I’ve never read anything by Anne Rice, but I might read this one:
I never could make it through “Interview With a Vampire”.
Most boring vampire book EVER.
I waded through one, don’t even remember the title.
Boring, and never read another.
I’ve heard her interviewed several times, most recently yesterday on NPRs Studio 360. She seems a very disturbed and strange woman.(not in an intresting way)
I usually like these type books-but not her’s.
I slogged through the first one, which left me flat. Really, a not-terribly-interesting book. It went on and on about the same things, over and over. In a weirdly disturbed, yet somewhat silly, manner. I kept waiting for her to get on with things, to cook up some plot, to give those vampires a purpose! Or at least something to do.
Tried another, but didn’t get through the first chapter. Same old stuff, only more of it. Really boring.
Then, in a fit of inspiration, thinking that since it went on and on about the same things, over and over, the vocabulary would be limited, I tried the first one in French. I rolled over and died of boredom somewhere in the middle of the third or fourth page.
Vampires? I’ll stick wid Buffy. 
Im not much of an Ann Rice fan, but Ill have to dissagree with you on this one. Interview with the Vampire was wonderful. Id have to say, “Much better then the movie!”. However I hold the same view of The Queen of the Damned as you do of Interview with the Vampire, harrifyingly boring.
I read the first four Vampire Chronicles and three of the Mayfair Witch series. I started getting tired of it after awhile. My oldest daughter is an avid fan of the whole Vampire series.
I agree with Cowtime that Anne Rice does seem to be a little disturbed. My wife read her “Sleeping Beauty” series. It’s comparable to the Justine and Juliette by Marquis de Sade.
After reading the article I may have to take a look at her new book after all.
I liked the first Mayfair Witches - but that’s because I liked all the details about how houses were built in the Garden District of Nawlins. The last couple of chapters were a little too over the top, however. Haven’t found the other 2 yet, so I have no idea if I’ll find them as disappointing as the Vampire thing became - I think I got through the first 2 or 3 of them and said “forget it”.
By the third Witch book I got bored. Not only that but it seemed like the whole flavor began to change. I can’t explain it but it lost it’s original appeal.
If you’re into the vampire thing, The Historian (Elizabeth Kostova) is an interesting novel. It could use some editing to shorten it by about 1/3, but the story is good.
Bram Stoker’s original Dracula is still terrific. You have to get used to the florid Victorian prose but Stoker really develops the story in an interesting way with the whole thing being made up of diary entries from various characters, newspaper clippings and the like. Dracula himself is “offstage” for the vast majority of the novel, but you learn about what he’s up to indirectly. Well worth reading as Halloween approaches. My uncle is a writer who’s “dabbled” in the occult, and he sent me a copy of Drac years ago. I go back and re-read it every couple of years, and enjoy it every time.
If you DO get into Dracula, see if you can find a copy of The Annotated Dracula which is a wonderful resource. It has stuff that you’d NEVER think of. For example, it plots the entire story out for you against a calendar of the actual dates and you can see that the entire action of the novel rises and falls with the phases of the moon. Early on in the novel, Jonathan Harker has a certain dish at a Carpathian inn and makes a note that he must get the recipe for his fiancee: The Annotated Dracula gives the recipe.
ok,ok - since we’re talking vampires and such…
Who was a “Dark Shadows” fan???
(waving hand wildly in the air…)
I read the first four Vampire Chronicles books and lost interest(of course, then again, I read them when they’d first came out, wow, doesn’t seem like it was that lon ago) …tried to read other works of Rice’s but could never really get into them…
If you like occult topic novels, like Paul gives examples of, there are much better authors out there.
I love Christopher Moore’s book, Lamb](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380813815/002-7818198-4899252?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance%22%3E%5Bu%5DLamb): The Gospel According to
Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal. It is a book about Jesus’s early life
by an author who doesn’t usually write such (Chris Moore writes very
funny fiction which is sort of a sendup to horror novels). When I heard
about the new Anne Rice novel, I thought, “Hm. It sounds like Lamb
without the humor.”
I’ll probably read it, though I’ve never heard good things about Rice as
a writer. I’ll warn you, Cran, if you are at all disturbed by the Infacy
Gospels, these books will probably bother you somewhat (but I think
shaking up one’s status quo is a good thing). Christ strugling with
his humanity is difficult for some people to wrap their preconceived
notions around. I’m glad authors are finally able to explore that
without too much backlash.
Bram Stoker’s book is the Definitive vampire book. I’ve read it a lot of times. In fact I’m about due. Fred Saberhagen wrote a great book called “The Dracula Tape”. A hilarious retelling of Stoker from Dracula’s point of view.
I loved that book, too! I can’t hear James Earl Jones’ voice without cracking up since I read that book!!
I bet you confuse people while watching Star Wars.
That’s why it’s so funny - Noah is a walking Star Wars encyclopedia, has watched the movies SO many times I think he has all of the dialog memoried. Has the 12" figures, the 4" figures and the micromachine sized ones. Has almost all the books.
So - whenever I hear that distinctive breathing - I yell “It’s GOD!”
ME, me me!! 
I always thought Barnabas should have married Angelique instead of Josette in the first place! (This is totally incomprehensible to people who never saw the soap opera we’re talking about. 
)
I kind of liked “Interview with the Vampire” but got bored with the others, although I slogged through them. It helps being able to get the books for free from my husband’s used book store. I always felt Anne Rice put a lot of religion in her books anyway, and I don’t think I’ll go out of my way to look for this new one.
Funny thing is, even before I read the book, I always pictured God
sounding like James Earl Jones. Jones just has that deep, knowing
voice. Perhaps that’s why they use it on CNN intros…