one. It’s on-line though, so I’ll take a look. Thanks.
*Barbara Hambly ** has written two reasonably decent vampire books. Those who hunt the Night * andTraveling with the Dead . In my opinion, Traveling with the Dead is the better one. Her vapires are sexy like Rice’s but dangerous… unlike Ms Rice’s don’t EVER forget that they live off of humans.
AuntiePam: Ooooooh, you will love it.
Didja ever read Jacobi’s “The Unpleasantness at Carver House” ? One of the most disquieting short horror stories ever.
Carl was one of the last of the Weird Tales boys, a contemporary of Lovecraft…who was very favorably impressed by several of his tales. He died only a few years back.
You’d think I could get the spelling and capitalization right in my 500 th post! jeez looeez…