Blood and Gold

Rating:
Summary: Good, but still nothing close to the first 5
Review: If you enjoyed other Vampire Chronicles books then this one will certainly interest you. While this book is an interesting read, this book has some flaws which makes it much less than the first five VC books.
1) Marius as a character is much less interesting than Lestat. Lestat gave his books a sense of humor, youth and adventure which the older Marius (a Roman Senator) lacks. This problem is a recurring one in Rice's new Vampire Books in that the absence of Lestat is acutely felt.
2) Due to the subject matter, Rice had to summarize the first 5 books and this is irritating to the constant reader as well as confusing to the new one.
3) The story begins with a vampire called Thorne in our current time who awakes from a long sleep to decide to return to the world and meets Marius who entertains him with his life story. The story that occurs in the current time with Thorne, Marius and Maharet is separate from Marius' history though and occurs in the first two and the last couple of chapters. This second story is pretty poorly written and Thorne's personality especially makes no sense

That said there are still some very enjoyable parts in middle of the story which is it's best part. Rice takes us through the Decline of Rome, the Rise of Costantinople and the Renaissance periods in a breathtaking way. She as always is a great illustrator of history and is able to give you a true sense of these enchanting periods. The portion of the novel dealing with Mael, Avicus, Euxodia and Zenobia is definitely the most enjoyable in the whole book.

I would recommend reading this book for the constant reader, the new though should probably start with the first five as they are much better.

Rating:
Summary: A LUSH, RICH & INTOXICATING TAPESTRY
Review: A WORLD AS ENTICING,SENSUAL & SUBLIMELY INTOXICATING AS COULD ONLY COME OUT OF THE MIND OF ANNE RICE. HERE SHE TAKES US BACK TO ANCIENT ROME & THE DARKNESS OF THE DRUID TIMES AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF THE GREATEST VAMPIRE OF ALL...MARIUS. AFTER BEING MADE INTO A BLOOD GOD WHILE STILL IN HIS PRIME MARIUS EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS STILL CLINGS WITH THE LAST VESTIGES OF HIS STRENGH TO THAT PART OF HIS SOUL WHICH IS STILL HUMAN. HOWEVER HE ALSO REALISES THAT IT IS HIS NATURE TO HUNT & KILL...SURVIVE ON BLOOD.BUT AS HE SAYS...ONLY THE BLOOD OF THE EVIL-DOER.
THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THE BOOK IS THE TIME IN MARIUS' LIFE WHEN HE LIVES IN ROME AMONGST HUMANS OPENING HIS HOME & ALLOWING HIS HEART TO BE HEALED BY THE BEAUTY OF FLORENCE...GIVING HIS LOVE TO THE LOVELY COURTEASAN BIANCA, HIS YOUNG APPRENTICE ARMAND WHOM HE LATER ON BRINGS OVER TO THE DARK SIDE & OF COURSE IMMERSING HIMSELF IN THE WORKS OF BOTTICELLI. THROUGH HIS EYES & MINGD WE WITNESS THE WONDERS OF AN ANCIENT GLORY. WHILE SOME READERS MAY MISS THE NON STOP ACTION OF SOME OF RICE'S OTHER BOOKS LIKE "QUEEN OF THE DAMNED" THE SHEER DESCRIPTIVENESS I FEEL MORE THAN MAKES UP FOR IT. ITS LIKE LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL PAINTING...EXCEPT THAT THE AUTHOR HAS USED WORDS INSTEAD OF PAINT. HOWEVER I FOUND THE END OF THE BOOK RATHER ABRUPT.IT WAS ALMOST AS THOUGH RICE GOT TIRED OF IT & DECIDED TO WRAP IT UP. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE IF THERE WAS SOME SORT OF CLOSURE BROUGHT TO THE MARIUS-PANDORA EPIC LOVE STORY. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH EVEN AFTER TWO THOUSAND YRS. THEY CAN'T LIVE WITH EACH OTHER & CAN'T LIVE SANS EACH OTHER AS WELL. ALL SAID & DONE ANNE RICE SCORES AGAIN IN THIS BLOOD DRENCHED,SENSUAL DRAMA THAT MAKES ONE WANT TO SINK ONE'S TEETH INTO THE JUGULAR ALL OVER AGAIN & FEEL THAT WARM,RICH GUSH FLOW INTO YOUR MOUTH...

Rating:
Summary: More Than Ever - An Enormous Fan of Anne Rice
Review: I am an enormous fan of Anne Rice, so of course as soon as any new book comes out I get it immediately. I was taken aback with this book. She is so descriptive and I love the way she writes her characters, they seem to come alive and even after you finish the book you wonder what they are doing. You can't help but feel compassion and care for the main character Marius. He comes across as a sensitive, sensuous, and interesting being, as he tells his tale of the years you almost feel like you are there with him. I really enjoyed the way she made a whole world within these pages.

