[I can’t answer this w/o the ask itself already being a spoiler, but tbh I’m not really as worried about spoiling ppl re: this book bc C’MON we all know alot of the spoilery stuff by now!]
Tbh my reading of PLROA has stalled again ;A; I’m sorry! It’s worth it tho, as I may or may not be furiously working on a Coffeeshop AU w/ one of my absolute fave ficwriters behind the scenes…
From what I understand, yes. We have an Angry Birds situation, that’s where all the pain and suffering on earth comes from.
ooc; So, I finally pre-ordered PL & The Realms of Atlantis, and I just noticed the description on Barnes & Noble’s website.
“When any of the 12,000-year-old self-cloning aliens called Replimoids take center stage, there are interesting sparks. They soon fade, though, as Lestat and his confidants (and the reader) wait for anything to happen. But when Kapetria, who speaks for the Replimoids, begins to give real information to Lestat and members of his court about Amel and the Replimoids’ origins, the book finally catches fire. Initially, the concept of adding aliens to vampires, spirits, and witches is an eye roller, but Rice exhibits tremendous skill in making the impossible seem not only possible but logical.”
I have literally been joking for two years that the next book would involve aliens vs. Lestat, because it feels like shit’s gotten that insane
“Having perhaps bled all the possibilities out of earthly children of the night, Rice (Prince Lestat, 2014, etc.) takes a bite out of two big bodies of myth.Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Pity poor Prince Lestat; he was once able to roam the world without a care, nipping and frolicking, but now he has administrative duties and, with them, fresh enemies seeking a shot at power. One constant source of irritation is the stately Rhoshamandes who has suddenly come into an all-day sucker of a captive whose ever flowing juice has “nutrients that human blood does not have.” A fine thing for a vampire’s inventory, to be sure, but a portal as well into a world whose technology, as so often happens, has outpaced its morals. Down in that watery realm, the denizens scorn the place where “a dreadful thing had happened in that mammals had gained self-awareness and intelligence and now ruled the planet.” The better to provide vampire chow, one might say. But the Atalantayans have their hungers, too, and the hungriest of them seems to have latched on to poor Lestat. Inner voice, nothing: Amel is much more than a haunting spirit, “as different from ghosts,” another superevolved being tells us, “as angels are from humans.” Who will prevail? Well, if Amel sometimes conjures Charlie Manson, Lestat sounds like Twiggy once the fussing and feuding between immortal domains is settled: “This is our universe,” he says, “We too are made of stardust as are all things on this planet; we too belong.” Yeah, well. Fans of Rice’s vampire fiction will feast on whatever they can of hers, but Ignatius Donnelly/Edgar Cayce aficionados may twitch at all the “kindred in the Blood” stuff uneasily mixed in with the old lost continent mythos. Rice’s latest excursion into otherly realms may leave some readers feeling overstuffed—but others, to be sure, will be hungry for more.”
ooc; So, I finally pre-ordered PL & The Realms of Atlantis, and I just noticed the description on Barnes & Noble’s website.
“When any of the 12,000-year-old self-cloning aliens called Replimoids take center stage, there are interesting sparks. They soon fade, though, as Lestat and his confidants (and the reader) wait for anything to happen. But when Kapetria, who speaks for the Replimoids, begins to give real information to Lestat and members of his court about Amel and the Replimoids’ origins, the book finally catches fire. Initially, the concept of adding aliens to vampires, spirits, and witches is an eye roller, but Rice exhibits tremendous skill in making the impossible seem not only possible but logical.”
I have literally been joking for two years that the next book would involve aliens vs. Lestat, because it feels like shit’s gotten that insane
On a little further reflection, you can skip: *possible spoilers under the cut*
Pandora – Is mostly about Pandora, and Marius, and their relationship. Pandora’s not really in PL much and their relationship doesn’t have much to do with how Marius is in PL.
Vittorio – This is technically not a VC book, and he has a different origin story and is not part of the VC vampire group.
