The Vampire Chronicles

This page is for all the newbies to haven't read many of the VC or anyone who just wants to know my opinion on the books. This page may contain spoilers, but not big ones--occasionally I let one slip. It's a list of the VC with a short explination, a rating, and some other useful information. Ratings are on a scale from 0-10, 10 being the highest.

|Interview with the Vampire| |The Vampire Lestat| |Queen of the Damned| |Tale of the Body Thief| |Memnoch the Devil| |Pandora| |The Vampire Armand|

Interview with the Vampire
Abrievation: IwtV
Narrator: Louis de Pointe du Lac (hurrah!)
Setting(s): Modern-day San Francisco, New Orleans in the early 19th century, and Paris in the mid-1850s.
Main Characters:
Louis, Lestat, Claudia
Other Characters: Armand, Daniel, Madeline
The Set Up: Daniel, the interviewer who remains unnamed throughout the novel, wants Louis' lifestory. At first he's skeptical as to whether or not Louis' telling the truth, but by the end he's a full-fledged believer. Louis tells his story, starting from the death of his mortal brother in 1791, and ending in the 1920s. He goes through becoming a vampire, Lestat, his obsession with the mortal woman Babette, the child vampire Claudia, and the Theatre des Vampires.
Best Part: Louis! He's captivating and intriguing, and tells his story for all its misery and horror with increditable talent. Future books indicate that he writes all the time.
Worst Part: Is there one? For all Louis' seemingly blunt honesty, he protrays Lestat as more of an asshole than he his, he exagerates things, and according to Lestat, he lies a little. This doesn't really pose a problem until the later books, and even then, not really.
Rating:
15! It's one of my favorite by far, and Louis is one of my favorite characters.

The Vampire Lestat
Abrievation:
TVL
Narrator: Lestat de Lioncourt
Setting(s): France in the 1780s, Modern-day San Francisco, Marius' hideaway, and numerous other locations.
Main Characters: Lestat, Nicki, Armand, Marius, Gabrielle
Other Characters:
Satan's Night Out (the band), Akasha, Enkil, Louis
The Set Up: Lestat wakes up in the 1980s and stumbles upon a copy of IwtV. Naturally, he wants his fame to outweigh Louis'. He goes back in time and tells his story (the one he denied both Claudia and Louis) in an autobiography. He also takes over the band Satan's Night Out and explores the mystery of Those Who Must Be Kept (not in that order). It tells how he became a vampire, the story of the Theatre des Vampires, and his tragic friend Nicki.
Best Part: You get to learn about Lestat from his own words, and get a short history of vampires. Not mention that you find out what the Theatre des Vampires was, and all about Lestat's acting career.
Worst Part: Um...Well, Lestat can ramble on, but hey, he's a great guy and his story is fascinating.
Rating: 9. It's a great book. I fell in love with Nicki, not to mention Lestat himself, but it's not one of the very best, in my opinion.

Queen of the Damned
Abrievation:
QotD
Narrator: Lestat de Lioncourt
Setting(s):
Modern-Day Miami, San Francisco, and various other places of which I cannot name all.
Main Characters: Lestat, Akasha, Maharet, Mekare
*
Other Characters:
Jesse, Daniel, Armand, Louis, David, Enkil, Baby Jenks, Marius, Pandora, Gabrielle, and most other vampires
*
*all of the vampires in the VC make an appearance in this book unless they were created afterward or died before, except for a very small number, who I can't name due to spoilers.
The Set Up: Lestat's music awakens the first and eldest vampire, Akasha, who proceeds to destroy all the younger vampires except the ones Lestat cares about or the ones too old for her to care about or want to deal with. Akasha kidnaps Lestat for her evil plot (which isn't such a bad idea... LMAO, but I won't give it away). All the vampires gather and Maharet, the oldest, tells the story of her and her twin Mekare, and how the first vampires came about. It's a rich history and a great story. Lestat uses 3rd person for other people, but first for himself, of course. Also, it features things like the concert scene, Jesse's discovery that IwtV is a true story, Daniel's name and fate is revealed, and other stuff like that.
Best Part: The gangs of young, teenage "dead people" who carry copies of TVL are pretty ammusing. Also, Jesse's pre-concert scenes where she explores Rue Royal (the house where Claudia, Lestat, and Louis lived) are pretty cool.
Worst Part: One word: DAVID. I don't like that man at all, and this is first appearance. He's not as annoying as he gets, though; he's still old, frail, and mortal.
Rating: 10! This is one of my favorites as well. It's captivating; it hooks your interest and keeps it. It names Daniel Malloy, the interviewer, and creates characters like Jesse, Baby Jenks, and other unforgetable people. Plus is has Louis and Lestat's conversations, and Lestat taking Louis for a flight... It's one of the best chronicles, although most people I talk to either really love it or don't like it. Not many are in the middle. Ironically, it's Anne's least favorite novel and she considers it her worst work.

