I first started reading vampire stories when I worked at Kitt Peak National Observatory in the 1990s. One of my co-workers suggested that we were the vampires of the mountain because we were only seen between sunset and sunrise. She encouraged me to read Anne Rice, whose work gave me a taste for heroic vampires. A while later, I moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, known as the City of Crosses. Another friend suggested I write a story asking what a vampire would make of such a thing. That became an early chapter inVampires of the Scarlet Order.
Over the centuries, an elite cadre of vampire mercenaries called the Scarlet Order has plied its trade to governments around the world. Now, in the twenty-first century, vampires are too expensive, too dangerous, and too untrustworthy for governments to hire any longer. Using nanotechnology, scientists can engineer reliable super soldiers.
Three vampires discover this technology is so advanced it'll tap into realms and dimensions humans can't understand. To save humans and vampires alike, the vampires Jane, Marcella, and Daniel must seek out the legendary master vampire Desmond, Lord Draco, and encourage him to resurrect the Scarlet Order in order to stop these dangerous experiments. After all, a vampire must do what's necessary for job security!
Based on a real historical figure,Hotel Transylvania tells the story of the Compte de Saint-Germain who arrives in the Court of Louis XV in 1743 and falls in love with a young woman named Madelaine de Montalia. The historical Saint-Germain was rumored to be an alchemist who never aged, and some speculated he was a vampire. Yarbro gives us a heroic vampire who must step in and save the woman he loves when she becomes a target for devil-worshiping Paris nobility. I loved how Yarbro spun characters from a historical setting into a suspenseful, thrilling tale leaving us wanting more. Lucky for us Yarbro delivered over twenty sequels.
The classic tale that introduced the legendary Le Comte de Saint-Germain, first published in 1978 and spawning 14 titles in the Saint-Germain epic, is now available in paperback. A fixture in 1740s Parisian society, Saint-Germain is a perfect gentleman--and a vampire. When the fiery young Madeline falls in love with him, a group of evil sorcerers targets her for their black mass--and only Saint-Germain can save her soul.
The novel opens with Lestat waking up after a decades-long sleep, only to be entranced by a rock band. He falls in love with the music and decides to reveal vampire kind to humanity. I fell in love with the idea of a rockstar vampire right away. After readingInterview with the Vampire, I loved how Rice went back and told Lestat's story in his own voice, allowing us to gain a completely new perspective on a character we thought we knew from the first book. This book, more than any other, taught me the importance of characters telling stories from their own points of view.
#1 New York Times Bestselling author - Surrender to fiction's greatest creature of the night - Book II of the Vampire Chronicles
The vampire hero of Anne Rice’s enthralling novel is a creature of the darkest and richest imagination. Once an aristocrat in the heady days of pre-revolutionary France, now a rock star in the demonic, shimmering 1980s, he rushes through the centuries in search of others like him, seeking answers to the mystery of his eternal, terrifying exsitence. His is a mesmerizing story—passionate, complex, and thrilling.
Charnas steps away from the idea of vampires as supernatural creatures. Her protagonist, Dr. Edward Weyland is a natural creature who must feed on blood to survive. He's not always presented as a "good guy" but I still found myself rooting for him as he moved through the story, trying to understand who and what he truly is. This was also one of the first novels I read where the vampire wasn't fabulously wealthy. Instead, he had to make a living as an anthropology professor. His background as a professor also made his quest for self-understanding feel authentic and relatable.
“Probably the best vampire novel ever written.” — Oxford Times
“A superior, grandly detailed vampire story that takes the torment of its monstrous hero very seriously indeed… Like all the very best monster-fiction writers in the Frankenstein tradition, Charnas uses the inhuman condition to explore the specialness of humankind — and the result is both a gripping psychological portrait and smashingly deft entertainment.” — Kirkus Reviews
“…Charnas’ view of her protagonist is unswervingly unsentimental, and…her denouement is savage and intense and brilliantly satisfying.
“…Charnas’ writing is also rich and impressive: she seems equally at home on a college campus, in…
Bloodshotis a mystery thriller that tells the story of a vampire thief named Raylene Pendle who is hired by a blind vampire to find and steal records that'll help a doctor restore his sight. The idea that the military would find vampires interesting has always seemed natural and Raylene soon finds herself in a world of military secrets. Although Raylene is a vampire, she cares for the people in her life, particularly the two homeless, human children who have taken up residence in her Seattle lair. Although Raylene is strong and smart, she can be hurt, especially by soldiers who are used to containing vampires. I loved that she needed to use her wits to solve the mystery she's presented.
Raylene Pendle (aka Cheshire Red) is a vampire and world-renowned thief. When the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene doesn't bargain for a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black everywhere, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.
In this Japanese light novel, vampires are an oppressed people living in a country adjoining a Soviet Union-like country, the Republic of Zirnitra. In this world, almost all of the stories you've heard about vampires being evil and hunting humans are Zirnitran propaganda, but vampires do drink blood and are sensitive to sunlight. Irina is a young vampire woman who volunteers to be a test subject for the Zirnitran space program so she can get closer to the moon, which she loves. The story is based on the real Soviet space program of the 1960s and I rooted for Irina as she overcame her own fears and Zirnitran oppression to fly in orbit and see her beloved moon up close before any human went into orbit.
A fierce space race between two global superpowers gives rise to the Nosferatu Project, a top-secret plan to train up some unusual cosmonauts - vampires! When Lev Leps, a human soldier, is ordered to supervise vampire test subject Irina Luminesk, the unlikely pair bonds over their shared dream of reaching the stars. Together, can the human and vampire duo rise above the chaos and corruption down on Earth and blast off into the final frontier?
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. This book traces the story of the bull in the sky, a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull.
Each of the sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also a view of ourselves through the eyes of the bull, illustrating our pre-literate use of myth, how the advent of writing and the urban revolution changed our view of ourselves, and how even bullfighting in Spain is a variation on the ancient sacrifice of the sacred bull.
The constellation we know as Taurus goes all the way back to cave paintings of aurochs at Lascaux. In I Am Taurus, author Stephen Palmer traces the story of the bull in the sky, starting from that point 19,000 years ago - a journey through the history of what has become known as the sacred bull. Each of the eleven sections is written from the perspective of the mythical Taurus, from the beginning at Lascaux to Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt, Greece, Spain and elsewhere. This is not just a history of the bull but also an attempt to see ourselves through…
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