As you read you wonder how she can make her characters evolve in so short a time. And you don't need to have read the other previous books to know what is going on. There was always something going on and unlike a few other books in the series you weren't bombarded with characters. I can't wait to see what happens next. This was my favorite book in the series.

On a lighter note, if you are open minded and looking for those books begging for its pages to be turned...look no further. I just read a copy of Edgar Fouche's 'Alien Rapture,' which also blew me away. Fouche was a Top Secret Black Program 'insider', whose credibility has been verified over and over. Another fun book is Brad Steiger's 'Werewolf.' I also really liked Dan Brown's 'Deception Point,; and 'Angels and Demons.' Want to be shocked, check out Dr. Paul Hill's 'Unconventional Flying Objects' which NASA tried to ban, and always read the Amazon reviews.

Rating:
Summary: Finally ....
Review: Anne Rice has given her readers a novel that is exciting and captivating. I have not read one of her Novels since "Armand" (which I had a very hard time finishing). However, I couldn't resist "Blood & Gold", the story of Marius. This particular vampire has always intrigued me. I started reading and this book has held my attention and I found it hard to put down. I have read all of the Vampire Chronicles and none have really held my interest as this one has, since "Queen of the Damned". If you've found her recent work lacking, just try this one, it shouldn't be disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty words and images, but...
Review: Anne Rice has created an institution with her Vampire series, and has rarely ceased to amaze. Only "The Vampire Vittorio", with its bold departure from the usual characters, faltered; and "Merrick", an attempt to bring together the Mayfair family with the vampires, was a horrible mess.

However, with "Blood and Gold", the author has somewhat redeemed herself. The story of Marius, one of the strongest Children of the Millennia, is a feast for the senses, and a handbook of sorts for the ways and customs of vampires. Always the supernatural straight man, the voice of reason among the Dead, Marius has appeared in the Vampire books often, and his story is one that needed to be told. Unfortunately, the plot leaves much to be desired.

A few redeeming qualities of this book include stories of Marius' lost loves, Armand and Pandora. Here, we see certain events from his point of view: the reason why he left Pandora hundreds of years ago; the loss of Armand to a vampiric coven of Satan worshippers. A different angle makes these stories fresh, and should make the reader want to find the books Rice wrote a few years ago, in which Pandora and Armand are the main characters. As always, the pictures Rice paints of the eras and cities to which Marius' journey takes him are breathtaking.

The introduction of a new character, Thorne, is a strange mix of success and failure. Thorne is the listener, the shoulder for Marius to cry on, the anonymous priest to whom Marius confesses all. However, his character is barely developed at all. In the end, when he makes a sacrifice to Maharet in retribution for a crime he has committed, the story ends, but is not truly resolved. Furthermore, his relationship with Maharet is only partially revealed. Mystery and confusion mingle here, and in some chapters, it works beautifully, while in others, it stumbles.

Readers who have enjoyed the Vampire Chronicles (as I have, from the beginning) will appreciate a new point of view. Newcomers should read a few of the previous novels to become acclimated to Rice's world of undead creatures. This is a noble effort, and while it's flawed, it's certainly worth a read.

Rating:
Summary: A vampirical trip through history.
Review: A great book about a vampire that carries from the roman empire to present day.

Rating:
Summary: We've been here before...
Review: Blood And Gold is the story of Marius, one of the oldest vampires in the Anne Rice mythology. He's been around since the early days of Rome and he was the creator of the vampires Pandora, Armand and Bianca. He was also the keeper of Enkil and Akasha, the King and Queen of Vampires.

Now, his very interesting story - which spands hundred of centuries - finds it's way to the page. I was very excited to get this book. After all, I wanted to read Marius's story in its entirety for so long! But the problem with the book is that we've seen most of this before. Marius has been a prominent character in many of Rice's books; from The Vampire Lestat to The Queen Of The Damned to Pandora to The Vampire Armand... Rice has already told us a lot about Marius in those novels. We already knew half of his story.

So we end up with Blood And Gold, a book which is half new and half repetition. Everything that happened in The Vampire Armand is retold through these pages. The book isn't very original.

And yet, Rice finds a way to enthrall the readers. Her poetic style of writing is as griping as ever and her tormented Marius is her most complex and interesting vampire after the beloved Lestat. The book does offer the reader many new exciting moments (such as Marius's encounter with Mael and the making of a young female vampire, as well as the destruction of an all-powerful female vampire). So overall, the book is very interesting and very entertaining. It's just too bad that it leaves you with this sense of deja vu.