Blackwood Farm – This is mostly a story told to Lestat and he’s not very invested in it, I don’t think many (any?) of the new characters introduced in this book make any more than a mention or brief appearance in PL. It is also fairly cracky.
Blood Canticle – AR said that PL deviates from canon in that it does not include the hybrid VC/Mayfair Witches stuff, but I think she meant this book specifically, which has Rowan Mayfair, who does not appear at all in PL. It is also very cracky.
[Note: Mun & muse do not accept the entirety of PL as canon, definitely not Viktor, but Lestat said he’d play along for the sake of this Ask.]
♛Honestly, I try not to feel anything about Viktor.
I barely know him and he has shown little interest in me. I assume he’s read my books but I have no idea. He seems to prefer thinking he burst forth riding a giant gilded petri dish like Venus on her scallop shell. Fine. That’s probably how I’d act in his position.
[Spoiler Alert]
Here’s the thing, anonymous person, how would you feel if someone told you you had a son, and before you could hardly even entertain the idea, they tell you he’s practically an adult, he was raised in a lab full of scientist-vampires, and that what he wants more than anything in the world, more than anything money can buy or any experience, even a relationship with you, is to become a vampire, too? Just another mortal who finds us beautiful, magical, has little idea of the grotesque nightly payment required? Killing is not always fun. Often it’s repulsive. This is a true customer service job, closer to butchery than the refined elegance people love to romanticize it as being.
Before you start with me on that, yes, I’m sure his “parents” told him about that part of it, too, but please *waves his hand* I met him when he was mortal and had all the starry-eyed wonder of someone who idealizes what we are, ignoring whatever they find remotely distasteful.
It’s been years now and I’m still livid about it. Surely there would have been a way to reach me about him sooner? What’s been stolen from me is priceless. His first words, his first steps, all the joy of sharing my son’s childhood. Earning his trust. He acts like I abandoned him all those years! I am a “deadbeat dad” by his creator’s design.
Did they think I would confuse him?
Did they think I would hurt him? Kill him? They’ve done so much damage keeping us apart that there may be no healing of that wound, even with vampiric blood.
I’m livid about all of that, and that’s only the second chapter beyond the fact that his very creation was not my choice, either. I didn’t sign any waivers giving them permission to make a child from my little experiment. What of possible failures they made before him? Potentially: other children who were biologically unstable, never made it to adulthood, suffering in their short lives. It horrifies and disgusts me.
Are you starting to get the picture? Do you have the faintest idea? I’m livid. I’m a father to him in the biological sense of the word only. It even seems that he actively tries to suppress anything of me in him, and isn’t that part of the thrill of having a child? Seeing yourself reflected in them? He reflects nothing back to me, only that we share an uncanny physical resemblance. He should dye his hair if he hates me so very much.
I try not to feel anything about Viktor. It takes me down a road that leads nowhere.
It’s not my fave VC, but not my least fave VC, either. It’s growing on me.
As I answered in a recent Ask re: Merrick, idk, I would always advocate reading the books, as cracky as some of them can be, bc there are always moments that are really great! Single lines worth digging up, some phrasing that hits you #Right in the Feels. Don’t you want to know what happens? You don’t have to agree with it but the ride is always at the very least stimulating… you can always just skim it for plot points if reading it is too much of an investment.
As to whether it’s “just plain awful”? I wouldn’t agree w/ that, bc there are some gems in it that you can’t get anywhere else. At the risk of being redundant, my short answer: I think AR can still capture that old quality we all fell in love with, albeit in slivers. Which is why I can’t disregard any of the books entirely. It’s still hard for me to accept Prince Lestat as canon, I might never, but there are moments and lines of dialogue in it that are SO VERY GOOD. Moments where I’ve had to pause and smile, because it was as if the old Lestat, from IWTV or TVL, actually graced us with his presence, if only for a moment.
… Also I admit I very much dig Lestat’s new accessory ;D
It also has some worthwhile development re: the spirit that basically created vampires in the first place.
who uses Jordan Sörbom as a FC), @antoineandthepiano, and @roselioncourt, all of whom RP new characters from PL (technically Antoine was in IWTV but he has a larger presence in PL so I count him as new) and care way more about them than I am capable of currently.
