I Vant to Suck Your Blood: The Rise – and Rise – of Vampire Fiction
Categories:
science fiction & fantasy
In a recent BarnesandNoble.com interview with Orson Scott Card, the iconic multiple Hugo and Nebula Award-winning author of Ender's Game, Speaker for the Dead, etc., remarked that science fiction is “no longer a cutting-edge genre – the edge is now in fantasy.”
I don’t think many people would argue this statement – I certainly don’t – but what stuck with me was his subsequent comment about vampire-powered fiction: “Of course, even as I say that, great fantasy is being swamped by vampire novels. But that's just a phase, the way there was a genre of mafia novels for a short time after The Godfather became a monster hit. Twilight's ‘coattails’ will fade, and the Fantasy/Sci-Fi sections of the bookstores will get back to normal…”
With all respect to Mr. Card and Stephenie Meyer, I don’t see the current profusion of vampire fiction as simply a phase or in any way connected to the mainstream success of the Twilight saga. Like the phenomenal popularity of paranormal fantasy (Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake saga, Kim Harrison’s Hollows sequence, Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, etc.) in the last decade or so, I see vampire fiction as going through its own kind of literary evolution, or metamorphosis. In large part because of the popularity of paranormal fantasy – which blends elements of fantasy with romance, mystery and horror – more and more authors are finding unconventional ways to re-imagine vampires and redefine the boundaries of the vampire mythos. Mario Acevedo’s sardonic, bloodsucking private detective Felix Gomez was turned while a soldier in Iraq. The protagonist of J.F. Lewis’ Void City novels, Eric, is the undead owner of a strip club. E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth series features vampiric aliens invaders. In Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse saga, a vampire named Bubba could very well be an undead Elvis…
And The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan is poised to be the blockbuster release of the summer. A fusion of apocalyptic thriller and vampire and zombie fiction, this pedal-to-the-metal, barn-burner of a read – comparable to Richard Matheson’s 1954 classic I Am Legend – chronicles the spread of a nightmarish virus through New York City after a transatlantic plane landing at JFK inexplicably loses power and more than 200 passengers are found mysteriously dead… or are they?
So will vampire fiction once again eventually fade away in relative obscurity? I don’t think so. In fact, like paranormal fantasy, I see vampire-powered fiction growing stronger and more thematically diverse every day… And although there will undoubtedly be releases that homogenize vampires (Meyer’s Twilight saga), there will also be novels that boldly explore new territory (like John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let Me In or The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas) and continue to reinvigorate – add new blood, so to speak – to the vampire mythos…
So whether you like your bloodsuckers sexy and seductive à la Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake saga or terror-inducing monstrosities like David Wellington’s Laura Caxton trilogy (13 Bullets, 99 Coffins and Vampire Zero), don’t worry – there will be plenty of genre hybridized vampire fiction in the months and years and decades to come. I’d bet my canine teeth on it.
Like the vampires in The Strain – described as “viruses incarnate” – vampire fiction is constantly evolving and, with a little continued help from inspired writers, this subgenre will never die: not even if you stab it through the heart with a wooden stake, shoot it in the head with a silver bullet, and expose it to direct sunlight.
I don’t think many people would argue this statement – I certainly don’t – but what stuck with me was his subsequent comment about vampire-powered fiction: “Of course, even as I say that, great fantasy is being swamped by vampire novels. But that's just a phase, the way there was a genre of mafia novels for a short time after The Godfather became a monster hit. Twilight's ‘coattails’ will fade, and the Fantasy/Sci-Fi sections of the bookstores will get back to normal…”
With all respect to Mr. Card and Stephenie Meyer, I don’t see the current profusion of vampire fiction as simply a phase or in any way connected to the mainstream success of the Twilight saga. Like the phenomenal popularity of paranormal fantasy (Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake saga, Kim Harrison’s Hollows sequence, Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series, etc.) in the last decade or so, I see vampire fiction as going through its own kind of literary evolution, or metamorphosis. In large part because of the popularity of paranormal fantasy – which blends elements of fantasy with romance, mystery and horror – more and more authors are finding unconventional ways to re-imagine vampires and redefine the boundaries of the vampire mythos. Mario Acevedo’s sardonic, bloodsucking private detective Felix Gomez was turned while a soldier in Iraq. The protagonist of J.F. Lewis’ Void City novels, Eric, is the undead owner of a strip club. E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth series features vampiric aliens invaders. In Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse saga, a vampire named Bubba could very well be an undead Elvis…
And The Strain by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan is poised to be the blockbuster release of the summer. A fusion of apocalyptic thriller and vampire and zombie fiction, this pedal-to-the-metal, barn-burner of a read – comparable to Richard Matheson’s 1954 classic I Am Legend – chronicles the spread of a nightmarish virus through New York City after a transatlantic plane landing at JFK inexplicably loses power and more than 200 passengers are found mysteriously dead… or are they?
So will vampire fiction once again eventually fade away in relative obscurity? I don’t think so. In fact, like paranormal fantasy, I see vampire-powered fiction growing stronger and more thematically diverse every day… And although there will undoubtedly be releases that homogenize vampires (Meyer’s Twilight saga), there will also be novels that boldly explore new territory (like John Ajvide Lindqvist’s Let Me In or The Vampire Tapestry by Suzy McKee Charnas) and continue to reinvigorate – add new blood, so to speak – to the vampire mythos…
So whether you like your bloodsuckers sexy and seductive à la Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake saga or terror-inducing monstrosities like David Wellington’s Laura Caxton trilogy (13 Bullets, 99 Coffins and Vampire Zero), don’t worry – there will be plenty of genre hybridized vampire fiction in the months and years and decades to come. I’d bet my canine teeth on it.
Like the vampires in The Strain – described as “viruses incarnate” – vampire fiction is constantly evolving and, with a little continued help from inspired writers, this subgenre will never die: not even if you stab it through the heart with a wooden stake, shoot it in the head with a silver bullet, and expose it to direct sunlight.
5 comments
Permalink
