12 KiB
[Q] About to finish reading Luminosity/Radiance, and would love another vampire story recommendation
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Author: u/Vorpal_Kitten *
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URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/4kx5au/q_about_to_finish_reading_luminosityradiance_and/
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Score: 11
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Created: 2016-05-25T01:04:42
Post:
I am about to finish reading Luminosity/Radiance, and would love another vampire story recommendation now that I'm in a vampire mood. Something with pack werewolves might do as well, though not horror werewolves/wolfmen.
I would vastly prefer something completed, and it doesn't even have to be the most rational, as my backup plan will probably be to read Anne Rice or something.
Thanks for your time!
Comments:
u/eniteris [+8] (an hour later)
I would say Blindsight by Peter Watts, but you're probably not into that kind of vampire.
(More existential angst than supernatural)
u/callmebrotherg [+6] now posting as /u/callmesalticidae (an hour later)
Does qualify as rational fiction, though!
The sequel, Echopraxia, also has a vampire character.
u/Vorpal_Kitten [+4] (an hour later)
I would say Blindsight by Peter Watts, but you're probably not into that kind of vampire.
I've been meaning to re-read that ever since I learned of the sequel coming out, but no, it doesn't fill my current mood for vampires exactly despite technically containing one.
u/Escapement [+6] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (34 minutes later)
Terry Pratchett's most vampiric novel, Carpe Jugulum, is pretty decent but not in the top 20 of Pratchett novels - but his most werewolfy novel, The Fifth Elephant, is actually very good and would definitely make that list, and has a bonus vampire in it. In both cases, more fantasy/humor than horror stuff.
Steven Brust's Agyar is an interesting literary experiment - an entire vampire novel that's pretty well written and interesting that also manages to not use the word vampire even once.
I really like Gaiman's Vampire Sestina (a ~1 page poem) but it's not worth buying an entire short story anthology just for it - though of course Gaiman's short fiction is in general pretty excellent. You can find the poem online with google.
u/Vorpal_Kitten [+3] (an hour later)
Terry Pratchett
I've read all of Discworld and possibly most of his other work.
Steven Brust's Agyar
Interesting, thanks!
u/okaycat [+4] (12 hours later)
You should read The Historian. It's probably one of the best vampire novels I've read. The author is very good at building up this sort of dreary spooky atmosphere, it's almost like a horror novel.
Also you should check out the Ann Rice novels. I know they have a reputation... they practically introduced the angsty moody vampire trope. However that doesn't mean they aren't good. The books are more about what it means to be a vampire; it embraces the monstrosity of vampires without making them unsympathetic. It's full of pseudo philosophical babble but it's still pretty interesting.
u/gabbalis [+3] (a day later)
I'm in a similar boat, though I finished both those stories ages ago, liked them, and never really found a story that contains excactly what I liked about them since...
I just want a xenofictional fish out of water coming of age story. That is to say, stories about a character becoming a vampire, learning what it is to be a vampire, and immersing themselves in the culture of vampires are great. Stories where vampires are written merely as a metaphor for an aspect of human experience? Or where the character clasps onto their humanity and refuses to undergo character development into their new being? Meh.
Doesn't really have to be vampires either of course. Actually, the webcomic Zebra Girl is another instance of what I'm referring to.
u/Vorpal_Kitten [+1] (a day later)
the webcomic Zebra Girl
How long does it take to get good? The beginning is really putting me off.
u/gabbalis [+2] (a day later)
Artistically? Page 457 The Dawn of The Night arc. Plotwise? Well it slowly sheds more and more of it's joke of the day nature over time. Hmm. I can't give a specific point. It's fully matured by The Dawn of The Night but you could also argue for Jacks character development arc in The Magi-Net (183) or when it starts getting dark in Angels With the Dirty Fir (95). Also the Moon Games (264) arc is worth a mention. Just because its in a moderately developed place in the story and has werewolves.
TLDR. Probably you should just skip to page 457. All the great epics were started in medias res, you can always go back for the backstories later. :P
u/boomfarmer [+2] Trying to be helpful (an hour later)
By the same author, have you considered any of the glowfics, including Effulgence?
Also, Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment.
u/Vorpal_Kitten [+2] (an hour later)
By the same author, have you considered any of the glowfics, including Effulgence?
I was not aware these existed, sounds interesting.
u/Escapement [+17] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (2 hours later)
I strongly de-rec the glowfic Effulgence.
The writing is fine but the plot has serious issues - mostly, the authors' steadfast refusal to allow any problem to be difficult or interesting to sort out. They build up like 30+ different plots which sound interesting and have really cool world building set up... then demolish those plots easily without interesting struggle or effort via the same overpowered magic. After the cop-out, they then start another setup in a different setting. They set up two cool conflicts with people who might be able to contest against the overpowered magic... then in both cases the person's decide to be friends/subordinates and not fight instead.
