Books

[Grefter]

Just quietly, that is the point of chivalry, it is to be that way even when it isn't necessary (with a stronger point of view takes that to mean even when it is unwarranted). 

[metroid composite]

Interview With the Vampire

***minor SPOILERS throughout***


So...the theme of this entire book seemed to be "Man, what's the point?" and towards the end it was more like "Man, what's the point? *slits wrists*"

Overall, I guess I don't really see the point of...much of the stuff in the book myself.  I have to admit that I lose patience with all the descriptions of New Orleans, all the descriptions of paintings.  Can't say I was fond of how it was deliberately not straightforward, either--the book will randomly detail on for paragraphs about these hallucinations, which ultimately seemed to be fairly meaningless.  All these passages that I don't care about kinda reminded me about the parts of Lord of the Rings that made me not keen on it ("I don't care about the forest.")

Rice's version of the Vampire myth is...weird right after reading Twilight.  He gets turned into a Vampire, and then goes right back to running the farm, instructing his sister, and drinks the blood of rats for years rather than humans.  The "moves too fast for the human eye" combat stuff, which was poorly done in Twilight, was somehow even more wishy-washy and vague in Interview.  And the coffins...just seemed a little ridiculous.  All these vampires in rooms with no windows who still feel a desperate need to crawl into coffins.  What did Vampires do before coffins existed, exactly?

Despite the flaws, I was still interested, though (you'll note it took me five days to read it, despite reading a book twice the length in one day...but I've done a lot worse than five days too).  I've also heard later books contradict stuff in Interview (which after all is only what Louis knows...and even then is only what Louis is willing to tell the interviewer).  Plus a different perspective might mean less prattling about paintings and architecture.  And a non-interview format will make quotation marks less of a mess.  So...I'm certainly not feeling deterred from continuing the series.

[Grefter]

Pretty much the book (and the whole series) is pretty much "Vampires are just people too!" So that ... pretty much covers the combat stuff, it is kept vague and wishy-washy to keep the feelings of humanity there.

Reading Interview works much better if you remember that this is a book about sexual predators.  So much of the book is STILL Lestat in an amazingly abusive relationship with Louis.  Louis is of course the complete and total submissive in this S&M filled relationship.  Also the stuff with the little girl is either a really effectively creepy inversion of the Pedophile/victim relationship with a whole truckload of Stockholm syndrome piled on or it is just another example of High School Crush being carried to the logical extreme (Also of note is little girl Dom takes on an elder lesbian Submissive and the Dom in the male/male relationship absolutely loses his shit).  The annoying components to read are largely a mish mash of Louis being an untrustworthy storyteller, him being a bit out of touch with the big picture and the fact that again, this is a book that is all about Vampires and how they used to be humans (so why should they do anything other than what they were doing before?). 

The constantly staring at pictures shit is all about infatuation, but Louis is very bad at this whole Vampire thing (and is the submissive), so he isn't really looking for other humans to engage him (and whenever they do it fails miserably, partly because Louis is BAD at this) but he needs some outlet.  So he turns out to be a total art fag.

If you move on to Vampire Lestat you get a more standard first person story telling perspective, a lot more obsession over people than objects and generally a lot more success at anything he undetakes, because Lestat is a bit of a Mary Sue.  You will also continue to have an untrustworthy narrator, because Lestat lies to everyone, himself included, and he is pretty much a creature of pure impulse and indulgence (Pretty much a pure hedonist).

You also get to laugh at the big climax of Interview where they chase off Lestat showing how it was much less a big dramatic fight for life and more of just a really messy break up.

I am going to continue to reccomend you watch the movie though.

[Lady Door]

Penultimate Wheel of Time book has a release date! October 26, 2010!

... time to start re-reading Wheel of Time again, maybe?

[superaielman]

Nah, that's just book 12. We have book 13 after that~!

[Lady Door]

Now you know why I chose the word "penultimate."

[Excal]

I dunno, the whole annual release thing really makes me think Sanderson completely missed the point of the series.  I mean, heck, how many plot threads has he added?  NOT ENOUGH!

[Captain K.]

Ooh, that's on my birthday.  That'll be a nice present.

[superaielman]

Welp. Foot in mouth syndrome go.

Also, Sanderson's releasing the way of kings later this year too. The man really is a freak of nature.

[Shale]

Now you know why I chose the word "penultimate."

Now be quiet, Super, or I shall have to hurt you.

