What's with all the damn vampires?

[applepie]

I'm sick of vampire/paranormal books. So boring. When you eat too much of your favorite food, one day you'll hate its taste.

[Jack Silkstone]

I would argue that the escapism for many, with regards to action novels, is being able to step into the shoes of someone who is winning against the real threats of the modern world. Making it exciting, fast paced and filled with technology only makes it more appealing. Have a look at the popularity of Tom Clancy and his novels, films and games.

The premise of my series, PRIMAL, is that a team of former military step outside the boundaries of nations and corporations to bring a little justice to the world. It's a concept that resonates with young men who love the idea of taking the fight to the rich, powerful and untouchable.

Vampires and other Urban Fantasy is definitely a market aimed squarely at young women, not saying others can't enjoy them. Like Matt Reilly I want to bring guys back to reading and give them something they can connect with.

Jack

[fjtorres]

When was the last release of a Clancy-branded book or movie?
I'm thinking there's a reason he sold the brand outright to Ubisoft.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9899543-52.html

As for the pervasiveness of vamps in pop culture, the discussion may be about to go mainstream:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44192205/ns/us_news-life/

[Jovvi]

Well, I like the Urban fantasy/paranormal romance books alot, and I appreciate what they do for the reading of 12-19 year olds. See, I work att a library (in Sweden) and our consern most of the time is how to get kids to read more. A few years ago it was Harry Potter that brought the kids, now its Twilight and followers...

As I said, I like them, read them and buy them for the library. Some of my collueges express that perhaps we should not buy so many "vampire" books, is it not enough to have say three such series? I say, what about all the crime books, should we stop buying new series there to because we already have several thousand crime books (and I think they all have more or less the same plot)? Of cause not, is always the answer to that.

I´m in favor for letting everybody read what they enjoy, if you don´t like paranormal romance/urban fantasy, don´t read it!

However, at the library everyone should be able to find some of the books they enjoy.

Clara

[Jack Silkstone]

[QUOTE=fjtorres;1707912]When was the last release of a Clancy-branded book or movie?
I'm thinking there's a reason he sold the brand outright to Ubisoft.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13772_3-9899543-52.html

Clancy released a new book recently, Against All Enemies, it was released earlier this year. Got pretty average reviews. UBISOFT bought the rites to his name in games and other media not books.

Still a few mainstream authors writing action and thriller. The Indie world however seems to be dominated by Urban Fantasy and the like.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by BookCat

That nymphomaniac succubus novel sounds like fun!

It's on my list of things to develop...

[joenunya]

What's with all the damn vampires?

Apparently, it's a lack of nymphomaniac werewolves on Atkins to keep the population controlled.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by crich70

Yep. In the 30's-40's they had a lot of monster movies and some things like the Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers serials, then it went to science based science fiction in the 50's (the atom bomb etc.) and musicals for a short time and then things like Dirty Harry and Death Wish then to movie series like Alien, Friday the 13th, and Halloween etc. Movies do seem to come in clusters and books I'm sure follow similar guidelines.

And now superheroes (especially science- and SF-based) are coming back... programs like Heroes and Alphas showing us people with extraordinary powers, pushing the genetic envelope. G.R.R. Martin's Wild Cards series predated a lot of that, though it never went huge.

[elcreative]

Someone on another site suggested that it's all a plot by the vampires... sparkly vampires = cool, by the end of the decade all the girls go looking for cool sparkly vampires... no need to go out for dinner, arrives at the door for a pleasant evening/dinner in, much less work...

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Jack Silkstone

UBISOFT bought the rites to his name in games and other media not books.

Still a few mainstream authors writing action and thriller. The Indie world however seems to be dominated by Urban Fantasy and the like.

Ubisoft bought rights to books, too.
The deal allows him to use his own name only on books he writes himself.
(Might explain the tepid reviews on the last one.)

The indie world dominated by urban fantasy?
Dunno, I see a lot of shelf space devoted to the genre, but most of it comes from BPH labels, Silhouette and the like. I don't think the desire to milk the Twilight tweens is limitted to indies.
Rather, there have long been writers doing their thing in that area and now the publishers are tripping all over themslves to sign them up.
Any day now, somebody else will hit a homerun and we'll see a diferent fad build around a different pre-existent genre. Maybe troubled impotent cyborg secret agents.

[pixiestyx]

Originally Posted by khalleron

This very common fantasy is why so many women and girls get into and stay in abusive relationships - 'I can change him! He just needs a good woman!'

No you can't, and no he doesn't.

This is so Sookie Stackhouse! I gave in to reading the books & watching the show after several of my friends raved about both. I don't understand the raves, but I've been sucked in by hoping that Sookie will figure out that vampires = bad relationship choice no matter how "sweet" they try to act.

I adored Anne Rice's books when I was in college & I'm a huge fan of the Buffyverse, but I can't stand Twilight - it & the copycats have really turned me off from vampire books. The same thing happens with many genres though - one hit and suddenly the market is drowning in knock-off books. It makes me thankful that I've found Mobileread & some great reviews & recommendations here to help weed out the junk - especially since it would appear I can no longer count on my aforementioned friends recommendations!

[5thWiggle]

Less "sparkly" Vampires! More fuzzy ones!

[crich70]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Someone on another site suggested that it's all a plot by the vampires... sparkly vampires = cool, by the end of the decade all the girls go looking for cool sparkly vampires... no need to go out out for dinner, arrives at the door for a pleasant evening/dinner in, much less work...

Or maybe they're trying to bleed the market dry. lol.

[FizzyWater]

Originally Posted by applepie

I'm sick of vampire/paranormal books. So boring. When you eat too much of your favorite food, one day you'll hate its taste.

I once had a dream that I was in a prison where they (somehow) found all your favorite things - colors, foods, etc. When you were in this prison, you never saw anything BUT your favorite color (the shared rooms were black-n-white), never ate anything but your favorite food, never heard anything but your favorite song....

...you came to hate everything you once loved.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by crich70

Stephen King referred to the Vampire as the ultimate zipless sex act (to paraphrase his words) in (I think) his book of Danse Macabre. He pointed to the 3 sisters (in Dracula) and how Harker was going to be 'orally raped' by them before the Count barges in and breaks things up. He went on to point out that Harker didn't appear to care he was about to be assaulted by the 3 ladies and seems to be disappointed that the Count puts a stop to things. After all he was under their spell and couldn't fight back if he wanted to and what man wouldn't enjoy having the attention of 3 women? Mr. King goes on to say that he imagines Stoker's readers (when the book 1st came out) were no doubt disappointed that the Count stepped in and broke things up as well. Certainly there does seem to be a sexual component to the idea of the Vampire.

This is certainly an element in focus with Goth Vampire bands.