A lot of the setups are really cool, too, if occasionally on crack - I want a fic where Bella Swan with fire control powers, Tony Stark, and Sherlock Holmes take on the dystopian government from The Hunger Games, that sounds like an amazing premise for a fic! - but the overpowered magic comes in and of course trivializes that entire plot immediately.
I found it really really disappointing compared to Luminosity, which I loved.
u/celeritatis [+2] (14 hours later)
I think that the problem is that you want the story to be something it isn't. Honestly, I want it to be that as well. But sadly for us, glowfic isn't about "see characters solve problems in clever ways."
Glowfic is about "see these character dynamics play out in a bunch of subtly different but recognizable ways." Seeing how two or three people interact in a bunch of different universes is the appeal. What happens in a world where, comparatively, there are no problems and things are smooth and good? What about the Hunger Games? What about earth? What about Sailor Moon verse? It's a metafictional appeal.
u/Escapement [+5] Ankh-Morpork City Watch (15 hours later)
I would be onboard with a world where there are no problems, where things are smooth and good. Utopias can be interesting to read about too - I really enjoy e.g. the Culture novels, primarily for their interesting utopian society. I mean, if the glowfic had taken the first Empress of the Stars thing and run with it some more there could be a great story there - a drama where the principal characters have already won and are the most powerful in the setting, and have to decide how to use that power sounds really cool to me. I mean, that sounds like a slightly less politics-based and more magical/sci-fi version of The West Wing, and I'd be totally 100% onboard with that; The West Wing was pretty awesome and a similar drama of ideas and personalities in the Empire of the Stars or whatever has the potential to be far more awesome. Instead, they jump to another setting constantly as soon as magic solves all the problems that can be overcome by brute force.
It feels like a bait-and-switch is pulled over and over, where the authors spend a huge amount of time building an interesting world for the characters to be in, full of major problems, and setting the characters up to have dramatically resonant and difficult problems to deal with... and then instead of exploring any solutions to these problems that might be fun to read about, at that instant magic happens to destroy the plot, and shortly thereafter another setting is introduced.
u/imuli [+2] Seeker (22 hours later)
Um. If you had a huge problem on your hands and access to said magic would you explore interesting nonmagical solutions or just fix it?
This is more or less why I want more nonmagical current-tech-level rational fics.
u/FuguofAnotherWorld [+4] Roll the Dice on Fate (a day later)
That's not what happens. They're stuck in a difficult problem (like the aforementioned rebellion), Spoiler
This happens repeatedly to various settings. They're still a lot of fun to read... for a while, but they could be so much more.
u/boomfarmer [+2] Trying to be helpful (2 hours later)
Effulgence is by Luminous Alicorn and a few friends, and is a glowfic. But there are more glowfics than just hers. The Space Empress in Training writes one, for example.
u/None [+2] (12 hours later)
Oh man, I never thought I'd see Monstrous Regiment recommended here, for obvious reasons.
u/boomfarmer [+2] Trying to be helpful (12 hours later)
The obvious reasons are not obvious to me, but that's probably because I haven't read it in years.
u/None [+2] (17 hours later)
It breaks literally all the rules of the sidebar. It even features a deus ex machina fixing everything at the very end.
u/boomfarmer [+3] Trying to be helpful (18 hours later)
Ah. I'll have to re-read it, then.
The appearance of The Duchess fits established Discworld rules about belief translating to power. This book mentions it. Small Gods, Reaper Man, and anything involving the goddess of things stuck in drawers. If Vetinari wanted to become a god, it would not be ineffectual for him to start a whisper campaign to that effect.
And the revelation of the identities of the council fits established patterns of promotion in the army.
Sure, these have the appearances of Deus Ex Machinas, but they're not: they fit the established rules of the stories and are foreshadowed. It's not like Death appears out of nowhere and kills half the council, or Carrot Ironfoundersson is suddenly made King of Borogravia.
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (9 hours later)
I'm in search of a good vempire/undead novel as well. Currently reading "twig" (it si about frankestein monsters in 1920) but it is not the same thing.
u/jldew [+2] (19 hours later)
As in Wildbow's twig?
u/hoja_nasredin [+2] Dai-Gurren Brigade (19 hours later)
yes
u/None [+2] (14 hours later)
Not rational stuff can be good for Vampires too. I would suggest (reading!) the Tsukihime visual novel.
I would also recommend JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, for another reason entirely. (It has vampires though)
u/gabbalis [+2] (a day later)
Tsukihime visual novel
You... you're making me sad again. B-b-because there's no Satsuki rouuuuute. T_T