The Vampire Armand

Rating:
Summary: The last good one for a while.
Review: This book was fantastic! We now know about Armand not by the way Louis, or Lestat thinks of him, but the real story! take my advice, read this then read the whole siries over (skipping Memnoch) and savor becuse after this the books take a sharp decline

Rating:
Summary: Unveiled
Review: First, let me say this novel is great!!! With it Anne Rice filled in all the blanks about what motivates Armand. From his previous appearance in "Interview" we see him as a selfish, lifeless (no pun intended) creature looking too infuse his boring existence with the aid of Louis. In the process he destoys Claudia and in turn extinguishes the one thing he needs and wants from Louis, love. In "Lestat" we see him as an evil frightening creature, not as evil as in Interview, but evil none the less, he is desperate to join up with Lestat and Gabriel. Again, he is searching for acceptance and love. Rice briefly lets us into his past through Lestat's mind reading. We learn bits and pieces about how he was made and by whom. Also we learn that he is really a wounded child. Kidnapped, raped, sold into slavery, and ? saved by Marius. Is he really evil? We are unsure at this point. When he appears in "Queen of the Damned," he a slightlty different character, a little more sure of himself, and learning the ways of the modern world through Daniel. He wants from Daniel the same thing he has always wanted, love. Daniel can't give this to him because Daniel has his own demons to contend with. Also Daniel's main interest in Armand is the possiblity that Armand will give him the dark gift. Which he finally does, and by doing so loses Daniel. I won't mention his role in "Memnoch the Devil," only to say that the "The Vampire Armand" begins where "Memnoch the Devil" left off. Finally, in "The Vampire Armand," we see the charecter as he truly is. He is not an evil creature, but a child who has been abused and misused trying too understand himself. Desperate for love, understanding, and true acceptance. Up untl this point the character had seemed the selfish and cruel one. But, alas he is not, it is everyone else who is cruel. Including Marius, another wonderful character that I hope Rice explores further. Marius, who seemed the "good guy type," had his kind moments with Armand, but he like Armand's kidnappers, Lestat, Louis and Daniel were all looking satisfy their own needs and take advantage of this sad insecure child. Just read between the lines and all becomes clear. I think Armand sums it up best when he tells David Talbot "Everyone would ravage a guilty cunning child!" Again, this novel is effective in filling in the blanks. I loved it, just as I love all the Vampire books by Anne Rice. Historically set in the renaissance, descriptive of the time period's clothing style, decorative furnishings and society norms. If you like vampires, history, art, and a good story that moves you, read this book. You won't be disappointed. On the other hand if you are offended by sexual situations, you probably won't like this novel. But then you are probably not an Anne Rice fan anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Not what I thought at all
Review: From the beginning of the Vampire Chronicles, I've loved the series. Lestat is amazing, and I'm hooked. However, I was very disappointed by this book. Personally, I'm biased. =) Lestat is my favorite, and I guess no other vampires measure up to him. That was my problem with Armand. I put the book down after reading half of it months ago, and I'm having the hardest time going to pick it up again. Being pleasured by little boys completely grossed me out, but I'm not leery to pick up another book if Lestat is the main character. Maybe I'll get into it again, maybe not. I can't wait to pick up Merrick, and I would gladly re-read previous books in the vampire chronicles. Anne Rice has never let me down with descriptions of where the vampires are, she is one of the best authors I have ever read.

Rating:
Summary: Not worth the effort...
Review: Rice crosses the border that separates enduring saga from unnecessary fluff. The prior novels in the Vampire Chronicles featured characters and events which keep you reading. Lestat and the others never stopped entertaining the reader, however much they dwelled upon the details of scenery, clothing and their interactions with the other characters.

That's not the case with this book.

Armand is simply a lesser, unimportant character whose own personal history lends very little to the overall storyline. Armand just isn't very interesting. Where Lestat's stories kept moving, Armand's tale flounders in too many descriptions of his own clothing, his wallowing in self-pity, his lack of real impact on the plotline. About halfway through the book I found myself grumbling about Armand's incessant "weeping" and bemoaning of his past. Where the books featuring Lestat always balanced character, detail and storyline, The Vampire Armand features a primary character who comes across as uninteresting, cowardly and clothing-obsessed. The book simply rides on the coattails of the previous, more interesting novels in the series.

Rice has written far better than this and readers can skip this installment without missing much.

