OK, not soup, but series that include vampires, werewolves, etc. in their casts of characters. My wife and I read Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Merry Gentry, Charlaine Harris' Harper Connelly and Sookie Stackhouse, most all of MaryJanice Davidson's stuff, and Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series. Some of these have more explicit sex than what was called "dirty books" when I was growing up, but I guess are "erotic fantasy" today. Anyway, they are all good fun from my point of view. We usually get our books from Fictionwise, or Mobipocket and trade chips back and forth as we work our way through our favorites.

Is this a guilty pleasure we enjoy alone, or do others of you share our interests?

Van in Mississippi

PS We met Kim Harrison at a book signing a couple of weeks ago, and she was SO very nice! Guys, check her out; her books rock and she is very, very pretty!

Hi Van,

Love Kim Harrison (her's is the supernatural world I would live in if I had to make a choice... love the living vampire concept... Kisten :( ).

Love Charlaine Harris. Sookie is a great character. Just finished the Harper Connelly trio and am ready for more. Haven't tried the Shakespear books yet.

Loved LKH before she got the arduer and messed up the Anita Blake series. I'll start reading Blood Noir tomorrow but I'm not looking forward to it.

I've downloaded some samples from Davidson but haven't had a chance to read them (so many books, a good amount of time but so many books).

Kim Harrison's The Hollows series was so-so, I've read the first two books before I stopped.

However I really like Carrie Vaughn's Kitty series and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. Both have likeable and believable characters and interesting stories.

William Mark Simmons' books (available from Baen (http://www.webscription.net/p-306-one-foot-in-the-grave.aspx)) have a twist to the supernatural story and are very funny. I enjoyed all four books, book two has some boring parts though as far as I remember.

I don't specifically seek out such books, but I rather liked Wen Spencer's Tinker (http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/06-WindRiderCD/WindRiderCD/Tinker/index.htm).

I do not know how they differ to the above, or even if they do at all, but I've read Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore, and I understand there is a sequel, You Suck: A Love Story. I've read the former, and enjoyed it, but not quite enough to buy the latter or yet any other book by Moore.

Cheers,
Marc

Kelley Armstrong's "Women of the Otherworld" series falls into the "supernatural soup" (what a great term!) category too. The books follow a number of characters, with different ones starring in various books. They're rather fun.

Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series is not quite a classic supernatural soup, but people who enjoy the other series mentioned here would probably like it.

I don't specifically seek out such books, but I rather liked Wen Spencer's Tinker (http://baencd.thefifthimperium.com/06-WindRiderCD/WindRiderCD/Tinker/index.htm).

Very good book. The sequel is great too. Although I wouldn't really call them Supernatural, more a SciFi/Fantasy combo IMO.

Kim Harrison's The Hollows series was so-so, I've read the first two books before I stopped.
I've read Kim's first two books and I rather enjoyed them. Looking forward to eventually reading the third.

i love laurell k hamilton, both pre- and post- ardeur (i count merry gentry as post-ardeur, lol) though i realize it was a substantial departure from what a lot of readers enjoyed... that said, i've recently fallen into sherrilyn kenyon's dark-hunter series as well. i'm really really enjoying it, but it's far more like post-ardeur LKH than pre-, so some readers might not like it as much. sounds like it could be right up the thread starter's alley, tho!

there's a separate thread in this forum with a reading order for it that would help you decide where to start if you'd like to try it out. also, as mentioned in that post, you can currently download one of the later books in the series for free (from various sites, i think, but definitely from the author's current hype site, http://www.yearofacheron.com/ebook.html) to check her out.

EDIT: forgot to mention, i've also read a couple of books from christine feehan's carpathian series, and enjoyed them, but haven't gone to the effort of tracking down more of them, especially in ebook format. again, they're heavy on the erotica and romance angle, but fun. :D

Ditto what etitameh said. I was going to point you to Sherrilyn Kenyon's series. Very much along these lines. Here's the posting (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=25955) with the reading order (and the link to the author's web site).
Yummy series; very heavy on the "steamy sex" scenes, as mentioned above.

Another recomendation for Kelley Armstrong!

The best author at the moment out of those listed above( I do enjoy them all)

As mentioned Anita Blake stuff was good but is getting a bit pointless now everything is solved by having an orgy!

Totally *loved* The Hollows series!

Second the recommendations for Kelley Armstrong.

