Vittorio, the Vampire

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Summary: A Hauntingly Beautiful Story from the Master...
Review: "Vittorito the Vampire" is a beautiful book. Anne Rice proves that she may be the greatest writer in the English language today. Her prose is beautiful and fluid and in this book she stays away from her over-the-top descriptions so many other fans hate (personally I love it...). I loved how this story was made independently of other vampire stories. At first I was skeptical, but Rice proved me wrong. This stroy more than almost any other of ther vampire books gives us a glimpse of how a vampire can love, hate, and wonder. The passages witht he angels are unearthly beautiful and the love between Ursula and Vittorio rivals that of any other romance she's written so far. Read this book and fall in love with the Vampires again.

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Summary: I was surprised with this new route
Review: Anne is trying to break out of the "Lestat and friends" mold I think. This is the story of Vittorio and is initially set in the middle ages. This story is more mystical then many of Anne other books, at least in a very different way. Vittorio can see angels. They are unwilling companions in his quest to free his love from other vampires while still killing the rest of the vampires who are praying on a village. This book has several deep moral subthemes such as what sacrifices must be made for the greater good and choosing the lesser of two evils. Also the idea of powerful, but nearly inept divine agents. The angels were powerful, but hardly flawless.

There is absolutely NO guest appearances from the vampires that we know so well. This story uses the same "setting" as the rest of the vampire novels, but all of the characters are new.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel, but I admit I missed Lestat.

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Summary: Simply majestic
Review: Vittorio is one of the most charming of all Anne Rice's vampires. The irony of the novel is that Vittorio HATES vampires; except for the one called Ursula. Ursula saves Vittorio from being sacrificed at communion and implies that he should be admitted into the Court of the Ruby Grail. Vittorio despises the vampires in the Court because they have slain his family and left him alone. Vittorio tries to get Ursula to confess her sins to God with the guidance of Ramiel, Setheus, and Mastema, the guardian angels. Ursula the seductress, brings Vittorio into a world against his will that he cannon even imagine...

A must read for any Anne Rice fan. Beautifully told through the eyes of a 400 year old vampire.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: Unlike most of Anne Rice's books, this book was very slow. The entire book is about how Vittorio became a vampireand almost nothing of his life as one. It was extremely slow moving and the love story was not believable. I found myself skipping many paragraphs to see if anything interesting was every going to happen. It did, but very occasionally. I would recommend saving your money and just rereading some of her better books!

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Summary: Very disappointing!
Review: This would have made a decent short story, if Rice had pruned it down to the essentials. As a novel, though, it isn't really developed enough to be interesting. Poor compared with some of Rice's earlier works . . . and a waste of money!

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Summary: This book was disapointing!
Review: Vittorio the Vampire read like a well written soap opera. Rice spent so much time describing how he became a Vampire that she forgot to tell us why we should care. The characters were not fully developed and it was hard to care whether they lived or died. The love story between Vittorio and Urcilla is completely unbelievable and fails to inspire.
Overall, this book pales in comparison with her other Vampire and Witches chronicles.

Rating:
Summary: Worth the read.
Review: One could not put this tale on the same level as Ann's previous failure Pandora. The story reviels Vittorio's past ( pre vampire life) with colorfull and briliant imagry. Despite her continuious flare for homosexual tendencys, one will not be let down by this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good book
Review: Vittorio is an interesting read because it is has some dramatic departures from the Anne Rice style of writing while maintaining her characteristic high level of character development and reader's empathy.

Vittorio is not part of the Lestat, Armand, Louis crowd and gets that out of the way immediately. This is a book only about his creation given out almost in answer to a dare - a stark contrast to the overburdened soul confessing to a fatherly figure. Much of the rest of the plot follows the formula lines, really good guy gets converted against his will, etc. But the layout puts that late in the book so it is alright that that is a given. This is almost more of a book of historical fiction than a vampire novel though there are certainly vampires - and angels - in it. In fact, there is something akin to a bibliography in the back for where to get more info on people and places talked about. The time frame covers his life and lifestyle leading up to the time of his making.

I love the angels. It is a ripe field for her although it is not as loosely philosophical as Memnoch, it is thought provoking in a way. It is also refreshing to find a vampire that seems to enjoy being a vampire (in a more outright fashion than the others) and makes no excuses.

One other remarkable change - no skipping pages. Every detail and side rant was not long enough to interfere with the story and enhanced and embellished the way I think that she intended. Maybe a better editor this time round?

Overall, well worth buying and reading.

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Summary: Vittorio, the Vampire...or is it Vittorio, the wannabe?
Review: My very first Anne Rice novel was Interview with the Vampire--quickly followed by the other members of her Vampire Chronicles, my favorite being a tie between Interview and The Vampire Lestat. The moment I saw Vittorio upon the shelves, I rushed to the checkout counter and ran home to begin reading. While it was a wonderfully vivid and imaginative text, especially in its descriptions of Vittorio's guardian angels, I was wholly disappointed. The chronicling of Vittorio's life and ascent into vampirehood was interesting, no doubt, but the sudden ending after Ursula's blood initiation of the young Italian left me wanting more. The detailed relationships and descriptions of nightly occurrences which characterize Rice's Vampire Chronicles are no where to be found within Vittorio's text. While this second installment of the New Tales of the Vampires is a quick, easy read, it in no way challenges the awesome tale that is Interview with the Vampire.

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Summary: Not great, but passes the time
Review: Vittorio isn't terribly original. I found the whole *angel* development sort of trite and contrived... But it did help pass the time when I was stuck in a national airport waiting for my delayed plane, so I guess that's a plus for it.