Customer Reviews

Pandora (ABRIDGMENT)

5 star:		(153)
4 star:		(137)
3 star:		(61)
2 star:		(46)
1 star:		(28)

 

 

Wow! I was literally swept off my feet in this entrancing tale. This is Anne Rice at her best. This novel has it all, Romance, Intrigue, and Drama. But best of all, it has History.

Oh, how I love history. From Ancient Egypt, to the Roman Empires and Greek Mythology. It is just beautiful. Anne Rice is a great Historical storyteller. She obviously does meticulous research, and she takes her knowledge and spins a mesmerizing tale of olden times, when people lived life, just for the sake of living.

She writes of an era, when time was abundant. And it was spent with families and close friends, reading, writing and gaining insight into their life. Expanding their minds with philosophy and poetry and just about anything that was within their grasp. When time really did take a lifetime, and it was savored with all its beauty. Unlike now, with time passing by, faster than we can blink.

This is not another novel of a Vampire in Rices collection,this is the story of Pandora. A woman whose mind rivaled that of a scholar, her thirst for knowledge and the meaning of what it is to exist, her main quest in this life. She is a woman who is betrayed, but that will not stop her. She embraces her induction into vampire hood, because this way, she can savor her love of life and feel it all the more.

This is an exceptional book. My only regret is that it ends too soon. I would have gladly lived with Pandora for a thousand more pages.

Reading amazon.com costumers'reviews, one tends to often be confused with so many different opinions, so this time I've taken the task of making one myself. I'm familiar with all the Vampire Chronicle books, and what you can expect from Pandora is an encounter with the early history of Marius and Pandora, in journeys that will take you throught Rome, in it's splendeour, and some other countries as well. The one thing I can advise to Rice fans, is that never start reading one of her new books expecting to read another The Vampire Lestat. All of Rice's books are different, specially now in this new phase. Pandora is a rich book, very rich in history and it's also very well structured, on context issues. I highly recommend it for those who love history ( specially the Roman Empire ) and worship Rice's dark avengers.

I remember the feeling I had seeing an advertisement for this book prior to the release date. It was pure excitement. I had just finished reading 'Violin' and 'Servant of the Bones', and was hungry for more Anne Rice.

Pandora came along, and although I was a bit disappointed at first to see that it was a 'smaller' novel, in reading it I found much more content that I had anticipated.

Pandora's tale, as told in journal form to David Talbot, the self-appointed 'chronicler' of the vampires, is far more romantic than Anne Rice's prior vampire works. Pandora's childhood infatuation with Marius, which grows into genuine love as Pandora becomes a young woman, is every bit as heartfelt as Armand's infatution with Marius in the following vampire chronicle, The Vampire Armand.

The historical realization of this novel, set in ancient Rome and Antioch, is a departure of sorts from the other vampire tales. While the novels based upon the tale of Lestat tend toward a more religious exploration, this 'new tale' reveals more of Marius, and entices Anne Rice fans to want more of him. Pandora receives the 'dark gift' from Marius, after an attack from another vampire, who seeks to kill Pandora as revenge on Marius, for keeping the King and Queen of the vampires hidden away from him. Through 'Pandora' it is clear that Marius is a force to be reckoned with, and hopefully the stage is set for a future novel of his own.

Although this novel is Pandora's tale, so much of it is wrapped up in the tale of Marius that it is easy to lose the focus. However, Pandora is a strong heroine for Anne Rice, developed from an 'in passing' character from Queen of the Damned, and a very entertaining read.

Although Anne Rice's book Pandora is placed into the category of "The New Vampire Chronicles", many of the main characters in the book were very familiar to me as an old Anne Rice fan.

The heroine, Pandora, was mentioned extensively in 'Queen of the Damned', which was Rice's mid-eighties third installment of the original Chronicles. Pandora's lover Marius was a main character in Rice's second Chronicle, 'The Vampire Lestat', as well as making appearances in 'Queen of the Damned'. I would suggest both of these books as appetizers to 'Pandora'.