Tale of the Body Thief
Abrievation:
TotBT
Narrator: Once again, Lestat de Lioncourt
Setting(s): New York, New Orleans, the Gobi Desert, the Queen Anne II, and other locations
Main Characters: Lestat, David, Louis, Ralgan James, Gretchen
Other Characters: Mojo (Lestat's dog), numerous other mortals, Claudia (she's still dead though, hope I didn't get anyone's hopes up).
The Set Up: Lestat's back and it turns out he has a conscience. He's miserable, thinking back on the deaths of Claudia and Nicki, and nostalgic of his mortal wolf-killing theatre days. Ralgan James, the villian of the novel, gives Lestat an offer he can't refuse--the chance to switch bodies and become mortal, just for a little bit. Lestat ends up getting sick. He has lots of fever dreams of Claudia and in his mind, she follows him around throughtout the book, acting as his conscience and a reminder of the past he can't shake. It also includes intriguing scenes with Louis, especially the one where Lestat shows up at his house as a mortal. Lestat also falls in love with the mortal woman Gretchen, who's a nun. And Lestat gets a dog, names it Mojo, and it becomes his companion.
Best Part: Claudia's back! She's dead, but she comes back in his dreams, and that's close... Also, Louis gets a lot of dialouge in this book. Probably the most he gets since IwtV. The scenes where Lestat struggles with common mortal tasks are hilarious, as well.
Worst Part: Daivd! That man is so annoying. But still, this is definately at the top of my list.
Rating: 11! (yes, I realize the scale only goes to 10. But these books are just so good!)

Memnoch the Devil
Abrievation:
MtD
AKA: Memnoch the Paperweight & Earnest Goes to Hell
Narrator: Lestat de Lioncourt for the 4th time
Setting(s): Modern-Day New York, and cities of the Biblical past, not to mention Heaven and Memnoch's School (probably a version of Hell).
Main Charaters:
Lestat, Memnoch, Roger, Dora
Other Characters:
David, Louis, Armand, Maharet
The Set Up:
Lestat kills a man named Roger, who's ghost comes back and talks for 40+ pages about his life. Lestat is stalked by a creature in the form of a man, who later reveals himself to be Memnoch, the Devil. Dora, the scrawny God-squad daughter of Roger, captivates Lestat. Memnoch tells Lestat that he wants his help in service of God, and takes Lestat to Heaven and purgitory, where Lestat's eye is ripped from its socket. He goes back in time to see Jesus Christ and steals Veronica's Veil, which has the imprint of Christ's face upon it. Once he's back in the modern world, he's a disaster, and he gives the veil to Dora, who then shows it the rest of the world as proof of God. Lestat tells his tale to Armand and David. A number of vampires sacrafice themselves as proof of salvation and the fact that God exists ("Take this Sinner to your glory!" and the like). At the end of the novel, in what was supposed to be the final chronicle, Lestat is chained up and near insanity, being kept prisoner for his own safety. His eye is returned, however.
Best Part: It ends. I, personally, didn't like this novel too much. It was intriguing, and had a new take on religion--plus Lestat, the Brat Prince, meets the devil. It had its good points.
Worst Part: It's two men (Roger and Memnoch) babbling for pages and pages, and isn't really in Lestat's perspective. It would have worked better as a seperate novel, without Lestat and the others. Anne says she tried it that way and just didn't work until Lestat came in.
Rating: 6. Just having Lestat in it is an automatic 4, and it did have some good parts. I just can't remember them.

