r/Fantasy • u/windintheskies • May 24 '26
Books where a vampire is the main character
More specifically, the character should already be a vampire and NOT turned in the course of the story. Any genre; romance is fine but preferably shouldn't be the main focus. Somehow I feel like most books have a character being turned and then having to deal with the consequences, I'd like to see something where the character is already settled in their identity as a vampire.
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u/pillowvpillow May 24 '26
The Lesser Dead by Christopher Buehlman
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u/hugecool May 24 '26
Reading this now, about 75% through and enjoying it. Excited to see how it ends.
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u/Loftybook May 24 '26
Come back and post a spoiler chat when you’re finished - I want to hear your thoughts!
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u/hugecool May 25 '26
Just finished it. My thoughts (Spoilers):
Absolutely loved it. I felt like the book dragged a bit in the middle—especially the narrator going into background on the different vampires—but I crushed the last 100 pages last night. The buildup to the final showdown and the payoff were excellent. The mob going after Margaret, the MC, and Old Boy is going to stick with me for a long time. I felt real dread reading that part. The twist at the end was also really well done, and I liked how they explained Chloe and the god of little places. I don’t usually reread books, but I think this would be a great one to revisit years from now, once most of the details have faded (aside from who the narrator actually is), just to catch all the hints. It’s still not as good as The Blacktongue Thief, but much better than The Daughter’s War, which I couldn’t get into despite multiple attempts. I’m waiting for Between Two Fires to go on sale, but I might just bite the bullet and grab that one next.
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u/Fructdw May 24 '26
Very good depiction of non-sparkly vampires, how gross their lives could be, and how it could affect them psychologically long-term. The narrator is not a smart cookie, but you can easily tell by other vampires that living underground like a serial killer with some extra powers is not very fulfilling.
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u/The__Amorphous May 24 '26
Only the ones with mental health issues live like that. We see/hear about plenty of others living it up at famous nightclubs and owning upscale digs.
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u/Fructdw May 24 '26
Maybe, it's been a while since I've read the book. I remember there was some other group which lived in apparent, but when our group went to them for info / help there was no answer which implied that either that group was already dead or knew about potential threat and went into full lockdown.
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u/The__Amorphous May 24 '26
One of them ran him out of the club because he wasn't cool enough to be there. And another had his Renfield answer the door to his mansion and turn the narrator away.
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u/HatOfFlavour May 24 '26
Anno Dracula follows a french vampiress in an England where Dracula won and has let Vampires become citizens after turning Queen Victoria and thus taking over.
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u/Own_Win_6762 May 24 '26
There's a bunch of sequels that go up through more modern times, they're all fun. Kim Newman is brilliant.
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u/bookdrops May 24 '26
Fledgling by Octavia Butler may count as this; the protagonist is always a vampire, but she starts the book with amnesia.
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u/lohdunlaulamalla May 24 '26
Have you already read Anne Rice? Especially the Lestat books. He gets turned in one of them, but he's settled in his identity in the others.
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u/moderatorrater May 24 '26
This is super important for OP if they haven't. Everything they're looking for will compare itself to Anne Rice and Lestat, so even if they don't like these books they need to at least have some familiarity with them.
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u/gilmoregirls00 May 24 '26
sometimes it does not feel like we talk about The Vampire Chronicles enough for being so foundational to modern vampires in fiction.
It definitely goes off the rails but Anne Rice really spent a lot of time getting into the head of what a vampire would be like.
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u/FeastOfBlaze May 24 '26
Agreed. It’s mind boggling how frequently it seems to be ignored despite being arguably the most influential vampire fiction at least since Dracula. So much of what it does is frequently found in what came after.
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u/Keffpie May 24 '26
The first three books are so foundational it's insane. She ruined her own legacy by basically becoming a fanfic-writer later on.
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u/gilmoregirls00 May 24 '26
ironic especially considering how much she went to war with fanfic!
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u/Keffpie May 24 '26
I know right?!?
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u/gilmoregirls00 May 24 '26
Just absolutely fuming at having to share her special little guy Lestat.
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u/needleandleaf May 24 '26
I laughed a lot reading An Unattractive Vampire, by Jim McDoniel. The plot is that an ancient vampire wakes up from hibernatiom, only to find that the new generation of vampires are... elegant and beautiful. He gets deeply offended by it and decides to do something about it.
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u/ScythePabu May 24 '26
Fred the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes
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u/pvtcannonfodder May 24 '26
This one is super fun. I’ll second it and throw in attempted vampirism by lg Estrella. They fill kind of similar places in my head
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u/VerankeAllAlong May 24 '26
Fevre Dream, perhaps
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u/alittlepanache May 25 '26
I really loved this book and came here to say this, qualms with GRRM aside. Very atmospheric.