'Pandora' introduces us to many new beings, both human and non-human, as it leads the reader on a journey through ancient Rome, Egypt and Greece.

I was completely taken by this book, and must admit that it is probably my favorite of the books that Rice has written so far (just began 'Merrick' today). Rice brings ancient Rome to life in all it's perverted glory. Lovers doomed to darkness, Pandora and Marius, are romantic as well as confounding. The book holds enticing secrets both new and old.

Never a dull moment lies within the pages of 'Pandora', and readers both familiar and unfamiliar with Rice's characters should have no problem following along.

Sometimes when an author let's a character be an idealized version of themselves, it is poison. Other times it is brilliance, as in Hemingway's work. In my opinion Pandora is brilliance.

It's true that anyone who has listened to Anne Rice be interviewed will hear similarities between her and Pandora, but she still manages to give Pandora that measure of independence that sets her apart as a rounded character.

Having read some of the negative reviews here, I think some might be morning the less-than-happy ending without judging the beauty of the writing as a whole.

Here we have Anne Rice taking chances, rather than a torture soul, we have a vampire who laughs out of something other than malice.

In fact, Anne seems to be expertimenting with humor and pulling off like a pro. Of course, Kate Reading's delivery deserves some of the credit, but Anne's writing is in full bloom.

Also, the book has just enough independence from the rest of the Vampire Chronicles that it can be appreciated as a fantastic novel in its own right. You don't have to have read 8 other books before this one. Sure there are allusions to The Vampire LeStat and Memnock the Devil, but these are not so lengthy that a reader would feel in the dark about the story.

Perhaps, best of all, I really got the feeling that the writer was actually having fun writing it. Often authors suffer for their craft and feel the need to share that suffering with their readers. In Pandora, if there was suffering than it was well hidden.

On a personal note I have to admit I bought this unabrdige audio book years ago and listen to it at least twice a year. It is one of the jewel of my collection and I hope after reading this review, Pandora will be one of yours as well.

YES, Interview With the Vampire was great, YES, Vampire Lestat was excellent, Queen of the Damned awesome etc... But so is this novel. I've read many of the reviews, and was a little stunned by them, the reason given so often why this book was a disappointment was it wasn't the SAME as the other books. I love Lestat just as much as any die hard Anne Rice fan, but the key to this novel is in the title NEW TALES OF THE VAMPIRES.

This novel is really good if you let yourself grasp the idea that it is a story you haven't read before. The details are wonderful and the story is interesting.

I found it refreshing after Memnoch the Devil, which by the way Lestat was in.

Contrary to what appears to be popular opinion by many others who have added their comments here on Amazon, this latest installation in the Vampire Chronicles is not the harbinger of Anne Rice's return as a great writer. Indeed, not. She's still floundering.

As one other person mentioned already, I can't understand why Rice chose to focus so heavily on Pandora's human existence when this woman lived as a vampire for a couple of millenia. Not that Pandora's human history wasn't entertaining (even though, at times, I felt like I was being lectured to about ancient civilizations (why did I need to know that "garum" is Roman ketchup???)), but what happened in between her rebirth as a vampire and the Pandora we met in Queen of the Damned? How did she get hooked up with the Asian vampire who ended up combusting in the Himalayas? Are we to assume that Pandora simply decided to take up needlepoint after a while and just didn't have much to tell about her vampiric years? Reads like a half-written book to me. Actually, all of Rice's books are starting to read that way, so I don't know that I'm really surprised.

And, of course, Rice has once again fallen back on her old standby of making every notable character in the story unbelievably beautiful, even before they got their vampire makeovers. Heavens forbid that any of Rice's hero(ine)s should suffer a pimple or (gasp!) split ends.

The only truly interesting items I pulled from this story had to do with two vampires other than Pandora and Marius - those being Lestat and Armand. According to Pandora, Lestat is lying in a catatonic state somewhere in New Orleans (to which I'm sure many who have visited N.O. can relate...). And, she also mentions that "one who was believed gone from us is now apparently known to have survived." Sounds like Armand didn't manage to put himself entirely out of commission when he decided to sunbathe on the steps of St. Patrick's Cathedral.

