The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles) Book 6
Average Rating: 3.5 Stars
by Anne Rice
List Price: $7.99
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books
ISBN: 0345434803
Amazon.com Review
In the familiar style of vampire as seducer, narrator Alfred Molina (Boogie Nights) uses his smooth, tranquil voice to excellent effect, luring listeners ever deeper into the dark, mysterious, and blood-soaked world of The Vampire Armand. Rice has crafted an intriguing plot, one that expands on events from her earlier books, yet stands alone as a compelling exploration of the Cimmerian secrets that have shaded one of her most fascinating characters. Molina is a talented reader, and he revels here in the expertly crafted story line, lush language, and tortured emotions of a haunted soul caught in the eternal darkness that lurks between the living and the dead. (Running time: four hours, four cassettes) --George Laney
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Product Description
See the difference, read #1 bestselling author Anne Rice in Large Print
* About Large Print
All Random House Large Print editions are published in a 16-point typeface
In the latest installment of The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice summons up dazzling worlds to bring us the story of Armand - eternally young, with the face of a Botticelli angel. Armand, who first appeared in all his dark glory more than twenty years ago in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire, the first of The Vampire Chronicles, the novel that established its author worldwide as a magnificent storyteller and creator of magical realms.
Now, we go with Armand across the centuries to the Kiev Rus of his boyhood - a ruined city under Mongol dominion - and to ancient Constantinople, where Tartar raiders sell him into slavery. And in a magnificent palazzo in the Venice of the Renaissance we see him emotionally and intellectually in thrall to the great vampire Marius, who masquerades among humankind as a mysterious, reclusive painter and who will bestow upon Armand the gift of vampiric blood.
As the novel races to its climax, moving through scenes of luxury and elegance, of ambush, fire, and devil worship to nineteenth-century Paris and today's New Orleans, we see its eternally vulnerable and romantic hero forced to choose between his twilight immortality and the salvation of his immortal soul.
From the Trade Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews
Fun reading about more VC stuff, but Anne Rice is getting lazy and unfortunately turning Christian.
3 Stars
Anne Rice turned from Atheism to Christianity around the time she wrote this book I believe (wiki it), and it's almost like she's infusing her own shift of belief into some of the vampires. Now, Armand was always depicted as religious, but there are some things revealed at the end of the book that just seem a little too far fetched. It's almost as if she's gonna end up having all her vampires turn into Christians, all in an extremely short amount of time (for the old vampires) that's taken place since Lestat's experience with Memnoch.
I may be exaggerating a little, or my views may be without merit, but the shift from her "savage garden" atheistic stance to this faith and Jesus garbage just isn't creative and I think ruins the books.
These are her stories and she can make whatever revelations come to pass that she likes. But that doesn't mean her books are still good and it's more like she's turning senile and her writing is degrading.
D:
~ Russ Bus, Bountiful,Utah
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A little too much Review
4 Stars
Welcome back to the tale of the "Articulate" Vampires! The Vampire Lestat, for once, is not doing the talking, having, in the aftermath of his Dante-esk trek through Heaven and Hell with Memnoch the Devil, gone into a catatonic state in the chapel of Dora's nunnery. And, comatose, even Lestat can't get into that much trouble. So David Talbot, the self-styled historian of the Vampires, is forced to write down the tale of The Vampire Armand instead.
(***Spoilers***) The Vampire Armand is the tale of Armand, aka Amadeo, aka Andrei, from his capture and sale as a mute slave suffering a rather amnesiac case of PTS, to his boyhood love affair with the Child of the Millennia Marius, to, briefly, his time beneath Les Innocents and in the theater where Louis finds him in Interview with the Vampire, to the aftermath of Veronica's Veil. Most of the story is touching, the beginning especially overburdened with tiresome detail for even the most strenuous Rice fan: the moving story of a vampire finding god in his own way. But then Rice takes Armand back into the tales we know of him from Louis and Lestat, seemingly taking this perfect being, fabricating a story to make him "fall", and then bringing him back to his previous perfection with Lestat's finding of the Veil and the help of two seemingly amoral but perfect children.
While a tale similar to The Vampire Lestat, The Vampire Armand seems to be a tale rather halfway thought through, with two hundred years or more skated over by a vampire of the same name but utterly different charector, who then returns for a rather bizarre redemption. I've yet to even comprehend the purpose of the last 200 pages of the book. Borrow, don't buy, unless you're utterly enraptured with Rice.
~ Nicole Loew,
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Partially Fantastic
4 Stars
I came across this book completely by accident - I had no intention of reading any book of the Vampire Chronicles after finishing Interview, becuase I thought it was way too far fetched. I especially disliked the plot of Memnoch, because it went more than just a notch too far - it was completely mentally unbalanced. But, having come across this intriguing installment regarding one of my favorite characters, I decided to give it a shot.
While reading the first part of "The Vampire Armand" I was simply hooked - I found myself fascinated by 15th Century Venice and Armand's intriguing and erotic relationship with the astounding character of Marius. I read it whenever I could and loved it; I thought it was a brilliant story about love, life and guilt, rather than a 'vampire' story, especially in the moving segment where Armand returns home and meets his parents once more. I was sure to name the book one of the best I'd ever read until I got to Part 2. Having read the glorious part 1, ending with a rather enigmatic and dark tone, I felt I can't wait to find out what happens next. However, I was very disappointed. We had returned to bizzare Vampire stories. The revelation of the plot Claudia had with Armand completely ruined her character and her death for me; it was just plain ridiculous. I couldn't care less about the blood of Christ and so on and so forth and all of those depictions of Hell and Heaven. The image of Lestat's torn eye disgusted me. In short, I felt the second and third parts were terrible, uninteresting, and disgusting. But, since the first part is still the majority of the book, I'll have to give it four stars, for a splendid, moving and touching beginning. I am also certain that I will not read any other Rice books from now on.
Highly recommended if you liked Memnoch the Devil... Highly recommended to just skip Parts 2 and 3 if you didn't.
~ S. Migdal, Israel
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Nice overview, but not her best work.
3 Stars
The Vampire Armand is a great book for people who haven't read the rest of the Vampire Chronicles. For those that have, it is a more in-depth version of the story that Lestat has already told about Armand. This takes up about three-fourths of the book.
The remainder is a rather engrossing tale that describes Armand's struggle to find his faith again, and how the Veil of Veronica effected him so profoundly. This part of the book mimics Rice's other works in her emotional and heartbreaking discussion of good vs. evil.
The expository part of the book that tells of Armand's life from the beginning, is of course full of Rice's characteristic lurid prose and rich, intense environments and relationships. It does, however, somewhat bore those of us who have read the other Vampire books, since we know the story already.
Strongly recommended for those who don't have a background with Rice but certainly not her best work.
~ Tara Hall, Virginia, USA
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