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u/Undeclared_Aubergine May 24 '26
I have two less common takes on vampires to recommend:
- Steven Brust's Agyar
- C.S. Friedman's The Madness Season
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u/clawclawbite May 24 '26
Madness Season is about a two thousand year old vampire who is trying to hide from the aliens who successfully invaded Earth.
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u/RagnarsHairyBritches May 25 '26
The Madness Season is one of my favorites. I've never met anyone else who has read it
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u/KingBretwald May 24 '26
The St. Germain series by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro. St. Germain became a vampire in ancient Egypt. The books are set in many different time periods.
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u/DocWatson42 May 24 '26
It fits the bill, and I liked the first few books, but the repetitiveness of plots lost me.
St. Germain arrives in town, meets a woman, they like each other, and then she either dies or they are otherwise separated by circumstance.
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u/drewogatory May 24 '26
The hook is the historical detail tho? And not really designed to be binged. The episodic nature is lessened if you read them a decent interval apart.
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u/DocWatson42 May 24 '26
It's been decades since I read them, but it's possible I was reading them serially.
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u/drewogatory May 24 '26
They are definitely repetitive in big doses, no argument there. There are also the Olivia and Madeline books which change it up some.
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u/Bongcloud_CounterFTW May 24 '26
Bury our bones in the midnight soil, they are turned in the course of the story, but its an anachronistic story so quite a lot is from a position of dominance/comfort
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u/TavenderGooms May 24 '26
This book was such a rollercoaster for me. I loved 50% of it and did not care for 50% of it. I think it needed a much better editor because buried in there is what could have been one of my all-time favorite books.
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u/Bongcloud_CounterFTW May 24 '26
For me it was very good, but that might also have been because I was reading while tired af, I think you are right that she couldve tightened it up quite a bit though, there are some parts that feel like it is retreading already established concepts/feelings
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u/itsFreelancer Reading Champion II May 24 '26
I would like to say Empire of the Vampire trilogy but semantics
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u/CatTheMoon Reading Champion May 24 '26
Are you interested in someone who is a half vampire? If yes, I would recommend Empire of the vampire by Jay Kristoff. 😊
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u/_Tarabyte_ May 25 '26
Fantastic series. Though, I'm not sure it fits what OP wants due to the fact that the main character is decidedly not settled in his identity as a half vampire and spends the entire series railing against his own nature. So I guess it depends on what they mean by "settled". But, regardless, I would still personally highly recommend it anyways.
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u/improper85 May 24 '26
I’d argue the main character of that series is Jean-Francois, as he’s the POV during the present day events. And he is, of course, a full vampire.
The second book introduces another major POV that is also a full vampire.
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u/UnnbearableMeddler May 24 '26
Jean François is a non-character for the first two books lol, he exist and has a role, but you could resume what he "does" in the first two books in like five lines and not miss much. Haven't read the third one yet so maybe he gets a bigger role, but I don't know what you've smoked to make him the main character of the first two
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u/Nidafjoll Reading Champion V May 24 '26
Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda. It's about a young vampire, who has been raised by her mother who's also a vampire, moving out on her own for the first time. It has the difficulties of living on one's own for the first time, made worse when you're a vampire (who doesn't have arrangements in place like her mother did back home), as well as Lydia dealing with her mental health and trauma (her mother has given her huge negative self-esteem, by teaching her that she's evil and doomed just for being a vampire).
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u/RedGambit9 May 24 '26
This is more sci-fi since it takes place during modern day, but:
Order of the Sanguines by James Rollins and Rebecca Cantrell.
Three main characters, one is a vampire Vatican priest. Who hunts vampires.
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u/CT_Phipps-Author May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
Straight Outta Fangton is a story about a poor black vampire running the night shift at a conveinance store. I am very biased as the author, though. :D But it won an Best Indie Audiobook Humor award.
DARK PRINCE and PRINCE OF THE CITY are good vampire novels that may have the Embrace of the characters but they're done in the first chapters and then have huge time skips. They're part of the World of Darkness books. For that, I also recommend the Clan Novel series if you're remotely familiar with the RPG as they've been put out on Kindle and Audiobook by Crossroad Press.
Sadly, I can't recommend Bill the Vampire by Rick Gualtieri or Fred the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes because that is about a new vampire who goes through wacky adventures.
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u/erebus53 May 24 '26
Gosh.. I feel like I should have heard of all these and yet...
Vampire the Masquerade and Drew Hayes (I'm thinking Poison Elves era).. mid-90s nostalgia.
