Complete Vampire Chronicles (Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned, The Tale of the body Thief)

I'm not big on vampire books but Anne Rice writes in such a way that you truly believe they are real people with real lives and all the thoughts and feelings we all have. In addition, they struggle with the issues of immortality and there are many.

i bought these books for my teen she couldnt put them down till they were all read anne rice is a great author

I would certainly recommend anyone who has an interest in this genre to read these books. Rice raises some very interesting concepts from the mind of the vampire. My only gripe (and a friend feels the same way) is that Rice tends to ramble - padding out relatively meaningless stuff, or stuff that you've already gleaned the concept of after two lines. I found myself skipping paragraphs & pages, which was detrimental to the flow. With some judicious editing and condensing they would be worthy of 5 stars. The fourth book doesn't quite hold up to the stds set with the first three...might be worth finding the trilogy.

I suspect I'd like this series better if it didn't go on and on as it does. Much like Jean Auel's Alya series it's wonderful at times but someday, sometime - get to the point!

Someone else suggested checking out Interview with the Vampire from your library. If you love it, then it probably makes sense to get this box set.

Actually it is Jeff Rice who has written the best vampire story of the 20th century. The Night Stalker (original title, The Kolchak Tapes) wipes the floor with Anne Rice's murky stuff. If you don't believe me ask Richard Matheson! (He fell all over himself to condense the book into the TV movie screenplay.) Superb, crisp writing - I wish (Jeff) Rice had more novels available.

I first heard of Anne Rice 11 years ago when her famous book was being released as a motion picture, Interview with the Vampire, of course. I was only 9 years old at the time, but I was already enthralled in the world of vampires, and I had to see the movie. My brother and I saw it 4 or 5 times in theatre alone, and ever since then I have been an Anne Rice fan.

Slowly through the past 11 years I've been reading the Vampire Chronicles. I own all 10 books of the Vampire Chronicles and the two New Tales of the Vampires books in both hardback and paperback. Currently I am almost half way through Blood and Gold and I'm just loving it, but let me get to these four books.

Interview with the Vampire - This book is narrated by the beautiful and self-piteous Louis who has lost all hope of life after the death of his brother whom he blames himself for (Apparently E. A Solinas was basing his Interview review off of the movie where indeed Louis was a widower, however in the book Louis had never been married and was suffering from the loss of his brother, as I said). This book is infinitely more intricately written and more detailed than the movie was, but the movie still had the Interview vibe, considering Anne Rice wrote the screen play (something she failed to do with The Queen of the Damned and it showed). I do not believe that my seeing the movie before reading the book hindered my ability to understand or accept the book any less than if I had read it first. While reading, I saw things that were not clearly explained in the movie, or not even mentioned or included at all. I received a better understanding of how much Claudia really hated both Lestat and Louis and how infinitely ignorant Louis found Lestat to be. And after reading the book, I can say that I enjoyed it more than the movie. This book introduces readers into the world of Anne Rice's vampires through Louis' eyes, and how distorted a world it is.

The Vampire Lestat - This book is the beginning of the saga of Lestat. While reading this book, readers will actually get to know Lestat for who he was as a man and an immortal through his eyes. It will open the world of Lestat that readers who read Interview with the Vampire first, did not even get a glimpse of with Louis' narrative. This was probably my favorite book of the series so far, because I love Lestat's character, and this book is what made me so familiar with him. Anne Rice's writing is also very detailed and stunning, as it always is. Through Lestat's words readers see his change from a man to an immortal and the world he enters into after having to destroy his master. He was not taught the ways of the vampires so he continues doing as he sees fit. Readers will follow him in his journey where he saves his mother, Gabrielle, makes a lunatic of his best friend, Nicolas, first encounters Armand, meets the mentor, Marius, and briefly describes his experience with Louis and Claudia, this is when you truly meet Lestat.

The Queen of the Damned - I'm not even going to mention the movie because I will spend two hours describing how TERRIBLY wrong the movie was. All I will say is that it does not follow the book whatsoever besides the character names and the OVERALL plot. The book, however, was just wonderful. This is the second story of Lestat, in which it is narrated rather strangely. The book begins with Lestat, of course, describing himself once again, and explaining to the reader that they will be taken into the stories of multiple blood drinkers and other people. After that, Anne Rice writes in many narratives to tell the numerous stories, including that of the red haired twins, Maharet and Mekare, a brief story of Pandora, Armand and Daniel, Khayman, Jesse and the Talamasca. She then continues with Lestat's narrative of the rest of the events that occurred with the Divine Mother, Akasha. This was a new style that Anne Rice used for the book, and I think it was very cunning. Readers get to see glimpses of other immortals and their history without an entire book being written. This book is where readers really get to know the most important of the blood drinkers.

The Tale of the Body Thief - I really enjoyed this book, although it was probably my least favorite of the series, again out of what I've read so far. I still loved how it was written, another marvel of Anne Rice. In this book, readers will be taken into the third of Lestat's strange journeys. Here he meets a mysterious man who claims to be able to swap bodies. He teaches Lestat how to do such a thing, and gives him an offer he cannot refuse; the chance to be mortal again. There is no way that Lestat would pass this up, so of course, he does it. This time he gets himself into a serious predicament when the body swapper does not want to return Lestat's immortal self, and he is forced to turn to a member of the Talamasca, David, who Lestat had bonded with. Readers should know who David is by now if they have read Queen of the Damned before reading this. David cannot refuse to aid Lestat, but in the end he finds himself in an even stranger situation all in itself. While trying to retrieve Lestat's body, he was forced out of his own by the thief and had to take retreat into the body that had housed Lestat while he was a mortal man. Due to unfortunate circumstances, he is not able to return to his own body, and Lestat finds himself even more attracted to David now that he has the body of a much much younger man (when reading Queen of the Damned, readers find out that David is in his 70's), thus, forces David into the preternatural life against his will. As I said above, I thought this book was very well written, I just believe that I did not care about the story nearly as much as the others. I believe anyone who truly loves Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles will still enjoy reading this book, even if they don't find it as fascinating as the previous.

Of course, after this comes Memnoch the Devil, which I loved but was saddened that it was the last of Lestat's mystical and heroic stories because he goes into hibernation after the acts which take place in this book, until he returns for the finale, Blood Canticle. Following is The Vampire Armand which is a fast read. I also loved this book and it was definitely different because it was the first after four other books, to be narrated by someone other than Lestat. In this book, the reader really gets to know Armand, and a little bit of Marius. Merrick comes next. This book is all in itself, different. I thought that I would hate it and be bored by it when I first started reading. It is narrated by the above mentioned, David, who is now a vampire, telling the story of a witch, Merrick, whom he's asked to perform a spell for him and Louis. In this book, Lestat wakes from his hibernation and is finally his old self again... and it was about time! Now I am reading Blood and Gold, the story of Marius, and of course, I am just loving it. I have already read over 200 pages and I just started it, but I still have much more to go (it's 564 pages, one of the longest of the Vampire Chronicles), but I know I will enjoy it. Overall, these four books will definitely introduce a reader into the world of Anne Rice's preternatural brood, and if you don't like these first four, you won't like the rest. I'll keep reading until I'm done with the last of the New Tales of the Vampires, which is the story of a newly mentioned vampire, Vittorio. Until then, I'll enjoy every bit of the rest.