Books I like:

Kat Richardson's Greywalker series (2 out; the third one coming soon)
Patricia Brigg's Mercy Thompson novels.
Kate Daniels' series about magic - although the first novel is uneven, the second is quite a bit better.
Jim Butcher's Dresden books (although I like his fantasy series, Codex Alera, better).
Charlaine Harris series other than Sookie Stackhouse, which I can't remember: brother and sister, she finds dead people, name is....
A. Lee Martinez's Gil's All Fright Diner and Nameless Witch

Charlaine Harris series other than Sookie Stackhouse, which I can't remember: brother and sister, she finds dead people, name is....


Harper Connelly: Grave Surprise, An Ice Cold Grave, Grave Shift

You could also try the Argeneau Family books by Lynsay Sands - they're lots of fun (and another secret addiction of mine!). Start with "A Quick Bite" - it wasn't the first one published, but it's the first one in the series.

Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson series falls neatly into this category as well and I enjoyed the first few books! I'm not sure how far I'll take the series before I stop but it's more fun with werewolves and fae :)

i write erotic fiction as part of my living, and every time i crack a new anita and we get to the first of many pointless sex scenes, my only thought is "i gave at the office" ;) i miss the old guilty pleasure/obsidian butterfly days when anita still worked on cases and dolph and her old friends weren't complete pushy jerks!

some more to check out: kitty norville series, a couple of series by lilith saintcrow, the raine benares series by lisa shearin and the chronicles of elantra series by michelle sagara. i didn't love any of these, but they were entertaining for an evening. of them, i liked michelle sagara's best, but then i love her sun sword series as michelle west better - they just don't fit in this category.

Another recomendation for Kelley Armstrong!

The best author at the moment out of those listed above( I do enjoy them all)

As mentioned Anita Blake stuff was good but is getting a bit pointless now everything is solved by having an orgy!

You know, I have to agree with all who have voiced the opinion that the Anita Blake series, not to mention Merry Gentry, has too many sex scenes that are just too over the top. I never thought I would say I was bored reading sex scenes, but I am. I also wish Laurell would return to telling stories and drop the magical sex snake oil remedy for what ails ya. I am waiting for February for the publication of the new Mercedes Thompson story. Love those.

Basschick, you told us that you wrote erotic lit for a living. What's out there that we can enjoy, and have we been reading your stuff and didn't know it was you, or what? If you are willing to write and get published; plenty of us are willing to read!

Very good book. The sequel is great too. Although I wouldn't really call them Supernatural, more a SciFi/Fantasy combo IMO.
I wouldn't call Tinker supernatural at all. As you mention, it's an SF/fantasy combo. In this case, a portal has opened near Pittsburgh connecting Faery with our reality, and the protagonist must cope with the issues involved.

Emma Bull explored similar territory in her novel _Finder_, set in an area where Elfland has impinged on our reality, and Bordertown is an area populated by both species, where both science and magic work...erratically, because the natural laws governing the place are confused and contradictory.

Patricia Keneally did a whole series called Celts in space, where both science and magic worked, and FTL starships guided by computers delivered naked, blue painted Fian warriors to battlefields where they went mano a mano against opponents while mages opposed each other with spells.

Kenneally made no effort to explain how it was possible, and some of her assumptions don't hold up under scrutiny, but she was a good enough story teller to mostly pull it off.
______
Dennis

if you're tired of anita's sex scenes, i don't think you'll enjoy what i write *lol* when i say erotica, i'm understating a bit - i write porn for various clients - blogs, model descriptions, site reviews and custom stories, and have 2 sets of stories that are sold to websites (1 set has been licensed over 600 times).

btw, no one under 18 can legally read what i write ;)

You know, I have to agree with all who have voiced the opinion that the Anita Blake series, not to mention Merry Gentry, has too many sex scenes that are just too over the top. I never thought I would say I was bored reading sex scenes, but I am. I also wish Laurell would return to telling stories and drop the magical sex snake oil remedy for what ails ya. I am waiting for February for the publication of the new Mercedes Thompson story. Love those.

Basschick, you told us that you wrote erotic lit for a living. What's out there that we can enjoy, and have we been reading your stuff and didn't know it was you, or what? If you are willing to write and get published; plenty of us are willing to read!

i write erotic fiction as part of my living, and every time i crack a new anita and we get to the first of many pointless sex scenes, my only thought is "i gave at the office" ;) i miss the old guilty pleasure/obsidian butterfly days when anita still worked on cases and dolph and her old friends weren't complete pushy jerks!
Some years back, I read Anais Nin's _Delta of Venus_. It was erotica, written for a patron, who demanded more action and less character.

I think I felt the same way about it as you do about the current Anita Blake books. The patron's insistence on action leeched the stories, and they read like outline for the stories Nin wanted to write. They lacked the depth to make them any more than depictions of sex.

