Book Reviews: Interview with the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat

I've been on a whole vampire kick for over a year now. So I decided to have a look at The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. I've heard her books hailed by many, and two were made into movies so there must be something there.

She has a very calculated style. Book kicks off with a bang, then there is a whole bunch of boring nonsense, and kicks ass enough at the end that you want to read the next one.

Halfway through Interview with the Vampire I was ready fling the book out the window. What helps the book is if you NEVER saw the movie because the descriptions of the characters don't really line up with Pitt and Cruise. I can barely remember any of that movie so the visual worked better for me. The level of depth and development really paints the picture of the story for your mind's eye thoroughly. Then much of the book is like a gay romance novel. Men wanting other men all over the place. Men jealous of other man love. It took a little getting used to. Hmm. Maybe a LOT od getting used to. Then there's Louis and his never ending pondering of being evil. But it was really dragging on and wearing thin, and that was when I was ready to pitch the book. Maybe it was the Godfathers I was drinking while on vacation talking, though. ;) Then it turns into a runaway roller coaster for the end and you are glad you hung in there.

So I got started with The Vampire Lestat as soon as I could afterward. Once again, great start. Wonderful character development and detail. You can envision everything. But by the middle of the book Lestat's brooding drags the book down. In many ways I felt there was a lot of conflicting information that was established in Interview. Armand was quite a different character from one book to the next. Lestat was a completely different character as well. Hell, it was like night and day really, but even that was explained. I preferred The Vampire Lestat mostly because it actually has an explanation about the origins of vampires.

So read it and take them for what they are, farfetched entertainment. Right now I'm in the middle of the new Star Wars book, but when I'm done with this I plan to read The Queen of the Damned, Book III of the Vampire Chronicles.