And they all lived forever after..
29 May 2014 
Every Thursday The Fantasy Review Barn takes us travelling through the tropes of fantasy. This week’s theme is Immortals and the following are where my travels have lead me this week.
1. Vampires – the most obvious I suppose but I’m going with the dark, mean and downright vicious predators – you won’t be making friends with any of these suckers (sorry, I couldn’t help it!)
Dracula by Bram Stoker – the daddy of Vampire stories? Gothic and spooky taking us to Transylvania. Don’t go wandering around this castle at night.
Lestat from Anne Rice’s Interview with a Vampire series – he’s a pretty unfriendly type, callous, cold and vindictive
Iuda – from Jasper Kent’s Danilov Quintet – OMG this guy is something else. Such a fantastic baddie. Smelly, violent down right nasty! Throw in a bit of history starting off during the Napoleonic war and there you have it – the Voordalak – a creature of myth and lore.
Mr Barlow (I had to go and look that name up!) the vampire from Salem’s Lot by Stephen King – scared the bejesus out of me when I first read this.
2. The Endless – these are not Gods, they don’t rely on a system of belief but instead embody certain aspects. Check them out over at Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Their names:
Destiny, Death, Dream, Destruction, Despair, Desire and Delirium.
3. Elves – how long exactly do these people live – and, one question how come you never seen any really young elves, children, babies, etc. Anyway, foolish questions aside (they obviously stay indoors until they’ve grown into their ears!). The Elves of Rivendell, LoTR by JR Tolkien. It’s a really obvious one but I had to get it in here.
4. Gods – are they really immortal – they do depend on belief after all. But, I’ve included a story with a particularly sneaky one that I enjoyed recently. The Gospel of Loki by Joanne Harris – don’t know whether you can really trust this guy to actually be telling you the gospel truth but…
5. Fae:
Well, there are plenty to go for here but I’m going to go with Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series (image shown from No.2 in the series) – which I read quite a while ago and I think was my first introduction to fae not being as nice as you’re lead to believe in the Disney films! Also – The Blue Girl by Charles de Lint.
Finally (for me) Demons and Angels – one book containing both – Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone.
Books and travelling with Lynn 
The endless are a great addition. Not quite gods, more like…aspects? Tough one to describe. And I like fae much more than boring old elves I must say.
Haha, boring old elves indeed – people have broken out the pitchforks for less! That being said – I prefer the fae too (I said that very quickly in my head to just get it over and done with – phew).
The endless – I struggled to come up with a description for them – just totally ripped off what Gaiman said instead (shamelessly ripped it off!)
Lynn 😀
Ooh vampires! I still need to read Twelve, which has been sitting on my shelf for ages. Maybe I’ll finally get to it this summer. And I want to get my hands on a copy of Gospel of Loki, like, badly. Can’t believe such a high profile book still doesn’t have a US release date. Nice list this week!
Iuda is a totally evil and cunning little git! I’ve enjoyed the settings of these with the historical backdrop and Kent has managed to make them really creepy in parts. Not all the way throughout – some people might think there is maybe too much description but I’ve really enjoyed them all. One left to read now to finish off the series.
I can’t believe The Gospel of Loki isn’t out in the US! You could have mine but this is one of my kindle books (not as easy to share about is one of the drawbacks, I do love paper books I admit but I’m starting to read about 50/50 electronic now).
Lynn 😀
Great list! Forgot about Smoke and Bone!
To be honest this sprung to mind because the third in series was just reviewed by Mogsy! Otherwise I would have forgotten.
Lynn 😀
Vampires are definitely number 1 in my book, although I’ve begun to like golems and djinni as well. I like that name, The Endless, quite fitting – maybe I’ll get to read Sandman one day. 🙂
I know – I’m going to have to read this book that everyone’s going mental about – The Golem and the Djinni!! I’ll just warn you – The Sandman is very dark (not saying that to be patronising btw!) I’m working my way through them and I do really like Gaiman (although I never liked Smoke and Mirrors) but there are some rather gruesome graphics to say the least. I’m enjoying the story thread and The Endless are a really unique concept. Let’s face it – a God only lasts while believe is in place, Death will endure forever (more’s the pity given the theme of immortality!)
Lynn 😀