Here's hoping that Rice manages to lose the pedantic tone and finds some more gripping inspiration by the time she finishes the last rewrite of Armand.

It took me a while to get into "Pandora", because of the stilted manner in which the story is told. Pandora (introduced as "The Goddess Pandora" in Anne Rice's earlier "Queen of the Damned", the third book of the Vampire Chronicles) doesn't just tell her life story. She recounts it, in journal form, for one-time old psychic detective (and now young immortal) David Talbot, at his request. For the first several pages, Rice is basically clearing her throat, and Pandora expands on how wonderful it is to be alive... yet ... not alive, while admiring Talbot's impossibly well-sculpted physique.

Then we get into the story. We meet Pandora as the enlightened, trouble-making daughter of a patrician Senator in Augustus Caesar's Rome, and how her family is brought to ruin by the back-room dealing of one of their own. Pandora escapes to the ancient East, but then the dreeams begin. Blood dreams.

What follows is that the dreams intensify, and Pandora's efforts to assert herself as an independent woman of means in Antioch are complicated both by the presence of a familiar traitor, and the confusing lust for blood. Also in the mix is Marius, a hunky family friend who's now stronger, paler, and only visible at night. The two stories dovetail in what appears to be just 24 hours of real time. When the inevitable happens to Pandora, it's not a tragedy at all: immortality proves to be what she wants and embraces, even if she's not calling her own shots.

The writing, if you gloss past the Talbot prologue, is crisp and filled with a nouveau sort of "historical realism". Rome is presented as you don't really get it in certain modern histories -- it's taken as a positive development that the Christianity is stripped away and the pagan religions remain intact,. Certain characters are still prone to making speeches that last seven or eight pages, which you just have to take as a given in Rice's world and accept with a sigh.

"Pandora" doesn't so much create new myths in the world of the vampires, as it rather expands on the old ones and colors the borders a little bit. It is nice, however, to get a Rice heroine who's more interested in being alive than dying, and who embraces the eternal night with an elan usually reserved for characters on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer".

Firstly, if you haven't read Interview w/ a Vampire or the Vampire Lestat - this is not the place to start. While the narrative of Pandora stands largely on itself - they are numerous mentions of all past books and plot lines.

What surprised me about this book is that 80% of it is about Pandora's (2000 yr old Roman vampire) life growing up in Rome. In fact, if it weren't for the fact that I enjoy Roman history - I probably would have abandoned this book half way thru. Also, it would not surprise me to find that Anne Rice's historical research was limited to Robert Graves' I, Claudius. It reads like a sort of Cliff's Notes for that excellent book (and excellent PBS miniseries it was turned into.)

I was disappointed that the book was so short. Once Panadora becomes a vamp, the book is essentially over. We find very little about her life between becoming a vampire (around 10AD) and the modern day. She skips over those 2000 with a flourish of her hand. A pity. If I were Anne, I would have shortened the Roman history and shown a few chapters of her life thru the ages. Also, since when did her Vamp's become such nice noble creatures? Marius and Pandora only drink the blood of "evil-doers." Such prattle.

So, if you want another Vamp book and are REALLY TIRED of Lestat, this is an ok read - otherwise... I hope you didn't acutally read this entire review to figure out its a fairly boring book.

I've loved Ann Rice's writing from the beginning and have read all her works (with the exception of Servant of the Bones and Violin which I couldn't bear to finish). The quality of her work has slowly degenerated since Taltos, and Pandora is one of her poorest efforts. The book reads like a sales pitch for her other novels and repeats much info found in previous books. The references to other works is confusing for those who haven't read them and not neccessary for those who have. I agree with others who note she seems to be repeating information to pad a weak story. There were one or two glimmers of the style and imagination that made Ann Rice novels thrilling, but alas, they quickly vanish leaving a weak, unsatisfying and seemingly unfinished novel. I think in the future, I'll save my money for authors who have something interesting (and new) to say.