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Summary: I loved it!!
Review: I have had "Pandora" sitting on my shelf for more than 6 months and I just picked it up to read the other day. I wish I had done it sooner. It was great to read about a new character that wasn't so tied into The Vampire Chronicles. I love the history in the book and once again I felt like I was right there watching everything happen. I can't quite put my finger on it but for me this book was the quickest read of any of her other books I've read. Some people were disapointed... I thought the change of pace was refreshing.
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Summary: Very well written, but lacked suspense and action
Review: This book was written very well, but lacked the suspense and action of some of the past Vampire books (The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned). The way she ended this tale could definitely lead into another one centralized on Marius, David and as she calls him the "Brat prince Lestat". I would really like to see how Pandora's and Lestat's personalities mesh. This is of course assuming that Lestat becomes his old arrogant self. I think it would nice to have some sort of conflict between the cast of characters.
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Summary: Rice's most satisfying novel since "Tale of the Body Thief."
Review: Even as a devoted reader of Anne Rice, I have to say that I've found some of her recent books rather hard to get into. With "Pandora," however Rice returns to the kind of lucid, character-driven, writing that has made her best work so rewarding. Here, in the first of the "New Tales of the Vampires," Rice triumphs in a winning, intimate, first-person voice; Pandora, a vampire born in the Golden Age of Rome. Interestingly, Pandora is probably Rice's most nuanced and successful female character yet of some twenty novels. She is wholly warm, and likable, in the same way that made Rice's Lestat such a winning narrator for most of the Vampire Chronicles. But Pandora is also quirky and even funny, infact the novel is infused with a very warm sense of humor through-out. "Pandora" is not as densely plotted of as ambitous as some of her other books yet its not as elusive and metaphysical as her more recent books. of her books, it is closely tied with '"The Vampire Lestat" in that, while it is somewhat loosely formed in terms of plot, it is tightly held together in theme and character. It is the chronicle of Pandora's life both natural and supernatural. "Pandora' is Rice's most satisfying novel since 1992's "Tale of the Body Thief." For many it will be a book to be treasured, to be read over and over again. I recomend it fully. For Rice neophytes, I would suggest to read the Vampire Chronicles first, if only to apreciate the very organic way Rice's novels all fit together. Also events from the previous novels are alluded to and openly commented on this would drive me crazy but "Pandora" is more-or-less self-contained.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as Rice's other books.
Review: This book was rather boring. I've read Rice's Vampire Cronicles books, and I loved those. I just didn't think this book was as good as it could be.
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Summary: Oh well, it's Rice, but...
Review: I wasn't that happy to know that she made a whole book about Pandora, who I though to be a very boring person, but I had to admit, that she always changes my mind. It is not as good as the other books, because it really does have too much history in it. I like reading historic novels sometimes, but much is too much. I liked the book, but I'm still wating for the book that takes my breath away, like B.T
Rating: 
Summary: Sadly disappointing.
Review: Has the Queen of the Damned lost her edge? Anne Rice disappoints as only a writer of great works can. Her earlier vampire novels were stories that magically unfolded before the reader, always promising to reveal another layer of a great mystery. Pandora, sadly, fails to live up to the legacy of the original Vampire Chronicles. Not only are there no mysteries to reveal, but it lacks the sado-masochistic eroticism that make the vampires so tantalizing (I've never read any scene more erotic than Lestat's "rape" of David Talbot in The Tale of the Body Thief, when he turns David into a vampire against his will). It is the love/hate relationships the vampires have with each other, their victims and with themselves that make them compelling characters. I found this element completely lacking in Pandora. The literary device of vampires writing their autobiographies is starting to get pretty old. And, although I found myself swept up in the excitement of the climactic scene, I felt manipulated by a formulaic plot rather than willingly led by the master of horror fiction Anne Rice is. Please, Anne. Your devoted fans deserve better.
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Summary: Please stop me before I read another book by Ann Rice!
Review: I keep buying and reading Ann Rice's latest efforts hoping they will be as good as her earlier works, but to no avail. Wading through this murky mess has, hopefully, cured me from wishing to read anything else written by her again. This book was so boring that it was difficult to keep focused from one page to the next. Pandora should have had a stake driven through her heart before the third chapter. Having read almost all of Ms. Rice's earlier works, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I desperately wanted to take pleasure in reading this book. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The idea of the main character surviving from anicent Rome to modern times is such a fascinating concept that should have held the reader's interest from the beginning to the end of the book. However, much more was promised than was delivered.
