Diary of a vampire
Vampire's Diary is a series of books for young people by Lisa Jane Smith from the 1990s that deal with love affairs between humans and vampires . Originally comprising four volumes, the books experienced a new wave of popularity following the success of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. They were reissued and continued in 2008, initially by Smith himself, and later by ghostwriters after a falling out between the author and the publisher . The series comprises a total of 13 volumes. Smith herself wrote a number of fan fiction stories after the end of her contract , which continue her personal version of the story, but are not part of the official canon .
The series Vampire Diaries , which is based on the books, but does not follow the storyline, has been broadcast in the USA since 2009 and in Germany since 2010 . The book series Stefan's Diaries is based on the TV series .
action
The story begins with Stefano Salvatore's arrival in the small town of Fell's Church, where he tries to escape his difficult life as a vampire. There he attracts the attention of high school beauty Elena Gilbert, who looks confusingly similar to his first love, Catarina, but has a different character. Stefano rejects her repeatedly to keep his secret and to protect Elena from his thirst for blood, but eventually the two get closer. Problems loom when Stefano's evil brother Damon shows up. The two brothers are originally from Florence and have lived in discord since the 15th century, as they both once loved Catarina and killed each other because of her. When Damon also falls in love with Elena and Elena begins to develop feelings for him too, the story of the brothers threatens to repeat itself.
main characters
Elena Gilbert: Elena's parents died in a car accident. Since then she has lived with her aunt Judith with her younger sister Margaret. At the beginning of the story, Elena is a fairly superficial high school beauty who has had every boy so far and who sees Stefano as a challenge. Her character matures as soon as she reveals Stefano to be a vampire and tries to help him. In the course of the story Elena turns from human to vampire, later to ghost and back to human. She turns out to be a descendant of the Heavenly Guardians, whose blood is highly poisonous for the ancients, and occasionally receives orders from them. She loves Stefano, but also develops strong feelings for his brother Damon.
Stefano (in the English original: Stefan) Salvatore: Stefano comes from the Italian city of Florence and, like his older brother Damon, was transformed into a vampire by their first love, Catarina, in the 15th century. Stefano and Damon clash over their mutual love for Catarina, or even become hostile. When the two meet Elena, she ignites again. Stefano is weaker than other vampires because of his diet on animal blood. Despite all adversities, he tries to enable his great love Elena to lead a normal life and, in case of doubt, is also ready to sacrifice innocents to protect Elena.
Damon Salvatore: Damon is the exact opposite of Stefano. He drinks human blood, which makes him much stronger than Stefano and enjoys his vampire existence to the full. He likes to make the most of his superiority in view of the enmity between the brothers. Even so, Damon has an inviolable code of honor and protective instincts for Elena's friend Bonnie. He also falls in love with Elena and tries repeatedly to make his way of life appealing to her. Damon is now human again, but can later be turned back into a vampire. Sometimes he acts as an antagonist.
Bonnie McCullough: Bonnie, one of Elena's best friends, descends from the Celtic druids and therefore has psychic powers. Initially limited to visions, she learns magic in later books and supports her friends with her powers. She raves about Matt and Damon for a while, until these feelings turn into solid friendship. In the end, she gets together with the werewolf Zander.
Meredith Sulez: Meredith is Elena's and Bonnie's close friend. In the Return trilogy, she turns out to be a vampire hunter who was trained by her parents and whose twin brother became a vampire. Nevertheless, she helps Elena, Stefano and Damon, although she never fully trusts the latter. She is physically tall and she usually acts very rationally. Alaric and they are a couple.
Matthew "Matt" Jeffrey Honeycutt: Matt is Elena's ex and best friend. He only finds out about the vampires in later parts and he often helps Elena out of difficult situations because he still feels something for her. While he and Stefano are good friends, Damon takes great pleasure in taunting him and regularly "forgetting" his name.
Tyler Smallwood: Tyler is the school bully who stalks Elena and her friends and constantly tries to frame Stefano's murders. He turns out to be a carrier of the werewolf virus, which is activated by Nicolaus. He and Caroline Forbes have twins together.
Caroline Forbes: Originally a close friend of Elena, Bonnie and Meredith, she becomes an enemy when Stefano disdains her. Together with Tyler Smallwood, she repeatedly tries to expose Elena and get her friends into trouble. When she becomes pregnant by Tyler, she turns into a werewolf.
Catarina von Schwarzschild: Catarina, born in Germany, is transformed into a vampire by the ancient Nicolaus after a serious illness. She starts a relationship with both Stefano and Damon and wants to enter into a three-way relationship with them. After the brothers refuse, she fakes her death. She looks very similar to Elena and finally turns out to be her half-sister.
Miss Flowers: Stefano's landlady is an old lady who lives on the outskirts of Fell's Church and is avoided by the residents. She supports Elena and her friends with her healing and witchcraft powers.
Nicolaus: The powerful vampire is an ancient one and thus one of the first of its kind. He terrorizes Meredith's family, once transformed Catarina and comes to Fell's Church after her first death to take revenge.
