Over at Pyr-o-mania. Lou Anders announces the first Pyr published stories featuring vampires. The Vampire Empire series, written by Clay and Susan Griffith, promises "Alt. history steampunk vampire."
Anders goes on to provide a little more detail on the series as described by the Griffiths:"We are thrilled to be working with Pyr books on Vampire Empire: The Greyfriar," they [the Griffiths] say. "Pyr has always published the sort of rich fantasy we enjoy reading, so it’s a great treat to write for them too. Vampire Empire is the culmination of our love of fantasy, history, and rousing pulp adventure. The world of the novel consists of familiar Victorian history blended with strange twists to create a vast tapestry of politics and war fueled by odd steampunk technology. We think our take on vampires will excite you. But mostly, we promise that we know, as any reader does, characters count more than anything else."I'm slightly intrigued as it is Pyr. But on the other hand, the mediapalooza for all things Twilight and True Blood have really soured me on vampires. That's not to say that these won't be good books. It's just that when the most popular vampire on the planet also is a raving pedophile, it just makes the bloodsuckers appear kinda sucky. It will also be interesting to see how Steampunk fits in. I've found that the term Steampunk is thrown around a lot, sometimes where it doesn't really belong. It seems to be a SFF buzzword in today's circles.
I'm also not liking the title. Vampire Empire? It rhymes, or does it? It just doesn't do it for me. If you are reading this Lou, I would recommend Blood Empire instead.
Right now this one is a wait and see for me. I'm going to need to see some reviews and/or some more information. Vampire Empire: The Greyfriar is penciled in for late 2010/early 2011. It should be interesting to see if the vampire market survives until then or if people will get burned out on Twilight and other vamp stories by then.
So what do you think? Vampire Empire or Blood Empire? Are you still interested in vamp-centric fiction?
Either way, congrats to Clay and Susan, I'm eager to hear more!
With "Twilight," vampire fiction jumped the shark. Forever. Have you read Meyer's oeuvre? I made it about halfway through the second one. A Yetistomper review would be a joy to read!
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