Rating: 
Summary: Impressed with Rice's overall skill and character
Review: Anne Rice the great author of The Vampire Chronicles has created a new masterpiece, Pandora. Pandora is the first in a proposed series of novels linked together by the fledgling vampire David Talbot. Talbot has decided to become the chronicler of his fellow undead. Our heroine, Pandora, meets Talbot in a present day Paris cafe. Talbot eventually persuades the two thousand year old Pandora to record her biography in a leather notebook. Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to record her mesmerizing tale of the last two millenniums. Pandora, in her mortal years, was a senator's daughter in Caesar Augustus's day. Pandora was in love with a young man named Marius and nieve of the world. She believed the world to be as Ovid and Petronius described. She was forced to flee to Antioch for her life, leaving her murdered family behind. In Antioch, the herione meets her old friend Marius. Marius was now a vampire. Marius gives Pandora the dark gift and together they guard the tomb of Akasha, Queen of the undead. Pandora writes her biography from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. Anne Rice continually makes her vampires sexy, seductive, and debonair. It is Rice's imagery and artful descriptions that allows her to transplant the reader to another time and place. The excess of historical information in this novel shows the reader the day to day life of the times of the centuries. Many critics have commented that Rice has various slip-ups in her writing. I believe that these are strategicly placed to show the changing times. The backround information given in this novel is a great basis for the story. Many readers will expect a novel like The Vampire Lestat or other past Rice hits, but this is very different. Rice usually makes it a point to describe the vampire in her characters, but this novel shows the human in the vampire. Rice's ability to write lavish descriptions and delve into the heart of the unknown and mysterious makes almost every novel a morbid favorite of mine.
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Summary: The old Anne Rice is back!
Review: For those people who have read many of Anne Rice's vampire novels, it may seem that the last few have been a bit dreary. What good is a vampire story when the vampires are constantly being killed? No, human beings wish to read about the things they wish to do. In their own way, humans envy the vampires Anne Rice writes about. To have the ability to fly, to live in the darkness and embrace it as an old friend, to live in eternal bliss and ecstasy, these are the things which humans crave. These are the things which the vampires possess. In the past few novels, however, most of the vampires' lives were cut remarkably short in terms of a vampire. Their immortality and their enjoyment of life crashed down, and readers became aware that a vampire might not be such a wonderful romodel. In Pandora, though, the invincible, wonderful, well-versed vampires have returned. These are the characters who beckon each mortal reader to join them in their eternal blood bath. The story begins rather confusingly, with the reader unaware of who is telling the story, what the story is, and why it is being told. Soon, though, the reader is made aware that the main character, Pandora, a female vampire, is telling the story of her life. She is reluctant to do this, for it has been a long time since she has dared to look back down the road of her life...and her death. Her entire life story is centered around her ex-over, Marius. He is the one that made her a vampire, he was her first love and her last. He has earned a very special place within her heart. Of course, the story doesn't start out with Marius, for she didn't meet him until she was older. No, she started at the beginning, when she was but a child. She was the daughter of a rich Senator, a very important man in ancient Greece. She was therefore blessed with a wonderful education, something not so popular back then. Pandora learned quickly all about politics and soon understood them as well as her father. What she didn't know was that there were many people who hated her father. Her father and brothers were murdered by these people, and she was sent away, to save her from death. She flees to Antioch where she again met the man from her childhood, Marius. She moves in with him, and he has two statues that she thinks are Isis and Osiris, the Egyptian gods. Not understanding what she's getting herself into, she helps Marius take care of the evil gods. They take care of the statues for two centuries, and in those centuries, they fall in love, and Marius turns Pandora into a vampire. They do this by exchanging blood. To refrain from giving away the ending, this statement will have to suffice: There will be a sequel.
Rating:
Summary: Pandora
Review: I thought Pandora was very well written. Though it may not be as long as most loyal Rice readers are use to it is still worthy to be a part of The Vampire Chronicles. The history that was included in the story, was to give you a better feel of the day to day life of the times; or at least that is what I feel. I would suggest that all Rice fans make sure to read this book.
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