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.