Monster Hunters

@RiotDemon A demon demon hunter? Yeah, that’s awkward.

@Targaryen I mean… I could pretend I’m a demon Hunter and if anyone gets wind of it, I’ll just kill them.

@RiotDemon Worked for Angel and Spike. And Anya, sorta. Also all the characters on Vampire Diaries and The Originals. I guess if you live at the CW it’s ok.

A couple of years ago I figured out why women generally like vampire books and movies and men generally like zombie books and movies. With vampires, you get to be young and beautiful forever. With zombies, you get to shoot your neighbor in the head without remorse.

@moondrake
That’s a pretty cold blooded view of things. Plus the young and beautiful comes with soul-less and evil and a hell of a damnsight more remorseless murder and mayhem. At least the guys in your example are preventing worse things from happening, and most would feed badly about having to put down the husk of what was once a neighbor.

I like one quote I saw elsewhere: “on seeing part of one of the Twilight movies all I saw was two targets and a collaborator.”

Wishing Mr Sparkly Bloodsucker would have run into Alucard one fine day…

@duodec It’s just a joke, my dear. And as a joke it’s poking fun at women (vanity) as much as men (misanthropy). I’ve no love for sparkly vampires, although there are others I like quite well. And I like zombie fiction just as much as vampire fiction, I’ve consumed a pretty staggering (ha ha) volume of material in both subgenres.

@duodec @moondrake

@Targaryen aw, man. That just makes me miss True Blood.

@RiotDemon @Targaryen I loved the series, recently picked up the books (I know, different). When I finish the short series I’m reading now they are up next. Just in time for Halloween.

@moondrake @RiotDemon @Targaryen I liked the books, couldn’t get into the series.
The new series Midnight, Texas is interesting, also from a Charlaine Harris book series- but I haven’t read them yet- which is maybe the way to go…
When I see a TV/Movie/video version of a book and like it, and only then read the books, my mental picture of the characters as I read is always of the actors in the roles, but the other way round, not always so good.
Like one of my favored T-shirts reads: The Book was Always Better!

@duodec @moondrake “Staggering”- teehee
More better I guess than slouching, shambling, or slavering…

@PhysAssist Thanks for the rec. I tried both those series and they were not to my taste. I’ve tried several of Johnny Ringo’s series and he’s just not my cuppa. The best zombie series I’ve read is the Rot and Ruin series by Jonathan Maberry. Mira Grant has a couple of fairly original takes on zombies. I found her an interesting storyteller but a frustrating read, she needs a good continuity editor. I’m hard pressed to say what vampire series I’ve liked best. I quite liked Anne Rice at the beginning, but didn’t care for her later works. I enjoyed The Morganville Vampires series by Rachel Caine, but they are very light reading. Most of the media involving vampires that I’ve really enjoyed have centered around an ensemble of supernatural folk. For me, vampires, whether heroes or villains, are most interesting in contrast with other characters.

@PhysAssist I came here to reco the Monster Hunters Int’l series too. Thanks for the other reco. I’ll return the favor: John Scalzi. Not only Old Man’s War series but also his single books: Red Shirts (better than Galaxy Quest) and The Dispatcher (awesome premise, plus audiobook read by Zachary Quinto!) are my favorites.

@moondrake To each his own.

“John” Ringo [IDK if we’re talking 'bout the same guy otherwise] is really a VERY CONservative guy- at least it really seems like he is, based on the obvious slant in his writing- in both his fiction and nonfiction.

But that’s not what I’m reading his books for…

We were really taken by his Dark Tide Rising series, which is a Mutated Flu/Rage Virus series.

BTW, the first really apocalyptic book I think I read was either Stephen King’s “The Stand” or Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle’s “Lucifer’s Hammer”, both of which, every other book I have read in the ‘genre’ is measured against, and which still bear reading, if you haven’t already.

Have you tried Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series- it’s definitely an ensemble series w/ all the supernatural species included- the main character is a necromancer- who is much in demand to settle inheritance squabbles where there is a question of the deceased’s intent… Unfortunately as the series progressed it took on a romance-like feel, and then further almost into soft porn.

There’s also a very dark series called the Sonja Blue

Melissa F. Olson and Sarah Fine each have series w/ magic and supernaturals living among us, which we enjoyed.

We really liked and hope for more books in a Seanan McGuire series called “Indexing” in which fairy tale archetypes try to make themselves real, and the main characters are from a MIB-ish agency fighting that trend.

Patricia Briggs has a series featuring all species- the Mercy Thompson series, narrated by a main character who is a female mechanic and “skin-walker” [loosely borrowed from Native American legends] who shifts into a coyote…

As for “Z”-word books- we really liked R.R. Haywood’s Series: “The Undead”, oh- and his “Extracted Trilogy” was excellent too.

Also, Apocalypse-Z by Manel Loureiro, translated by Pamela Carmel- was good, giving me an interesting take, which was written in a kind of different voice.

Dead Days by Ryan Casey was very enjoyable too.

Somewhere between horror/monster and SciFi is Bob Mayers’ Area 51 and Fireflies/Time Patrol series- I bought into it on a whim when a couple of the Kindle Versions were sold for $0.99, and then couldn’t stop reading them.

Less directly monster-y, but very humorous in an erudite and darkly sarcastic way is Charles Stross’ "The Laundry Files"series- I highly recommend it.

Finally, another ensemble fantasy series we loved was Patricia Weekes’ “Rogues of the Republic” books.

Now, lest you all think that I’m just an obsessed fantasy geek, with no other interests, hobbies or things to do, but if you really want to see what I’m like, as me about my Sc-Fi favorites…

Enjoy!

@mollama Thanks- I will definitely check them out.

@moondrake @PhysAssist I second the Haywood zombies! The Undead is the only series I’ve stuck with. Up to day 14 now (Part 10) and have the next 3 installments in queue. I think there are 19 books as of today.

@moondrake @ruouttaurmind We just bought the Week 1 and Week 2 compilations, and were going to wait for a Week 3 but since we’re both getting more and more impatient…

@mollama Thank you for the recommendations!
Sorry, I got so caught up in posting my reco’s that I forgot to thank you for yours…

@mehbee We love them too-especially the straight-up monster hunter episodes.
We do follow the angels story arc, but like with the X-Files, we like the straight hunt episodes better than the whole conspiracy story arcs.

@PhysAssist Yes, except for Cas and Jack(and even Crowley), I prefer the straight up hunting episodes. Especially the humorous ones, like the ScoobyNatural one and Ghost Sickness(think that is name)…That was SCARY!

@moondrake Awesome reference- skinned those Sherpa humps did they?