Tag Archives: vampire chronicles

Hi there! stumbled upon your glorious blog after started re-reading VC. And let me tell ya, when I first read the entire thing some 13 years ago, it seemed to me so completely different, that I flip through pages now and go ‘wow, that really happened’. AR didn’t loose her touch with PL (which I detest and do not consider part of canon), but it reads more as an ‘audience book’ vs ‘author’s book’ as the previous ones do. And this is exactly what happened with some other novels, which is sad.

Leave a comment

Thanks for the compliments! YES THIS THING IS GLORIOUS ♥u♥

So I’m not sure exactly what you’re getting at, re: an ‘audience book’ vs ‘author’s book’ but it I do know that AR has always advised to “write the book you would want to read.” She just put up two quotes recently that I think are relevant here: 

image
image

[May 11, 2016 – X] [May 10, 2016- X]

I had posted recently about the fandom’s general judgment of the quality of VC as a series, and most ppl seem to agree that canon is stronger in the beginning, and it makes sense because those works drew their strength from the emotions she fueled them with at those times in her life. 

Unfortunately, I think we generally prefer those books coming from negative places for her, and I think it’s because she spun gold from the misery, she fought her demons through those stories and the product was captivating, clawing into the reader and giving us some secondhand catharsis. 

Stories that came from a more positive place for her seemed not to produce that kind of engagement for the reader, but it’s important to remember that some ppl may prefer those. 

Either way, she’s given us an incredible gift. The stronger works resonate with us to the soul like only our favorite music and art can, the weaker works are humorous and we can lovingly refer to them as “the vampire crackicles,” but even they still have good moments in which AR has tapped into the old veins (pun intended!) to give us that gold we’ve come to expect from her.

I stand by my previous short answer on this subject: 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.

I just have one question about The Vampire Chronicles, I’m in my local library and notice they don’t have all the books, and in the little info bars I noticed different main characters (I initially believed it followed Lestat all the way through), do you have to read them in chronological order? Or would that just confused you?)

Leave a comment

They don’t have all the books??! How rude. You might be able to find the others online for free very cheaply, or at second-hand stores like the Salvation Army.

image

There ARE different main characters in some of the books, and in some, Lestat is almost entirely left out. He is mentioned only once just to point out that he WILL be completely left out in Vittorio, but that book was not really intended as a Vampire Chronicle. 

But the order of the VC still tracks along Lestat’s journey, even if it veers off for a book or two (as with the Vampire Armand or Blood and Gold) and then picks back up with him. 

When I was asked “Which books do you personally and/or (if you might feel differently) the majority of the fandom regard as canon?” I answered that I had read them in chronological order as they came out, and it makes sense to do it that way since that’s the order in which Anne Rice pursued her interest in developing different characters/storylines/worldbuilding/etc. and establishing her own rules re: vampire origins, powers, and limitations.

Short answer is: without access to the full canon, you can’t just breeze through it like I did, and I don’t know which ones you are missing, but…. I recommend you read them in order as best you can. In later canon, other characters will refer to scenes already played out in earlier canon, contributing their own perspective, which may be confusing and will spoil those scenes for you. It will be up to you to decide which character’s account of things to believe. They’re all wildly unreliable narrators with their own selfish reasons for explaining things the way they do ;D

image

^Regardless of the “truth,” do I grin like I’m seeing old friends every time I see a lineup of VC on a bookshelf, no matter what their condition? You bet your a$$ I do.

Hit the jump for moar on this.

Some ppl who HAVE access refuse to read Prince Lestat, or a bunch of the other books, and won’t even give them a chance, so your lack of access might also reflect the fact that the books are not all equally popular. Your library might have purposely not included what it considers the less-popular installments.

Most of the fandom, in my experience, have had different gateway drugs to the series. I love collecting stories of how people first got into it (#I love these kind of stories tag). They first saw movie!IWTV or movie!QOTD and then read the corresponding book, or a friend gave them a random one from the series, or someone donated the whole series to them, etc. From there, some people read in order, some people skipped around. 

THAT SAID, if you want to make VC fanworks (including fic, meta discussion, fanart, etc.) or do VC RP, it seems to help if you’ve read at least IWTV, TVL, and TVA (TVA might spoil previous events in canon but it’s really THE authority on Armand)(and read some fanfic!).

