Vampire Lestat

Rating:
Summary: A classic work
Review: This is one of my favorite books of the series. Lestat embraces immortality and the night with the abbandon that we all wish. he has the courage to live the life of our dreams! No one will read this and not dream of becoming one of the night dwellers. Lestat makes it all look fun and like the adventure of a lifetime!

Rating:
Summary: Anne Rice keeps getting better
Review: I loved this book A LOT. Lestat is the ultimate vampire!

I'd just like to point out to people who feel that Lestat has changed.. Interview with the Vampire was written by Louis who misjudges Lestat's character and his actions. After reading the Vampire Lestat, you begin to see where Louis made his misjudgments. I won't tell what happened in case I spoil it for any potential readers... but READ IT.

Love you Lestat!

Rating:
Summary: Lestat?
Review: Let me just say that I have only completed half of the book so far. Though I am enjoying the book I must admit that I still prefer Interview With the Vampire much more. For one thing, I cannot shake the feeling that Anne Rice has transformed Lestat's character in an attempt to make him seem less cruel than he was first portrayed by Louis. Yes, according to Lestat Louis exaggerated and lied.. But I find that questionable. How could he have exaggerated to such a great extent?? I just don't like this new Lestat as much as I did the one Louis described. And I can't stand his mother. I am offended by the way both she and her son slay their victims. They both seem a bit callous though Lestat for the most part tries to target criminals only.. Another thing that bothered me was Lestat's creation. It seemed as if that whole scene Rice described with Magnus went by extremely fast. I just could not conceive the whole thing.. Nor could I believe Lestat's new found love for his creator. Even after Magnus abandons Lestat, who he has made his heir, Lestat has no trouble managing his powers nor has any qualms about killing.. This was so much unlike Louis whose first moments/kill as a vampire I found more realistic. It all seemed too easy for Lestat.. I think I loved Louis because of the lingering love he showed for his mortal victims.. And the fact that even as a vampire he still meditated on his relationship with God. Louis never went out of his exhibit his power as a vampire either. Meanwhile Lestat and his mother are climbing towers and traveling on rooftops.. In IWTV, Louis does not attempt to do such a thing until Armond urges to. Besides this, I am having a hard time reading this novel because I find some scenes to a tad bit boring and drawn out. This book progresses very slowly and I find reading it to an almost arduous task.

Rating:
Summary: Did Miss Rice really change her mind?
Review: Most people say that Anne Rice completely changed her point of view when she wrote _The Vampire Lestat_ (1986).
I read the whole _Vampire Chronicles_ and am not pretty sure about this judgement. All those who read _Interview with the Vampire_ may have been shocked and amazed by Lestat's cruelty. But this doesn't mean that the protagonist of _Vampire Lestat_ is a substantially different character.
In _Interview_ we see a very strong comparison between Louis, a rich young man with some psychological problems, and Lestat, a strange, mysterious creature with a _lot_ of problems, both practical and affective (for example his old father). Louis supposes that Lestat is only an exploiter, but, as the story goes on, he must acknowledge that his perfidious companion is very useful, especially in the most critical situations.
Unfortunately, there are only misunderstandings between the two characters, especially because of Louis' moralistic and inflexible position.
So, when in the second book Lestat speaks about himself and his life, we get the impression that he is completely different from the former Lestat. As a matter of fact, only the point of view is different. All the positive aspects of Lestat's personality can be also identified in _Interview_, if the reading is deep and careful: he is generous, he cares for Louis and Claudia, he would do anything to conquer Louis' affection. And -most important of all- he forgives Louis and, in the final reel, even Claudia.
This is the same Lestat who loves his mother and cares for his friend Nicholas. The same who travels all around the world until he becomes so famous that Louis, finally, can find him and fall into his arms.

Rating:
Summary: Wolf Killer Take Me!
Review: From start to finish I was amazed with Lastat. I must confess I saw the movie before I read this book. I think that is what made me love it even more! This book is an instant classic. I won't go into details you MUST read this one yourself.

Rating:
Summary: The Mother of All Vampire Books
Review: Next to "Queen of the Damned", "The Vampire Lestat" is my other all-time favorite book in the vampire chronicles. In the first book "Interview with the Vampire" Louis tells his side of the story which was his life with Lestat and Claudia. In "The Vampire Lestat" the ultimate and the most consumate vampire in the vampire chronicles tells his story.

What I really enjoy about the Anne Rice's vampire chronicles is that the vampires aren't cartoonish caricatures like Dracula or Nosferatu. Anne delves deep into her characters' souls and brings out both the best and the worst in them and makes them come to life. What really draws me to "The Vampire Lestat" is that Anne really goes into details about Lestat and describes him not as the demon that Louis portrayed him as in the first book. I also enjoyed the underlining homosexuality subtext in Louis and Lestat's relationship. She doesn't come right out and say that her characters are gay or not, she makes the reader read between the lines.

The work that Anne puts into her books really shows. Obviously she puts in a lot of research for her books. How else could she know about the legends of Osiris and Isis in "Queen of the Damned" and the religious theme of "Memnoch the Devil"? In "The Vampire Lestat" I believe she had to research to understand the time periods of when Lestat, Louis and Claudia existed as a coven as well as give Marius a thorough past. "The Vampire Lestat" is definitely one of Anne Rice's finest literary works.

