Rating: 
Summary: Superb followup, questionable morality
Review: Interview with a Vampire was one of my fave reads of all time despite the obsessive amorality of the characters and despite a lot of mumbo-jumbo psychobabble endeavoring to spruce up what is essentially a long series of sociopathic murders. But the idea and execution was accomplished so well that I was willing to give it a pass. For some reason, Louis was very appealing in all his sensuous evil and self-doubt.Rice has obviously fallen for Lestat as witness the apparently endless tomes to him that bestow an almost supernatural quality. She has chosen to make the self-doubting Lestat her eternal wandering and wondering hero. He is much too effete for my taste but Rice specializes in that genre, adding a touch of lushness. She has done something else very cleverly by introducing material for future books. The stories of Marius, Armand and all the hints and unsolved puzzles strewn throughout the story are good for at least three more novels. The historical presentation was absolutely terrifying in its authenticity and mood. France, New Orleans, Catholicism, fine wine - these are the things familiary to the author. She is an expert at deep dialogue and thoughts though she has a tendency to blather on too long. Then there is the matter or all that self-justification for murder of which she implies all vampires are entitled. So read it for the story and give some literary license.
Rating: 
Summary: ........WA........
Review: Amazing. Even better than the first book. IwtV gave a point of view about Lestat that wasn't the most flattering and I wanted to hate him just on principle. However, I was willing to give Lestat another chance..duh. It still feels as flawless as before. There's more complexity and intricate drama that she weaves so beautifully. The philosophy of human nature and God is at the core of Lestat's journey. From his human trials of being a human Lord to the streets of Paris as an actor and his virginal journey as a vampire, Rice takes you through a graphic picture of the 18th century world w/ such verbal description, it will blow your mind. You fall in love with all the charactors, the language and history and the sheer power of the story. It's obvious she knows her history. It's authentic, lyrical and makes you question the things Lestat asks along with him. The soft romantic ambiance is still there, the feeling of 'seeing' what she writes is there: ONLY BETTER. You can't be disappointed. Lestat is by far my favorite chractor now. He is so human, it's painful. But Rice's humor allivates some of the really dramatic tensions and parts of the story. Many of her dialogues are very intense and you have to re-read it a few times to fully understand it. It's not for the weak of heart. There's a lot of digestion...and if your not willing to be open with Rice's thoughts about everything, you may want to reconsider. It's not 'read and next book' type of thing. It's worth the time and you'll be surprise how quickly you'll devour it.
Rating: 
Summary: Quite boring
Review: Let me start by saying that I loved Interview with the Vampire. I think that it is one of the new classics. So naturally, I picked up this one. I wasn't impressed. The book basically tells the same story that we heard in Interview with the Vampire except it is longer and more boring. I always liked Louis a lot more than Lestat anyway. Like Louis, Lestat was created by a vampire who told him nothing about their kind so Lestat goes out to find more like him. I've heard this somewhere before. Some things I thought were very hard to follow. For example, The Story of Armand portion confused the heck out of me and the very long Marius's Story bored me to tears. I think that it also lacked the horror of Interview with the Vampire. The reason I have it three stars is because after Marius's Story I think that the book is good cause it FINALLY picked up steam. Changing his dying mother into a vampire was interesting to read also. Oh yeah, and the prolouge was pretty good too. But other than that, I thought it was a boring, longer copy of Interview.
