Blood and Gold (Paperback)

~ (Author) "HIS NAME WAS THORNE..." (more)
Key Phrases: other blood drinkers, drunk her blood, young vampire, Mind Gift, Divine Parents, Raymond Gallant (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (2001)
• ISBN-10: 5551151360
• ISBN-13: 978-5551151364
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (199 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,235,028 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I could not put this book down, November 24, 2001

By	Erica Anderson (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blood and Gold (Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

I know when a book by Anne Rice is good or not. If it is good, I am not able to stop reading her book. If it isn't like "Merrick" was, then I will stop reading it altogether. "Blood and Gold" was an irresistable read for me. I thoroughly enjoyed every single page in this new installment of the Vampire Chronicles. I was so disappinted in "Merrick" I didn't even bother finish reading it because the storyline was not very compelling for me to read. To see that Anne Rice picked up where she left off with Armand's story with Marius' story I did not hesitate to pick up "Blood and Gold".

Most Anne Rice fans would know that we were given a brief glimpse of Marius' life in "The Vampire Lestat", the second book in the Vampire Chronicles series. "Blood and Gold" delves further into Marius' past which delighted me since he is one of my favorite characters. The reader is introduced to other vampires other than Mael, Pandora and Armand, like Bianca, Euxodia, and Avicus. "Blood and Glory" shows the anguish that Marius went through with his separation from Pandora. I didn't know that in "The Vampire Lestat" or "Queen of the Damned". In fact he was downright obsessive when he was finally reunited with his beloved Pandora.

Unlike in the stories about Pandora and Armand, Marius wasn't talking to David Talbot, the former Talamasca leader which was interesting. Instead the reader is introduced to a new character by the name of Thorne who was just as old as Maharet and Mekare, the twin sisters from "Queen of the Damned". Thorne wakes up from his sleep in an icey cave and winds up in a tavern talking to Marius, and eventually moving to Marius' house where Marius tells Thorne his life story.

I really enjoyed "Blood and Gold". I rank it as one of my all time favorite books in the Vampire Chronicles. After being disappointed with "Merrick" and somewhat bored (still entertained) with "The Vampire Armand", "Blood and Gold" rekindered my fascination with Anne Rice's popular vampire series. I couldn't put this book down when I first read it.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars We've been here before..., October 18, 2001

By	Sebastien Pharand (Orléans, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Blood and Gold (Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

Blood And Gold is the story of Marius, one of the oldest vampires in the Anne Rice mythology. He's been around since the early days of Rome and he was the creator of the vampires Pandora, Armand and Bianca. He was also the keeper of Enkil and Akasha, the King and Queen of Vampires.

Now, his very interesting story - which spands hundred of centuries - finds it's way to the page. I was very excited to get this book. After all, I wanted to read Marius's story in its entirety for so long! But the problem with the book is that we've seen most of this before. Marius has been a prominent character in many of Rice's books; from The Vampire Lestat to The Queen Of The Damned to Pandora to The Vampire Armand... Rice has already told us a lot about Marius in those novels. We already knew half of his story.

So we end up with Blood And Gold, a book which is half new and half repetition. Everything that happened in The Vampire Armand is retold through these pages. The book isn't very original.

And yet, Rice finds a way to enthrall the readers. Her poetic style of writing is as griping as ever and her tormented Marius is her most complex and interesting vampire after the beloved Lestat. The book does offer the reader many new exciting moments (such as Marius's encounter with Mael and the making of a young female vampire, as well as the destruction of an all-powerful female vampire). So overall, the book is very interesting and very entertaining. It's just too bad that it leaves you with this sense of deja vu.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deja Vampire?, January 31, 2002

By	"zed102" (Chandler, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood and Gold (Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

In "Blood and Gold," readers once again meet a modern-day vampire and then flash back to the past to discover their past. This time around it is the ancient vampire, Marius, who gets the biographical treatment from Anne Rice. Given his age and importance in vampire genealogy, Marius has made many appearances in past Rice novels. As other reviewers have noted, this leads to some retread over material covered earlier in the series. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We are given a new perspective (or is it revisionist history?) and also a refresher course for those of us who read the original stories many years ago.

Overall, "Blood and Gold" is a slight improvement over more recent installments of "The Vampire Chronicles." While Marius clearly takes the crown as "king of vampire angst" in this volume, he is a much more bearable character than he was in "The Vampire Armand." Rice adds more pieces of the puzzle as Marius travels across Europe through the centuries and deals with the usual dysfunctional relationships with his fellow immortals. After the leisurely exploration of Marius' life, the ending seems a bit rushed. We are given a "Cliff Notes" recap of Marius' storyline from "The Vampire Lestat" and "Queen of the Damned" and then catapulted back to the present day for some vampire vigilante justice.

Ultimately this is another mixed bag for Rice fans (those who have not read Rice should definitely not start here). With all the groundwork already established, it seems an impossible task for Rice to ever write a "Vampire Chronicles" that is equal in energy and excitement to the earlier installments. But not unlike her protagonists' thirst for blood, Rice aficionados' desire for new/more tales are likely never to be quenched.