Rating:  Summary: Best addition to the series since "Queen of the Damned" Review: Rice, Anne. The Vampire Armand. Knopf. Oct. 1998. c.384p. ISBN 0-679-45447-0. $26.95. FictionThis sixth installment in Rice's ongoing preternatural soap opera is the most satisfying in years. While protagonist Armand has appeared throughout the series, he's played mostly minor roles. Here, however, we get his full history. Set mostly in the perfect backdrop of old-world Venice, the story unfolds in rich, velvety prose as Armand unfurls his life beginning with his kidnapping from the Russian wilderness as a lad to his tutelage under the powerful blood drinker Marius through his consequent rebirth as a vampire of light and then dark. Rice concentrates a good deal on the physical, and all her characters appear young, beautiful-and treacherous (think Melrose Place with fangs). Armand himself is comely to the point of bordering on feminine (like a Leonardo DiCapprio from Hell). Typically, there are large doses of Christian theology and homoerotic sex, and Rice recycles ma! ny characters and plot lines from earlier episodes. The book unfortunately flounders when it reurns to the present in order to lay the groundwork for the next inevitable installation. Nonetheless, this is a sumptuous addition to the series that fans will drain to the last drop. Recommended.-Michael Rogers, "Library Journal
Rating:  Summary: Another classic! Review: Anne Rice continually astounds me. Since the first book I read, Cry to Heaven, which still remains tied for my favorite with "The Witching Hour," each of her novels has at the very least grabbed my attention and challenged my intellect; also being a published writer has made me green with envy. The Vampire Armand is quite simply BRILLIANT. What's very different about this installment of the Vampire Chronicles is the sensual element of the relationship between Armand and Marius. The very concise and articulate telling of the emotional involvement between these two is one of the most intensely revealing I've read, even more so because both characters were familiar to me for years. In regard to statements that the story is historically inaccurate, someone needs to hit their history books again. And, the assertion that Anne Rice has hit the "sex with children is GOOD" bandwagon is ludicrous seeing that in Venise, (and everywhere else in Europe for that matter) in the time the questionable relationship takes place, people were oft times married as early as twelve. Also it would be hard not to induldge in pederasty when one is centuries old. Anne Rice has, in my opinion, written an installment of the Vampire Chronicles that rivals "Interview with the Vampire" and "The Vampire Lestat."
Rating:  Summary: An Utterly Gorgeous Novel.. Review: I read this and this is one of the very few books that has ever made me cry. I have come to feel for Armand as much as I do any of the other characters in this series. I think out of all of them, he's had it the hardest. Overall, this is a gorgeous book. The descriptions are amazing, as if you are right in the heart of Venice. The love affair between Armand and Marius was beautiful and hearttrending as well. A beautiful read.
Rating:  Summary: Where Ego needs her editor Review: I have always been a huge Anne Rice fan, but The Vampire Armand has convinced me that she needs the guidance of an editor. It's no small coincidence that her finest book is the one that employed the additional eye of an editor. There has, at least in my opinion, been a gradual decline in the quality of the books since Interview with the Vampire. Her ego is impeeding her work. A writer is not an editor. Love of their work will not give them the impartial view necessary to remove or modify those parts that just don't work. That's the problem with The Vampire Armand. Large parts of it just don't work. There's also a nagging tendency for the book to repeat itself over and over again. A very poor outing in my opinion.
Rating:  Summary: Just boring Review: Armand/Amadeo/Andrei = A sexually abused and stupid child
Marius = a vampire master who is not only gay but also a children's lover
Anne Rice = a writer who preferes to fill pages with descriptions instead of worthy content
...
not the worse book she has written, but is a very boring lecture.
The story is good, the writing is bad.
Every Rice's vampire book since Lestat is so extremely descriptive hat lacks the ability to actually capture reader's attention. Could have been written in about one hundred pages.