I think those VC contain the crux of the fan fave characters (Lestat, Louis, ((Nicki)), Gabrielle, Armand, Daniel, Marius) and scenes that have had alot of impact in developing the main characters. Your fanworks/RP will be richer if you know the background of the characters, because you’ll be able to refer to the events, or quotes, or take them as a jumping-off point in your work.

However, in the later books, you get new info, new characters, and new perspectives on previous events (example: Claudia’s diary entry in QOTD is heartwrenching).

@annabellioncourt​ had added this good commentary on that post and I agree with her 110% (except that I don’t love Vittorio but still): 

I personally recommend that people read the first three books (IWTV, TVL, QOTD) and if they really enjoy it to try reading the rest of them.

But my caveat for that is that if they don’t care for Body Thief or Memnoch then still give Pandora and Vittorio a chance, then Armand, and if they enjoyed Armand and Pandora, to try Blood and Gold.

Its complicated, but so is the series, for such a seemingly straightforward concept of “vampires decide to write tell-all memoirs of their behind the scenes lives.”

In which Hogwarts House would our beloved characters be sorted? It’s quite difficult with some..

Leave a comment

hedonistbyheart:

i-want-my-iwtv:

Omg, I cannot! ;A; I didn’t read the HP books, only saw some of the movies, so I’ll turn this over to more qualified ppl. 

image
image

^I do think Claudia would end up in the same house as Lestat, continuing the tradition like the Malfoy line does, but I could be wrong on that. The sorting hat would be taking a LONG time w/ Claudia, tho.

Anyone is invited to sort our beloved characters! Do the thing (ﾉ^ヮ^)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧

*gapes at you not having read them* Anyway, I feel
like trying though I always tend to change my mind on sortings as soon as I have made a choice. Here goes:

Lestat: Gryffindor.(And I don’t just say
so because it’s the house of the lion ;)) I think he is a Gryffindor because he
is ridiculously impulsive and as a result also ridiculously brave. He wants
greatness, notoriety, to be remembered and he loves people, “I want to be good
at being bad” he wants to be admired, even when his nature doesn’t lend itself
very well to admiration, thus the rock-star phase. 

Louis: Ravenclaw. Louis is bookish and
rather introverted, he’s individualist and doesn’t give a hoot what other
people think, but he also tends to avoid confrontation whenever possible. He
doesn’t seem as eager to seek knowledge as most ‘claws, but the other
traits seem fitting.

Claudia: Ravenclaw. Claudia was obsessed with knowledge;
she wanted to know everything about vampires and about adulthood as well. She
was ultimately driven mad by the fact that she was kept from all this knowledge
by Lestat and by her perpetual childhood. She had no loyalty except to
herself and didn’t seem to bother at all with striving for greatness, she just
wanted to understand.

Armand: Slytherin. Armand is difficult,
because he wants so many things and he is so very contradictory in his
attitudes, but I say Slytherin because he always strives to create ‘community’,
but always in a way that revolves around him, he is the ‘Boss’ and he slides
into this role with quiet aptitude, he needs to be in control. His communities
are also often very selective and he is ruthless in keeping ‘rogues’ away. He
loves mystery and cares for the history of the vampires, but he doesn’t value
learning about past or present beyond what can benefit him personally (thus his
random fits of obsessive learning when entering a new century).

Marius: Ravenclaw: He is always learning
new things; he is obsessed with knowledge in the traditional sense and loves
being the one people come to for advice. He is also individualist to the point
where people have to leave him for their own sake and he avoids confrontations so much that he
would rather abandon someone he loves than have to be confronted with a unsatisfactory
situation.

Daniel: I just can’t decide whether he
is a Gryffindor or a Ravenclaw, because on the one hand he is a journalist and
that seems to indicate a pretty heavy thirst for knowledge, but he is also
ridiculously brave, throwing himself into risky situations because of that
curiosity and he doesn’t exactly back
down. He is difficult because much of the time we see him outside of his
interview has him being chased by Armand and/or living with him and that doesn’t
exactly represent his normal behavior.