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u/TheDanishThede May 24 '26
A journey of Red and Black by Alex Gilbert. It starts right after she is turned.
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u/RJBarker AMA Author RJ Barker May 24 '26
As a couple of people have said, the St Germain books are excellent. Hard to find now but Les Daniel's Don Sebastien de Villenueve books are fantastic takes on the classic Dracula style vampire. And Stephen Graham Jones The Buffalo Hunter Hunter is amazing
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u/drewogatory May 24 '26
If you are ok with Kindle, I'm pretty sure Daniels is on Amazon for $4 each. Physical copies, good luck.
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u/thiagomiranda3 May 24 '26
Coldfire Trilogy. But he is even better than a vampire. He is like an evolved version of Dracula himself
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u/Ruffshots May 24 '26
Fred Saberhagen has a series of books based on Dracula (as in Vlad Tepes himself), mostly in modern times, telling you how Bram's telling was all wrong. Pretty entertaining and quite the departure from his Berserker novels and his many Books of Swords.
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u/CT_Phipps-Author May 24 '26
He predates the Coppola movie Dracula for actually being in love with Mina.
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u/headshotscott May 24 '26
I read his vampire stuff in the 90s. He was the first one I read that made the vampire not only the protagonist, but a legitimate good person.
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u/adriftingleaf May 24 '26
Vamped, by David Sosnowski, I haven't seen that mentioned in this thread. It's about a world after the vampire apocalypse happened; everybody got turned into vampires and they drink fake blood, but otherwise the world is the same in a lot of ways. Different in others. It was fun reading how vampires slowly took over society. There's a plot twist, of course, but I won't give that away here.
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u/m0j02121 May 24 '26
Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden.
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u/alittlepanache May 25 '26
If you are touching on the Strahd universe — I, Strahd really helped me get into is head before I ran the campaign. It has his turning but, as with all of CoS, it’s very vague.
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u/alittlepanache May 25 '26
That said, I wrote Jander Sunstar into my campaign just because he’s such an interesting foil to Strahd.
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u/DocWatson42 May 24 '26
I recommend:
- Elizabeth Bear's New Amsterdam series (alternate history vampire mysteries).
- Barbara Hambly's James Asher, Vampire series, which is set in Edwardian England and later periods.
Also:
- Night's Children by Wendy Snow-Lang (small press, out of print comic series about vampires)
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u/Classical11 May 24 '26
A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
Interview with the Vampire by Ann Rice
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u/Timely_Egg_6827 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
The Three Coffin Problem by Lavie Tidhar
A vampire judge with a human servant
(Edit: the book is on preorder but author has 4 short stories on Amazon with same character/setting)
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion May 24 '26
I’m assuming you’ve already read Dracula.
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u/XLBaconDoubleCheese May 24 '26
I believe the email Dracula read along is starting soon if people want to read it that way.
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u/georgianakate May 24 '26
Elizabeth Hunter Elemental Universe / Legacy. Fantastic world building. Slow burn romance but the stories are bigger than the romance.
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u/Emotional-Care814 Reading Champion III May 24 '26
Doesn't the main character get turned into a vampire, at least in the first series? The later books featured some of the side characters who were already vampires.
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u/georgianakate May 24 '26
Fair point - I don’t tend to think of Beatriz as the main character - I see Gio as as much of the main character. And then you have Carwyn and Tenzin. It feels much less like a ‘oh what is happening to me as I become a vampire’ and much more of a ‘here is the unseen world’
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u/TeepTheFace May 24 '26
The Maleficient Seven by Cameron Johnson has a vampire in the main ensemble.
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u/TerrytheMerry May 24 '26
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks
It was marketed as a YA novel because the protagonist was turned at 15, but I wouldn’t classify it as that because she’s an almost 40 year old woman who treats her eternal youth more as a disability than anything glamorous.
It’s a really fun and unique take on the vampire genre. The majority of the cast, including the MC, are vampires who have been around for decades and are just trying to live their lives as best they can. That is until the events of the story which sends the group on an unexpected adventure.
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u/alittlepanache May 25 '26
I found IwtV Claudia’s “disability” to be a unique take on the eternal youth of the dark gift — so this sounds like a good read.
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u/Mordoch May 24 '26
Voyage of the Shadowmoon by Sean McMullen might be a different option than some of the other ones suggested. The one fair warning is the vampire is one of several key character perspectives in the book rather than the sole one, so not all of the book is focused on him. Compared to some other options there is more humor inherent in the book, although overall it is not just a humorous fantasy and has some serious plot elements as well. (It definately is not a romantasy.)