I didn’t find many of the new characters very engaging, I would bet we’ll get more depth on them in later books, and/or they were created for what I like to call “canon-fodder” so that AR has a bunch of chars to kill in the next book(s), since she can’t kill the core group we all love so much! She tried to kill a few of them and had to bring them back ;]
Spoilers and probably unpopular opinions re: Viktor under the cut. And really I prefer not to make unpopular opinions but sometimes I gotta.
I find Viktor to be a kind of watered-down Twilight knockoff. He seemed to be an answer for all the POTP who had pestered AR for years to give Lestat a biological son… and the romance between him and Rose came off as pretty forced to me, again, a YA couple like in Twilight for fanservice. Not that YA can’t be well done, just that I didn’t really buy AR’s stab at it. Other ppl may have and they are welcome to ship their hearts out!
Because this is needed
tw: gore; horrifying imagery.
**SOME SPOILERS AHEAD**
aries: Lestat eating Dora out on her period
taurus: Lestat getting mesmerized and lost in Walmarts
gemini: Tarquin Blackwood’s turning from drinking genital blood
cancer: Lestat describing urination for two pages
leo: LIKE 14 PAGES OF CAMEO BUTTONS
virgo: Marius ripping off Mael’s head to fix it
libra: Lestat eating Mekare’s brain through her eye socket
scorpio: LESTAT’S CLONE SON
sagittarius: Armand cutting Nicolas’ hands off
capricorn: Lestat losing an eye
aquarius: The whipping scene in The Vampire Armand
pisces: Lestat’s attempt to have sex as a human
For sure, in many ways Lestat is worse than Gabrielle. And other characters have definitely treated him way worse than she has his own Louis tried to kill him at least twice, that’s a QUALITY boyfriend FFS. He certainly rocks the boat more than she does. He intentionally wanted to start a war between society and vampires. He went on vacation killing thousands of innocent men bc his girlfriend (and Matriarch of the Damned) told him to.
Is a mother’s lack of support and nurturing equal to such crimes? Is the suffering inflicted on one child equal to the deaths of thousands? One could argue that his crappy childhood made him more susceptible to the later, larger crimes. He wanted the war because he wanted recognition; many ppl learn early on that bad attention is better than no attention. Then, he let Akasha order him around because he thought she loved him. It’s taken him a long time to figure out how to relationship and he still has slipups including, but not limited to: issues w/ consent, possessiveness, respect for others’ physical space.
Lestat’s usually in pursuit of goodness when he is “bad.” He reflects on it, he can see were he went wrong, and usually tells us that the good extracted from the experience made it worth the wrongdoing, whereas with Gabrielle, since we don’t get her POV, and we don’t get much from her in spoken word in terms of her own pursuit of goodness, we have to wonder whether she cares for it at all. AR can’t write her ooc; Gabrielle has extended herself to rescue Lestat on several occasions, but she never seems to go further than that.
But the real issue with Gabrielle is probably that she lacks a dick, and is therefore unshippable.
But I like shipping her with Jesse or Eleni!
-Some spoilers under the cut-
Louis is actually only a bad vampire when he was being a foodie, when Claudia is “born,” he vampires more properly. In QOTD, Akasha says he’s the Most Predatory of All. It sounded like a backhanded compliment, but she was calling him a good vampire.
Armand is hot so he can get away w/ otherwise negative behavior… Plus Armand’s been on a rollercoaster in terms of “cold and distant.” He started out cold and distant (he was going to wall himself up in the caves in TVA for religion) became more so (kidnapped and thrown into the brothel) then more warm (Marius to the rescue!) then loving (Marius’ fledgling and the lead up to that), then cold and distant again (Children of Darkness and Theatre des Vampires eras), loving again (chasing after and getting Daniel Molloy), and now he seems cold and distant to protect himself.
I-want-my-IWTV 