Sorry I’m a bit late getting this out this week. I got some crazy virus that put me out of commission just a few hours after I got back in town from visiting family over the weekend. Hopefully now I can get back to the schedule. Please read to the end and answer my question. :)
I wanted to start my Countdown to Halloween talking about shapeshifters or weres. They can be the same thing or a bit different depending on the author and their world. Either way, they have become my second favorite paranormal being. My first is no secret obviously (look at my blog name if you’re still unsure). ;)
In mythology, legends and folklore, shapeshifters cover a wide variety of beings. You’re talking about any type of creature or being that can change it’s form, whether it be animal, human, or other. It could be a god, some type of were, or even a vampire that’s able to change into a bat or a wolf or heck even mist. Are you beginning to see why this category’s so freaking big?
Though I do love all the mythology on the Greeks, Romans, and Celtics, what I want to focus on now are the different weres. These are also known as therianthropes, or human-animal shifters. This includes your lyncanthropes (werewolves), skin-walkers (turns into any animal when wearing it’s pelt), etc. Name an animal, and you can probably find some culture somewhere that has it in a legend somewhere around the world. What have I read or watched something about so far? Werewolves of course. Skin-walkers (the full on pelt wearing ones, and the coyote awesomeness that is Mercedes Thompson). Lions. Jaguars. Panthers. Eagles. Bears. Rats. Swans. Snakes. Getting the picture, I’ve read about a few. Lol. I’m sure I’m forgetting a few too, just wish I could remember them all.
Here are some of my favorite books and series involving shapeshifters.
- Mercedes Thompson series by Patricia Briggs
- They Call Me Death by Missy Jane
- Kitty Norville series by Carrie Vaughn
- Shifter series by Rachel Vincent
- Nightworld series by L.J. Smith
Now here’s a video from The Shapeshifters! he he
So, what makes a good shapeshifter to you? Do you like it when authors stick to stereotypes? Should they follow the full moon, silver bullet lore? Is there a difference between shapeshifters and weres to you? Am I confusing some of you? Lol!
The most important question I need you to answer in this and every following creature feature is your very favorite book concerning that paranormal being. Trust me you wanna do it! So, what’s your favorite shifter or were book, series, and/or author?
6 comments:
I love it when authors play with the legend - making it hereditary rather than biting, focusing on the scientific/virus aspect of it all, or having a specific magic base. However, I am in love with lycanthropes/shifters/weres in fiction, so I tend to be pretty forgiving.
There are two unpardonable sins:
1) Movies where the changed character is depicted as a giant hairy rat-looking creature. Werewolves turn into WOLVES. How hard is that?
2) True mates. I despise plots where the shifter character catches a whiff of someone, adds water and gets an instant inevitable/fated spouse-figure.
Favorite werewolf book? Kelley Armstrong's Bitten. Movie? Ginger Snaps.
I don't really care whether the author uses stereotypes, or invents their own facets of shifting. It's all fantasy, either way!
My favorite shifting book series - Werewolves of Mercy Falls.
I think there is a little difference between Were's and shapeshifters. I guess I always thought of shifters as more Indian legend about warriors who could shift..sort of like in Twilight were they tale about how the Indian tribe became wolves.
Werewolves to me are the scary half man half wolf forms though I know a lot of people consider a person turning into a wolf a werewolf but I would consider them a shifter..lol thats just me. :)
I like it when authors play alittle on the legends but I also like books that stick with the stereotypes too. :)
Werewolves are my favorite with Vampires coming in second. :)
I love the Mercedes Thompson series as well. The Anita Blake series by Laurell K Hamilton has tons of different were creatures.
I think my favorite though is the werewolves in Kelley Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series.
I don't care that much whether the author uses stereotypes or not, both ways can work nicely.
My absolute favorite werewolf series are Mercedes Thompson series and Alpha and Omega series. :)
It doesn't bother me, if the author uses stereotypes, just as long as the book is good. Some of my favorites are Immortals after Dark series, Psy/changeling series, and Dark-hunter series.
Post a Comment