Rating:
Summary: An opportunity wasted
Review: Despite my misgivings after the fourth book in the cronicles I gave in and read this book. Unfortunately I wished that I hadn't or at least that I hadn't hope for more. This book is frankly boring it is over long in it descriptions of places, objects and things and too short excitement. After the wonderful Vampire LeStat this book is a disappointment. It waxes on and on about unimportants things for more pages than are necessary. It misses all the opportunities to become great, skipping over the vampires true nature in exchange for pretty words and descriptions of their surroundings. Vampires are truely soleless beings who are by their nature ruthless, evil and quite sexy. None of the vampires in this tale are any of these things, instead they are just shells not given the opportunity to develop truly vampire natures. Not recommended to LeStat fans.

Rating:
Summary: Anne Rice is a goddess
Review: Anne Rice's sixth installment in the vampire chronicles is a worthy addition. Where as the first one , Interview with a Vampire should never have been written. The indepth look at Armand and the trials and tribulations of his life gives his character more meaning and wants me to re-read things from a different perspective. An excellent book and hopefully she keeps the same trends on her next work.

Rating:
Summary: simply astounding
Review: Anne Rice has always been one of my favourite authors, and although my favourite character has always been Louis (not only because Brad Pitt played him), I found this book to be enthralling. There's no doubt about it, Anne Rice is a genius. She descibes all her characters such that you feel like you know them in side out; the way she depicts modern and new settings is fascinating. She's actually what inspired me to write even though I'm about as good at it as Britney Spears is at singing (conincidentaly if you're a Britney Spears fan I apologize. ) And if Anne Rice ever reads this (which I doubt) then I'd just like to say: thankyou thankyou thankyou! and help! Okay and I know everyone's entitled to their own opinion but if you didn't like the book (which makes you crazy) do you really have to write about how terrible it is and talk about how she can't write anymore? First of all she can write, better than almost everyone else I might add, and second don't critisize people when you can't do better yourself. If you haven't read this book you really should and all the other books in the Vampire Chronicles because to be frank their f**king good :) [e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Don't read this if you are in a Catholic School
Review: Like every Ann Rice novel, it is very compelling and spellbinding. A mastermind of pure invention. I loved every moment and how it ended was great. A book that you cannot put down.

Rating:
Summary: The Vampire Armand
Review: Although I was initially sad to see Anne Rice stray from Lestat as hero of her Vampire Chronicles, and take a new direction with Armand, I was more than satisfied with the outcome. Armand appears as little more than an anti-hero in previous novels, and yet I was horrified to have him killed off in Memnoch, while never having been fully explored as a character. The blurb at the end of Pandora, revealing Armand as the subject of the next 'chronicle' was very enticing. And the book delivers.

Armand the mortal never reaches adulthood before receiving the 'dark gift' as it is described. He is sold into slavery as a youth, placed in a brothel and ravaged, and is bought by the mysterious Marius, who seems to wish him to be more of a 'companion' than servant or lover. Marius keeps the truth of his vampiric existance from Armand for some time, until Armand discovers Marius' secret, and all but begs to be made a vampire, to remain with his 'master' eternally, only to be taken from him by force, and begins to wander the world as one of the undead.

Anne Rice delivers all the wonder and uncertainty of boyhood, even in a world that existed hundreds of years ago, and portrays just the right mixture of indignance and angst with Armand, and he emerges as a sympathetic, angelic, romantic being. He is a seeker of beauty, in art, in music, in people, in life, as much as Lestat is a seeker of salvation and redemption from his bloodlust. While Lestat seems to long for absolution for his soul from the crime of blood-drinking, Armand seems in search of his soul, never having understood it in his mortal youth.

Although it is a far cry from the sense I got of Armand in the preceeding novels, having never fully explored him as a character before, Anne Rice produced another hero whom I hope she revisits in novels to come. This is a book I will read again some day, and look forward to doing so.

Rating:
Summary: Slow Reading
Review: I have tried to read this book 3 times and all three times I have put the book down because of lack of interesting character development. The characters do not catch the attention of the readers as any of her previous books have. The story becomes slow reading quickly and becomes utterly boring 50 pages in. I thought Anne Rice would be able to develop the main characters a lot better but she fails miserably. I have enjoyed every other book she has written and am suprised at her failure to succeed in writing this novel.