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The Wildcat's Lair

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Happy Halloween!  Let's Get to November Already...
10/31/05
Your Favorite Monster Novels
10/29/05
Send Me a Brooding Angel (WW? #4)
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Looking for Passion
10/26/05
A Banner Day for the Wildcat at the CarnivAOL
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Deliver Me from A Great Deliverance
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The Wildcat's Favorite Monster Novel Challenge
10/23/05
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10/22/05
Singer in the Snow
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A Matter of Timing (WW? #3)
10/21/05
A New Shade of Wildcat
10/19/05
The Hound of the Baskervilles
10/18/05
HIGH NOTES: Troy
10/16/05
Wallpaper Fit for a Vandaryn
10/15/05
Why I Write (WW? #2)
10/13/05
The Man with a Load of Mischief
10/10/05
Books in Pending (a.k.a. Sunday Seven)
10/7/05
Writers Question #1
10/6/05
Hard Eight
10/3/05
The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower
10/2/05
"Get on your bum, and just do it!"
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Monday, October 24, 2005

The Wildcat's Favorite Monster Novel Challenge

Listening to "Classics from the Crypt"


I almost could have called this "My Favorite Vampire Novels," but I did manage to sneak in two non-vampire books into my list of favorite monster novels.  In the tradition of Patrick's "Sunday Seven" and Jess' "Weekly Writers Question," I've decided to make this a challenge to those that read "The Wildcat's Lair," so post your own favorite monster novels and add a link to it in this entry.  First, let's get to my favorite monster novels.

Frankenstein

I'm ashamed to admit I almost forgot to add this book to the list.  I've previously noted how Anne McCaffrey's book Dragonflight hooked me as an avid reader for life, but the book that really sparked my interest as a reader was Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.  The book was assigned to me during my senior year of high school, and for once, I not only read my required reading but loved it.  How Hollywood films have continually butchered the plot of this book when adapting it to film amazes me.  Certainly the classic Boris Karloff version bears little resemblence to the novel (they even changed Dr. Frankenstein's first name to Henry???).  The monster turned out a shockingly intelligent and malevolent creature motivated by the ills visited upon it by society.

The Vampire Lestat

My first reading of Interview with the Vampire left me a little tepid, but when I read the next book in Anne Rice's classic vampires series, I loved it from the start.  The Vampire Lestat not only ran with the concepts Rice introduced in the first book but the story even added a new perspective on the events of that first book without contradicting anything in it (no small task!).  The shame of the series is how many people have ripped off the concept of the brooding, bad boy vampire with a conscience.  This book did it better than most any other, and makes for a treat any vampire fan should love.

Vampire$

For something with more testosterone to it, we turn to another modern vampire classic, John Steakley's Vampire$.  Steakley returns us to a world where the vampires are nothing but evil.  The twist?  He gives us more than one twist, actually.  First, our vampire hunters, who party hard and work all night, are on the payroll of the Catholic Church.  Second, these vampires take a stake to kill them, but not just any stake.  This piece of wood practically requires a cannon to shoot it into a master vampire.  We get a nice dose of eroticism, too.  One of the more impressive writing aspects of this book is how Steakley manages to wait almost a third of the way into the book to introduce one of the main characters, Felix, and makes it work.  Hollywood tried to cash in on this book in 1998 and botched it.  Someone could still adapt this book into a film, and few would ever realize "John Carpenter's Vampires" was drawn from the same source.

Guilty Pleasures

I stumbled upon Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures around the time I got married, a little less than a decade ago.  This book hooked me.  Hamilton combined a gum shoe feel to her vampire hunter Anita Blake's adventure.  The first person voice worked perfect, and despite Anita's faults as a hunter, I totally believed she could do what she did.  The idea of a society where the vampires live as regular citizens also offered an interesting alternate world concept, one Hamilton executed well.  Sadly, I later lost interest in the series, and one of the later books even made its way onto one of my "Worst Books I Ever Read" lists.

Wilderness

One of Richmond author Dennis Danvers' earliest published books is Wilderness.  I chanced upon a copy of this book shortly after becoming a fan of his work.  That I bought this book says a lot for Dennis, because I typically dislike the werewolf genre.  He made such a believeable story about a young woman who struggles with her transformations, a situation that turns more complicated when she gets involved and falls in love with a neighbor.  I later mentioned to Dennis how much I enjoyed this book even though I usually don't like werewolf stories, and he surprised me by saying he doesn't typically care for werewolf stories either.

I closed out my list with Dennis' book, because it somewhat brings my book list full circle.  The main character in Dennis' latest novel, The Bright Spot (released under the pen name Robert Sydney), is an actor in a "television series" based on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

All right.  So now the challenge is to you.  Did I forget any of your favorite monster novels?  Think I should have included others (and I can think of a few)?  Let me know and tell me why you picked those books.  Do your own blog entry and post a link to it here.  I'll do a review of the more interesting book selections on Halloween.



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