Rating:  Summary: it's good, get over it Review: this book is good,
read it because you like vampyres
read it because you like anne rice
don't read it because you think it'll make you "cool"
it won't
Rating:  Summary: to say it a word: boring! Review: Armand is my favourite vampire, I adore him, I like Anne Rice, but...yeaaahhhh, this book is so dull, so boring, it even seems too long, THIS CAN'T BE THE ARMAND I LOVE, it's ...oh, it seems to never end, and all the time when you as a reader pictured Marius as a great vampire, he was horrible, how could Armand love him? Evil, evil guy! Hard to read.
Rating:  Summary: My first Anne Rice book Review: I got this for $8 at Sam's club and I loved it I had no idea what they was talking about in half of the book until I picked up the others but my over all viewing is a great intro to her works if you saw interview with the vampire you will see that Armand IS NOTHING like he is in the movie well worth it this book takes you from 1998 in a downward spiral threw time then back again well worth it
Rating:  Summary: Rice Tops All Review: I love these novels, even if there are some homosexual love scenes in it. If you read this novel, you surely must be mature enough to realize that this is meant to be read by adults. I encourage those brave souls such as Yuki Shinobu who write these great reviews. I wish I could write just as well reviews, but too many details storm my cranium to think. Plus I'm a slow writer. Oh well....
All the vampires deserve their turn to tell their life stories, even though I'm way too obsessed with Lestat to care about anything else. Well, cross that. I do pay attention to all the Vampire Chronicles.
The character of Armand is developed so much in this novel. I loved every single page. The setting is described in so much detail that it vividly paints images in my mind of the world of Anne Rice. When I read her novels, I know I'm just seeing the tip of the iceburg that is her world. The scenes that interested me the most were the scenes in which Armand nearly dies in. He so vividly describes the glass city and the meeting with his family.
Rice brings together a fantastic story of love and loss, suspension and resolution, the works. She never ceases to amaze me with each novel she writes.
Rating:  Summary: Very Entertaining, I have to Say! Review: Ok, let me say one thing. I have read some of the reviews that people wrote and I am disgusted at what they say about this novel. Honestly, the reader should know by now!
THis is Anne Rice and she writes about things that sometimes are meant to shock and stir the mind and thoughts process. I have to say that I did not find this book to be at all gross or sick as some people say that it is. Actually I find that I enjoy reading about the realationship between Armand and Marius. I wanted for them to stay together. Anyone who reads this will probably say that I have no morals becasue of that. Seriously, people, I am very sorry, but what is there to be so shocked about?
Our ancestors, the ancient Romans and Greeks all did this kind of thing on a daily basis, but suddenly it was considered a mortal sin and everyone shut their ears and eyes to that kind of thing. They treat it as if it was murder or something worse. In case you haven't noticed, Marius Romanus was a *roman*.
Honestly, grow up and open your mind to learn from the world around you. If you are so easily shocked, you must be a virgin to literature and you need to read and get out more. I am not saying that it's a must to do what Armand and MArius did together, but it adds a flavor to the writing.
Even for the most seemingly shocked reader, I know that deep down they enjoyed the play between Marius and Armand, even if it was just a little. They can deny it all they want and cover it up with moral crap, but I know that something must have been stirred. Maybe that is why they seem to dislike the book so much, because they don't like the little shiver they got from reading it. Or maybe they are just into typical, vanilla relatioships where everything is always the same. I know that I'm not.
I want to read something that is a little unusual, and I got it in the form of this novel. Armand is a sexy character, and let me remind the reader that he *enjoys* what Marius does to him. Even when Marius punishes him in that one hot scene, he loves it in the end and even says that he wants more.
If he hated when MArius kissed him and everything, if he felt disgusted with the vampire, THEN I wouldn't like the sexy scenes that much, though I would still think them interesting and perhaps just a little steamy.
How could Armand not like MArius? The vampire saved him, showed him kindness, fed him, gave him expensive clothes, let him explore life and all that humanity had to offer, and loved him on top of that. I think that this novel was wonderful, a plain delightful read and I recomend it to anyone who wants to explore human thoughts and feelings.
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