Book Recommendations

As many of you will be aware I created a Top 100 films/TV list, drawn from the reviews I have posted on the blog. An anonymous commentator asked if I would a top 100 books – unfortunately the answer is no as there are far too many vampire books out there to make anything like a fair stab at a top 100. What I did promise to do was list a few recommended reads that haven’t had a book review or a classic literature piece on the blog yet. This is no definitive list – just the books/book series that sprang to mind when I thought about it.

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice seems like a good place to start. The beginning of her vampire chronicles this introduced the world to Louis and Lestat. The actual film of the book is quite accurate and so most will know the story. What I found astounding, when I read the first volumes long before the film, was how much you hated Lestat when reading from Louis’ point of view but how that feeling was flipped as, in the second volume – the Vampire Lestat, Lestat became the (anti)hero of the piece.

There is a problem with the books… certainly the first three – up to and including Queen of the Damned are excellent books. For me, however, the quality began to vary through the series. This was down to two things – firstly Anne Rice was clearly in love with Lestat and he became altogether too powerful for the books to maintain an overwhelming interest – to the point that he ceased to be the focus of several of the books eventually – and that, as a writer, she did have a bad habit with descriptive passages that could be summed up as 'why use 1 paragraph to describe something when 20 pages will do?' That said there is still much to be enjoyed in the entire series.

Another classic book is ’Salem’s Lot by Stephen King. This spawned two mini TV series, one in 1979 and the other in 2004. Both summoned the basic story but neither fully captured the book. The joy of ’Salem’s Lot is the minutiae of small town America that King explores before dashing it all apart in an extraordinary supernatural event. The illustrated edition has a few photographs scattered lightly through the pages but, more interestingly, it has two short stories – one after the fall of the town and one (very Lovecraftian) before the events.

When I picked up S P Somtow’s Vampire Junction in a second hand book store I simply bought something about a vampire and, to be honest, suspected I would hate it. It was about a young boy rock star – Timmy Valentine – who also was a 2000 year old vampire. Then I started to read… After a few chapters I forced myself to put the book down and rushed back to the store to buy Valentine, the sequel, as I knew it was there and then ordered the third book Vanitas online. Extremely well written but, most interesting is the fact that Timmy himself seems to be a Jungian archetype – existing within our world. Somtow does very interesting things with the religious icon motif that dovetails with the Jungian aspects.

Richard Laymon wrote a few, unconnected with each other, vampire books. I have previously mentioned Out are the Lights as an Honourable Mention. There was Bite and the Stake but I have chosen to list the Travelling Vampire Show. Dwight and his friends Rusty and Slim want to go to a travelling show to see Valeria – a captive vampire – of course the fact that the show is for over 18s, it costs $10 each to get in (which they don’t have) and the show is at midnight – past curfew – is all a problem. The reason I have mentioned this book is that the vampire and the horror are secondary, what Laymon wrote was a powerful coming of age novel – well worth seeking out.

It is worth listing a vampire book that has no vampires in it, indeed it doesn’t even mention vampires. Tim Lucas, author of the book of Renfield, brought us Throat Sprockets and I understand he had vampires in mind when he wrote the book – but the book is about throat fetishism. However we have an almost plague like spread of the fetish through a medium of film and a perfect capturing of the hunger the vampire feels redefined into a sexual fetish. So without having a vampire at all we have a nigh on perfect vampire book – kudos to Tim.

Most will know of George RR Martin through his high fantasy series but he wrote a vampire novel entitled Fevre Dream. Those who do know his work will know what an excellent and evocative writer Martin is and this book is no exception. Set on the Mississippi and the paddle steamer the Fevre Dream, financed by a man with – shall we say – odd habits but he is not the one to fear.

The World on Blood by Jonathon Nasaw is a very different take on the vampire genre. Centred around a 12 step group for blood drinkers – a concept not too unusual in the genre – what makes this different is that our vampires are just ordinary people. However for these people blood is an actual drug, offering a very real and very potent high with aphrodisiacal effects and it is just as addictive for them as any other narcotic might be for the rest of the world. And someone really doesn’t want them to fall off the wagon…

Leaving the more real world books behind, Freda Warrington wrote a series of books beginning with A Taste of Blood Wine and followed by A Dance in Blood Velvet and the Dark Blood of Poppies. These have an unusual lore basis – the turning process for instance is very different – but what they are at the core are three of the most richly gothic vampire novels with a rich, passionate undertone. I have to say that the copy of A Dance in Blood Velvet, signed to me by Freda Warrington, is a pride of my collection. Warrington also wrote a Dracula sequel entitled Dracula – the Undead.

Last to be listed in this article, but not least, is Necroscope by Brian Lumley. This was the first of a five book series, which spawned several spin off series as well. The Necroscope is Harry Keogh and a Necroscope can speak with the dead. This volume follows Harry’s life from childhood to being a young adult, of him being drawn into e-branch (Britain’s paranormal spy agency) and issues with a KGB necromancer who gets infected with vampirism. However the vampire threat is much more dangerous and insidious than this volume might betray and as the series moves on we meet the Wamphyri – some of the deadliest vampires committed to paper. This is bloody, gory pulp and, as such, the books are a joy to read.