Pandora

I wasn't really all that familiar with Anne Rice except through the Mayfair series (Blood Canticle, for me, was part 4 of the Mayfair Witch series, though I knew of Lestat from the movies). This was given to me as a gift when it first came out. I liked it. That whole Taltos thing was a bit Lovecraftian in the way Anne told this. A big Rice fan liked my novel, "Other Nations", and said that if Anne had written my novel, it would have been 6 books and not 6 chapters :) Ok. Now that I've read more Anne, maybe my novel would have been 10 books in her hands :) At least I can see what this fan meant. I didn't quite see that when I only read the Mayfair/Taltos stories. I see it with the Vampire stuff, definitely. Anne is also telling it from the other side, not the human side. I did the same in my novel - from the non-human side, not the same old "good versus evil" stuff.I like sci fi, and TV shows about Vampires are, for me, sci fi of a sort. Very recently, another Rice fan said "read Blood and Gold" and so, I tried it and LOVED LOVED LOVED it. After I read it, I checked the reviews. Negative reviews said that B and G was like rereading the first 3 books of the vampire series. Well, that was good for me. I didn't read the first 3 books! (heh, not YET...)Next, I tried the Vampire Armand - and well, I thought it sucked - no other way to put it. Starts out with pages upon pages of gay light-porn and then hops skips jumps into something a bit more interesting, but not very well told by Armand. Perhaps that's because Armand is quite frankly nuts. And no, it's not that I didn't know what was going on - Armand is nuts; he is a bundle of mixed up confusion with all that ugliness in his childhood, "fool for God," monkish lunacy. It's very easy for me to pick up what's going on, even reading these books out of order. Glad I didn't read Armand first. SO glad I did not read that one first. And oh, phphph the Appassionata. The Pathetique is much nicer a piece! (Beethoven).Pandora is the book I just finished. LOVED it, absolutely LOVED it, LOVED the whole detailed story about her life as a Roman girl - ALL of it. And the same sense of absolute tragedy, grief, hit me about the lost letter, the letter Marius only found hundreds of years later. Oh GOD that was so so sad, two times around, just as sad.I gave this a 4 for one reason. It's WAY too short. WHAT HAPPENS after Pandora realizes Marius is gone? I know about Dresden because I first read Blood and Gold, but Pandora is over 2000 years old! Her "wasted days" as she puts it to David without elaborating, are days that readers would definitely want to know about. How about TELLING US?How did she meet the fierce Asian vampire Arjun (I know his name is Arjun because I read it in Blood and Gold). Pandora didn't name him in her own narrative.This novel should have been FIVE TIMES larger than it was. At least!My next book, I got it from the library (I'm not a rich person...) is "The Vampire Lestat." "Interview" was out. I'll either end up reading Interview next, or Merrick - though I'd like to know the details about Claudia before reading Merrick. I know of Claudia from the movie and from what the novels I read have said.It's REALLY too bad Anne is no longer writing this. If this were the Lovecraftian genre, someone ELSE would be able to pick up the story of Pandora - and perhaps even get REALLY far out with what happened to the twins in SEVEN THOUSAND YEARS time - and there'd be no copyright problems with it, since it's allowed in that genre! The tale would start off at the point the twins are separated, a short paraphrase of their known history as per the canon. A Pandora book starting where Marius and Pandora are separated. They'd both end at the point where Anne wrote of them meeting up with others again.Perhaps Anne would allow someone else to tell the rest of Pandora's story? And/or tell us the story of the twins? They'd only have to write stuff that nobody else ever read about anywhere else - and not have it collide with what's already known.I want to say something to critics that go on about Anne contradictioning herself. NO, ANNE is not doing that. Louis might contradict Lestat. Marius contradicts Pandora - Pandora addresses that! Armand might think Marius was the love of his life (so some fans thought that was "The Story"), but that is NOT what Marius feels or thinks. Marius says Pandora was THE love of his life. Critics went on about "why Anne changed it." Changed what? I don't think Anne is forgetting what "she said" elsewhere or backpeddling, or changing her mind about what she wrote. These are supposed to be books written by Lestat, Louis, Pandora, Marius, etc. The techique is called "unreliable narrator." These characters all have different voices - their narratives, so far, read to me as if different people wrote them (yet I know Anne wrote these books). Therefore, my not liking Armand's story is not a statement about Anne. It's a statement about Armand. When you read Pandora, you are not supposed to think "Anne said this, Anne said that, Anne is saying this now." No. PANDORA is speaking.Anyway, I surely hope The Vampire Lestat is more like Pandora and Blood and Gold than like the Armand book. OH PLEASE!!

I just finished The Witching Hour and loved Interview and Lestat, so I chose this. I found it interesting and educational, but not very exciting. It lead to some interesting looks at maps and some discussions with my genius husband. I did not feel, though, that it was a "page turner". That being said...on to the next one!

This is a great read with characters deep and defined. You want to read more and more. The excitement for the next chapter always remains as you are diving deep into this wonderful read.

This is, by far, one of my favorite books by the late (and trust me, mourned) Anne Rice. I read it very early in life after shooting through another handful of her books. I always recommend Anne Rice's books to friends. I love all of her work and plan to get a copy of every novel on my kindle. You should also try her son Christopher Rice's books by the way. He definitely got her amazing gifts of fluid, and amazingly detailed descriptive writing. I'm loving the wonderful books he and Anne wrote together. Please read both of their books. You will never be disappointed!

