shroudsinvenice:

sheepskeleton:

Prince Lestat – personal opinion

I have finally finished Prince Lestat, after the whole week of struggling to stay focused. And I need to share some of my thoughts.

Disclaimer: I’m an eternal optimist and I always, ALWAYS focus on the good parts, no matter how disappointing and ridiculous the thing is. Which is exactly what Prince Lestat is, but I had fun anyway. And because the major part of the fandom seem to be focused on the annoying parts I will list my own TOP 10 of the sheer absurd, and once I’m done with complaining I’ll spread some rainbows over here.

Things about which I was groaning and moaning and things at which I actually facepalmed. Hard. With both hands.

1. Viktor. His whole existence. His completely pointless existence and his lack of any personality.
2. Rose. See above.
3. The empty shell of Daniel. He used to have some personality, I liked him, where did it go? And I hate his clothes. What the actual fuck. And that stranger who looks like Armand. Who is he? Where is Armand? Hanging out with the real Daniel on some private tropical island?
4. Being forced to see Benji and Sybelle. Especially Benji in fedora, playing adult  and broadcasting some shit about vampires being a tribe. And then becoming a Minister of Communications. Sure. *groans*
5. Magnus getting hot. Oh come on. The  ONLY ugly person in the entire series and he couldn’t stay ugly? I get the fact that he was able to play The Sims 4 on himself so he did, but really, do we need everyone to be physically attractive?
6. Nicolas not being a ghost. But I hope she keeps that for the next book.
7. Not getting Marius/Bianca reunion. Or even a line of dialogue. Not getting ANY reunion nor actual conversation between vampires I hoped to see talking with each other. Why do I always have to imagine things between the lines? I’m lazy, I want to read them. In the canon.
8. Awful and unnecessary death of Maharet and Khayman. Period.
9. Anne praising her own books as deep and wise. *facepalm*
10. Lestat forgetting how to use technology. But mind you, just the iPhones and laptops and e-mails. But learning how to drive a car, using phone, and electric lights, and showers. And trains, planes, credit cards, etc etc. Seems legit.

I’m done. That’s it. 1 and 2 are things I can hopefully ignore and pretend they don’t exist. I hope they will go on a honeymoon on Bahamas and stay there for the next 50 years. And  that Sybelle and Antoine will stay where they are. In the background, playing the soundtrack (tho, I have nothing against Antoine actually).

Now, the happy list of things that made me squeal, laugh in joy, clap my hands, that made me delighted and tear up. And yes, I swear there are things in that book I honestly enjoyed.

1. Marius. I was jumping a little bit every time that I saw his name printed on the page. He is obviously my favorite character in the series and I’m biased. But I think he survived the plague of OOC pretty well. I was trembling with fear that he will do or say something that I would refuse to accept but he didn’t so I’m glad. I like that he lives in Rio, has a view on the seashore, that he paints on the walls as he always did (lol, the police telling him to stop! xD) and that he destroys his brushes the way I do all the time. Those little things give me life. I’m not sure if I like the fact that he is with Daniel, but I don’t mind it either. And I’m so in love with the chapter 13 that I can’t get over it still. His reunion with Teshkamen and those words his maker told him, oh shit, I was shaking with excitement. I think I will write a separate post about it. Or draw a fanart. And I really like the way he is interacting with everybody in the Trinity Gate. And that he is writing the laws. I mean, if somebody has to, he is perfect for the job. Consul Marius and his codex. (it cracks me up, but I like it) Someone should carve it on a marble wall in a nice roman font. Just sayin.
2. Teshkamen and Talamaska. I love Talamaska, I’ve always loved the idea of it and I’ve always suspected that there is some ancient vampire behind it. And I love the fact that this vampire happens to be Marius’ maker. I told you, I’m biased. I want to know more about Teshkamen. I genuinely like him.
3. Lestat and David drinking from each other. Holy shit! That was hot. More of that please.
4. Speaking of more… I really like Rosh and Benedict. And they had an actual bedroom scene! Hot as fuck again. I’m not sure why I like them, but the Minoan vampire and medieval monk being a cute couple seems to be an amusing idea and I like it. I don’t like the way Rosh was treated by Anne later on, but this is the happy list now.
5. And I like Gregory/Nebaum. And Gremt. And Everard. I like almost all those new characters that everybody seem to be complaining about. Sure, I see your point, there should be more about characters we know and love, but I enjoyed meeting new ones. They fit into the story and I’m interested in them. Yes, I would prefer more about Marius, Armand and Louis. Yes. But I like those new guys.
6. I like the new leg for Flavius. And new eyes for Maharet and Thorn’s eyes being restored to him.  It made me happy.
7. I like Flavius, Avicus, Zenobia and Bianca having their lives. Being alive and more or less happy.  
8. I love Gabrielle. Every word she speaks and every gesture she makes I want to slowly clap my hands in approval. And I clapped more enthusiastically when she slapped Lestat. Someone should have done that earlier.
9. Louis’ epilogue. My sweet baby. Being finally at peace with the world and with himself. Let me love you, my dear.
10. The descriptions. Good as always, tbh. The places were magnificent. Sevraine’s place in Cappadocia was wonderful. And I would gladly move in to Trinity Gate. And I like the idea of Lestat restoring his Chateau.
11. And finally, I actually like Amel. The idea of him waking up in the silence of Mekare’s brain is cool. The way in which that idea was executed is another thing, but the idea itself is a good one. I like the thought of him being imprisoned in the empty shell of damaged witch he once loved and desperately seeking a way out. I like the thought of his loneliness and the longing to feel and understand. The plot was shitty but I like Amel as a conscious being.

