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Playing favorites with vampires and their authors

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It’s no surprise we love vampires, but with so many talented authors taking on the dark, mysterious creatures, the types of vampires have expanded. We love it. Can they be in the sun? What kills them? Are they inherently evil? Are they just utterly sexy?

With so many variations, we couldn’t resist asking which author writes your favorite vampire? We asked first on Twitter, (slightly) narrowed down the list and now we’re ready for reader feedback.

Tell us who you love and leave comments telling us what makes her vampires worthy of your love. We’ll try to get some fresh reviews or author Q&As based off this poll and the comments below.

Update: We just wanted to remind everyone this list was chosen by our Twitter followers. If you don’t see your favorite vampire author in the list, please post them in the comments.

We’re enjoying seeing all the additional suggestions. We’re paying attention to the comments, and we have plans to give Jim Butcher, Ilona Andrews, Kresley Cole, Patricia Briggs, L.A. Banks and others attention on the blog. (We’re going to be doing reviews of Dresden books soon; help new readers start Jim Butcher’s series.) So, keep the comments coming!

102 Responses to “Playing favorites with vampires and their authors”

  1. Daomadan says:

    “HOWEVER, my all-time favorite vampire novel is Sunshine by Robin McKinley.” This is such a great book! I’ve got to agree with you on this one.

  2. jacqui says:

    i just love keri arthur. riley is just the best.

  3. Allison says:

    My faves: Kresley Cole (although there are only a few of them), Richelle Mead, Christine Feehan (her earlier stuff if you love steamy adult novels), LJ Smith, Charlaine Harris, and Maggie Shayne. (I can’t believe Cole, Feehan, Smith, and Shayne haven’t been mentioned…so sad.)

    I’ve read a bunch of others, but these are the top. LKH didn’t get me into it, but maybe I’ll give it another go.

    As a BA holder in Creative Writing, let me tell you gals who doubt it: Stephenie Meyer can’t write. Yes, she made millions, but her style is awful and full of errors (logic errors, like incoherent sentences, which are bad — read it again and look for it, if you know how to write). It was mildly interesting, but I’ve read so many other better ones — like LJ Smith (who got me into vamp-genre like 11 years ago and started the YA vampire stuff, although Christopher Pike wrote a short series).

    I know Anne Rice is the reigning queen who started it all, but her style is awful. She details things that do not matter to the story at all (like the grain in the wooden table), and it bogs it down.

    • TK says:

      This is probably why you don’t care for LKH. She started her series as a workmanlike writer with a flair for description and a gritty, fast-paced plot. Now she writes repetitive sex scenes (I think she uses cut-and-paste for most of those episodes) with terrible grammar and comma abuse the likes of which you’ve probably never seen before.

      It’s amazing her publishing house hasn’t rescinded her no-edit clause and forced her to work with someone on this stuff.

      • Allison says:

        lol that makes sense…thank you. I’m very..uh…anal about writing styles. If it’s not to the point or relevant to the plot and/or character, I don’t care about it and it shouldn’t be there.

        And commas. It’s an art form. Either ugly or beautiful.

  4. I voted for Richelle Mead, Jeaniene Frost and Katie MacAlister.
    Why I love their Vampires

    Their Characters are so adorable, sexy and sentimentally.
    For example Jeaniene Frost’s Night Huntress Series.
    Bones is such a hard man, but in real, he’s a soft man with a veeeery big heart and full of love for his Cat *-*

  5. colbii says:

    i voted for Richelle Mead and Other: Lili St. Crow
    for their Vampire Academy series and Strange Angels series 🙂

  6. Heather says:

    Christine Feehan! Though her characters are technically Carpathians, she is awesome! I love Richelle Mead and J.R. Ward as well!

  7. I voted for Charlaine Harris and Richelle Mead, and then wrote in with LJ Smith, who wrote the books that were my first foray into vampires… and are still amazing!

  8. ♥Adrian&Christian♥ says:

    Richelle Mead all the way!!! Between Adrian, Christian and even Dmitri, who could want anything more??? ^_^

    BEST vampire series ever…a million times between than that gay-fag Edward!!! –> Richelle is a much better writer than Stephenie Meyer could ever dream of becoming!! And Rose actually has a personality, unlike stupid little Bella…Team Vampire Academy all the way!!! ^_^

  9. Prunella Von Schleidlhaagen says:

    Sorry to see that no one has mentioned Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, who has written about the Count St. Germain since 1978.

  10. annmarysl says:

    I vote for Richelle Mead, Ann Rice and Keri Arthur. their vamps are just fantastic and you can easily related to them. Rose is just a girl fullof drama and living a life we all don’t want to. Riley is just a good series and I got to give it to Ann Rice, she’s just the best of all, that my view. I also do like LJ Smith because my best friend just love her books and the night series is just good.

  11. Miki says:

    My favourite authors are Richelle Mead (as shown) and my first favourite is Rachel Caine with her Morganville Vampire Series…

  12. Jenny says:

    Richelle Mead all the way!!!! She is my favaourite author. I can actually re read all the books many times and not get sick of them. Way better than twilight thats for sure. Plus Dimitri is way more love able than Edward…YUCK!This is to all the people who are obsessed with twilight…”You can have Edward I want Dimitri” Plus Rose is way better than stupid Bella at least she has way more balls,attitude and confidence:) i also love Lissa and Christian and Adrian.TEAM VAMPIRE ACADEMY!!!

  13. Elena says:

    Really, no L.J. Smith on the list???

