Who's Your Author? discussion

Everyone always gets around to mentioning the book that helped get them into the genre of PNR and UF.

I think it would be interesting to see what books people see as being the most influential books the genre.

See if we can each name the top 5 or 6 most influential books in the PNR and UF genre.

Dream Chaser by Sherrilyn Kenyon

I'm debating but I think I may have 5:

Interview with a Vampire - Anne Rice - even though I didn't really like hte book all that much, it exposed people to the genre and especially after the movie came out, I think people were really drawn to the idea of reading about something paranormal.

Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon - who said romance books couldn't be paranormal?? Kenyon was one of the first who started writing books in this field and she has grabbed thousands of people and hooked them to her series

Harry Potter series by JK Rowling - it's not technically PNR or UF, but it's fantasy and it gained a lot of attention for this genre and helped many children and adults to remember why they love to read

Twilight by Stephenie Meyers - whether or not you liked the book or series, you can't deny that this series really pushed some people into reading the genre. It became more mainstreamed, allowed for more publishers to feel okay about publishing books in this area without the fear that they wouldn't be bought and read.

Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris - some people had no idea that PNR and UF even existed! Once Trueblood came on to HBO, and people realized it was based on a series, everyone flocked to read the books. And of course, once finished with that superb series they went in search of other books that were similar.

And of course: Dracula by Bram Stoker - the original vampire story. So many movies and books have been based around this one, and it was revolutionary for it's time. It's still a classic today which says a lot considering when it was originally written.

There's my list, and I'm quite proud of it lol!

I agree with a lot of your list, Jess. I haven't read the Southern Vampire series in much depth yet, though.

Interview with the vampire was the original novel and series that got me into paranormal.

But, I took a break for 10 years...

Then, Twilight series brought the interest back.

I always liked fantasy and paranormal stuff, but it was the combo of Twilight and Anita Blake that set me firmly on the PNR/UF path. Technically, it could've started back in elementary school with Bunnicula, but who's keeping track, right? :D

oh my! I forgot about Bunnicula! *laugh* :)

1. Southern Vampire series - the series that lead me to UF

2. Fool on the Hill - I read this years ago and it has remained one of my favorites

3. Mercy Thompson series

4. War for the Oaks

The two that introduced me to urban fantasy were Guilty Pleasures of Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series and Dead Witch Walking of Kim Harrison's Rachel Morgan series. I found them at a garage sale and got hooked. I can't name single books but there are certain series that I think are great representatives of UF and PNR:
Yasmine Galenorn's Sisters of the Moon series
Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series
Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series
Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden series

I think for me it was Interview with the Vampire that started me hooked on paranormal series. I read mostly fantasy and YA fiction before I got hooked on to Anne Rice. After a while I wandered back to fantasy again until I picked up Guilty Pleasures by Laurel K Hamilton. Her Anita Blake series got me started reading PNR and UF on a regular basis.

Same Jess.

Interview with a vampire
Harry Potter
Twilight
Southern Vampire Series
Vampire Academy....

and then it was all over - anything I could get my hands on

For me, I got into the whole PR/UF genres via the following Five-book series(I just couldn't choose 5 individual books):

1) Sookie Stackhouse, Books 1-7
2) The Twilight Saga
3) The Psy/Changeling Series By Nalini Singh
4) The Black Dagger Brotherhood Series By J.R. Ward
5) The Breeds Series By Lora Leigh

I have two most influential series.

The Sookie Stackhouse series is the one that first got me hooked on PNR and UF. Before that, the ONLY fantasy that I had ever read and enjoyed were Harry Potter and Twilight. Other than that I used to hate fantasty. But even after reading the Sookie books, I mostly only like Vampire books, not shifters.

Then, the second series that was the most influential. Someone convinced me to try the Mercy Thompson series. And then I was hooked on shifters!

Those 2 series are still probably my very favorites!

What got me started on on the whole PNR and reading thing was...

1. Twilight Saga
2. Sookie Stackhouse books

I WAS HOOKED!!!

3. Blue Bloods
4. House of night

I WANTED EVEN MORE!!!
5. Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
6. Vampire Academy

AND I AM STILL SEEKING MORE AND CRAVING MORE MORE MORE!

I became hooked after reading The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter when I was at school. After that I decided to take a look at the horror section of my local bookstore and picked up Bitten by Kelley Armstrong and after reading her series I picked up Guilty Pleasures by Laurell K Hamilton and that was how my addiction started...