Rating:
Summary: The vampire as existential antihero
Review: I read this novel after re-reading Interview with the Vampire as part of a campaign to get into the right frame of mind for my first trip to New Orleans (along with novels such as The Moviegoer and A Confederacy of Dunces). I felt that the first novel was a very compelling depiction of the existential dilemmas faced by a vampire based on the assumption that a vampire really could exist in our world. It treated philosophical themes of alienation and isolation in a similar way to Mary Shelley's Frankenstein.

The Vampire Lestat deals with many of the same issues from a distinctly different sensibility. Lestat is by no means the same kind of personality as Louis from the first novel. The impression he creates of himself in this first person narrative is also quite different from the way he was portrayed in the first novel. This novel is a very compelling account of how he became a vampire and his search for his ancestors and an explanation of who he really is as a vampire and how he can co-exist with his own kind and even with those who are no longer his kind.

This novel deals with homosexuality (as in Lestat's infatuation with vampires Louis, Armand, Marius) and incest (Lestat's relationship with his mother in her vampiric state) in oblique ways because vampires do not engage in sexual activity. Satisfying their blood thirst is the equivalent for them of sexual pleasure.

In the midst of Lestat's personal history we encounter other vampires (Armand, Magnus, Marius) and are immersed in their personal history which, for Marius, extends back to pre-Christian Celtic paganism and Egyptian mythology. I began to lose my place within all these background accounts within background accounts and, at times, it was difficult for me to really visualize or grasp conceptually what had happened to bring vampires into existence. Much of this difficulty is probably a weakness on my part rather than of Rice as a writer. I was impressed with the detail of the mythology that she creates, adding textures to a vast, complex tapestry. This kind of inventiveness extends far beyond anything Bram Stoker ever imagined.

Despite the fact that I found passages in the novel to be very turgid to wade through I acknowledge that Rice is a very talented writer, both within and beyond her genre. It may be awhile before I resume her vampire series or read anything else that she's written because I have had my fill of vampiric lore for the time being but I do highly recommend the two vampire novels that I have read so far.

Rating:
Summary: Very enlightening
Review: After reading "Interview With the Vampire", I knew I had to read "The Vampire Lestat". It was a pleasure to read, and I could hardly put it down, as cliché as that may sound.

"The Vampire Lestat" is basically the "autobiography" of Lestat. At the first of part of the book, he tells about his new career as a rock star, and his craving for fame and adventure. Next, he tells the story of his life: some events in his mortal life, how he became a vampire, etc. Then the book ends with a cliffhanger set in the present (I can't tell you what it is though : p).

It was enlightening because having read "Interview With the Vampire", I still thought of Lestat as a greedy, nasty vampire; this book told me his side of things, and showed me that he really wasn't as bad as Louis portrayed him to be.

This book, along with "Interview", is one of my favorite of the Chronicles. It was so well-written that it felt like the author was Lestat de Lioncourt instead of Anne Rice.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best literary sequels of all time
Review: Published 9 years after "Interview with the Vampire", this sequel tells us the story of Lestat, the villain of the first book. Opening in 1985, we read that Lestat is now a "rock and roll" star. (Note to Anne Rice: people have not said "rock and roll" for quite some time...) This seems a strange change for the brooding vampire of the first book, and it's not entirely successful to me as a reader. It may have worked better in 1985, but by now, it seems a bit unnecessary and kind of silly. Thankfully, this plot is only a framing device for the life story of Lestat de Lioncourt (and that's why I insist on giving this book 5 stars.) "Lestat" is quite a different novel from the first in the series, but we are dealing with an entirely different vampire here than the depressed and vulnerable Louis (who remains my favorite vampire). Lestat's story goes throughout the centuries, and he meets other vampire's who tell their tales. This book is a fantastic pageant that goes back to Ancient Egyptian times, to classical Rome, to pagan Europe, to the times of the French Revolution, to an old, decaying Parisian cemetery and even up to the present time. "The Vampire Lestat" is a much denser novel than the first (which has now become a sort of prelude or teaser to the entire Vampire Chronicles) but it's just as enjoyable. This book seems to be the hands down favorite of most readers of the Vampire Chronicles, but this is not an incentive to read these books out of order. "Interview with the Vampire" contains some very important passages and character development that are important to your understand of the second (especially in one of the final sections of "Lestat"). Amazingly, Rice maintains the continuity between the two novels, and doesn't make any of the "revisionist history" in the second seem false or forced. (Of note is the explanation as to why Lestat's father but not mother was in the first book... that revelation is a shocking one.) Another fun aspect is Lestat's reaction to reading Stoker's "Dracula". And fear not, some of our favorite characters from the first book do appear again... in unexpected ways. One of my favorite characters to be introduced into this book was Akasha, who is the Queen of the Damned of the third novel.

With The Vampire Lestat, Rice again does a wonderful job with her prose; it's a beautifully written, exciting and captivating book. I had no idea where the book was going from one moment to the next, and it never disappointed. Rice even successfully depicts twentieth century America as a fascinating place to be. I never thought a drugstore would seem so interesting. Read this book, but don't read it too fast... savor it, it's worth the time.

Rating:
Summary: UNUSUAL..... UNIQUE.... THOUGHT-PROVOKING
Review: I've read most of the reviews on this book, and I just have to say that if you don't understand the change in Lestat's "persona" from Interview to Lestat, then you don't get it. Besides, don't we always see ourselves differently than others see us anyway? Duh. Would you expect anyone else to write the same biography of you as you'd write in your own autobiography? Long live Anne Rice, and may people be thrilled and captivated by the experience of reading The Vampire Lestat FOREVER.