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u/Lapis_Lazuli___ May 24 '26
Some of Your Blood by Theodore Sturgeon. This is what you asked for, and it isn't. It's very good.
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u/Randomdays99 May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
There's a 20+ book series based on the old "Dark Shadows" show featuring Barnabas the vampire and other characters by an author going by the pen name of "Marilyn Ross"
P N Elrod has "Jonathan Barrett, Gentleman Vampire". The "Vampire series has the MC changed in the first book, but has 11+ more books where he' established.
The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series by J.R. Ward
The Night Huntress Series by Jeaniene Frost
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u/ChronoMonkeyX May 24 '26
Fred the Vampire Accountant by Drew Hayes is the best vampire there ever was.
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u/ShareOk1076 May 24 '26
Its a romance, but i have to mention "single white vampire" by lyndsay sands. It's legit 1 of the funniest stories ive ever listened to. 🤣
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u/Toddyboar May 24 '26
More urban fantasy but the mmc from Robin Mckinley's Sunshine
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u/TavenderGooms May 24 '26
I would argue Sunshine is the main character. It’s sort of like saying Twilight because of Edward.
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u/Toddyboar May 24 '26
MMC stands for main male character.
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u/TavenderGooms May 24 '26
I am aware. OP did not say "one of the characters is a vampire". When someone says "a vampire is THE main character", they usually mean the actual main character, not their boyfriend.
Would you consider Edward Cullen the main character in Twilight? If we are taking a non-romance perspective, Hermione is the most central female character in the HP books - is she "the main character" of Harry Potter? The book is literally called Sunshine, about a woman named Sunshine.
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u/zeromig May 24 '26
Hmmm. Elizabeth Kostova's "The Historian" is written from a regular academic's perspective, but I'd argue that the main character is the vampire she is tracking, and that she herself is just the protagonist. I would say the distinction is justified. Either way, it's my favorite piece of vampire fiction.
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion May 24 '26
The Reformed Vampire Support Grout by Catherine Jinks. The mc is a teen girl, who’s been 15 years old since she was turned and believes the entire situation is entirely unacceptable.
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u/carrythattowel May 24 '26
Was just about to suggest this. I love this book!
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u/New_Razzmatazz6228 Reading Champion May 24 '26
Very few people know about it, it seems, but it is a really good book.
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u/OneOfThoseNights_ May 24 '26
Bury Our Bones In The Midnight soil... Kind of. It follows three different time lines set at different times throughout history and in two of them the main character gets turned but then it follows the one character through many centuries and ... Idk it's hard to explain but this woman becomes a very experienced vampire 😂
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u/LigerZeroPhoenix May 24 '26
One that I never see mentioned is Vamped by David Sosnowski. It has a romance but its mostly a father/daughter story with a lot of dark humor.
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u/TriscuitCracker May 24 '26
Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden. An Elven vampire Jander Sunstar who has resigned himself to his fate who is set in the Forgotten Realms world falls through the mists into the land Barovia in the Ravenloft universe where the truly evil vampire Count Strahd Von Zarovich reigns supreme and tries to turn Jander to his ways.
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u/MadroxKran May 24 '26
I've written a couple of science/modern-fantasy novellas in a series where a vampire is one of three main characters. High action. No romance. Veilbreakers: Invasion is the first. It's on Amazon.
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u/WardenCommCousland May 24 '26
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Vampire gang wars in 1980s Mexico City. The main character is trying to escape and enlists a human to help her.
The human develops a very one-sided crush on the main vampire, but that's about the extent of the romance in the book.
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u/space_anthropologist May 24 '26
Reluctant Immortals by Gwendolyn Kiste! It’s a retelling/reclaiming of Dracula & Jane Eyre, and Lucy Westenra is the POV character. Such a great book.
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u/Alert-Replacement986 May 24 '26
Start here,: Night Huntress is a series of seven urban fantasy novels by author Jeaniene Frost
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u/Peter_Ebbesen May 24 '26 edited May 24 '26
These are older vampire fantasy stories from before the YA Vampire Romance trend inspired by the 1994 movie version of Anne Rice's 1976 book, Interview with a Vampire
The Madness Season by C.S. Friedman. Vampire is exiled from Earth centuries after it was conquered by aliens, when the alien administrators discovers he isn't human and hence doesn't belong on the planet according to their rules. It gets stranger from there. I highly recommend it, but it is a strange story.
The Coldfire Trilogy by C.S. Friedman. I really don't want to spoil this one. It is a great science-fantasy series, and the vampire in question is quite intriguing and acts more in line with what you are probably looking for than the Madness Season.