All in all, I enjoyed the experience of reading a new installment of Vampire Chronicles after 10 years. It was like meeting my old friends after many, many years of missing them and wondering about their lives. Some of them I couldn’t recognize, but it was nice to see them anyway. And it’s nice to see the fandom being awake again!

I invite anyone who wish to discuss this book to comment the post or reblog or write me a message, I really want to talk about it!

I also tend to be optimistic, or at least, I can roll with a lot of imperfections in this fandom’s canon for some reason. I enjoyed the book. I thought there was a lot wrong with it, but here’s the stuff I liked:

1. Like you said: Marius. He’s my favourite too, and I was on tenterhooks about him the whole time. His comments on modern science side (I think we can substitute “Anne Rice didn’t want to work the science out THAT fully”), he’s in-character, thank god. I always assumed he’d stopped painting after Akasha, but I like the idea of him having picked it up again (and was very tickled by the idea of the police having repeatedly moved him on – “It’s okay, it’s just the weirdo with the paints again!”) I like that he found more vampires his own age to play with/apparently share wardrobes with. I like his and Daniel’s apparently relaxed relationship. And I liked the thing with Tekshamen and the fact that it changed Marius: it should. He’s been miserable for decades; he needed the hope of knowing that sometimes something completely unaccountable happens. 

2. Jesse telling her story. It all played out very believably (including the assessment that Maharet had been so defined by her quest for Mekare that it damaged her to get her heart’s desire, and then find it impossible to connect fully), and the whole Jesse/David/Lestat interaction is very nice. I like David’s exasperation with Lestat, and also David lunging at Lestat and draining the hell out of him. That whole section is basically great.

3. GABRIELLE. EVERYTHING WITH GABRIELLE IS PERFECTION. 

4. BIANCA. Bianca calling out Marius (and Armand, but especially Marius).

5. What laviniaspeaks called, I think, “Sevraine and the Femslash Coven For Science”. And Sevraine’s house. Such taste, very shiny, wow. Now she needs to be actually fleshed out, but I am very down with the whole concept of Sevraine existing so far. 

6. WE GOT ELENI BACK. And hell, even Eugenie!

7. As upsetting as the deaths were, they did work, and that’s important. Hell, I was even upset about fucking Eric. 

8. Vampire scientists; fucking finally. 

9. Various mysteries and unfleshed-out things being picked up on: the origins of the Talamasca, the ghosts (I don’t know about you, but I for one am taking those as the explanation for those ‘bloodless’ immortals Marius recalled having been so alarmed by, in TVL), how Magnus stole blood and from whom, the musician vampire from IWTV.

10. The vampires no longer being so hung up on being damned. There’s only so long you can go in that particular circle. 

11. Lestat calling what happened with Nicki in Paris his “greatest failure”. Nice to have that acknowledged. 

12. Lots of Lestat stuff, actually: his whole lone-wolf thing reads very well to me as a portrayal of depression, especially when he finally does go to Jesse and David and is simultaneously joyous and convinced it’s been a terrible mistake to go near them. I find that truthful about the difficulty of connecting with people. And as concerned (we need a better word for this) as I am about wtf happens next, I do find it in character that he would do what he did at the end, re: Amel – it’s the contrarian in him, but also the pragmatist. Who the fuck else was going to do it? Nobody else so far had volunteered or suggested a remotely ethical alternative.

13. FLAVIUS IS BACK! I was slightly bothered by the fact we lost our one disabled vampire, but on the other hand, hell, I have missing innards I’d happily regrow, so I can’t begrudge him that leg. I also liked that conversation overheard between him and Pandora, and assume it has to do with how everything got fucked up in Antioch. This needs to be addressed in the next one. 

14. Arjun being brought back and actually being a whole person and not just a faintly racist stereotype. 

15. That Louis chapter. Holy shit, she nailed it. 

16. Very, very much to my own surprise: I did not hate Sybelle and Benji in this. I actually thought Benji was interesting, and I like that he’s reached the I Hate You Vampire Dad stage of his existence. Because seriously, he has a fucking point. Also, Sybelle being no longer a damaged kook who can only play the fucking Appassionata over and over.

17. Vampire dance party. 

Seventeen is probably a good place to stop.