Rating: 
Summary: A step up from Memnoch, but....
Review: The Vampire Armand is a huge step up from Memnoch the Devil. However, compared to Anne Rice's other books, TVA is often dull, umimaginative, and unoriginal.
I should say that I'm a *big* Anne Rice fan. When I read Interview with the Vampire, I was amazed that vampire could be potrayed so beautifully. I then read newsgroups, message boards, and created a webpage about Anne Rice's books.
Ever since Memnoch, however, the books have been getting worse and worse. Armand has been one of my favorite characters, but as I read TVA, I found myself thinking "Who cares?"
Of course, TVA has it's good points. I liked reading about Armand's abduction, and his time with Marius. However, Anne Rice filled the book up with pointless characters, meaningless sex (which didn't offend me, but it added nothing to the book), and once again too much religion.
There's only so many times that I can read about the "lovely Sybelle" plunking the Appassionata, or descriptions of Russian religious icons.
So overall, TVA is a decent addition to the Chronicles, but can't even be compared to Anne Rice classics like Interview with the Vampire or The Vampire Lestat.
-Julia
Rating: 
Summary: The good, the bad, and the boring
Review: First off, the bad and the boring - this is mostly just a historical account of Armand, nothing new like we got with Louis and Lestat. It can be overly religious at times, like Memnoch, and some of the descriptions are over the top - Anne does seem to have a thing for velvet and "long clean fingers". But that cant be a complaint. My imagination is so vivid that I dont like other descriptions once I have an image in my mind, so I skim those sections of any author, not just Anne's. For other people, those parts are what they love to read, so good authors need to oblige. But overall, this is an extremely compelling story that pulls you into the lifestyle of 15th century Venice and makes you wish you lived there. Any book that can do that is worthy of at least 3 stars - add to that the creative writing style Anne Rice fans will love, and you have a book that is almost on par with the others in the series. Its a shame that you know the end is approaching the entire time - that Armand will eventually descend into the crypts of Paris - but its a splendid show up until then and Anne makes sure not to spend too much time on the downers. Four stars for this one - the 5th is reserved for the sweeping epics that are her other books in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite so far
Review: This is my favorite of the chronicals so far. It is a lush, detailed, rich decent into the beauty and horror of history and the sensuality and erotica of the living and the dead. Everything is touched upon from religion, the meaning of life the worth of the soul, art, beauty, transendence. I could say more but read the book instead
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: This is one of the chronicles best. I have just started reading this book I am half way thru and i just cant seem to put it down. It is the most interesting book. I finally get to know more about Armand. He has always been the most mysterious one. You hardly ever know anything more than when Lestat or when Louis are with him. The begining chapter captures your attention and then when Armand begins to tell his tale it literally transports your mind and your vision to a poor little Russian boy from Kiev. He is described to have the face of a Boticelli Angel with dark curly,long ,and auburn hair. He has brown eyes. He is unfortunately kidnapped and forced to travel to find his master which eventually becomes his saviour Marius. Marius saves Armand and introduces him into a life of luxury which Armand has never known. He is refined and educated with Marius. This book is excellent and if you are a true Vampire Chronicle fan of Anne Rice I recommend that you read it. It will captivate you!
Rating: 
Summary: Sluggish "Armand" Saved In The End
Review: Having read most of Anne Rice's novel, I was looking forward to this next installment of the Vampire Chronicles. With the author's main vampire, Lestat, left in a coma-like state at then end of the last novel, "Memnoch The Devil," this installment was left to explore the history of Armand. I thought perhaps Rice was shooting for too much symbolism for the first half of "Armand." Not unlike Lestat, I found myself lulling into unconsciousness as we followed Rice's typical path of starting in the present and flashing back to the past for the increasingly familiar story of a creation of a vampire. I was not bothered by Rice's homosexual, and even this go-round pedophilic, overtones (don't we expect Rice to push the limits?), but what was unusual was that for the first real time I was really bored reading a Rice novel (though "Memnoch" had it dull moments). Usually Rice's storytelling is engaging and rich, but this was a meandering mess at times. Fortunately, the story (and pacing) improves once "Amadeo" becomes Armand and the the narrative ditches Armand's creator, Marius. The more modern day tale of Armand keeps the pages turning and ultimately we are given a cliffhanger ending that will have most Chronicles enthusiasts eager to read the next novel. So while any review will hardly discourage Rice fans from reading "Armand" for me it was a mixed bag. It continued the sluggishness of "Memnoch" but redeemed itself at the end. I will definitely be back for the next tale of the Vampire Chronicles.
Rating:
Summary: Purely exquisite work!
Review: I don't know why my friends shot down this book down when I bought it. Luckily I don't listen to other opinions but my own on books, because I found this book, as I've said above, purely exquisite work! This novel was woven out beautifully, starting with the centuries- old vampire Armand being his usual troubled self, wondering even if he should tell his story. But then he finally comes to the conclusion of doing so and tells a story of lands and people that seem like a fairy tale nowadays. Armand takes us to his homeland Russia where he was abducted by enemy troops as a boy to the golden city of Venice where he was shipped to as a nameless slave where the mysterious yet famous Marius from previous novels buys him and takes him to a whole new world of glorious luxury that Armand is not at all used to. He lives in a private, intimate world with his master Marius, whom calls him Amadeo, and Marius teaches him many things a boy learns to become a man back then, such as education and the essence of religion and how life is affected by it. Armand though is tortured while growing though, especially by the man whom he called Master by his mysterious movements and the way Marius treats him special beyond all the other boys he owns. Soon Armand is turned into a vampire by this man as he learns Marius's secret life, and although he expected his life to be simple and comfortable after this, it only ends up getting worse for poor, youthful Armand as Marius is taken from him by a band of vampires who believed Armand's master was sinful by interacting with humans while he was a vampire. Amadeo is taken in by this group and is changed into Armand, a regretless, tortured, and dark figure who ends up going to Paris with a small group of vampires and makes a theater of vampires for entertainment, stationing himself as being one of the most powerful vampires in the world. There are times where it is simply a recant of Lestat and Louis' biography, it is told from Armand's point of view at last. Although there are a few places I think Anne could have toned down the sex scenes, such as when Armand visits the bordellos, it isn't grotesque as a few readers claim. We've all heard worse and we know it, and that's just Anne's way of writing and Chronicle followers know that as well.
