Ok. I've never read one of these, but the review for the first book in the Dark Hunter series by Sherrilyn Kenyon sounds fabulous.
I love Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles (they're the only hardcover books I own) and the comparison to Interview with the Vampire has me totally intrigued.
I have to admit though that with the Chronicles, Lestat (my favourite) had a certain appeal because he seemed so untouchable. Do the vampires lose anything by ... coming down to our level ... hmmm that's not right ...... does anyone know what I mean here??
I've always had a thing for vampires, ever since I could remember. I don't know why, but I like to think they are the ultimate "romantic" figure.
I absolutely loved An Interview with a Vampire. My only disappointment with the book was that the vampires didn't have sex. (Am I obcessed with sex? YES!!! )
That is funny that you like Lestat, for Louis was my favourite.
"I have to admit though that with the Chronicles, Lestat (my favourite) had a certain appeal because he seemed so untouchable. Do the vampires lose anything by ... coming down to our level ... hmmm that's not right ...... does anyone know what I mean here??"
I think I know what you mean. Are the vampires less powerful, less attractive when the writers make them more human? I don't think so. Kyrian of Night Pleasures has been a vampire for over two thousand years, and at the beginning of the book, he is very dark, dangerous and very sexy. And even though he feels something for Amanda, even gets close to her physically, he doesn't really loose that untouchable quailty until the end, which I'm not going to reveal.
Another one of my favorite vampire stories is A Deeper Hunger by Sabine Kells. Its no longer in print but if you like vampire romances I recommend you search for this one in a used bookstore.
Though there is one romance vampire series I don't really care for, Shannon Drake's. I mean her vampires can walk around in the sunlight, they eat regular food (so do the Dark Hunters but that's all). It's just not the same thing. I really like that Anne Rice broke the vampire "mold" with having them being able to look into mirrors and touch a cross without melting, but being able to walk into the sunlight seems to me to defeat the purpose of making the characters vampires.
Of all the vampire romances I've read, and that's pretty nearly all that there are, my absolute favorites are Christine Feehan's Carpathians. Of course, the vampires there are the bad guys, but that satisfies the traditionalist in me while the Carpathian males more than satisfy the horny old broad in me. Talk about yummy!
Next would have be the newest group I've read, Mary Janice Davidson's Undead series. This lady is hysterical. I'm crazy about Lynsay Sands' series as well and am biting my nails in anticipation of the latest, which is due out in Nov., I think.
Anne Rice does nothing for me, nor does Shannon Drake. As for Sherry, hmmmmmm........technically they are superb, like everything else she writes. However, I simply cannot stretch my willing-suspension-of-disbelief enough to get "into" the series. Sometimes it's tough to be a theologian.
I'm sorta working on a contemporary romance wherein the hero is a vampire, the heroine is from the planet Elfin and they meet in an alley in Washington, D.C.
I've heard alot about the Carpathians, all of it good.
I saw a Shannon Drake in the UBS on the weekend, but I couldn't remember if I recognised her name as a good read or not, so I went with KMM's Dark highlander (go figure) and now that I re-read everyone's posts I'm doubley glad I did.
As for Sherry, hmmmmmm........technically they are superb, like everything else she writes. However, I simply cannot stretch my willing-suspension-of-disbelief enough to get "into" the series. Sometimes it's tough to be a theologian.
What kind of disbelief are we talking about suspending here. It must be pretty serious if the theologian is getting ahead of the ... how did you put it, Anne? ... "horny old broad."
-- Edited by Jennifer Reviewer at 11:04, 2005-09-13
Sherry's Dark Hunters supposedly live here on Earth and today in our time. Unfortunately, they share this our universe with a bunch of dorky, and/or rotten Greek gods and goddesses. To be fully involved with them, one must accept this.
Unfortunately, not possible for me. See, I'm also an archaeologist with a specialty in ancient Mediterranean cultures, including pre-Mycenaean Greece. I know from whence that particular pantheon came. Theirs was a spectacularly UNknowledgeable culture when it came to natural phenomena. Socrates invented the scientific method, but it was left to Aristotle to try to use it. But they post date the era when the Greek pantheon firmed by more than 450 years. By then, the pantheon was set in stone and nobody questioned it. They were NOT a nice bunch of deities!
So: faced with a basis that is false to fact, unacceptable ethically and morally, yours truly's willing-suspension-of-disbelief folds its tent and like the Arab, steals silently away, leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth and a disinclination to read the series. *sigh*
Geez....sounds like sometimes a good education can be a bummer!
Pre-Mycenean Greece, eh? I've been thinking about ancient Greece as a location for a time travel story.....a pack of rotten deities might be just what I need
As to the Dark Hunters, I might give them a try if one presents itself since my area of expertise is earth sciences. I doubt there's anything in there that disagrees with the persistence of mid range hydrocarbons in contaminated soil.
Earth Sciences, eh? How about a short story that within the framework of a romance FINALLY explains just why the heck a vampire HAS to sleep upon or in his native soil?
I'd like to see the ramifications if someone came up with a vampire who was born on the 10th floor of a major metropolitan hospital, spent his human life in a big city and then was converted to the undead in a nightclub atop a high-rise hotel, the two events taking place on two different continents. *cue evil, maniacal laughter*
Hello BZH Anne, welcome to the HRC's Message Boards.
I would not call the Greek Gods and Goddesses "dorky, and/or rotten". I've been studying the Greek Classics myself. And though the Greek Pantheon are indeed unlike the Teutonic and Celtic Gods, being easy to anger and did bicker among themselves, just as it shows in various older movies like Jason and Argonauts, etc. But I though Sherrilyn Kenyon was quite accurate and respectful in her betrayal of them in her books. Personally, I didn't feel any need to suspend belief but then I am a student of history and enjoy studying Medieval and Pre-Christian European Cultures.
