Anne Rice

This post is, really, on the Vampire works of Anne Rice, as are several following posts. Her Vampire Chronicles are rather popular, and have many fans, along with some rather...sorted bits of mystery to them. I'll really not get into some of the...off bits of the series, but just a basic breakdown of it. I would like to state that I am not a fan of the novels, but...that's a whole other thing.

Her book series is revolved around several vampires, their experiences, relationships with each other and mortals, and the like. Often, the books are told from the prospective of a certain vampire, for example, in the first novel, by Louis, to a reporter. Something that I found rather refreshing about the series is how the vampire are not shown as some evil, horrid monsters, really...no more evil than people; it shows them as people, with all of the personality and flaws that entails.

Also, the series shows a far different view of the vampire than was shown, in the past. No garlic weakness, water is not an issue, and crosses cannot harm them; in fact, many of them are religious, themselves. Really, they have no true weaknesses, other than typical human flaws, and, for the younger ones, fire and sunlight. The ones that number in the thousands of years, in age, can even reform from ash. They, also, do not age, after turning, but, instead, become more like statues; smooth, hard, pale skin.

What I truly enjoy is the view on being a vampire, itself. For instance, the transformation is not sexual or romantic, or any of that novelist garbage; you get bitten, you turn, and you die...and, like with death, you soil yourself. No glamour or style to it, really...hard to make a soiled pair of pants look sexy, after all. And with these vampires, there are no spells or shapeshifting, no lack of reflection; all a vampire really is is a superbly powerful psychic, with inhumanly powerul speed, strength and agility. That's a bit of background on the stories, and over my next view posts, I'll cover some of the characters, so, enjoy.