 

Pandora: New Tales of Vampires
But It's Not a VC:
Pandora was supposed to be the start of a new series called "New Tales of Vampires" and wasn't really a Chronicle. The new series would be collections of the lives of vampires told by the vampires themselves and gathered by the ever-irritating David Talbot. Armand was supposed to be part of this series, but it ended up being a sequel to Memnoch. I think the reason Anne did this was that she was sure MtD was the last VC. I think that if it deals with the same characters, fits in chronologically (at least in modern times) with the rest of the books, and mentions what's happening with the others (like her mention of Lestat), then it's part of the same series.
Narrator:
Pandora
Setting(s): Acient Greece, Rome, Egypt, Modern-day New York, other places
Main Characters: Pandora, Marius, Flavius
Other Characters:
David
The Set Up:
David watches Pandora kill--something that really pisses her off. In the end, David, in his annoying little politely rude mannor (something only the Bristish could master), gets Pandora to tell all after he leaves her with notebooks in a Café. She tells the story of growing up, becoming a vampire, and her mortal slave Flavius, who's one of the best new characters in a while.
Best Part:
Flavius! He's quick to comment, witty, intelligent, and he has one leg. He's an all-around great guy.
Worst Part:
Fascinating as she is, the book lags a bit in the middle.
Rating: 8. It's a great book, and if you're fan of the life stories, this one you don't want to miss. (In actuality, you don't want to miss any of them.)

 

The Vampire Armand
Abrievation:
TVA
Narrator: Armand
Setting(s): Rome, Paris, New York
Main Characters:
Armand, Marius, Riccardo, Bianca
Other Characters:
Daivd, Louis, Sybelle, Benji, Gabrielle, Santino, Lestat, Gabrielle, and most of the elders make a cameo too.
The Set Up: Armand is out and about one night, leaving his mortal "children" (Sybelle & Benji) in the capable hands of Marius, when David so rudely approaches him. He, of course, wants Armand's story, and says he'll write the whole thing and Armand will only have to dictate it. (He wrote Memnoch too, after Lestat dictated that to him.) So, Armand agrees. Suddenly, the character who came in as a sinister but feeling being in IwtV, the man who let Claudia die, and the man who Louis left in the end, is ready to tell his own story, the way so many others have (or have had told for them). I was fascinated by the entire book. I didn't like Armand after IwtV, I liked him after QotD, but now I really love him. After he goes into his own history, he tells his side of the IwtV story, and then his side of the end of MtD. Finally, he explains why he tried to sacrafice himself after he saw Veronica's Veil, how he survived, and the end--which I won't spoil--is the best! It also includes a character-by-character desciption of most of the important vampires. It tells you basically what Armand thinks of each them.
The Best Parts:
Louis! He's actually in it more than Lestat, as far as action goes. He says a lot too, which is nice, since I really love that guy. Oh, and Armand himself. It's nice to get a new prespective on things. Armand has his own definate personality, and it's not just an echo of Lestat. It's fresh, and a nice change. But I do miss Lestat.
The Worst Parts: A reference to "the brilliant young actor Leonardo DiCaprio" in a movie that Louis, of all people, is watching. I guess you know Louis' hit rock bottom since he admits liking Leo's movies. Oh, and I don't really understand what it is exactly that Armand loves about Sybelle and Benji so much. I'm glad they all helped each other, but I don't understand the attraction. Also, Daniel's not in it much, which was sort of a let down.
Rating: 11! It's another one of the best VC, in my opinion. If you liked IwtV, and TVL, this is going to rank at the top of your list as well. It's fast-paced, non-stop reading that makes you want to know more. I loved it!

 

That's all the VC for now... When more are written, more will be added, of course. Also, I'll add more to each book description as time progresses.

 

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