Pandora

Rating:
Summary: An excellent return to the writing that made us love her.
Review: PANDORA is the best book Anne Rice has written in years. The story of a strong-willed woman in Ancient Rome is as intriquing as anything Anne has ever written, and she has finally returned more to the style of her older works. The book would have been better if Anne had touched a little on what Pandora had been doing in the last fifteen or so hundred years, but at least the part she gave us is definitely worth reading. This book has restored my faith in Anne's ability. Pandora is an excellent character -- the kind of woman that any one of us knows today, creating a great parallel from the ancient Roman civilation and our own. The introduction of Flavius was wonderful, especially now that we can look forward to someday hearing his "vampire tales." Only Anne Rice can write like this. Thank goodness she is doing it again!

Rating:
Summary: Not up to par!!!
Review: Where is the richness of Lestat? Where is the historical tapestry? This is a fairly one-dimensional story about Pandora. Unlike Lestat whom we see through the ages, this story tends to provide detail about the place and not the person. Pandora has been around for 2,000 years - has she nothing else to offer us? Maybe Rice needs to take some time off from the vampire chronicles. Lets recall that it took several years to develop Lestat after Interview.

Rating:
Summary: Same story, different viewpoint, not worth the trouble
Review: The story seemed rushed toward the end, like the moment you realize that a sitcom is going to be a two-parter; there's too much to say and there's not enough time to finish. The book is boring and repetative in parts and not innovative at all. Rice's work is too formulaic now, once you've read acouple, you get the general gist. At least this one wasn't so theological.

Rating:
Summary: Not as strong as I hoped!
Review: OK, when I first heard about the book being published soon I went wild: I simply had to get it and I almost drove my friends crazy with my cries for it! In the end I got hold of it and I must admit I was somewhat disappointed. I am not going to repeat all that was said here before, but I also thought it was more of an over-long short story than a novel and I had the feeling it stopped in the middle. It was really interesting to hear about Pandora's mortal life and I agree that it is what makes the vampire in the end, but why stop there? What happened to her after that? What about Flavius? It did not make too much sense to me that he simply left! Like many of the others I felt left hanging in the air! Anne could have gotten so much more out of the story, I am sure. One other thing I also found disturbing was the way in which Pandora refers to the other books. It does not make sense that she says: In The Vampire Lestat.. and so on. If all the books are supposed to be real, she would refer to the events and not the book. To me it sounded like: "Read those book if you haven't yet"..... please! I really hope Armand will be a real novel.... longer, deeper and more sensual (one more thing that I did not like too much was the cheap sex! sort of!) All in all it was worth while reading even though my review might sound very harsh. It is good, but could have been so much better of only Anne had taken some more time....... why hurry?

Rating:
Summary: Pandora was a beautifully-written, sensual literary delight
Review: This book was enticing and the characterization of Pandora was sensual and three-dimensional. The plotline was intriguing, and the descriptive text was musical. A great Rice novel!

Rating:
Summary: Too much rambling, again. Very slow paced.
Review: This book is mostly about ancient Rome. This book can be summarized in a couple of sentences, the rest is Rome, philoshophy, adjectives, blah, blah, blah. Very, VERY slow paced.

Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: I've read everything Anne Rice has written, under every name, and even though her most recent two (Bones and Violin) were her "weakest", I was and am enthralled by her writing style and never lost interest... Readers like me will fall into Pandora's story and relish every moment of it. Those who are more critical, but enjoyed the earlier Vampire Chronicles, should be pleased with Ms. Rice's return to her "former" style and subject matter.

Rating:
Summary: PANDORA-Another bomb from Anne Rice
Review: Pandora started out good, but the story dragged on a bit. If i wanted to learn about ancient Rome, I'd get a history book out. I wanted to learn about Pandora. Unfortunatly, Anne concentrated more on Rome than the charicter. There wasnt the tapestry, the texture in PANDORA that there was in INTERVIEW or some of her other books. This book was a page-turner, but only in the sense that I kept turning the pages to try and get away from all the babble about Rome. I was truly dissapointed. Anne hasnt had a good book since before MEMNOCH. I hope ARMAND is a lot better.

Rating:
Summary: Welcome Home!!!
Review: It has been awhile, but it looks like Anne has finally found her way back to the style that I fell in love with during my first reading of 'Interview With A Vampire'. I really enjoyed this book and once I picked it up I was unable to put it down again. You fall in love with the characters and become so engrossed in Pandora's story. The historical accuracy of the period was also very evident and enchanting. It was so easy to imagine living in this period, and well I have always wanted to know more about Marius and the other ancient ones. I can't wait for the next installment on Armand. For those of you who were disillusioned by the Mayfair Witches and thirst for more tails similiar to the Vampire Chronicles I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A good come-back but still needs focus
Review: Like many others, I found Anne's last few books to be extremely disappointing, so much so that I didn't even finish reading them. I was very hesitant to buy this book and vowed that if it was another disappointment, I would never buy an Anne Rice book again. I was very happy, therefore, to find that I enjoyed this story. Anne has finally gone back to the dazzling, sensual story-telling that attracted me to her first books - rich descriptions of the book's settings, strong character development, stirring, thrilling interactions between her characters, and of course just the fact that it's about vampires (her books about ghosts, etc. were not nearly as interesting). I must admit, however, that I wish the focus of the story was less on Pandora's mortal life and more on her life as a vampire. It took me quite a while to get into this book and it wasn't until right before Pandora became a vampire that I was really drawn into it. I was unhappy about the ending, because I wanted to hear more about Pandora's vampire life and her relationship with Marius. Although this book did not enthrall me as much as her earlier novels, it's nice to see that there's some of the old Rice magic left.