queen of the damned - oh god, GTTFP already!
help me, f'list! i'm about 2/3 - 3/4 of the way through, and this thing is finally starting to annoy me...the bit at the beginning with the domestic stuff between daniel and armand, and the massacre at the rock concert, and the bit with laurent and baby jenks; that was all cool ( Read more... )
:)
the thing about the long-winded descriptions is, not only are they often lengthy distractions from the main plot; they're often thrown in regardless of character appropriateness. for example, i can see lestat or marius caring about the specifics of lavish furnishings, and knowing the exact proper names for such things. but there's a lot of that stuff in the vampire armand as well, which doesn't really belong there, considering that rice herself wrote in qotd that armand is kind of ADD and doesn't really notice those sorts of things; living more in the moment and not processing little details like furniture or decoration (i think her exact wording was that he liked clothes for 'what he thought they meant' instead of what they really meant).
agreed about the female characters too. i read a blurb in rice's coming-back-to-jesus book (called out of darkness, i think?) about how she never really wanted to identify with female characters, because they were often weak or silly. which i can abundantly agree with...but you'd think, with that kind of attitude, that she'd come up with bright, vibrant, original, strong female characters when she had the chance to create them herself. but i guess not. and yeah, gabrielle's the only female character of rice's to have made an impression on me thus far.
re: bowie - the conventional scuttlebutt is that rice based lestat on her husband stan. i can sort of see bowie being lestat in his younger, hippier days when he had the long curly hair; but i like his 'calmer, more mature older man' vibe much better for marius. probably that scene with bowie in the last temptation of christ planted the seed in my head a little; seeing as how marius is supposed to be from ancient rome and all.
Reply
See now that just explains so much. because seriously, one or two female characters turning out to be duds, I can understand. but the vast majority of her female characters, and she's had quite a few through the run of the series were utterly forgettable. I cant even remember most of their names. Makes me sad. That being said, I really liked gabrielle and so of course after the 3rd book she barely ever shows up again in the series, if at all.
Wow her husband? Man I'd have never guessed, cause lestat seemed like such a grandiose character he seems like the sort you wouldnt run into normally. But she must have had a very interesting husband. I agree that older bowie would be a perfect match for marius, he definitely has that "been there done that and I know all the tricks" vibe to him. and OMG bowie in a jesus movie, in roman garb, now I have seen everything. *cracks up*
oh and random but since you mentioned it up thread. I wouldnt recommend tale of the body thief, it was one of her weakest books in the series IMHO. Memnoch was decent though, and it had a semi-interesting female character in it! Dora, the daughter of some former mob dude. Mob dude engages in long philosophical convo's with lestat in the book at some point. Much to my deep irritation. Dora is way more likeable than the lady Lestat meets up with in Body thief though. Also body thief gave me the squicks in several places, if you choose to read it you'll know what scenes I mean.
Reply
Leave a comment