New Books!

[Zee.]

So i'm done with my exams and i'm free as a bumble bee so tomorrow i'm going out tomorrow and going on a book binge. I'm going to buy eight. But I need a bit of help choosing what kinds. I read absolutely everything, recently read/and re read, The Collector, In Cold Blood and some Haruki Murakami...

I'm in the mood for some fantasy I think, and maybe some crime/thrillers.
I' really enjoyed Anne Rice's 'Interview with the Vampire' and would like to check out some more of her books, or authors of a similar nature.

Any recommendations?

[Dark Muse]

If you enjoyed Interview with a Vampire, then you need to read The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the Body Thief, Memnoch the Devil, and The Vampire Armand. Though I read the entire Vampire Chronicles, those are the best of them, the more recent ones were not as good.

Also by her non-vampire related, The Feast of All Saints, The Servant of the Bones, and Cry to Heaven are excellent.

In addition her sister Alice Borchardt writes about werewolves. I read the first book The Silver Wolf and it was quite good.

In a similar vein as Anne Rice, and a sort of dark fantasy, The Book of Shadows by James Reese. I thought it was a fantastic book.

[billl]

I agree with Dark Muse. If you enjoyed Interview there is no risk at all in getting the next 3 in the series (I didn't try out Memnoch, I imagine it is great too).

[Zee.]

Thank you :)

The Anne Rice ones you listed, Muse, what order do i need to read them in, if at all?

I'm quite interested in The Silver Wolf

[Dark Muse]

From The Vampire Chronicles here is the order:

The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Tale of the Body Thief
Memnoch the Devil
The Vampire Armand

The other novels by her that I mentioned The Feast of All Saints, The Servant of the Bones, and Cry to Heaven, are stand alone so it does not matter the order.

[Leannain]

From The Vampire Chronicles here is the order:

The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Tale of the Body Thief
Memnoch the Devil
The Vampire Armand

The other novels by her that I mentioned The Feast of All Saints, The Servant of the Bones, and Cry to Heaven, are stand alone so it does not matter the order.



You're missing some books:


The Vampire Chronicles

* Interview with the Vampire (1976)
* The Vampire Lestat (1985)
* The Queen of the Damned (1988)
* The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
* Memnoch the Devil (1995)
* The Vampire Armand (1998)
* Merrick (2000)
* Blood and Gold (2001)
* Blackwood Farm (2002)
* Blood Canticle (2003)

The new Tales of the Vampires

* Pandora (1998)
* Vittorio the Vampire (1999)



I've read most of them.

Pandora and the Vittorio the Vampire volumes are auto-biographies. From Pandora, you get the point of view of a woman growing up in Ancient Rome.

Vittorio, talks to you about the wonders of the Renaissance; and it's mystical dangers. Both characters(Pandora and Vittorio) are from wealthy, powerful families. Pandora is the child of a Senator while Vittorio belongs to a Noble family.

Tragedy happens to both families.


The Queen Of The Damned contains the revival(comes out of Hibernation) of the Queen of the blood drinkers, the ensuing slaughter of the immortal species by their eternal Mother("Those - Who - Must- be - Kept) and the union of the last of the vampires on a bid to stop this ancient maelstrom of power.

The Vampire Lestat is just the same of the Vittorio and Pandora book(s). It's my personal favorite. Full of symbolism, allegories, life and death philosophy, the loss of his love and the embellishment of his hope.

The Tale of the Body Thief is a rebellion by the Brat Prince - lestat. He's offered the change to swap bodies with a mortal man. The body of the young mortal man will serve as the physical carcass(body he uses to live on this plane) of the fictional biographer that pens down the "Vampire Armand" book.

Memnoch the Devil. Now there's a religious book. Memnoch is Lucifer, The Fallen One. He tries to get Lestat to join his army - become his Captain.

Much of that book is dedicated to the creation of the Universe, the birth of the Vampire species(partially) and the choices one has to make: No one is neutral.

The Vampire Armand - tells the story of the most beautiful and youngest of all Vampires. He was turned by the love - of - her life(pandora), Marius, one of the most powerful vampires of all ages, mentor of Lestat, care taker of the "Those - Who - Must - be - kept" for almost 2 thousand years.

Merrick - we see Louis(one of Lestat's most dearest lovers)giving birth to his 2 centuries old depression over the death of the only being he really loved: Claudia.

A vampire, bitten by Louis but turned by Lestat - to keep Louis with him.

Louis is the most humane of all Vampires, in fact, he's basically a Human being with an Immortal Body.(he's the main character of the "interview with the Vampire."

I haven't read the other volumes of the Chronicles.

The Vampire Chronicles are really cheap and much, much better than most vampire literature out there - without accounting "Dracula ".

[mal4mac]

What do you mean by "of a similar nature"? I look at vampires as a (often clunky) metaphor for outsiders oppressed by the mainstream. It that's the kind of theme you're looking for then why not:

Hamlet
Portrait of the Artist - Joyce
Short stories (including Metamorphosis)- Kafka
"Youth" by Coetzee

[Dark Muse]

You're missing some books:

In my first post I stated that the ones I listed I thought were the best, and that the more recent ones I did not think were as good so I did not include them.

[Dark Muse]

What do you mean by "of a similar nature"? I look at vampires as a (often clunky) metaphor for outsiders oppressed by the mainstream. It that's the kind of theme you're looking for then why not:

Hamlet
Portrait of the Artist - Joyce
Short stories (including Metamorphosis)- Kafka
"Youth" by Coetzee

If you are interesting in the oppressed outsider, I have a preference of Frankenstein by Marry Shelly over the above mentioned. And if you like Anne Rice, Frankenstein fits into the Gothic genre. Quite an interesting and engaging story.

[Leannain]

In my first post I stated that the ones I listed I thought were the best, and that the more recent ones I did not think were as good so I did not include them.


And I was letting the OP know of the existence of those volumes :).

[Zee.]

Okay so I got..



The New York Trilogy
And the *** saw an Angel
The Virgin of the Seven Daggers



anyone read? thoughts?

hahaha it censored it