The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice

Genre: Fiction; Vampires

Sub Genre: Paranormal

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

From Anne Rice’s Webpage: The Vampire Lestat, whom we first met in Interview With the Vampire , has his own story to tell. Anne Rice's second book in The Vampire Chronicles follows Lestat through the ages as he conducts his own search for his origins and to find meaning in what has happened to him. Unlike the cruel and dark Lestat we saw in Interview, this book reveals a sympathetic figure with his own blend of morality, romanticism, and bravery. Lestat has been asleep for fifty-five years and awakes entranced with the modern world. He becomes a superstar rock musician and millions of fans fall under his spell. Breaking the vampire code of silence, Lestat reveals himself to the world in the hopes that the world's immortals will rise and join together to solve the mystery of their, and his, existence. The novel moves effortlessly back in time to eighteenth century France, the world of Lestat's chilhood artistocracy, as he tells his story. From his childhood struggles against his father through free and easy eighteenth century Paris as an actor, and his making into a vampire. We travel with Lestat as he searches for other vampires, sometimes alone, sometimes with the haunting Gabrielle, sometimes with the devastating Nicolas. Lestat circles Europe searching for his origins, and for clues to the birth of the vampire, but he finds that the seminal answers elude him. Through his travels and searches, Lestat also makes enemies of vampires who are terrified that his wanderings and searchings will disrupt their coexistence with mortals, or that he will attempt to rule them all. And when Lestat finds the very first vampires, he finds his seminal truths, but also unleashes ancient forces and the wrath of his enemies. Lestat, hunter, has become the hunted.

This is the second book in the in the Vampire Chronicles. This goes into where Lestat came from. There is so much that is going on as you start all the way back in Lestat’s past and though his time with Claudia and Louis and on. The book is so well written and will keep you on your toes. When I started reading I couldn’t put it down. This is my favorite book in the vampire chronicles series. I can’t wait to read the next one in the series, Queen of the Damned.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 0345419642

Pages: 496

Series: Vampire Chronicles

Volume: 2

The Mummy by Anne Rice

Genre: Fiction

Sub Genre: Horror; Mummy, Eternal Life, Ramses II, Egypt

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: An archaeologist has just unearthed the find of his career, the tomb of Ramses II. The door to the tomb is lettered with a curse, the mummy of the king who claimed to be immortal lies shriveled inside. The archaeologist dies and the treasures are shipped to his daughter Julie in England, who finds that the mummy comes to life as a perfect man. Julie grows to love him and introduces him to modern life, including the museums that purport to reconstruct his time. He becomes disturbed and disgusted with the modern portrayal of his beloved Cleopatra. Ramses and Julie, her ex-fiance and his father Elliott in tow, travel to Egypt. There, Ramses is further upset by the tourist flavor given to his ancient civilization. In one of the museums, he recognizes an "unknown" mummified woman as his beloved Cleopatra. One night, he returns with the immortality elixir and raises her from the dead. But Cleopatra is not restored to her beautiful body or mind. She is a horrid monster, a walking corpse of rotting flesh and a disoriented mind that kills without mercy. Ramses abandons her, leaving her to Elliott, not realizing that he too is in peril. All in the party partake of the elixir, with Cleopatra and Ramses in the shadows.

                                    

Now I know that when you see Anne Rice you mainly thing of Vampires. But this is not one of those books. This book doesn’t have any of her vampire characters in it. The Mummy is about Julie who meets Ramses. Ramses has been sheltered from the world for hundreds of years. When Julie finds him she reintroduces him to the world. But the more he learns he becomes upset with how history is portraying his people and those he loves. The story is one that flows well into each scene.  You feel for Ramses as he struggles with the world as well as his own demons. Julie helps him as best she can. She is also in awe of him and the history that he has lived through.  This is actually one of my favorite books by Anne Rice. I felt that she took this story to a whole different level. You will love this story and put it on your reading list if you haven’t already read it.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 0345369947

Pages: 416

Series:

Volume: 

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice

Genre: Fiction; Vampires

Sub Genre: Paranormal

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars

Back Cover: The story is ostensibly a simple one: having suffered a tremendous personal loss, an 18th-century Louisiana plantation owner named Louis Pointe du Lac descends into an alcoholic stupor. At his emotional nadir, he is confronted by Lestat, a charismatic and powerful vampire who chooses Louis to be his fledgling. The two prey on innocents, give their "dark gift" to a young girl, and seek out others of their kind (notably the ancient vampire Armand) in Paris. But a summary of this story bypasses the central attractions of the novel. First and foremost, the method Rice chose to tell her tale--with Louis' first-person confession to a skeptical boy--transformed the vampire from a hideous predator into a highly sympathetic, seductive, and all-too-human figure. Second, by entering the experience of an immortal character, one raised with a deep Catholic faith, Rice was able to explore profound philosophical concerns--the nature of evil, the reality of death, and the limits of human perception--in ways not possible from the perspective of a more finite narrator.

This is the first of Anne Rice’s Vampire books. Louis is a vampire that other vampires consider to human. He has lived for 200 years and is going to tell his tale. It is a great book to show the human condition. Yes it’s about vampires but it shows all the emotions that we as humans have to deal with. The travels that he and his various companions go on in search of others is so well written you feel as though you are right there with the characters. I really love this story it is a great beginning to a brilliantly written saga. This was also made into a movie back in 1994. Great cast of Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, and Kristen Dunst. It was well done but I still like the book better.

Publisher: Ballantine Books

ISBN: 0345409647

Pages: 352

Series: Vampire Chronicles

Volume: 1