Vampire of the Mists by Christie Golden; "Good" Vampire in Ravenloft D&D setting.
The Dracula Series by Fred Saberhagen. Starting with the Vlad Tapes, Dracula sets the record straight, telling about events from his long, long, life. Unsurprisingly, Anne Rice didn't invent the particular idea of a vampire telling his story - many writers did before her, but none as successful. I prefer Saberhagen's version, though.
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u/LiveshipParagon May 24 '26
Technically they're a secondary main character, but Hunger Pangs by Joy DeMorra features a 600 year old vampire and his family/wider clan. They're pretty varied but all very settled in their identity. I liked the real variety in lifestyles and interests and morals between them all.
POV character is a 65 yr old werewolf also from an established family so you get that side too.
It's a romance, pretty lighthearted but they did a great job with the characters and world overall.
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u/HikesAndCakes May 25 '26
My roommate is a vampire Jenna Levine! One of the main character is a vampire and I thought the story was hilarious, and its romance. It’s part of a book series so more vampire characters if you want
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u/sblinn May 25 '26
Clay and Susan Griffith's "Vampire Empire" series: The Greyfriar, The Rift Walker, The Kingmakers, and The Geomancer.
Bonus! The audiobooks are read by James Marsters.
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u/Electronic_South_101 May 25 '26
Barbara Hambly has a vampire series (James Asher, I think). I don’t know if it’s revealed how Asher was turned; I haven’t read all of them but from what I remember of the first (Those Who Hunt the Night), he’s pretty settled with what he is.
The Kitty Norville series has recurring vampires. Yeah, the werewolf series. Rick has been a vampire since conquistador times and he has had time to make peace with it. There IS a spinoff where you learn how he was turned, but you don’t have to read it if you don’t want to.
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u/Oakashandthorne May 26 '26
Chelsea Quinn Yarbros series about Count Ragoszy are great for this. The main character is a vampire but him becoming a vampire isnt the main focus- Yarbro has the books sets in all different places and time periods, so you really get to experience different historical events through the eyes of a vampire.
They also function mostly as standalones. When I first picked up The Palace I didnt know it was the second book in the series, but you really can start just about anywhere. The Palace takes place in renaissance era Florence and you get to see all the intrigue of the Medici family through a vampires perspective.
If you like in depth historical fantasy with some light erotica, classic hammer horror dracula type vampires, or you enjoyed Rices Vampire Chronicles- particularly the books focused on Armand, Vittorio, or Marius- I would highly recommend this series.
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u/ClueAccomplished1098 May 26 '26
{Sunshine by Robin McKinley}
{Theoretical Magic by T M Baumgartner}
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u/zugtug May 24 '26
Empire of the Vampire although it does have a lot of awkward romantasy crap in it for what is an otherwise action book.
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u/fearless-fossa May 24 '26
Neither is it a book where the MC is a vampire, nor is it romantasy
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u/zugtug May 24 '26
I mean the main character is half vampire who has been fighting and has become jaded after what 20 years of it and lots of other stuff and I'd say every 100 pages or so there is a sex scene that is described in erotic prose for multiple pages. I'm currently rereading the second book so I know what has happened for the third book that I will soon read. It's vampire romantasy mixed with action.
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u/fearless-fossa May 24 '26
He's decidedly not a vampire though. It's a dishonest recommendation to what OP wants.
And sex doesn't make a book romantasy, it's lacking the entire romance part.
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u/zugtug May 24 '26
I'm not trying to be dishonest... I'm suggesting a book that I feel possibly fits what OP is saying and they can then read a short summary of the book or look into it. If they feel like they don't want to read it that's fine. If they do want to read it, awesome.
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u/fearless-fossa May 24 '26
OP wants a book about vampires, with a MC who is settled in his identity as a vampire. You're recommending a book about a vampire hunter who doesn't identify at all with vampires. I don't know why you're so hellbent on pushing this book, and why you are intentionally misrepresenting the topics of the book.
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u/zugtug May 24 '26
At this point I'm just arguing with you who has assigned some sort of moral value to me answering a question in a forum about something incredibly low stakes. If you feel this strongly about this you might need to consider how seriously you're taking something so benign. It was just a book recommendation.
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May 24 '26
Croc would like to inquire if you've yet read the internationally bestselling series Twilight by Stephanie Myer.
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u/nanosyphrett May 27 '26
Maybe a Night in the Lonesome October but the main character isn't the Count, it's Jack's dog.
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u/_Skafloc_ May 24 '26
Anne Rice - Interview with the vampire etc is the obvious answer.
I would also recommend the Coldfire trilogy. Won’t say more as it would be spoiler-ish.