Sorry for last week’s lack of links and apologies in advance for the lack of links next week!

• Mark Charan Newton thinks sci-fi books are dying. I tend to agree.
• Why fandom owes even more to H.P. Lovecraft than we realised.
• A man has ‘beaten’ WoW. Sort of (via Boing Boing)
• Dollhouse battles were about sex. So says Whedon – Fox will never tell.
• Real life vampire killing kits!
• Using Microsoft’s Surface to play D&D – more footage.

So it was with some interest that I read this article about how vampires have lost their bite, as it were. Because all of these examples feature vampires who are trying to redeem themselves, especially through their lack of human blood-letting.

Largely due to goths and Anne Rice, I’ve always found vampires sort of annoying. But last year I made a vampire the big bad of a WFRP campaign I ran and I’d happily use them again. But the article’s right – vampires are far more interesting as charming but powerful and diabolical monsters than as safe but sexy wimps.

Let’s make vamps a threat again – no friendly vampires looking to reunite with humanity. No sexy vampire boyfriends. No animal blood drinking softies. Let’s get vampires in our games and our fiction who rip out throats, seduce and then slay and do all the nasty vampire things we know and love.

As a side note, I’d really recommend Fevre Dream as well – it’s very well written and having read so much of Martin’s work through A Song of Ice & Fire, it was interesting to see him tackle something quite different.