Rating:
Summary: A moving, sweeping, dark masterpiece of literature
Review: The Vampire Lestat is not only one of the most engaging, remarkable, illuminating, and important horror novels ever written, it is a beautiful work of art that stands proudly among the ranks of what I define as great literature. The breadth and scope of this novel is almost staggering, as is the hypnotic language in which every word and phrase is uttered. Interview With the Vampire was provocative and soul-stirring, but its greatest achievement pale in comparison to the least of the many wonders worked into this second volume of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. It was the story of Claudia the vampire child that touched my heart in the first novel, although the moral and philosophical questions asked by Louis opened the door for a new kind of vampire literature. Still, Lestat hovered and brooded over every page of Interview With the Vampire, leaving nothing but unanswered questions in the wake of his coldness and sometimes pathetic manifestations. One could not help but wonder about his origins and history, the heavy weights of his mysterious life having left him little more than a husk of a vampire at the end of Louis' story. Finding out in the opening pages of The Vampire Lestat that this inscrutable wanderer is not only thriving once again but that he has in fact become a rock star seems pretty strange. Yet all things are made clear in this novel, for this is Lestat's story, and he violates every vampire law by revealing secrets beyond the ken of mortal man. Lestat wants to embrace his true nature, show the world's population that vampires live amongst them, and incite a glorious war between man and the Children of the Night. This is much more than just Lestat's story, however. What Anne Rice has managed to do in this novel is to create a brand new history and legend of the vampire, taking this most beloved of horror themes and transcending the literature of Stoker, Le Fanu, and the greats of the past. The cold and inscrutable Lestat we saw in Interview With the Vampire is now revealed to be at one time the most human of vampires, an immortal whose love for humans exceeded even that of his creation Louis. We learn of his human childhood, his creation by the immensely old and powerful Magnus in the seventeenth century. The depth of his feelings for his mother and adolescent soul companion Nicholas are quite touching and beautiful, and we see how his first recipients of the Dark Trick come to bring him much pain and tragedy. We see his crazed outbursts and intensity of feeling revealed in the most telling of ways. We learn much more about the vampire Armand, a character I quite honestly despise for his weakness. He hides behind old traditions, betraying the very notions of his own creator Marius by embracing a pseudo-religion of evil, punishing those wretched creatures who dare disturb his antiquated way of existence. Marius, an ancient vampire of great power who links Armand and Lestat together in the most telling of ways, introduces Lestat and ourselves to the Mother and the Father, Those Who Must Be Kept, and it is through these individuals that the history of vampirism is delivered so originally and brilliantly here, drawing and touching upon ancient Egypt, religion, philosophy, and a myriad of other powerful subjects and inspirations. Through Lestat's daring and individualism, we learn much more than any other vampire teacher could tell us; he truly did have stories to tell, and now we learn why he refused to share his wisdom with Louis and Claudia. The introduction of the Mother and the Father, Akasha and Enkil, leads us directly into the next book in the series, The Queen of the Damned, and The Vampire Lestat actually ends on a note of new beginnings potentially more powerful than anything introduced and revealed in this book's 550 pages. I find Those Who Must Be Kept absolutely fascinating, the most ancient of vampires who live lives of immobility and seeming inactivity, staring open-eyed eternally, leaving open the possibility to Lestat in particular that they can be reawakened. Yet Lestat's active plans, his flagrant announcement to the world that he is a vampire (even though mortals may believe in the image rather than the reality of what he is saying) and his daring publication of the most secret of his kind's secrets leaves one spellbound and in wonder as to how things will play out in the end. His actions are rash and dangerous, yet the exuberance he feels in doing these things brings him to life ever more fully. I could go on and on about the wonder and power of this novel, but even then I could not begin to convey the beauty and force with which Anne Rice weaves her dark wonders. Anne Rice takes us inside the hearts and minds of these vampire characters, and that is a perspective that even Bram Stoker never provided. I thought nothing could possibly surpass the dark brilliance of Dracula, but I have to say that The Vampire Lestat is the greatest vampire novel I have ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Give Lestat a Chance :)
Review: Wow. I can't believe there are people who actually hate this book. Boring? Sure, if you have a five-year-old child's attention span. The Vampire Lestat can be somewhat tedious, but I personally enjoyed Lestat's take on the events Louis describes in the first book, Interview with the Vampire. Lestat is optimistic and confident, which is certainly a refreshing change from Louis' "blah blah blah I'm so saaaaad..." routine. Lestat is one person in the first book, one in this book, and he continues to transform himself in future Vampire Chronicles. That's what makes him a great character, and one of the most fascinating leading men in any movie or book. He is all things and none, he's gay and straight, he's loveable and despicable... but at least he's not simple. PS - It would be a mistake to read this book and never read the rest of the chronicles. Because Lestat keeps changing so much, from moment to moment, you could hate him in this book and love him in the next. And, what some people would call tedious in The Vampire Lestat dissappears in Queen of the Damned, Tale of the Body Thief, and Memnoch the Devil.
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book by far!
Review: Of all the books I've ever read, this is my favorite by far. Personally, this book has brought me through a period in my life that seems to parallel Lestat's almost exactly and maybe that is why this book means the world to me. From his suffocating "Dark Moment" toward the beginning where he realizes life might just end and that's it, only nothingness... to the lonliness he feels later, where it seems like it is only him, even though he thinks he might have someone as his companion forever, he ends up alone again. I would think that this book has to be enjoyed by anyone who likes a book with so many rich descriptions of life and searching, especially those that like a book with a gothic touch. I couldn't say enough about this book, I'm sure you would enjoy it but if you relate to Lestat at all you'll fall completely in love with it and might want to thank the author somehow for putting all of your own feelings on paper as if she understood exactly what is in your own soul.