Parts
The original range
Following her debut novel, The Night of the Solstice , Alloy Entertainment hired Lisa Jane Smith to write a Conversation with a Vampire- style series aimed at a teenage audience. The trilogy was ready within nine months. HarperCollins bought the rights and published the first three books in 1991 and the fourth part a year later. In 1993 the books were published for the first time in Germany under these titles by Cora Verlag in the Super Mystery series:
- The awakening (from 2008: In the Twilight)
- The fight (from 2008: at dusk)
- The Wrath (from 2008: In the Darkness)
- Revenge (from 2008: In the Shadow World)
The first three books deal with the conflict between the brothers Stefano and Damon and their love for Elena and, in flashbacks, for Catarina. The antagonists are Tyler Smallwood, Caroline Forbes, Damon Salvatore, and Catarina. In the fourth book, Elena's friends Bonnie, Meredith and Matt call the Salvatore brothers for help when the old Nicolaus comes to Fell's Church and commits murders. Elena appears in this part as a guardian spirit and returns at the end of the book.
The Return Trilogy
In 2009 Lisa Jane Smith's series was continued with the trilogy The Return :
- Return by night
- Souls of darkness
- Black midnight
Two evil Japanese beings, the kitsune, come to Fell's Church and infect the residents with obsession. Damon, also obsessed and jealous of Stefano's relationship with Elena, makes a pact with the kitsune, who kidnap his brother. While Fell's Church sinks into chaos and violence, Elena goes with the healed Damon and her friends Bonnie and Meredith into the dark dimension to save Stefano and to find a weapon against the Kitsune.
In addition, Smith wrote a few short stories that she published on her homepage:
- Matt and Elena - First Date (2010)
- Matt and Elena - Tenth Date: On Wickery Pond (2010)
- Bonnie and Damon: After Hours (2011)
- An Untold Tale: Blood Will Tell (2010)
- An Untold Tale: Elena's Christmas (2010)
The Hunters trilogy
From 2011 to 2014 the new trilogy The Hunters came out:
- Hunt in the sunset
- Hunt in the moonlight
- Hunt at dawn
In the first book Elena and her friends try to find their way in their new reality and have to overcome old resentments. In the second and third books, strange murders occur on the campus of Dalcrest College, which the friends attend, and old enemies rise from the dead. As Damon falls more and more into the dark side, Elena comes into conflict with her feelings for him and her duties as a guardian.
Hunters was the first trilogy that was no longer written by Lisa Jane Smith herself. In 2011 there was a dispute between the author and Alloy Entertainment over the continuation of the series. Since Alloy Entertainment had secured the rights to the series, they eventually replaced Smith with a ghostwriter , much to the bitterness of the author, who dearly wanted to finish "her" series herself. According to her own information, she had already written and sent Hunt in the Sunset when she was terminated by Alloy Entertainments. It is therefore uncertain whether the book was entirely or only partially written by the ghostwriter.
The Salvation trilogy
The trilogy Salvation , written by Aubrey Clark , appeared from 2014 to 2015 :
- Dark Eternity
- Under the spell of eternity
- In the light of eternity
While Stefano and Elena try to bring down an insidious ancient man, Damon is attacked by vampires without the classic vampire weaknesses. The trail leads to a mad scientist who, with the help of experiments, can transform people into almost invincible vampires. To end the spiral of violence once and for all, Elena makes a pact with the Heavenly Guardians who tell her to change the past.
Stefan's Diaries
In 2010 a series of books was published based on the Vampire Diaries series .
- Stefan's Diaries: In the Beginning of Eternity
- Stefan's Diaries: Just a drop of blood
- Stefan's Diaries: Revenge is not enough
- Stefan's Diaries: Fog of the Past
- Stefan's Diaries: Shadow of Fate
- Stefan's Diaries: Curse of Darkness
The series explores Stefan's life after he and his brother Damon were turned into vampires. In contrast to the book series, the brothers did not die in the Renaissance but at the time of the American Civil War ; they are Americans instead of Italians and were killed by their father. Katerina Petrova, their mutual lover, is not German, but Bulgarian. Like the Hunter and Salvation trilogies, the series was ghost-written.
The Evensong series
In 2014, Smith published her own sequel to the book series on the Amazon Kindle Worlds platform .
- Paradise Lost
- War of the Roses
The action takes place right after Black Midnight and ignores the Hunters and Salvation trilogies. Since Smith no longer owns the rights to the series, the Evensong novels are considered fan fiction and are not part of the official canon . According to Smith, she is planning a third installment, Into the Woods, and eventually her own conclusion to the story.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Alexandra Alter: 'Vampire Diaries' Writer Bites Back . The Wallstreet Journal, April 17, 2014. Accessed May 19, 2016
- ^ Aja Romano: How the creator of 'Vampire Diaries' used Kindle Worlds to get back at her publisher . The Daily Dot, February 10, 2014. Accessed May 19, 2016
- ↑ Mike Pearl: The Writer Who Beat The System: How One Woman Resurrected Her Sexy Vampire Brothers ( Memento of the original from May 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . The Awl, February 6, 2014. Accessed May 20, 2016
- ^ LJ Smith: LJ Smith's new Vampires Diaries series . LJ Smith Official Site, January 15, 2014, accessed May 20, 2016