Armand has led a long, rich and painful life that he strains to tell. The book is as compelling as Lestat and Louis' bio, and if you are new to the Chronicles, Armand will be glad to fill you in while telling his own personal opinion about the events that happened in the previous novels.
I personally loved this novel. It was one of Anne Rice's best. I recommend vampire book lovers to get this novel at a bookstore near you.
Rating:
Summary: It was a well worth read
Review: Another story in the Vampire Chronicles series, The Vampire Armand tells the story of the memorable and striking figure of Armand. The previous installment in the Vampire Chronicles, David Talbot, philosopher of the undead and vampire himself, persuades Armand to tell his epic story. Armand struggles with whether or not to tell. It spans Armand's early and incomplete childhood memories of Kiev to being kidnapped and sold in Istanbul as a slave to Marius to Venice, Paris, and North America. Marius, himself ancient, educates Armand and his other young slaves in philosophy, law, history, and arranges for their sexual education. Anne Rice writes these scenes well, very descriptive. By this time, Marius and Armand have become more than master and slave or teacher and pupil. Armand is now a vampire; Marius having made him after a powerful sword fight fatally wounds the young redheaded hero. Enter the bad guys, a group of vampires who destroy other vampires for God. They damn Marius and vampires like him that live among mortals and love mortals and pass themselves as mortals. One night they destroy Marius' paintings (he is an artist in Venice), burn him and take Armand prisoner. The irony in Armand's imprisonment comes from the tension of his Russian Orthodox beliefs (he is deeply religious, actually in love with God, and prone to visions). His captors are truly evil, converting him to their beliefs. After much torture and resistance, he finally concedes to their ways and is trained to become one of their leaders. (This is where he entered in Interview With the Vampire, as coven master to the bad vampires who lived in the Theater of the Vampires in Paris.) While this novel is about Armand's struggles to integrate the Orthodox beliefs of his mortal life with his new life as an immortal, the story goes back to review previous narratives of Lestat and Louis. It gives a brief run-down of the whereabouts and doings of the other living vampires, and takes up where things left off in Memnoch the Devil. And as always, Rice's historical descriptions are vivid, enticing, and grab the imagination. I have mixed feelings about this book, as it seems that with this story the Vampire Chronicles have taken a turn toward soap opera. What's next in the Chronicles? I don't know, but I would like to see less melodrama, and I would like to see the next tale written from the perspective of Marius or Gabrielle (Lestat's mother). All in all it is a very well written book and does move evenly with the other stories even though it can be rather over dramatic at times. Shaena H.
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: Boring and I am not that open minded...
Review: Well, I loved Interview with a vampire, vampire Lestat, queen of the damned, the tale of the body thief and Memnoch the Devil. Some reviewers felt that after the tale of the body thief Anne Rice started to lose her touch. I disagree, I believe all those books I mentioned were excellent. However, I couldn't finish the disgusting crap of a book "Vampire Armand". It was soooo boring. I actually enjoyed when Anne Rice would get into her historical lessons in previous books, so its not because this book was over discriptive that I hated it. Where do I start?
Well I was pleasantly suprised that Armand was actually Ukrainian and was stolen into slavery from somewhere around Kiev. (me being born in Ukraine and having one of the character's in great Anne Rice's books was very pleasant, plus this was true historically that kids and women were stolen into slavery from ukraine at some point)
I always kinda closed my eyes and didn't mind to the homosexuality or bisexuality in her previous books. I think I am an opened minded person and I felt that this is a woman writing perhaps thats why she admires a man as a sexual objext to that extent. I still felt that the story and the characters were amazing in her previous material. This book was not only boring (story), but also very gay. As dumb as I may sound saying that:(. It sounded like a gay man's fantasy, although I wouldn't know what a typical gay male feels, so I am sorry if I offend anyone by saying this(I would think though its a pretty bad fantasy for anyone, whether you are gay or not). Perhaps I am being shallow and stereotyping. I just couldn't read about the sexual relationship of a young thin fragile boy and an older man. Besides that I was ok with reading about Lestat's attraction to David in previous books. I thought it was extremely boring and not to mention disgusting at times.
Considering that Armand was one of my favorite characters to begin with, I was looking forward to this book. Unfortunately I couldn't finish it. Getting through the nasty parts would be ok if the story was good. Unfortunately the story was boring and Armand a disapoitment as a character. I do not recommend this book at all. Although it seems that a lot of people liked, so I suggest reading some other reviews. I am giving it 2 stars only because it still resembles Anne Rice and I didn't care about the overuse of the word velvet lol
Rating:
Summary: Hot guy on guy action
Review: Enough hot guy-on-guy action to keep some readers turning the pages with one hand, but really, shouldn't the Vampire Chronicles be a little more than that? Other than that, this book mostly features more mind-numbing descriptions of clothing [I'd wager the word 'velvet' occurs more often in this book than any other ever written] and laughable historical gaffes [chocolate in Europe in 1500] that destroy whatever minute creditabiliy the story manages to accumulate. Armand, by virtue of his love/hate relationship with Lestat and Lewis, had the potential to be one of her most intrigueing characters. This book squanders that potential.
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