Rating:
Summary: Haven't we heard most of this before?
Review: This novel is about Marius, my favourite vampire. Although I have quite a few problems with this book, it was still okay to read.

The problems were these:
1) most of the story line has already been told in the previous books;

2) I'm tired of all the vampires loving all the humans and always crying at the slightest provocation. They are becoming a bit too wimpy for me. Marius most often alternated between being sad and being shocked (is that the limit on vampire's emotions?)

What was also very irritating was the mention of other stories (previously untold) that Marius says that happened to him but he is not allowed to talk about them by the author. Instead, Anne Rice rehashes old plots. A bit boring.

Another irritating thing was the fact that after introducing a new and interesting vampire Thor (to whom Marius tells his story) she hardly gives us any insight into him. Not only that, but because we don't know much about Thor, the ending of the book makes no sense whatsoever, since it involves him and his history with his maker, the ancient vampire Maharet.

To sum up, a bit disappointing but okay. I say okay because I'm a big fan of Anne Rice (so I can take a lot of maudlin stuff from her), however, a casual reader would probably be irritated by this book.

Rating:
Summary: A LUSH, RICH & INTOXICATING TAPESTRY
Review: A WORLD AS ENTICING,SENSUAL & SUBLIMELY INTOXICATING AS COULD ONLY COME OUT OF THE MIND OF ANNE RICE. HERE SHE TAKES US BACK TO ANCIENT ROME & THE DARKNESS OF THE DRUID TIMES AS SEEN THROUGH THE EYES OF THE GREATEST VAMPIRE OF ALL...MARIUS. AFTER BEING MADE INTO A BLOOD GOD WHILE STILL IN HIS PRIME MARIUS EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS STILL CLINGS WITH THE LAST VESTIGES OF HIS STRENGH TO THAT PART OF HIS SOUL WHICH IS STILL HUMAN. HOWEVER HE ALSO REALISES THAT IT IS HIS NATURE TO HUNT & KILL...SURVIVE ON BLOOD.BUT AS HE SAYS...ONLY THE BLOOD OF THE EVIL-DOER.
THE MOST INTERESTING PART OF THE BOOK IS THE TIME IN MARIUS' LIFE WHEN HE LIVES IN ROME AMONGST HUMANS OPENING HIS HOME & ALLOWING HIS HEART TO BE HEALED BY THE BEAUTY OF FLORENCE...GIVING HIS LOVE TO THE LOVELY COURTEASAN BIANCA, HIS YOUNG APPRENTICE ARMAND WHOM HE LATER ON BRINGS OVER TO THE DARK SIDE & OF COURSE IMMERSING HIMSELF IN THE WORKS OF BOTTICELLI. THROUGH HIS EYES & MINGD WE WITNESS THE WONDERS OF AN ANCIENT GLORY. WHILE SOME READERS MAY MISS THE NON STOP ACTION OF SOME OF RICE'S OTHER BOOKS LIKE "QUEEN OF THE DAMNED" THE SHEER DESCRIPTIVENESS I FEEL MORE THAN MAKES UP FOR IT. ITS LIKE LOOKING AT A BEAUTIFUL PAINTING...EXCEPT THAT THE AUTHOR HAS USED WORDS INSTEAD OF PAINT. HOWEVER I FOUND THE END OF THE BOOK RATHER ABRUPT.IT WAS ALMOST AS THOUGH RICE GOT TIRED OF IT & DECIDED TO WRAP IT UP. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN NICE IF THERE WAS SOME SORT OF CLOSURE BROUGHT TO THE MARIUS-PANDORA EPIC LOVE STORY. IT SEEMS AS THOUGH EVEN AFTER TWO THOUSAND YRS. THEY CAN'T LIVE WITH EACH OTHER & CAN'T LIVE SANS EACH OTHER AS WELL. ALL SAID & DONE ANNE RICE SCORES AGAIN IN THIS BLOOD DRENCHED,SENSUAL DRAMA THAT MAKES ONE WANT TO SINK ONE'S TEETH INTO THE JUGULAR ALL OVER AGAIN & FEEL THAT WARM,RICH GUSH FLOW INTO YOUR MOUTH...

Rating:
Summary: Marius, the exquisite vampire
Review: I love Rice's books, but this one is for me the best. It was the first one I ever read. (Talk about reading the series backwards!!) I was slightly confused at the beginning but soon I got so sucked in that I couldn't turn the pages fast enough! It's an excellent read, full of incredible images and a wonderfully original story. It also serves a great purpose of tying up the other books together(ie. Lestat, Queen of the Damned, Interview, Pandora, etc.) If you want a book that will take you far away to a fabulous world with superb characters, READ IT!!!!!!!