The Works of Anne Rice

[Deleted]

I'm with you all, devoured the early books. I'll never forget the excitement and wonder of my 13 year old mind reading IWtV for the first time.

Like Shanmac, I would read them in the summer, because the heat made me feel like I was in NO, Miami, Jasmine, bougainvillea,etc. heh

Her vampire books began it's descent into total suckage when she began to have a struggle with her spirituality. If you notice the characters all seemed to struggle with it too, and the plots revolved around it. Going to heaven, etc. Personally I think something snapped in her menopausal mind. I read her biography and it talked about her religious upbringing and struggles as a girl. It figured prominently as a theme in her life. Damn you religion for taking away this author from us! *shakes fist*

And the Mummy..oh god, what a piece of crap. I was embarrassed for her while I struggled through it. I remember the woman, a virgin having sex with it and the dialog was something like; "Batter down the door, Ramses!"

[Ripley]

And the Mummy..oh god, what a piece of crap. I was embarrassed for her while I struggled through it. I remember the woman, a virgin having sex with it and the dialog was something like; "Batter down the door, Ramses!"

Better, it went, "Batter down the virgin door. I am yours forever."

I can't remember to call to make an appointment to see a doctor, but I remember that POS line from a POS Anne Rice book. Thanks, brain!

[Deleted]

Oh my god...that was it.
As if anyone who say that during sex, even in the 1920's or whenever it was supposed to take place. Horrible.

[Auroranorth]

Eww. That would have me fleeing the room, personally.

[Shanmac]

lurkernan said:

I used to reread IwtV every summer. It's just good reading. But, IMHO, as the series went on, it started to suck (no pun intended). I did, however, love Feast of All Saints. Great book.

If you like that, you should try the Benjamin January mysteries by Barbara Hambly. It's set in the same time period and place, within the free people of color.

I'll definitely check it out. Thank you!

I agree with y'all; her first three Vampire Chronicles books were great, but the series got worse and worse with time (I'm still partly in love with Louis -- what tragic character! Of course, she all but abandoned him in the later books to focus on Lestat. But I'm not bitter. ) Tale of the Body Thief was ... excruciating. I could crap a better book.

My teenage self worshipped her, but I agree, Rice's work started to suck when she started to reexplore her faith. I just checked out her Web site, and ... yech. You pull it up, and "Ave Maria" starts blasting. Just ... no. I'll take the bitter-and-jaded-with-Catholicism Anne Rice anyday.

I did love The Witching Hour and Lasher too. I tend to forget details of books if it's been a logn time since I've read them, but not those. Just amazing.

It's too bad I don't think I'll ever buy a new AR novel again. Oh well.

Damn you religion for taking away this author from us! *shakes fist*

Hee! Yep.

[puretrash]

funwithcats said:

My mother in law just lent me the Sleeping Beauty series last week. I read it, and I'm no prude, but damn they were porny. It was a little much for my tastes, but I still slogged through them. . . by the end I was incredibly bored.

I just looked this Sleeping Beauty thing up on wiki, and damn. This might just be sick enough for me to go get these books right now!

The description from wiki:

Beauty is awakened from her hundred-year sleep by the Prince, not with a simple kiss, but with an initiation into a Satyricon-like world of sexual adventures. He takes her to his kingdom, ruled by his mother, the Queen, and Beauty is stripped naked and trained as a slave and a plaything. The rest of the naked slaves, dozens of them, in the Queen's palace are princes and princesses sent by their royal parents from the surrounding kingdoms as tributes. In this palace they spend several years learning to become obedient and submissive sexual property, accepting being spanked, being publicly displayed, crawling around on their hands and knees, servicing their masters and mistresses, until they return to their own lands "being enhanced in wisdom".

In the palace Beauty meets another slave, Prince Alexi, with whom she copulates passionately. After that he tells her the long adventurous journey he had in the palace. Alexi previously had been a stubborn prince who fought back all the attempts to break him, until the Queen sent him to the kitchen to get him tortured by crude kitchen servants. The punishment Alexi received there was so savage and merciless he began to lose his senses and, after some particularly humiliating training at the hands of a strong stable boy, Alexi became a totally surrendered slave, playing various sexual games at the Queen's commands.

The moral of Alexi's story notwithstanding, Beauty fails to become an obedient plaything, and the first book closes with her being sentenced to brutal slavery in the neighboring village along with other failed slaves.

And this woman is all religious now?

[funwithcats]

Apparently so. I haven't read any of her recent stuff.

[mrpancake]

I really enjoyed Interview with a Vampire, but I HATED The Vampire Lestat, so I just gave up all together. I'm actually not into the genre, so I don't remember why I read it to begin with.

[petals]

I refuse to buy her books so I went to the library and picked something of hers up. Two of her later
works--they didn't have the early vampire stuff, which is what I wanted to read.

I got through about 20 pages of one of the books, never even cracked the other one, and took them back to the library. It was awful. It's like she writes to sound smart. She reminds me of Ivy. It was all pretentious and flowery. I can not tell you how much I hated it. I totally yelled at the book "What is wrong with you, woman?! Why do people let you publish this shit?! You're a hack! Hack!" And then I finished up in the bathroom.

No I didn't. It was a library book. I couldn't take it into the bathroom--but I did yell at it. Stupid book.

[kore]

I own a good many of her books, but I stopped reading them even before then. I think it just became habit. They're all on my shelves, collecting dust.

The first three Vampire books are good reads (especially the first book). It all goes to hell after that in the series.

The Witching Hour, Cry to Heaven, Feast of All Saints, and the Sleeping Beauty Series were her best works.

I have a hard time even going back to some of these books because she let the crazy loose. I can't even look at the Jesus book.

Thank God for Neil Gaiman.