Friday, March 14, 2008

Brief Review

This is a list of the various vampire books I have read throughout my short reading career. I am sure I probably missed some of them, especially when I was younger, but these are the ones I remembered and that's what counts most.

Drumroll please .....

The Dark Angel Triology from Meredith Ann Pierce:



These books were probably my first vampire books I ever read. They aren't specifically "vampire books" but one of the main characters is a vampire. These books have a lot of mythology wrapped in them. I originally read them in elementary school and then reread them in high school. I think they're great. I would definitely recommend them.

Now this book isn't a vampire book, but I thought I would add it since it is the book that led me to never want to read Ann Rice. I think perhaps I may give it another try. You have to admit, Interview with a vampire and the other vampire chronical books are classics.




This book by Annette Curtis Klause is one of the few vampire books I read pre-highschool that didn't involve the Buffy the Vampire Series ... I read A LOT of those. I also was obsessed with the show, and more specifically David Boreanez. Once he left for his own show though, I stopped watching after the first season of Angel. Thinking about it, that is probably where my vampire interest stemmed.



From what I remember, it is kind of sad and I didn't like the ending. But I think for being a youth book, it was pretty good.

Now to the Laurell K Hamilton Anita Blake Books.


I read all the books up to Obsidian Butterfly when I was in high school. I gave them up for the sheer fact that telling someone I was enjoying a book about a vampire hunter who has a love triangle between a vampire who owns a circus and a nightclub and a werewolf who is a teacher is kind of embarrassing. Not to mention the other various weres... like Anita's good friends the leopards and the rats.



Not sure why, but I picked them back up about last summer/fall. It is sad, but true that I have enjoyed them. If you have started from the beginning you kind of want to finish it. Unfortunately, her books have become worse, and the last ones are mostly about Anita having to have sex with any male character in the room in order to save herself and others.

I picked up this book by Elizabeth Kostova not too long after it came out. At the time I wasn't reading much for fun, since I was in college, but it made me want to read more vampire books again.... oh yes now I remember. That is why I picked up the Laurell K Hamilton books once more.




I actually really like this book. It is a unique story and she does very well to make the classic/historical story of vampires interesting and fun to read.

Next I found the 6 Victory Nelson books by Tanya Huff:




I really enjoyed the first 4 1/2. She is a private detective and I like the characters. I was greatly disapointed to what happened at the end of book 5 and it was hard to get through book 6.

I really enjoyed the Rachel Morgan books by Kim Harrison.




Rachel Morgan is a witch, she lives with a vampire, even dated one, and she works with a pixie too. I was so very disapointed at the end of book 5... it seriously ticked me off. Book 6 I didn't enjoy because of the ending of book 5, but the series itself I really enjoyed. The author also has some neat extras on her site, like music related to the characters and such.

Probably the series I have most enjoyed. Charlain Harris' Sookie Sackhouse books.




I really hate the name "Sookie" but I love the story and the characters and I am anxiously awaiting her 8th book to come out in May!

Stephanie Meyers' Twilight series.




Aimed at the young adult audience, but I found that these books were the most dramatic out of all of them (I guess high school will do that). I enjoyed them, but I almost wished they were lighter on the emotional content. The 4th book comes out later this year, and the movie comes out sometime too. The one things I have to say really bothers me about these books though: the undying obsession of the main character. She is absolutely infatuated with Edward, the vampire, but so much so that she can barely live/think/breath without him, and that ticks me off a little bit.


I have mixed feelings about these books by Kate Carey (who also writes under Erin Hunter with another female writer).




If you are more into the classic Dracula story then you may like this one. I had a hard time reading through the first one, but the second one I really enjoyed.

And here is where I had nothing to read for a while and got desperate:

I mentioned Erin McCarthy's books in a previous post:



Tate Hallaway's book Tall Dark and Dead did a bit better:


It was also full of sappy and shallow relationships and sex, but the plot was more improved and the author went into a lot detail about witchcraft things. I don't really care for it, but it adds to the book I guess.

I am reading a couple books right now as well. The next couple of days I am going to be pretty busy so I won't be able to read as much as I have been. I am also looking for some good books to read. I think that I need to read Dracula and some Anne Rice stuff though.

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