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Title: Pandora : New Tales of the Vampires (Cassette) by Anne Rice, Janet McTeer ISBN: 0-375-40180-6 Publisher: Random House Audio Publishing Group Pub. Date: 01 March, 1998 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 2 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.79 (393 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Pandora - A New Age of Vampire Literature
Comment: After years of anticipation, Anne Rice's latest novel, Pandora has finally been released, and it was beyond a doubt worth the wait. Rice has become famous over the past few decades because of the huge success of her Vampire chronicles series. The first book in the series, Interview With A vampire, made all of America fall in love with the novels intriguing lead characters Louis, Claudia, and most especially Lestat. Years later, after we all had become even more familiar with these characters after the phenomenal success of the rest of the Vampire chronicles series, Rice turned Interview with a vampire into a screenplay. The result was a major motion picture that finally gave a face and voice to the characters we had already come to know so well through Rice's ingenious writing style. Now the characters of Lestat, Louis, and Armand became images of Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Antonio Bandaras in our minds as our experience with the movie forever changed the way we read the text. I won't lie to you Ñ the movie was nowhere as good as the book. It is impossible though to fully translate those fantastical written images onto a screen. Also, the public might not have been ready for the intense eroticism prevalent in almost every chapter. The movie did cause an increase in America's knowledge of the existence of Anne Rice, though, which accompanied by the growing vampire craze (caused probably by mass role playing games and the wonderful writing of Buffy The Vampire slayer), has set the stage perfectly for the release of Pandora, Anne Rice's latest novel. Yes, Pandora is about the same vampire who was Marius' on and off flame throughout the Vampire chronicles. Beyond that though, we must set this novel completely apart from everything Anne Rice has written previously. Technically, Pandora is not a part of the aforementioned series. It is the first book in a new series called New Tales of vampires that is spun off from Vampire chronicles Upon inspection, Pandora was probably the perfect character to use in the first installment of the spin-off series. Her name was extremely prevalent for much of the last series, and gradually we would learn tiny bits of additional information about her. We knew Marius loved her. We knew that she was one of the most ancient, powerful vampires. We knew nothing but these basics though because she seemed eternally destined to the role of background character All this served to make the writing of Pandora's history a much sought after event. This new novel is not just about Pandora. It is also narrated by her Ñ making this yet another huge departure from the original vampire series. An Anne Rice book about vampires not narrated by Lestat? It is something almost shocking at first, and it will take people a while to get used to. Lestat fans will be dismayed to know that he barely gets a passing reference in this novel Ñ and is relegated to the very same realm that Pandora received in all his novels. It is actually extremely fitting, I suppose. I was always a huge fan of Lestat. His charisma and hilarious characteristics are what gave me a more well rounded scope of vampires. As a rabid Buffy The Vampire Slayer fan, I was for a long time simply conditioned to root for the good guy and against the bad guy. Anne Rice has blurred the lines for me though. Who is to say who the good guy really is? Isn't the vampire only doing what he needs to ensure his survival? This has nothing to do with romanticism Ñ it goes all the way back to when Darwin wrote about the origin of species. We all do what we need to survive, and those who don't, won't [survive]. Who are we to judge what others do to keep themselves alive? Such a compelling change of view on the part of the reader (especially a stubborn one such as myself) is added proof that the author is doing her job well. It takes a writer I think to fully appreciate the art of writing, and I got to say, when reading Pandora, as well as everything Rice has ever written Ñ I was in awe. Most of Pandora deals with her mortal existence. Set in ancient Rome during the rule of Augustus, the novel follows Pandora through life as she grows from a friendly little girl into an independent young woman. Along the way, we see how she is loved by all she comes across, yet strangely seems apart from all of them. In truth, much of the story seems to place her and the entire world around on a completely different track. She is in the middle of everything, yet she is a part of nothing. All that changes when she meets Marius, the one person she truly seems to connect with. He is older, charming, and gorgeous Ñ but does not meet the approval of her father. Disappointed yet obedient, Pandora accepts her father's wishes and accepts the possibility that she will never see Marius again. Years go by, and because of circumstances that I will leave for perspective readers to discover on their own, Pandora's entire life falls apart. Alone, and miserable, she begins to be plagued by mysterious dreams. She flees her homeland and winds up in Antioch, far away from the land where she once had everything. The dreams only grow stronger, and Pandora flees to the temple of the goddess Isis for help Ñ where she re-encounters a now vampiric Marius after years of separation. This is a romance that every reader will root for, and its culmination will be quite unlike anything anyone has ever seen before. From our knowledge of the earlier Lestat novels, we know that Pandora goes on to be a powerful vampire, still alive after two thousand years Ñ many of them apart from Marius. So, what makes all this occur? This is a story with more drama and curves than anything I've ever read before Ñ but you'll have to read the book and find out for yourself.
Rating: 5
Summary: Mesmerizing
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Pandora Is A Nice Break
Comment: Don't get me wrong. I love Anne Rice, and the Vampire Chronicles are among my favorite books ever. However, in reading the other vampire books, one is ever re-reading things we already knew. When you read Lestat, Armand, Marius, and Louis, the tales are so intertwined that sometimes, it gets a little redundant. Pandora is a nice change. We don't know much about Pandora from the other books aside from the fact that she is old, and she is Marius' fledgling. When she recounts her life story for David Talbot in this book, it is refreshing in that sense, because it is entirely new, but it is also refreshing in the sense that Pandora is not as wimpy as her male counterparts. No, no, not the homoerotic thing. The weeping thing. How often do the male vampires weep at the sight of a Botticelli, or at the sound of a musical piece? They cry and lament over everything! Not Pandora. Pandora is made of tougher stuff. She has a backbone. Sure, she has a sensitive side. A very sensitive side. However, we know that she is not going to stain her dress with blood tears because she is lost in artwork or music. As usual, Rice makes you feel as though you are living in Ancient Rome, and her grip on historical accuracy is forever impressive to me. The story is not focused on how Pandora became a vampire so much as the events leading up to it, which is also a nice change because that story has been told before a number of times. The only reason that Pandora gets a 4 in my review is because it just seems that more could have been said. This is rarely a complaint I have about Anne Rice, but I wanted to know more details about her life between Marius and the modern era.
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Title: Vittorio the Vampire: New Tales of the Vampires by Anne Rice ISBN: 0345422392 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 27 February, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles, Book 6) by Anne Rice ISBN: 0345434803 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Blood and Gold (Rice, Anne, Vampire Chronicles.) by Anne Rice ISBN: 0345409329 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Merrick (Vampire/Witches Chronicles) by Anne Rice ISBN: 0345422406 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 02 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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Title: Memnoch the Devil (Vampire Chronicles, No 5) by Anne Rice ISBN: 0345409671 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 01 July, 1997 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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