Oh, another great vampire series I've been reading is Emma Holly's erotic Upyr stories, which I recently found out is based on a Russian vampire. Her stories are fantastic. And if you like hot, sexy Alpha Males, then you will like her Upyr Heroes.
By the way, recently I was doing research on vampires and learned that a lot of the Vampire "mythology" which we adhere to today, was invented by Bram Stoker, such as Vampires needing to sleep on the dirt of their place of "birth".
BZH Anne, have you joined the RWA? They are the place to join if you're serious about a writing career.
Having read "The Golden Bough" and mought nigh every other work that delineates every aspect of Greco-Roman mythology, I find little positive in their renditions of deity. These gods and goddeses were petty, arbitrary, sadistic, spiteful, jealous snots on which no sane person today would waste a wad of spit if they were on fire.
Sherry gives them more respect than the originals ever deserved. But then Sherry is a lady! I, however, as even she will tell you, am widely known as the Wicked Bitch of the West.
Vampire lore as we know it today stems from 3 very different sources, the oldest being the Striagoi of Ancient Greece. They were night-stalking blood suckers with a supposed preference for human blood. The bats which were at the root of this legend went extinct in Europe more than 1,500 years ago.
The second was the very real Prince, Vlad Tepes of medieval Roumania. His supposed habit of draining his victims' blood and drinking it in front of them on the battlefield, while probably anecdotal, was certainly known to Bram Stoker.
Bram's classic is the third source and the best known.
What we today have done with this mishmosh is to introduce the element of romantically tortured hero. Our fanged and hunky (not to mention, hungry) undead are not eager participants in their fates, but reluctant and desperately searching men looking for any way out. And there are plenty of lovely young lovelies willing to assist them. AAAAHHHHH, sweet mystery of unlife. Love conquers all, even undeath.
As for joining RWA, thank you, but no thank you. The little fiction writing I do is, to be polite, sucky! I'm a theologian who writes reference works for other theologians and homilies for overworked priests. It's a wildly different writing style and I've no real desire to change or add another.
Wow, we've got quite the spirited discussion going here.
I think on the subject of the Greek gods I am somewhere in between the two positions offered so far. Mind you most of my knowledge comes from Clash of the Titans. Petty and squabbling but gods nonetheless - not the sort of people one wants to piss off considering their ability to totally mess with one's life.
I've been doing a bit of poking around on the dirt subject, and it seems like Bram Stoker never gave any reason for the native soil bit, just that at least one pound of it was required. No mention of where this number came from either. Everything boils down to chemistry so I think I'm going to email my aunt (geologist working on Ph.D. in envi sci) and poke at her brain about the chemical constitiuents of soil and how they interact with iron (red, blood, gotta be the one, right?).
The "west" eh, Anne? Funny, I always pictured you living on the east coast (kind of like the face you picture for that person you'v only ever talked to on the phone) ....don't ask why, I just did.
I saw the Vampire thread and thought I'd get in on the fun. LOL, don't know that I'll contribute much, tho, with a theologian and an author who's studying the Greek Classics! And I haven't read that many vampire romances yet. I have all the ones you've mentioned so far, except the Rice books -- those aren't my cup of tea either -- it's just getting around to reading them. I did read one recently that Ingela sent me, Mythe: Vampire, that I enjoyed. One of the things I liked about it was that it did take license with some of the vampire lore that we've always heard about.
The main one, because you mentioned it here, is vampires can walk around in the daylight -- the older the vampire is, the longer he can tolerate daylight. And as far as the sex, immediately before climax, he "nips" her to make orgasm more powerful. I like that instead of the same old thing about vampires. I realize, as you've stated, that some folks like stories to be more realistic and follow history, etc. I've never had a problem with an author straying from what we know and are used to. To me, it makes a story more interesting. Of course, I haven't done research like some of you have, so if there are errors in accuracy of some kind, I wouldn't know it but it also wouldn't bother me. Another story I read also had some "nipping" but that was for marking his woman to keep her safe. I like those little extras.
I guess I really don't like to do a lot of "thinking" in my reading. I have very little time to read and because my career is also "word" oriented (I'm a court reporter), my reading is strictly for entertainment purposes only. I don't like to dissect the stories I read. As long as I have interesting and developing characters, a story line that grabs and keeps me reading, and a great love story, I'm happy. I have no problem whatsoever with suspending belief. In fact, for me I prefer it.
No one mentioned Amanda Ashley. Has anyone read her vampires? I also have her in my TBR pile.
I have a fairly decent willing-suspension-of-disbelief. It just doesn't stretch to the concept of genuine deities other than the One.
And yes, I have all of Amanda Ashley's. Shame on me for not remembering them before. Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa. Hers are an interesting in-between. Not as bent on removing their curse, but not really happy campers either. Dark, dangerous, and deliciously sexy, though.
I've read most (I think) of Kenyon's Dark-Hunter novels, all of which have been absolute treats. Linda Lael Miller wrote a great vampire romance, Time Without End. Christine Feehan has a great series in her Dark novels.
They're not necessarily romances, but Chelsea Quin Yarbro's Comte de Saint-Germain is a clearly romantic and passionate character. The first novel is Hotel Transylvania.
Anne Rice, I think, mastered the sensual vampire in the first five Chronicles books, but she lost me in following efforts. Still, I think she's got a wonderful gift.
This isn't romantic, but if you think you have the stomach for it, try Lost Souls by Poppy Z Brite.
)
Hers are an interesting in-between. Not as bent on removing their curse, but not really happy campers either. Dark, dangerous, 