Most current erotica bores me. I have no objection to sex in a story, even hard core stuff. But sex doesn't stand alone. It happens in a context, and without a believable context and meaningful characters for things to happen between, the story fails as a story. In that sense, erotica is no different from any other literary form.

But I wish I could read the stories Nin wanted to write.
______
Dennis

basschick, I have no problem reading sex scenes, haven't had since I learned how to read! I just think Laurell K. is running over the same ground without advancing the storyline. I want to see more development of Anita/Richard/Jean Claude's relationship(s) and to see if Anita will interact with The Mother of All Darkness more, etc. I want Dolph to calm down and use Anita to solve cases again and stuff like that. In the Merry Gentry line, time will have to move forward again, won't it? Give me some story to go with my sex.

I don't think I could read your stuff. I'm so far over 18, I think I'm back under it again!

Agreed I enjoy the sex scenes in Laurells books but I dont like the book to be JUST sex scenes. and the characters have become very 2 dimensional.
They used to be action/detective oriented with some great sex scenes, now they are sex oriented with the occasional argument and the odd page of story beetween a chapter of sex scene.

I have actually questioned whether someone else is now writing them! the style is so different

Agreed I enjoy the sex scenes in Laurells books but I dont like the book to be JUST sex scenes. and the characters have become very 2 dimensional.
They used to be action/detective oriented with some great sex scenes, now they are sex oriented with the occasional argument and the odd page of story beetween a chapter of sex scene.

I have actually questioned whether someone else is now writing them! the style is so different
The change in Hamilton's style maps to the change in her life. The older books were written while still married to her first husband. The newer books have been produced since she divorced and re-married, and husband two is reportedly a younger guy, seriously into kink.

I haven't followed the series, but I've seen reports that the latest are moving back toward the former style. Perhaps Hamilton is regaining her balance.
______
Dennis

they aren't - there's a tiny tiny hint of the old stuff, but that's all - the constant never-ending sex and big supernatural stuff is almost all there is, and it's too bad - anita started out with a multifacted world - her job, relationship with the police and with bert and the rest of the animators inc crew, her neighbors, edward, various vampires, friends and foes plus plenty of background - family, the college guy who dumped her, her mother's death - that's all gone, too. she used to go jogging, she had 2 human buddies. what made anita good for me is that she existed in a version of our real world, but with realistic amounts of supernatural stuff woven in in a realistic way.

i miss that.

haven't followed the series, but I've seen reports that the latest are moving back toward the former style. Perhaps Hamilton is regaining her balance.
______
Dennis

they aren't - there's a tiny tiny hint of the old stuff, but that's all - the constant never-ending sex and big supernatural stuff is almost all there is, and it's too bad - anita started out with a multifacted world - her job, relationship with the police and with bert and the rest of the animators inc crew, her neighbors, edward, various vampires, friends and foes plus plenty of background - family, the college guy who dumped her, her mother's death - that's all gone, too. she used to go jogging, she had 2 human buddies. what made anita good for me is that she existed in a version of our real world, but with realistic amounts of supernatural stuff woven in in a realistic way.

i miss that.

I think you described my feelings on this perfectly. I loved the first books but now they've lost all the magic and charm and depth and just - well, they bore me! Biggest sin of all :p

I'm not usually a reader of the supernatural soup type but an author & series I have enjoyed is "Dead on My Feet" (The Halflife Chronicles) by Wm. Mark Simmons.

It is IMO different from the typical vampire stories (this according to my daughter who reads a lot of that). She also like this series. Simmons has an ironic sense of humor that I like and is a good story teller which is my main criteria for books I like.

You can find his stories on www.Baen.com (http://www.baen.com) in a variety of ebook formats.

I'm not usually a reader of the supernatural soup type but an author & series I have enjoyed is "Dead on My Feet" (The Halflife Chronicles) by Wm. Mark Simmons."Dead on My Feet" is actually the second book of the series. "One Foot in the Grave" is the first. And yes, I've read all of the four books and enjoyed them.

I have to stop reading these threads because of course I have to surf on over to Amazon and buy the books (or at least sample them). I can't read EVERYTHING! :(

[...] I can't read EVERYTHING! :(

But... but... Why not? I mean, doesn't everybody read EVERYTHING!!?

Xenophon

(running for cover from the incoming explosions...)

But... but... Why not? I mean, doesn't everybody read EVERYTHING!!?

Xenophon

(running for cover from the incoming explosions...)

Too late! http://i115.photobucket.com/albums/n301/DebInVenice/blowup.gif