Rating:
Summary: Better than the first
Review: _The Vampire Lestat_ is a big step up from _Interview with the Vamprire_. Where the first book was overlong and self-indulgent, this one is much more sleek (though it is actually a longer book) and believable, if you can really use that word to describe a book like this. Though too dense in some spots, and provoking incredulity periodically, the book is mostly fun and doesn't take itself too seriously. The philosophy it offers is light. It can basically be summed up in a few words: Even though life is meaningless, people still fear death and will do anything to avoid it; as well as: If you had eternity to live, you'd make a lot of mistakes and be miserable much of the time, but you still wouldn't want to give it up. The writing style of the novel is similar to _Interview_ but more disciplined. The prose is less flowery and tends to get in the way less often. The historical settings, where most of the scenes are staged, are reasonably compelling. In fact, the beginning and end of the book, which occur in the present day, are the weakest parts. Though I have not read part three, I fear that much of the magic may be lost when Rice is no longer writing about the "olden days" when it feels like these sorts of events could have happened. At any rate, this book is not a complete waste of time, though it won't reinvent anybody's worldview or really make any statements at all of much importance. But there are worse novels to bring to the beach.
Rating:
Summary: Intricate, dark, awesome!
Review: Anne Rice, in my opinion is one of the top 5 authors in history. She is definetely the best interesting descriptive author ever, by that I mean all the detail she provides makes you want to learn more rather than being bored. This is a biography of a vampire that plays a key part in her "Vampire Chronicles". It is beyond a doubt on the most interesting reads and everyone should read it, even if they don't like vampires.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty
Review: This book is very beautiful. The writing is fluent and charming. Anne Rice is able to put such powerful emotions into writing that it's nearly shocking to read her books. This book is able to take you from the depths of hell to the beauty of a starry night in Egypt, or tropical jungles of wonder and mystery. The deal of the vampires and who they are and what they do is a bit too mysterious and it can get a bit confusing UNTIL Lestat meets Marius and Marius explains everything quite well. I believe in her first book, (Interview w/vampire) she had a more defined plot, but The Vampire Lestat is still a great book. :) It's much more "adventure" style and Lestat is a less "tragic" character than Louis.
Rating:
Summary: Eye opening look into the notorious vampire Lestat....
Review: Ths is an eye-opener. In the first book of the series(Interview), we see through Louis's eyes. Lestat as an unfeeling and cruel monster feeding off of humans. Not so we find out in the second book here.
Lestat sees the book Louis has written about him on the bookshelves and is shocked that his beloved Louis would see him as such a monster and even more stunned that he would dare print such a true account of a vampire's life with names attached. Such a thing is a sure ticket to destruction by the old ones of their kind.
Wanting to set the record straight to Louis and us the readers, he has put together an account of his life in his own words. Braving the wrath of the old ones also and willing it to protect Louis.
We see him as a mortal living as a marquis's son in pre-revolutionary France. No love from his father and a cool reception from his mother, he takes us through those hard years when he turned 21 and killed a pack of wolves and barely survived. The killing of the wolves set into motion what would happen to him a year later.
Going out on his own in Paris to be in the theatre with his best friend Nick, fate steps in. Just a year later Lestat loving life and living his dream, yet scorned by his family is chosen by one of the old ones for the Dark Gift.
Loving it at first, soon he realizes he cannot live as a mortal any longer and hatred soon eats at him. He longs to be one of the humans. He misses Nick. He misses his life. He feeds reluctantly at first, only on evildoers and the like, then becomes bored and lonely.
Years pass and he becomes lonely and frightened of forever. Nearly 300 years and still he is lonely. Tragedy and heartbreak shape the life of a talented actor, now turned killer.
He tells of those days with Louis and Claudia and her deception. His wanderings and run ins with other vampires like Armand, Marius, and Those Who Must be Kept. The oldest of all vampires. The story ends with Lestats fascination with The Queen of the Damned and waking her from her slumber of 4,000 years.
He is a marquis's son, an actor, a vampire, a business man, a rockstar in the 1980's and in the end, a lonely soul looking for redemption.
Well worth the time reading. Sometimes frightening and sometimes romantic, Lestat brings us a thrill ride through time and space. Tracy Talley~@
|
