I started this book right after Interview With A Vampire and found it such a smooth transition. I really enjoyed the way in the first book Louis was the hero and Lestat the villain. It all seemed so simple and easy this way. Lestat writes the second book and everything known within the first book blows apart. This brings the reader into a difficult dilemma. Does Louis stay the Hero of the chronicles or was he completely wrong with his thoughts on Lestat.
The writing is strong as in all of her books. She develops the characters well enough to make them believable. I truly felt that I could sit down and talk with all the characters. Everything about them were described remarkably well. This is what drivers The Vampire Chronicles the ability for readers to relate to the vampires. They are the outcasts. They are in society, but not of society. They belong nowhere and never fit in even with each other.
The story behind this book is very large. I think this is the largest book she wrote and is the first time when the history of vampires is revealed. This book takes the history back to the times of early Egypt before periods. Something like seven thousand years ago and the development of vampires was a demon who was able to take the body of a human. The very old vampires I found truly delightful and believable.
If for example one was to live for thousands and thousands of years what would they be like. Since humans have no possible way of knowing this it makes it somewhat difficult to know if Rice is accurate. Admittedly I was somewhat skeptical if a being this old would take itself out of the would and stand still as stone for centuries. For me it would be impossible to understand a loss of interest in the ever growing knowledge and action of the world.
After thinking a while it came clear that this would be bound to happen. One with even the most dedicated and studious mind who year after year read and participated in all the cultural and artistic events would learn very little actually mattered. If someone was apart from humans and understood everything which humans thought impressive was only impressive to the select species they would grow bored. Every generation has a couple of brilliant minds who tend to impact the population more than others, but in the scheme of the world and especially the universe how important is it that Newton discovered gravity or the Mona Lisa was painted.
Everything we find important has no value. Every discovery or new idea does little, but make the human existence more bearable. The fact is every discovery which has inspired human growth especially medical or architectural has allowed our species to spread across the earth destroying everything in our path. Even the most devout environmentalist if they take part within society has crushing impacts on the earth and the other species. This is simply a fact we choose as a society to ignore and perhaps with enough lifetimes and enough destruction may address in the future.
That is what I would suspect a creature living for thousands of years to think of us. Would they continue to want a place in the world after learning our true nature. I think probably not. This entire post though is of course like all the rest my thoughts and like the majority of thoughts are most likely completely wrong or at least quite off. I recommend this book and the series to any reader who enjoys philosophical thought or thinking of morality and religion.
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