I go through phases in what I'm reading. I had an Arthurian legends phase, where I read virtually anything I could find set in that "universe". Years ago, I had a Mafia phase. Dragons, space opera, dark fantasy, Three Musketeers swashbucklers… I'm nothing if not eclectic.
For the longest time now, it's been vampire fiction. I think Interview with the Vampire started it, but it could even have been Dracula itself (nothing like going to the source for this stuff). There've been some really great novels/series (Nancy Collins Sonja Blue series comes to mind) and some real stinkers (Sadly, pretty much anything from Anne Rice since Memnoch The Devil or, perhaps even worse, Brian Lumley's Necroscope novels). Suffice it to say, I've read a LOT of vampire fiction.
A while back, someone suggested Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. I'd seen the books before but hadn't been terribly inclined to pick any of them up. But since a friend had recommended them, when the first three books became available through a book club I was in at the time, I went ahead and ordered them.
Her books are set in an alternate universe where vampires and werecreatures and such are not myths, but recognized members of society. Not necessarily welcome members, but real entities nonetheless. Anita is a Vampire Hunter, out staking the bad guys, but eventually she gets wrapped up with a vampire king and a werewolf prince. So while there's a pretty decent horror/vampire novel here, there's also a definite romance novel angle to it. And Hamilton's won both SF and Romance writer awards for this series.
Since reading those first Anita Blake novels, I've come across several new series… Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking and it's several sequels, Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries, Kelly Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld novels… it's a pretty big club. There are definite similarities in most of these (I've read at least one or two of several of them… like I said, I've got a thing for vampire fiction). Vampires are not the mythical creatures we recognize them to be, they're often heroes/antiheroes, and there's a strong romantic component to them all. The tall dark stranger at his darkest and strangest. These have all been filed in the SF/Fantasy section, despite their romance overtones.
So the other day I went to browse Amazon, just for the hell of it. Dani and I usually share an account there and she had recently ordered a several books, so when I logged in, I was greeted by recommendations based on her recent purchase. Books like Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter novels, Karen Marie Moning's Highlander books, a series of books by MaryJanice Davidson that all start with "Undead and" in the title ("Undead and unwed" for instance) and seemingly scores of other "dark romantic fiction" or "romantic SF"… whatever it's called.
A trip to the bookstore the other day was even worse, with an entire rack filled with romantic vampires and other creatures of the dark. I even stumbled across one called "Even Vampires Get The Blues." Some of these would be found in the SF/Fantasy section, some in romance, and I came to the realization that they must be tossing a coin in the back room and putting the books in whichever section loses.
The last straw came this weekend, when I finished a book I'd picked up earlier in the week and came across an ad for eHarlequin.com. It's funny, since I hadn't even noticed any romance novel aspects with this one (well, not until after I saw that ad, and then they all became clear to me).
I'm pretty sure Laurell Hamilton really kicked off this particular branch of the whole Romantic SF/Fantasy thing, at least in my experience. So I'm blaming her for the blurring of the lines. They got Romance in my Vampire books, and it's nowhere near as satisfying as a Reese's. (Dani, of course, would heartily disagree with that opinion, I'm sure.)
For the longest time now, it's been vampire fiction. I think Interview with the Vampire started it, but it could even have been Dracula itself (nothing like going to the source for this stuff). There've been some really great novels/series (Nancy Collins Sonja Blue series comes to mind) and some real stinkers (Sadly, pretty much anything from Anne Rice since Memnoch The Devil or, perhaps even worse, Brian Lumley's Necroscope novels). Suffice it to say, I've read a LOT of vampire fiction.
A while back, someone suggested Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake novels. I'd seen the books before but hadn't been terribly inclined to pick any of them up. But since a friend had recommended them, when the first three books became available through a book club I was in at the time, I went ahead and ordered them.
Her books are set in an alternate universe where vampires and werecreatures and such are not myths, but recognized members of society. Not necessarily welcome members, but real entities nonetheless. Anita is a Vampire Hunter, out staking the bad guys, but eventually she gets wrapped up with a vampire king and a werewolf prince. So while there's a pretty decent horror/vampire novel here, there's also a definite romance novel angle to it. And Hamilton's won both SF and Romance writer awards for this series.
Since reading those first Anita Blake novels, I've come across several new series… Kim Harrison's Dead Witch Walking and it's several sequels, Charlaine Harris' Southern Vampire Mysteries, Kelly Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld novels… it's a pretty big club. There are definite similarities in most of these (I've read at least one or two of several of them… like I said, I've got a thing for vampire fiction). Vampires are not the mythical creatures we recognize them to be, they're often heroes/antiheroes, and there's a strong romantic component to them all. The tall dark stranger at his darkest and strangest. These have all been filed in the SF/Fantasy section, despite their romance overtones.
So the other day I went to browse Amazon, just for the hell of it. Dani and I usually share an account there and she had recently ordered a several books, so when I logged in, I was greeted by recommendations based on her recent purchase. Books like Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter novels, Karen Marie Moning's Highlander books, a series of books by MaryJanice Davidson that all start with "Undead and" in the title ("Undead and unwed" for instance) and seemingly scores of other "dark romantic fiction" or "romantic SF"… whatever it's called.
A trip to the bookstore the other day was even worse, with an entire rack filled with romantic vampires and other creatures of the dark. I even stumbled across one called "Even Vampires Get The Blues." Some of these would be found in the SF/Fantasy section, some in romance, and I came to the realization that they must be tossing a coin in the back room and putting the books in whichever section loses.
The last straw came this weekend, when I finished a book I'd picked up earlier in the week and came across an ad for eHarlequin.com. It's funny, since I hadn't even noticed any romance novel aspects with this one (well, not until after I saw that ad, and then they all became clear to me).
I'm pretty sure Laurell Hamilton really kicked off this particular branch of the whole Romantic SF/Fantasy thing, at least in my experience. So I'm blaming her for the blurring of the lines. They got Romance in my Vampire books, and it's nowhere near as satisfying as a Reese's. (Dani, of course, would heartily disagree with that opinion, I'm sure.)
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