A poll is like positivity, but easier

[megwrites]

Since I'm (foolishly) secretly working on a Vampire Novel of Doom, I had to post this poll. Because I need to know the trufax about vampires.


[Poll #1492062]

Comments

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

I never was all that into vampires, honestly. I read the LKH stuff to begin with because she was a vamp executioner and a zombie-raiser, and I thought that was way more interesting than most takes, until it became not so interesting. Buffy I liked for the dialogue and the dynamics of the group--later, Spike, too.

Vamps and most of the urban fantasy suite have never made me all that excited; it was usually an in spite of, not a because of, model.

That said, when done with good characterization and just enough new to it, I can count a vampire novel amongst my top books EVAR; see, Sunshine, by Robin McKinley. Which may be the only vampire novel on my shelf at this point. I got rid of my LKHs at some point, and never owned any of the rest of it--strictly lending library stuff.

Unless you count Gerald Terrant in C.S. Friedman's Coldfire trilogy, which I guess we should. Now THAT's a vampire.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Which, btw, is my way of saying "take me with a grain of salt." I'm not your target demographic, and never was, and honestly, I'm not sure other writers should answer these questions anyway, because we are so often prickly and weird about things.

[fiction-theory.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's the people who hate vampires or have gripes about them that I want to poll, because I think looking at the critics/detractors of something is a good way to look for stories that aren't get told or different ways to come at something by eliminating the things that had been done to death.

Urban Fantasy interests me, and so do the criticism and dislikes of it, so feel free to unload about anything else that bugs you about the genre ;)

I've had Sunshine recced to me before, and it's on the list for my next book buying run. Can I ask what makes it better than other vampire novels?

[handyhunter.livejournal.com]

Can I ask what makes it better than other vampire novels?

Mel! Who is not a vampire and only one of the minor characters in the story, and if McKinley were to write a Sunshine-universe sequel, I'd want it to be about him, but she has a bad track record with sequels, so I doubt that will happen.

Also, Con, the 'good' vampire, is *not* gorgeous or sexy, not at all sexually aggressive \o/ (though not anti-sex either a la Edward Cullen), and remains quite Other throughout the book. I don't mean he's unsympathetic or unchanged...but he doesn't get de-vampired or more human, I guess.

McKinley is a BtVS fan and I think that comes across a little with Sunshine, the narrator. It's not so similar that it seems like a rip-off, but the influences are there. Sunshine is older and more mature than Buffy, while at the same time a bit more out of her depth because she doesn't have a Watcher and hasn't been fighting vampires since she was 15.

I like the world-building as well. In some ways, it's like another character in the book. It's set in an Alternate Contemporary America (um, where there are no POC, I think); I've seen it described as 'post-apocalyptic', but to me, it's more pre- or during the apocalypse. Like, things are bad, but they can still get a lot worse and there are still people (human and supernatural) fighting the good fight.

I can't remember if you've read McKinley's other work? It's, to me, very much a Beauty & the Beast story, but more of a grown-up version -- it's closer to 'Rose Daughter', anyway, than 'Beauty'. The narrative style is a little bit slow and tangential; she branches off and tells backstory or side stories from the main plot, but it's essential and does move the plot along, just in a less than direct way. Which is sort of McKinley's signature style.

I love the ending too. [spoiler]Because Con and Sunshine don't end up HEA. I like to believe they become partners who fight crime evil, and don't have sex with each other. Platonic OTPs! And the Big Final Battle, as well as smaller, everyday battles, are still ahead of them, so the ending is open-ended/ambiguous, while resolving to my satisfaction the emotional beats and this chapter of Sunshine's life.

[merriehaskell.livejournal.com]

Yes--that thing about Con. The vampire remains strange and Other the entire book. THAT is an achievement alone. McKinley could write pretty kick-ass SF with actual ALIENS, I think.