Old Friends

[viridian5]

Talking about Anne Rice’s recent conversion to “writing for the Lord” led me to thinking back on my old love for the first few Vampire Chronicles books and thoughts about Louis, whom I’m still fond of even though I belonged to a subculture that wanted to be vampires and looked more toward Lestat.

I’m dealing more with Interview With the Vampire,

Comments

[ann89103]

Amen. Lestat can be fun, but Louis is (for me) the more interesting character.

I can so relate, I liked the first four books, but was truly appalled by some of the events in Tales of the Body Thief. That should have been my warning to stop reading Rice's books there, but I stupidly kept at the next few, much to my regret. Sadly, my fave characters (Louis and Daniel) are some of the ones she ruins in later books.

I fondly recall reading the Poppy Z. Brite books, though the only one I completely admire and would go back to is Drawing Blood.

I rather like the Kim Harrison books, at least the two that I've read. Haven't gotten to the latest one yet. They're similar to the Anita Blake books, but without the overwrought, yet boring sex scenes.

[viridian5]

I like Drawing Blood but Brite lost me at the "let's do 'shrooms in the homicidal haunted house" section because WTF? When characters do something that willfully stupid they lose a lot of my empathy.

I've never read Kim Harrison. I liked the first few Anita Blake books until it became "kinky" porn with a Mary Sue.

[ann89103]

That's understandable. I think I just liked the characters in that book more.

Kim Harrison... it's early in the series, so of course it can go horribly wrong, but she has some interesting characters to work with. I need to pick up that third book. Plus, her stories are all paperback, which is much cheaper!

The Anita Blake series was a good idea gone very, very wrong. At least Edward hasn't been horribly ruined... yet.

[viridian5]

I'd stopped bothering with the series by then but still picked up Obsidian Butterfly for Edward.

[seraphim_grace]

I read the vampire chronicles for fun years ago, and then again for gothic lit and I always got the impression Louis enjoyed his suffering, that he was actually kind of getting off on it and that Lestat knew it and played up to it. When he fed he always gave me the impression of "I really shouldn't have eaten that

[viridian5]

Yes, he can whine. But so can Lestat. I wanted to punch Lestat in The Tale of the Body Thief. OMG, he has to eat and shit and survive colds and use a condom! Surely nobody has ever suffered so much in the history of the world! Except every other mortal who has ever lived. And you did this to yourself because you're an idiot, Lestat. I wanted to punch him.

Rice obviously fell in love with her reimagining of Lestat. She said in an interview once that she saw her husband as Lestat and herself a bit as Louis, which always gave me the shudders.

I've known people like Lestat. I ended up wanting to kill every one of them for their acts of "naughtiness," their cheerful disregard of other people and their feelings, and how everything is always about them. I eventually cut off relations for my own mental health.