This is just the core group^^

Leave a comment

annabellioncourt:

vampchronfic:

mylittleinferno:

firelight-fading:

mylittleinferno:

Does anyone else feel that the quality of the Vampire Chronicles books goes downhill the further you read into the series? 

I mean, I love Anne Rice and her novels but sometimes I get the feeling she put out a book because of contractual obligations. Some of the VC books are just.. meh. 

(If you don’t mind my input) I feel like the quality kind of slopes downward, comes up again just a little bit and then goes down even further. I actually enjoyed The Vampire Armand (despite the weird shit that went on), but as for the 2 books that preceded it, I really didn’t care for them at all. I haven’t read on-ward since because I’ve heard things regarding the other half of the series so, I can’t attest to that half.

I don’t mind 🙂

I’ve heard that some of the books are better but after I read TOBT it really killed my enjoyment of the series and I’ve only recently gotten back into it.

You’re not wrong—there are a lot of people who have the same general opinion (YMMV on which book began the downward spiral). #i-want-my-iwtv — you need to weigh in on this one!

I have argued to doctorate holders that IWTV is a true work of literary genius. TVL is my favorite for its unrepentant hedonism and introspection–I think Lestat is more self aware than Louis is, and more aware of how others think than Louis is, and I love his narration (despite the fact that I am literally Louis). 

Queen of the Damned is well on par with TVL in its quality–and its a high quality straddling the line between good popular fiction and high brow literature……Armand, Blood and Gold, Pandora, Vittorio: they’re right below it in literary quality for me. The rest seem to be just good popular fiction, not great, but good. 

I love them all to bits, and will defend Anne and her work, and continue to read whatever she writes, but….you are right, there really is a change in her writing.

*Officially weighing in*

Lots of good points above, I absolutely agree that IWTV is a true work of literary genius. Agreed on everything annabellioncourt wrote. For me, none of the later books remotely approaches the richness and intensity of IWTV, TVL, or QOTD, but yes, I’d say TVA was very good, and shouldn’t be lumped into the lesser VC simply bc of its post-MtD publishing date. 

I would agree w/ firelight-fading that it’s not a sharp downward slide in quality, but more that “the quality kind of slopes downward, comes up again just a little bit and then goes down even further.” Blood Canticle would have ended this series, and for what it’s worth, I would say that Prince Lestat begins to get things back on a better track plot-wise and emotion-wise than it nearly ended on.

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.

However, in general, I would say that the VC began as a work of catharsis for her (we probably all know the Claudia = Michele Rice connection by now); she had real questions that needed answering, she had a powerful hunger to flex her storytelling muscles, steeped in all that older literature, she could still relate to us mere mortals, and she had her poet husband’s emotional and creative support. Don’t underestimate Stan’s contribution 😉

So I’d say that’s why the first few books (1-3 or 1-5 or whatever, depending on your cutoff point) are so strong, and why we mourn the loss of that passionate searching. Because as she got more successful, as she exorcised her demons, she might have lost touch with the emotions and questions she began the journey with. I’m happy she’s happy! I would probably still be a mess, if I had lost a child and a husband, both who still had a lot of life ahead of them ;A; 

But I’m glad she seems to be in a good place, and that she’s still writing, even though she is probably financially secure enough not to need to touch WordPerfect ever again!

Hit the jump for more. 

It’s easy to denounce a pile of books. It’s easy to just slam them down or make a gif of them on fire yes I did that before I finished reading it and it’s kind of a bonding experience to all agree to like or dislike a thing together. I get that. Hey, I actively dislike movie!QOTD. I immediately feel a little kinship w/ others who agree w/ me on that, and I am aware that’s mean to those who feel nostalgia for that movie, so I try to keep it to a minimum publicly. 

Why do people dislike the later VC books? Because they’re wild? (They are!), They are historically inaccurate? (Probably!) The characters seem “off” or present unreliable narration as to past events told by other characters…? (They are and they do!) 