Because I was an adult in 1976 when Interview with the Vampire came out, I have to list it first. But I was also reading Chelsea Yarbro at about the same time. I've just checked publication dates and the early books were 78/79. For a very long time that was about that.

I was basically a SF fan who liked paranormal, but there wasn't a whole lot of paranormal stuff out there. Some, because SF writers would write a bit of it.

I started reading Hamilton when she was about at book 5 or 6, so that was about 20 years later.

I found Charlaine Harris about 5 or 6 years ago.

And I've just been wallowing in everything that has been coming out over the last 5/6 years and having a wonderful time.

Which explains why you can't figure out where the paranormal books are in the book stores. Yarbro wrote SF. Hamilton wrote horror (or at least got shelved there). Harris wrote mysteries. Several of the newer writers started out writing romance.

I have to say for me it was Harry Potter, Twilight Saga, & Anita Blake and I've been hooked on all things PNR/UF ever since! Used to be a big murder mystery fan, but now they just seem boring LOL, LOL

I read DRACULA the summer between 3rd & 4th grade and have been a sucker for a vampire story ever since! Unless you wanted horror stories, which I don't really care for unless it's Stephen King, vampire stories were hard to come by for years. When I was a kid and Dark Shadows was on there was a series of books based on the TV show. I spent a large part of my allowance each month on those paperback books. I read INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE in about 1978 and HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA shortly after that. THE VAMPIRE LESTAT was my favorite of the Vampire Chronicles books, and I only ever read one other St. Germain book. In the very early '90s Lori Herter wrote a book called OBSESSION which is the first vampire romance I can recall ever reading. It was followed by 3 more books about the same characters and about the same time as the 3rd in that series came out, Linda Lael Miller wrote a book called FOREVER AND THE NIGHT, which also was followed by about 3 more. FOREVER AND THE NIGHT remains one of my very favorite vampire romances. 1993 was also when I stumbled upon GUILTY PLEASURES, the first Anita Blake book. Loved those for the longest time! 2001 was when the first Sookie book came out, and I haven't looked back since! And I did read all the TWILIGHT books! But only the first 4 Harry Potter books. Got tired of them and they got too long.

I have to blame this new addiction on my BFF, she called me one day going on and on about this book called Twilight. I read it in one day and as they say the rest is history.
So my most influential...
1. The Twilight Series
2. Sookie Stackhouse Series
3. Black Dagger Brotherhood Series
4. The Night Huntress series

I have a serious book problem now, I just ordered 5 books from Amazon, and stopped at Borders in Santa Barbara a couple of days ago and bought 6 more...man am I in trouble!!! But I love it!

I've always loved fantasy books and read almost all the Anne Rice books as well as the Historian but my addiction to PNR started with Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon. I read that book first and I was a gonner!! Read the rest of the series and now I just want more.. more PNR..why is it so addictive?

Denell, I have no idea why it is so addictive.

I figured out as a teenager that the books I liked were about something. I read a lot of historical novels (not romances because I'm older than dirt and historical novels were not romances back then) and a lot of science fiction. Some mystery, but not a lot at the time.

Contemporary fiction and literary fiction bored me to death. Which was funny because I read real classics at that point in my life for fun all the time.

I know that I like the universes these authors build so they can tell their stories. And the stranger the universe, the less it is like our own, the better. Even Ilona Andrews first novel, which wasn't that great, hooked me BECAUSE her world was so odd that I had to read more. Good thing because books 2 and 3 were really good.

And when I was younger I liked "living" in those historical universes and those science fiction universes too.

Ah well, I too was a big Bunnicula fan in my youth. ;) I started with Anne Rice in my teens, devouring her vampire books, but favoring her witches. Once I joined the military, reading took a bit of a back seat and the bit of reading I did do were mainly mysteries. However, I decided to see check out Twilight and was hooked all over again, resulting in my discovery of the following series upon which all of my current favorites and purchases are inspired by:

PNR - Black Dagger Brotherhood by J.R. Ward
UF - Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs
YA - Twilight by Stephenie Meyer

I have always been a Vampire lover and an avid reader but the books that got me started on my PNR/UF addiction were the Sookie Stackhouse books, when I first read them there were only the first 3 out. I devoured them and have been on the UF track for some time now :-). I can't get enough!

My first experience with UF was the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. I still read the series but i don't like the later books as much as books 1-8.

Other books that keep me hooked are:

The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher
The Felix Castor series by Mike Carey
and many others.

The first paranormal romance book i've read was Fantasy Loverby Sherrilyn Kenyon. I don't like PNR as much as i do UF, but the Dark-Hunter series is one of the exceptions.