In Print: Blood and Gold by Anne Rice

Blood and Gold is book eight in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. The sub title for this work is The Vampire Marius. When I saw that I slapped my forehead and expected another piece of dreck. Anne Rice has revisited the tale of Marius in the various books time and again and I was fully prepared to be bored out of my mind with this book or terribly disgusted.

With that said, I was very surprised. It was a very interesting work that kept my attention. Despite it's length, it's quick and a page turner.

Many, if not all, of the questions you may have about Marius and his timeline are answered. What's also kind of fun is the way Marius reflects on the history of the world during his long existance.

I wonder if I had more patience with this tome as it dwelled much on renaissance art, a field that I studied in school until I figured out that I couldn't complete that major without learning a couple extra languages, my weak spot. But I digress, for once, the long and involved descriptions were fine and welcome in this instance.

Keep in mind, this book is considered Book Eight in Rice's Vampire Chronicles but has NOTHING to do with the timeline. You can go right from Merrick to Blackwood Farm and not skip a beat. However, since Marius IS a key character in these books, you'll want to read it anyway. Just skip THE VAMPIRE ARMAND; what a foul and disgusting book that was.

So, the long and short of it, I liked BLOOD AND GOLD. It's a rather hypnotic tale and worthwhile. The ending was odd, but justified. I'm still trying to make up my mind regarding what it means or if it wasn't a dream. I'll leave it to you to decide. Read it.