^All of which are varying degrees of criminal acts that call for Fictional Character Protective Services™ but I advocate for the proverbial devil because that’s one of my things that I do so here we go:   

Wild stories:

  • Well, AR attempted to appease her POTP fanbase in some regard, merging the Mayfair Witch series into VC, and she acknowledged that it hasn’t “worn well.”
  • She’s trying to appease the POTP who have begged her to give Lestat a biological child (check that off the list), and get married with a ~ceremony~ (allegedly happening in the next installment, Blood Paradise) bc how can he be at all remotely happy w/out making an honest man out of Louis FFS like c’mon.
  • She’s always tried to push the envelope and TOBT was WILD for its time in this series, how incredible that she’s managed to make that seem so tame in comparison to later canon!
  • Not to mention the Dora scene in MtD. 

They are historically inaccurate:

  • Probably! But I’m not a history buff, so for me, to say the characters are wearing something that wasn’t invented until, idk, 50 yrs later, doesn’t bother me. 
  • I can understand why it might irritate the hell out of someone else, though. 

The characters seem “off” or present unreliable narration as to past events told by other characters… 

  • But that happens in real life, too! X might have one version of a story and Y, who also experienced it, might have a much different version. I enjoy seeing the perspectives, and consider for myself who’s version I believe. 
  • Louis and Lestat argue over whether Lestat was about to eat a baby at the end of IWTV “in a scene which we both know did not take place!”

In the last analysis, AR can still blow me away with a scene, or just a line of dialogue, even in the far less popular books in the series. She can still make me put the book down and stare off into space for a breather. 

BUT, as I mentioned above,

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 deigned to be present, if only for a moment.

IWTV thoughts

Leave a comment

hedonistbyheart:

i-want-my-iwtv:

murdereratthematinee:

Ok but Claudia called Armand Louis’ “companion” and it’s p obvious that Armand wants to fuck Louis and then she asks for Madeline as a “companion” and this is probably a gross thought cause Madeline is like “I want a daughter who can’t die” and Claudia is (in appearance) a child but could she be a lesbian?

I know she pines after an adult body but could it be more than that? Could she want a woman to sleep with?

This is a fascinating idea and I have thought about it myself quite a bit. 

Possibly a very unpopular opinion but: I don’t think they were sexual w/ each other in the mortal sense, but there was more to them than a mother-daughter relationship.

image

[X From Claudia’s Story]

I don’t think Claudia’s pursuit of Madeleine was purely for a platonic mother-daughter relationship. That may have been part of it, and it was how she sold it to Louis because he couldn’t perceive Claudia as more than his daughter or as an adult trapped in a little body who would be capable of being involved in a romantic way with anyone, and she needed him to actually do the work for her since she was unable to perform the Dark Gift herself (and I do think she tried before asking him).  

While it may not have been a relationship in a more conventionally romantic sense (I don’t believe they had anything sexual, in the mortal sense, going on), I do think Claudia/Madeleine was a ship of sorts, more of an emotional relationship. Claudia was the one in control, she was comparatively older and stronger in personality. 

can I hijack/add to this?
I think we can simplify the answer to this question a little if we go by canon, that is: the vampires aren’t actually sexual in the conventional sense, ever. This doesn’t mean that the emotions behind romantic love/sensual love isn’t a factor and I don’t think there’s anything in canon contradicting the idea of the two of them having the kind of sensual relationship the vamps enjoy; sharing blood, kissing etc. However I do think Madeleine was too mad to have any real awareness beyond wanting her daughter back in some form and while Claudia needed an assistant, a ‘companion’, I personally think she was too angry/bitter at this point to have room for Madeleine in her heart at all. If she wasn’t so hurt, I think she could have loved her in the typical taboo-defying way all Anne’s vamps seem to do. There isn’t really any definitive labels you could put on them as it is, beyond ‘vampire’ – as I read it anyway^^.

Just my two cents.

Good addition, good points! 

I think Madeleine was fairly mad as a new vampire, and if she had been given more time, she might have regained some sanity under Claudia’s tutelage. Yes, Claudia was a bit angry/bitter herself as Armand had his claws in Louis at the time. Claudia had to rush the acquisition of Madeleine because she sensed that the rug was about to be pulled out from under her.

Over time, Claudia might have gained a sense of peace with Madeleine, in guiding her through things, and then the two of them could have explored the world together. And possibly shared that canon sensuality that Ricean vampires can have, which is free of taboos, as you pointed out.