  14. nancydotslash says:

    Anne Rice leaves all the rest of these in the dust, have you ever tried her???? I find it hard to believe that she isn’t in first place, her writing skills far outweigh any of them, they aren’t even in her league at all. The others mentioned write a good book, but hers are AWESOME. There’s no comparison. Its like comparing a Kia to a Corvette. I encourage you to read her vamp series and experience something truly incredible…

  15. Mandy says:

    I like Allison’s comment… I agree with so much of it! I started with L.J. Smith about 18 years ago, moved on to LKH, and now the genre has exploded so much, it’s hard to pick a fave! I LOVE J.R. Ward’s BDB, and I wrote in Lara Adrian. I love Kim Harrison, but I like those for the other supernatural. I have tried Anne Rice, many times over the years, but I can’t get past the first 50 pages of any book…
    Hard to pick favorites, though… I love so many!!

  16. Christopher Golden, author of The Shadow Saga about Peter Octavian, vampire. (The whole series is being reprinted with new covers – OF SAINTS AND SHADOWS, the first book, has an intro by Sookie Stackhouse’s creator, Charlaine Harris!)

    Also, Christopher Golden and Thomas E. Sniegoski collaborated on a quartet of novels called The Menagerie in which Eve, after her fall from grace, became a vampire. Awesome, truly good books.

  17. Qwerty says:

    I voted for Richelle Mead I Love Vampire Academy!!! a different an original story definitely one of my favorite authors

  18. VAfan says:

    I’m voting for Richelle Mead because she’s such a talented author. I LOVE Vampire Academy, it’s my favorite book ever so GO RICHELLE!!!

  19. LoveVA says:

    <3 Richelle Mead <3 VA FTW! <3 Rose, Adrian and Dimitri <3

  20. Kitty says:

    I just lost a lot of respect for Hamilton. Her latest blog has her trying to pawn off a book error on a copy editor by saying that she changed a passage in her book because she (the editor) was a homophobe. Seriously, now. If I’m not mistaken, Hamilton herself had already admitted that she made that error when people first pointed it out. If Hamilton should be getting angry at her editor, it should be because the editor didn’t catch that error.

    Accusing people of altering text because of homophobia is a very serious thing. That sort of thing can ruin careers and reputations.

    Hamilton is notorious for forgetting continuity. She twitters for help on her continuity because she refuses to compile all of the characters and plot that she’s written so far. She just doesn’t want to admit that she doesn’t know half of what is going on in her own books.

  21. wickedtruth says:

    I love LKH Her books are fun and sexy but I also love all of Richell Mead’s books Dimitri is so hot 🙂

  22. Safkhet says:

    I sort of skimmed the comments, and so I don’t know if anyone mentioned The Noble Dead series by Barb and J.C. Hendee (nobody mentioned Hendee or Noble Dead at least according to my ctrl+F), now those are a really interesting take on the undead (as the book jacket said, think Lord of the Rings meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer). I think they are pretty epic. I throw that out there as a “highly recommend”. 🙂 Plus if you also love fantasy, like I do, then it’s totally worth it. The first book is Dhampir, and while that series has ended they are currently putting out a spin-off series which so far is pretty awesome too though it’s in a somewhat different vein than the first one (since the main character focus switched in a way). The last time I had some money to throw away I used it on acquiring the whole series for myself. 🙂

  23. Diane says:

    I haven’t read all the comments either, but would like to mention Rachel Caine, for her wonderful Morganville Vampires series, Carrie Vaughn, for the way she’s developing the vampire characters in her Kitty Norville series, same for Kelley Armstrong, Jes Battis and Lilith Saintcrow. PN Elrod has been writing great vampires since 1990. There’s also DD Barant, JF Lewis, Glaudia Gray and many more worthy authors who haven’t yet been mentioned.

  24. Brandi says:

    Richelle Mead!!! She is the best!!

  25. MissyMiss says:

    Richelle Mead and Charlaine Harris are my favourites from the list, and Rachel Caine (Morganville Vampires), Claudia Gray (Evernight Academy), Michelle Rowen (Immortality Bites) and Lili St Crow (Strange Angels)are other of my fav. vamp authors.

  26. Jasmine says:

    Richelle Mead and P.C. Cast are actually the only authors i read from though. but, both their books are great! = ]

  27. E&BFAN says:

    I do however love Anne Rice. She was my first Vamp writer. Lestat is one of my favorite characters. Since I could only pick 3 she would be #4 on my list.

  28. blissfulbernie says:

    keri arthur he’s books r the best the riley series has murder,love,sex,fun and der is good story to the books much better than true blood series i think the riley series should have been made into a tv series not true blood riley is way better than sookie stackhouse i also like LJ Smith the night world series good stories n it Cliare Cassandra is good too the city of glass. rachel caine books.

  29. Jer says:

    I only voted for 1!!! Kim Harrison!!!

  30. A. Newport says:

    I voted for KIM HARRISON!!!!!!!!

  31. Marcie says:

    I voted for Kim Harrison. I got all 8 of her Hollow series books since August and have read each one plus all the stort stories at least 4 times each. I love how she has the vampires, elves, witches, demons, fairies, pixies, and humans, but it still feels like real life. I almost feel like I could go to Cincinnati and find Rachel and Ivy at any moment. Excellent reading for me.

  32. Marcie says:

    I just found this new author Rachel Caine and her Morganville Vampires Series. I am loving all of the books so far. It is a great series and really keeps you captivated. I have a very hard time putting hte books down to do anything else.

  33. Vampiria says:

    I just got through reading Vicky Renee Johnson’s “Mississippi Vampires” It wasnt what I thought it would be. I thought it would read like the true blood books. Instead it is a charming tale set back in 1929. A must read! Wonderful book.

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