The story of Pandora fills in more of the holes in Rice's vampire series. Pandora has been mentioned previously in more than one novel, and is a significant minor player in Blood and Gold, the story of Marius. In Pandora we hear about her childhood growing up in a rich Roman family. Marius who is not yet a vampire, is the younger son of another family. She meets Marius in Rome at age 10, and at age 15 her father refuses Marius' request for her in marriage. For some unknown reason, when Pandora is age 35, one of her brothers causes the other members of her family to be assassinated in a political plot. Pandora flees with Jewish merchants to Antioch where she meets Marius again. By now Marius is a vampire and keeper of the ancient mother of vampires. Much of her story describes her trials getting settled in Antioch, another conflict with her traitor brother, her conversion to a vampire by Marius, and the first attack by Satanic vampires. Little is told about the subsequent 1800 years before she ends up in a Paris café where she writes the story. I found it to be an entertaining afternoon read. I enjoyed Rice's obvious research into Roman life, but I was disappointed in not learning more about her life during the centuries while Marius searched for her. For example, we learn nothing of the Indian vampire with whom she apparently spends centuries traveling around the capitols of Europe during the Middle Ages. Maybe Rice is saving that for another volume.

Wow! I was literally swept off my feet in this entrancing tale. This is Anne Rice at her best. This novel has it all, Romance, Intrigue, and Drama. But best of all, it has History.Oh, how I love history. From Ancient Egypt, to the Roman Empires and Greek Mythology. It is just beautiful. Anne Rice is a great Historical storyteller. She obviously does meticulous research, and she takes her knowledge and spins a mesmerizing tale of olden times, when people lived life, just for the sake of living.She writes of an era, when time was abundant. And it was spent with families and close friends, reading, writing and gaining insight into their life. Expanding their minds with philosophy and poetry and just about anything that was within their grasp. When time really did take a lifetime, and it was savored with all its beauty. Unlike now, with time passing by, faster than we can blink.This is not another novel of a Vampire in Rices collection,this is the story of Pandora. A woman whose mind rivaled that of a scholar, her thirst for knowledge and the meaning of what it is to exist, her main quest in this life. She is a woman who is betrayed, but that will not stop her. She embraces her induction into vampire hood, because this way, she can savor her love of life and feel it all the more.This is an exceptional book. My only regret is that it ends too soon. I would have gladly lived with Pandora for a thousand more pages.

Pandora by Anne Rice***** 5 starsBook Blurb:A Vampire Chronicles novella from the internationally bestselling Anne RiceIn a cafe in modern-day Paris, in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the fearless and beautiful Pandora begins to tell her tale of treachery, vengeance and love stretching across two millennia. As a young mortal in Imperial Rome in the time of Caesar Augustus, Pandora was first introduced to the blood-tainted cult of Isis. Later, in exile in Antioch, she was drawn even further into the dark, ancient rites. Now looking back across the centuries, Pandora decides to return once more to New Orleans, to find the love of her early life, Marius, and to see once again the Vampire Lestat...Review:This is the first book in the series of New Tales of the Vampires and tells the story of Pandora.Pandora was born 15 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. She has lived a long and interesting life, at first with her love Marius and then alone. She is a vibrant character full of life and immensely intelligent. Always ready to learn from others and to teach her skills to young vampires.David a young vampire seeks out Pandora to ask her to write her life story. She does this and takes the reader on a wonderful journey.This book was written so beautifully, giving the reader a vivid image of Rome and its history.Highly recommended to lovers of thought provoking fiction.

I really enjoyed the first two Vampire chronicles books so was hoping that this would continue in that vain. Sadly that was not to be the case.My guess is that Anne Rice's knowledge of the period or the ancient Roman world was not as deep or well researched as needed With ancient Rome at the turn of the Principate and early Empire as the backdrop so much more could have been done to capture the danger, horrors, wonder and dynamism of the age. To see how well that can be done, try reading The Master's of Rome series by Colleen McCullough.As for her protagonists Pandora and Marius they fail to truly sparkle with a truth or ever really develop. It almost feels as if there were a large number of ideas bubbling up but that they stayed in the authors head and failed to make it to the page.In summary: Reasonably well written, but flaky and inconsistent in parts. Pandora fails to capture the depth of "Interview with the Vampire" and "Vampire Lestat".

I started---so i finished but the more i got into it i became bored.This was not a novel with a story which started,had a plot and thenfinished,rather it was recollections of Pandora concentrating for themost on Roman history and Roman political characters. In dfinishingchapters i struggled trying to remember what i had read such was itsabstract nature. Would not recommend this novel to anyone.

Not officially park of her Vampire Chronicles series this is a great little book for filling the gap on what happened to Pandora in the times before and after she met the vampire Marius and beyond. She is telling her story to the former Talimasca recently Vampire chronicler David.Shorter than the chronicles but a good read if those little details are bothering you.

Having read all of the previous books to this one, I enjoyed reading this and liked the way it filled the gaps in some of the previous stories. I would, however, recommend reading this book after the books that come before it, as you may be confused as to who some of the characters are. It's also much shorter than the previous books and I finished reading it within two days! I am a very fast reader, though ;)