The gauntlet has been officially laid down. It seems my little literary quizzes are just too easy for some of you hardcore genre fiction aficionados!
So with that in mind, I pushed the boundaries on the Vampire Fiction IQ Test just a little to keep it challenging – this quiz includes releases that are science fiction, paranormal fantasy, and conventional horror. Some are recent releases while others have been around for decades. Most have been bestsellers at some point while a few are what I like to call “cult classics.”
If any of you get all of these correct, please let me know so I can hang my head in shame...
1. What famous author wrote the brilliant – and blasphemous – short story “Under St. Peter’s,” a short story that depicts Jesus as an undead vampire trapped under St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City?
2. What 2011 release – a debut novel that I called “a dark masterpiece that virtually burns the pages with a bloody incandescence” – is set in a little mining town in the middle of nowhere on the shores of Lake Superior in northern Ontario?
3. What was the title of Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s very first novel in her Saint-Germain Cycle?
4. What recent novel cleverly reimagined the vampire mythos and revolved around one of the most intriguing females in the history of humankind, Cleopatra?
5. Name the iconic vampire novel that starts with the line: “Almost everyone thought the man and the boy were father and son.”
6. Interview With the Vampire by Anne Rice was published in April of 1976. Was it the runaway bestselling novel of the year or did it not even make it into the top ten?
7. What paranormal fantasy saga features a vampiric rock star (the front man for the industrial/goth band Inferno) named Dante Baptiste, a character who has been called unarguably the sexiest male vampire in all of literature?
8. What genre transcendent trilogy – a fusion of alternate history, epic fantasy adventure, apocalyptic horror, and heartrending romance – is set in a world where vampire clans rule most of the world while humankind is forced to exist near the equator?
9. This blockbuster trilogy describes vampires as “viruses incarnate.”
10. What series features Elvis as an endearing undead bloodsucker named Bubba?
11. Vampiric alien invaders have all but taken over Earth in this long-running series that blends military science fiction, Lovecraftian horror, and apocalyptic fiction.
12. What iconic saga features a master vampire named Jean-Claude?
13. What author wrote the cult classics Fat White Vampire Blues and Bride of the Fat White Vampire?
ANSWERS
1. Harry Turtledove
2. Enter, Night by Michael Rowe
4. Queen of Kings by Maria Dahvana Headley
5. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King
6. According to Publishers Weekly, Interview With the Vampire wasn’t in the top ten. (Trinity by Leon Uris was #1.)
7. The Maker’s Song by Adrian Phoenix
8. The Vampire Empire trilogy (The Greyfriar, The Rift Walker, and The Kingmakers by Clay and Susan Griffith
9. The Strain Trilogy by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan
10. The Southern Vampire (Sookie Stackhouse) saga by Charlaine Harris
12. Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series
13.
Andrew Fox
Paul Goat Allen has been a full-time book reviewer specializing in genre fiction for the last two decades and has written thousands of reviews for companies like Publishers Weekly, The Chicago Tribune, Kirkus Reviews, and BarnesandNoble.com. He is a member of the National Book Critics Circle. You can follow him on Twitter at @paulgoatallen and get all the latest Barnes & Noble book news from @BNBuzz.
dhaupt
on
Wow Paul, I needed a degree in Vampire to know all of those. I got two 
but I have definitely put a few of the ones I didn't get in my virtual basket at B&N.com
Thanks
