Zeldar, …didn’t that Stoker fellow write the screenplay for “Love at First Bite”?
please, please, the original, the first, the best, read it, dear OP, and then speak the name of Ann Rice in the same sentence. I double-dog dare ya
Ike, I haven’t read any Jacobi that I can recall. But now I’ll be looking for him. I do have some Weird Tales magazines around here somewhere. Is there an Arkham House collection maybe?
While we’re trading old-timers, how about some Bob Leman? Darkside Press collected his short stories in Feesters in the Lake. Truly great stuff in there.
Leman’s still alive and fairly well.
Well, my initial Rice-like suggestions have already been covered (Newman, Hambly), but in a somewhat less similar vein, I rather enjoyed the Sonja Blue novels by Nancy A. Collins (Sunglasses After Dark, In the Blood, Paint it Black, etc), despite some tie-ins with the Vampire RPG of White Wolf.
Why did I come into this thread so late!?!?
As I’m reading through what others have suggested, I’m glancing over at my bookshelf, going through a mental checklist.
I am a vampire literature aficionado.
I prefer Rice’s non-vampire novels, but still own every one of her books. My favourite vampire novels are definitely Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s St Germain and Olivia Chronicles. They are very difficult to find in bookstores around here, but I’ve made some great finds in second hand book stores. Oh, and StGermain, I always wondered if that was where you got your name from.
I also have to highly recommend Nancy Baker, Jeanne Kalogridis, S.P. Somtow, Kim Newman, John Steakley, Andrei Codrescu, Elaine Bergstrom, and Nancy Collins.
I would recommend Laurell K. Hamilton, but I’m only just about to pick up her series right now.
But yes, go for Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s novels, definitely. The great thing about them is that you can pick up any one of them, read them in any order, and you are not missing anything. There may be reference to a character from another book, but it does not mean that you are missing some major events. The books are not even written in chronological order. Ones I highly recommend are Blood Games, set in Rome 800BC and tells of Olivia’s creation, A Candle for d’Artangnan, another Olivia one, with the Musketeers as figuring characters. Oh boy, there are soooo many.
Feel free to email me if you have trouble finding any and want to borrow some, or if you want any more info.
Bugnorton, I had to go check IMDB for Stoker’s credits before agreeing with you on that one. Read Here for more interesting factoids about the leader of the pack.
Tanith Lee’s Kill the Dead is awesome, but difficult to find nowadays. Not Anne Rice-ish though.
btw… since no one’s mentioned it, I feel obliged to, although this isn’t really a recommendation- just an acknowledgement that the book exists & I found it VERY disturbing & maybe scary because of that…
LOST SOULS by Poppy Z. Brite
One of my favorites is I, Vampire , by Michael Romkey. It’s told in first-person, as journal entries, IIRC.
I liked Jonathon Barrett, Gentlaman Vampire by Elrod, but it’s sadlt gone out-of-print.
“I am Legend” is great, but not really what the OP seems to be looking for.
Never got into “I, Vampire”. It just couldn’t keep my interest the way “The Vampire Lestat” did, which is my favorite in Rice’s series.
Thanks for the thread, many of these will go on my reading list!
Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore is sidesplittingly funny, however not at all like Rice
Another good one is After Age (maybe that’s supposed to be one word, I’m not sure) by Yvonne Navarro. I’ve heard that it’s back in print.
It’s in I Am Legend, post-apocalypse category. Just about everybody is a vampire and normal folks are kept for food.
After Age isn’t perfect – there was a deux ex machina (sp?) thing that could have been set up better – but it’s pretty darn good.