Amph Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles

Frankly, I'm addicted and obsessed. Incredible series, has some down points, but overall great. A good mix of philosophy, sci fi, and fantasy. I've currently finished the 5th. For reference, here are the books in chronological order:

+Interview With the Vampire (One of my top ones. Much better than the movie. Casting was terrible.)

+The Vampire Lestat(Very fast paced, very well written, a good character study of Lestat. Looking forward to the broadway musical that will be coming out soon.)

+Queen of the Damned(Alright, the movie was terrible even though it's one of my favourites. The book got a little slow at parts, not the best, but not bad at all.)

+Tale of the Body Thief(A very strange book. Looks at life from a different point of view...makes you see things differently. Not very well written, but overall a masterpiece.)

+Memnoch the Devil(Wow. Not much more I can say on this book. I loved it. A contendor for my favourite.)

+The Vampire Armand

+Blood and Gold

+Merrick

+Blackwood Farm




So, what say you?

 

um, aren't there some more. Pandora eg? Or does it not count in the series.
Not that i think it's a big loss I think that together with Armand it's the worst from the series. She's getting to much of a religious fit for my taste.

Be looking forward for Blood and Gold. The first really good one after she had a kind of down.
Actually I like the First movie better than the book. In IwtV Louis is whining to much. Could not agree more with Lestat's last comment in the movie.

 

Yeah the Pandora thing was an offshoot...I never read any of the series on the witches. And the religious aspect...I liked it in Memnoch the Devil...but I heard something about Anne Rice suddenly becoming super Catholic or something like that. Not that it's a bad thing, but it sort of goes against the messages of the books...


As far as characters go, I can't decide. Of course, I idolize Lestat. But I've changed my mind a bit on a few. Louis and Armand I've always liked a lot, but sometimes they just get carried away being emo and stuff.

 

a very good and also obsessed friend gave me interview and lestat. right now i'm stuck with reading lestat.
i really loved the beginning but now it drags a bit. he has created his mom and met armand and left the theatre to nicky... and now i wonder what will happen. in a way i would love to let them just move on and get to why he no more has his mom in interview and where nicky is and all, but we have to deal with armand's backstory. and it's also interesting, but i don't like how she presents these things as mysteries. you know, how claudia and louis search for the great secret. and i wonder why they don't simply accept that there are vampires and humans. right now i think they are creating a problem.
overall i enjoy the use of soap opera style and eroticism in the books, how it's rather about relationships than horror. she's spot on with her observations about humanity and mortality.

 

Memnoch the Devil is probably one of my favorites. I've read it three times and it doesn't get old. Of the others in the series, Interview was great, Lestat ok, The Queen of the Damned was good but too world altering, and I hated the Body Thief.

All the others, since they're not the story of Lestat, are nothing but sidebars.

 

I've read everything up to Memnoch. I honestly got very sick and tired of Lestat. Ramses is my favorite Anne Rice character.

 

Out of all the ones I've read, I still love Interview the best. Of course, I hate Claudia with a passion, but Lestat and Louis seemed to be at their prime then, or so it looked to me. TVL and QotD were nice, I agree that TVL dragged here and there, but it was fun in its way, and I actually grew fond of Nicki, in an odd way, despite events... I haven't gotten past MtD yet, though, I plan to when I get more time. TotBT is indeed strange, yet, I found it oddly amusing in a dark way, at least in parts. MtD was on a level of its own, and it certainly twisted things into a new perspective in its way.

 

why did you hate claudia, neon star?

 

That's a bit hard to explain. The character always rubbed me wrong, and its not just because of what she did to Lestat, or the fact that she felt like nothing more then a brat at times, to me at least. Though, Lestat also seemed so at points throughout the whole series. At any rate, it really is a mixture of those two reasons and her attitude about some of the situations in Interview, which seemed wrong. Admittedly, she does have one thing to her, she portrays perfectly the exact reason why vampires shouldn't be made so young, since she had a sharp mind, but not enough power to back it in the vampiric world. Of course, that's just my opinion, I have nothing against anyone that likes her.

 

don't worry, neon star, i have no problem when you dislike her. i was just curious.

so i gather from your post that it's her coming across like a spoilt brat and what she did to lestat?

she never exacted a strong response from me. i have sort of taken for lestat's hunger for living. i like him loads now and it's weird because a friend told me that's what would happen: i would feel with louis in interview and then move on to like lestat in TVL.

so - i'm average

 

So...glad you liked those books I gave ya, frared! See, I did not like Memnoch much at all, or really Tale Of The Body Thief. All a matter of taste right? What suits one does not neccesarily suit another.

I am neither here nor there on Claudia, really. And I do not like Lestat's mother...it is no wonder he is the brat prince that he is. I love Louis and Armand, I like his story alot actually. I also liked Nicky. In the movie IWTV I despised Lestat, but in the books he really does grow on you doesn't he? Well he grew on me anyway.

I fell in love with the movie first and then read all of the books that existed. After that of course, I read them as they came out. I liked the new chronicles, but not nearly as much as the original chronicles. It saddens me that she has abandoned her fans in favor of her new born again lifestyle. I do not mind her lifestyle, that is her choice, nor do I mind her new choice in writing, though the life of a 7 year old Jesus does not interest me at all. Her Vampire books are laced with Christianity anyway, with all the relics and what not. What does bother me is that it seems she now views her other stuff, the stuff that made her the famous author she is today, as something she never would have done, or so it seems to me. I do not know the woman of course, so I could be wrong. If it is true however, what a way to alienate your fan base.


EDIT: Though I do not like the movie for Queen Of The Damned...I watched a bit on tv the other day and thought that Hayden would have been perfect for one of her vampires, he is nice and pretty just like they should be.

 

good to see ya, anakingirl!

i really really love lestat. he is so hungry to explore things and places and he is a bit frightened of it all when he kills the wolves but there's a lot of energy to him. last night they explained armand why he couldn't be with them and go places and it felt like they were talking to anakin. very strange.

sorry to hear ms rice abandoned the vampires. i think she does well with the stories. i really like how everything is a soap opera. she isn't really writing horror, it's more about the horror of being a vampire. which is a very interesting twist.

 

I actually looked at it as more of a study of humanity rather than a vampire soap opera.

 

i didn't mean to say that it wasn't a study of humanity. i didn't mean it in a derogatory sense, more like it's about love and what we mean to each other rather than the horror aspect of it. you know, it deals with vampires as if they really had to make a living of sorts.
nearly done with lestat and i can only say in some passages she blew me away.

 

Yes...that's one thing I've noticed in particular. Some of the books, there are points that are in essence, poor writing. And yet, Rice is able to redeem herself countless times with other parts of the books...I think Memnoch the Devil was probably the most well written, which is good, because the previous book, being Tale of the Body Thief, was the poorest.

 

she must have had a pretty clear vision of where she wanted to go with lestat though, i think. it's pretty comprehensive.

 

Yes it's definitely one of her better novels.

 

I don't much like Lestat at all. I do like Louis, but the way he takes a backseat to Lestat in the later books means that I only really like him in IwtV. Actually, IwtV is in my opinion by far the best of the series.