The Vampire Armand: The Vampire Chronicles

If you love Anne Rice novels, and love vampire stories, you’re going to love this book.Armand is the most interesting character (next to Lestat) in her stories IMO.

What makes Armand so fascinating is his love-hate relationship with Lestat and Anne Rice has totally satisfied our curiosity and hunger for more about Armand in this 6th book.When Lestat first set eyes on Armand, he saw a face that was "..shining white and perfect, the countenance of a god it seemed, a Cupid out of Caravaggio, seductive yet ethereal, with auburn hair and dark brown eyes.." and a shock came through Lestat which he felt wasn't merely because of Armand's beauty but " the astonishing innocence of his boyish face." There is always a kind of vulnerability about Armand who was rescued from his doomed brothel fate and made a vampire by the powerful Marius when he was barely a teenager. After his accidental stint of heading up an evil coven with Satino, he pleaded to go with Lestat but had to reluctantly accept Lestat's offer to take over The Theatre of the Vampires so he could understand the age he lived in through its literature, music and arts.We have the first glimpse of their love-hate relationship when Lestat came back defeated and almost destroyed by his fledglings Louis and Claudia. He blamed Lestat for coming back to him only for help and not his companionship. After throwing Lestat out, he went back pleading but Lestat's vicious observation was how "delicious it was, the hatred between us, or so I thought. Such unfamiliar excitement, to have him there to ridicule and despise." To Armand, Lestat is "..not a bad friend to have, and one for whom I would lay down my immortal life, one for whose love and companionship I have ofttimes begged, one whom I find maddening and fascinating and intolerably annoying, one without whom I cannot exist."In time, Armand has lived his life time with Louis, Daniel and created the luxurious fantasy on earth, the splendid "Night Island" and went to Christ and back. But Armand has always been an abandoned child.This 6th Vampire Chronicle devotes entirely to Armand and begins with his needs to be around Lestat who now lay motionless on the chapel's marble floor. David Talbot, the scholar vampire manages to persuade Armand to tell his story with him writing it down.There is no adventure like Armand's adventure which is absolutely absorbing and thrilling all the way through with Armand sharing his intimate thoughts with us. It takes us right from the beginning when Marius made him a vampire and named him "Amadeo" the Beloved of God, to the hitherto unbeknown grotesque details of Claudia's last moments at his blundering hands, to the happy ending of all his love returned, by his Master, Marius, his companion, Louis and his much loved Lestat and most of all by his "children" Sybelle and Benji who love him as no one has ever loved him.

When I first started this review, I had all intention of rating it 5 stars. It's one of my favorite books of all time. It inspired months of obsession with Armand. The prose is amazing and beautiful, luscious and sensual. Armand spends half the book mortal, so there is more sex and exploration of relationships with those around him. I loved it, and it's one of the very few novels in my life I can bear to reread and still experience the warm fuzzy feelings and the sheer satisfaction I had felt when I first read it. I can't express enough how much I love this. The writing was addicting, and it's fulfilling to me because it's added more depth to my favorite brooding vampire (second to Louis). While there is much to love, it isn't perfect. I still *wanted* to give it a 5 star rating, though, because of the rich imagery, the character development of Armand, the exploration of relationships, and the fact that Armand didn't die in Memnoch (which I really didn't think he did, anyway. It was so low-key, I figured he probably had a change of heart at the last minute)--all of which Anne Rice handles with poise and a slight flair for the dramatic. But because of the issues I took below, I settled on 4 stars.The key to The Vampire Armand is to acknowledge that this is more akin to The Vampire Lestat than Queen of the Damned, Tale of the Body Thief, or Memnoch the Devil. It's the story of how Armand came to be the Armand of legend, obviously in more detail than in Interview with the Vampire and the Vampire Lestat. It's not exciting in the traditional sense where Lestat is off saving the world. The focus is narrower, pinned down to the whys and hows of the character Armand.Anne Rice spends a lot of time developing the relationship between Armand and his Maker, Marius, against the vivacious backdrop of Renaissance Italy--most specifically in Venice. I would have preferred if she had spent more time here, but that's just the glutton in me. I loved all the passion and art...Renaissance Italy really comes alive under Rice's pen, but if you've read any other of her works, that wouldn't come as a surprise.The problem is that she doesn't really go in detail about any other aspect of Armand's life. Primarily, I thought it was because maybe she didn't want to be too repetitive, but when I read Marius's story in Blood and Gold, I realized she didn't care about being repetitive. Perhaps it's because Rice likes to describe luscious and rich scenes but when Armand becomes the leader of the coven in Paris, he denies himself all worldly splendors. Or maybe because she thought Armand would be less sympathetic by detailing this period of his life. Either way, I feel like this was a huge opportunity--and as it accounts for most of his life, I would say it's significant to his character development. I was disheartened we got only a glimpse--and a disturbing one at that--of the cataclysmic affect Louis had on Armand. We only got enough to hear Armand denying he had anything to do with Claudia's death (despite admitting to it directly in Interview with the Vampire). To avoid too many spoilers, I won't go into detail in that page. Yes, the entirety of the magnetism between Louis and Armand and Armand's total transformation and renewal of the love of life was compressed into one page. Again, Rice skimped out on the lush details of Armand's transformation from Marius's child to the master vampire he is in modern times. And what about when Armand created Daniel in Queen of the Damned, isn't that significant all things considered? I don't even think Daniel's name was mentioned at all in the entire book.My other problem with this novel is the issue of Marius's character. Okay, so I'm in love with Armand and Marius. I didn't want their time together to end, and the fact that I knew it would made me treasure it all the more. What I had a problem with was a strange scene between them--and I use "strange" because it felt as if it didn't belong at all--where Marius so utterly loses his cool and smiles about it. Now, the Marius we know is even-tempered and wise, and while I can understand why Marius would violently explode (I can think of anger at being disobeyed, jealousy, hurt, the realization that Armand might not happy with him forever, or any number of possibilities), I don't see his relatively temperate and peaceful nature being okay with hurting Armand and not ever addressing it. In fact, this violent episode isn't even mentioned or alluded to at all in Blood and Gold. It's so out of character for him. And that's not all. His little act at the end of The Vampire Armand concerning Armand's "children" is so utterly contrary to Marius's core beliefs, it's just horrifying. Marius was one of my absolute favorite characters (behind Louis and Armand), but my adoration of him really took a blow in this book. Especially when he mentioned how Louis wasn't a worthy companion to Armand (what!!!). I think he should have said Armand wasn't worthy of Louis's grace and profundity, rather.All in all, I love this book. It's one of my favorites despite a few point flaws. Worth buying, worth reading. If you like to explore the dark recesses of a character's soul, this is definitely for you.

Anne Rice is the greatest.....IContinue to read all her books

mysterious blotches on some of the pages, but it’s still readable. lucky the ink didn’t distort any of the words!! as u can see from p.283+284

Realmente las películas noble hacen honor a este personaje

Really looking forward to re-reading this one... Perfect travel size over my large print

This is easily my favourite so far. I just cannot get over how precise and detailed her writing is. Armand is one of my favourite characters as is Marius and their story.

il libro è arrivato consumato, con copertina rovinata, e le pagine ricoperte da una muffa spessa e bluastra nell'angolo in basso a destra. impossibile da maneggiare. ci sarebbe voluta una tuta hazmat per le armi batteriologiche. restituito immediatamente.

Ce livre est magnifique et super bien emballé