[metroid composite]

The Vampire Lestat

I will now summarize this book

*SPOILERS*

Lestat: "I want to do something cool with my life, like learn to read or become an actor."
Father: "No."
Lestat: *cries*
Mother: *bribes Lestat*

Villagers: "Hey Lestat, the wolves are killing us.  You're the only competent noble, please help us."
Lestat: *kills wolves*
Dad: "I still don't love you."
Mom: "Lestat, I'm dieing.  I also feel guilty about keeping you here--I was selfish, but you're like...the only awesome person in this family.  As my dying wish, go get a life, and take that Nicholas dude with you."

Lestat: "Nicholas, your violin is divine."
Nicholas: "No, it is demonic!"
Lestat: "Divine!"
Nicholas: "Demoniiiiiiiic!  I am evil, evil evil!"

Magnus: "Surprise, Lestat, I'm making you a vampire because you're so totally HOT.  Oh, and I'm leaving you shitloads of money and committing suicide.  Bye now!"
Lestat: "Well, I guess I'll just tell my family and friends that I unexpectedly married rich, and bribe them with money."
Nicholas: "Eeeeeeeeviiiiiil.  I'm so eeeeeeeeeeviiiiiiil.  I'm not sure what happened to Lestat, but I'm sure it's eeeeeeeeeeviiiiiil."

Mom: "Have you forgotten Lestat?  I'm not retarded and can read between the lines.  SURPRISE VISIT!"
Lestat: "Damn.  Well...wanna be a Vampire?"
Mom: "Sure!"
Gabrielle: "I am no longer Mom and now just Gabrielle.  Also my boobs just got bigger--so much for being trapped in whatever form your body held when you changed....  Oh well.  Hey Lestat, let's make out!"

Vampire Street Gang: "OMG, you walked into a church as a Vampire!  You're going to bring down holy judgement on us all!!"
Lestat: *sensually licks a cross* "Look ma, God hasn't struck me down!"
Vampire Street Gang: "Oh.  Cool then, let's disperse."
Armand: "What have you DONE???  How the hell will we pass the time without pointless satanic rituals?  Who will tell me exactly what to do and when?? *cries*"

Nicholas: "Eeeeeeviiiiil.  Hey Lestat, how could you become so eeeeeeeviiiiil and not share it with me?  That's not fair! I should be eeeeeeviiiiiil."
Gabrielle: "Don't, he's a loser EMO-goth, do you really want THAT to live forever."
Lestat: "But, but, I feel sorry for him!" *changes*
Gabrielle: "Idiot."

Nicholas: *EMOFailure*
Lestat: "Good God what have I done.  Umm...here's your violin?"
Nicholas: "Violin...yes, haha, let's put on Vampire plays!!!!"
Gabrielle: "I think that's as close as you will ever get to making his character not fail at life."

Armand: "No, seriously, Lestat, what the hell do I do now that I have no rituals?"
Lestat: "Umm...stop failing.  How did you end up like this?"
Armand: "Well I was raised for years by the smartest, most godless, well-educated, open-minded Vampire out there, but then some savages came and burned him and the house and forced me to join the cult AND NOW I CAN'T DO ANYTHING ELSE.  I still dream about the old dude like he's alive, though."
Lestat: "Wow, really?  That was your upbringing and you're having trouble adjusting?  You fail more than I thought."

Gabrielle: "Unlike the 'moral vampires' Lestat and Louis, I live in the forest and drink the blood of animals."
Lestat: "Wow.  You're so..."
Gabrielle: "Also, I want to make a global organization of Vampires with the sole goal of destroying all human civilization."
Lestat: "WTF, why?"
Gabrielle: "That way there will be more forests with fluffy bunnies!  Everywhere!  Ahahahahahahaha!"

Armand: "I'm over 300 years old."
Marius: "I'm around 1700 years old."
Marius: *opens tabernacle* "THEY'RE OVER SIX THOUSAAAAAAND!!!"
Lestat: "WHAT?  Six THOUSAND?  There's no WAY that can be true!"

Marius: "Also, if you put them out in the sun, all other vampires will be burned because they share the original blood."
reader: "Wait, if sharing blood means sharing the burns, why didn't Lestat die when Magnus jumped in the fire?"
book: *crickets*
Lestat: "Akasha's hot, I want to make out with her."

Lestat: *makes out with her*
Lestat: "After all, if I anger the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh, what's he going to do?  Challenge me to a children's card game?"
Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh: *begins crushing Letstat's head*
Lestat: "Fuck."

Marius: "By the way, don't tell anyone else about them.  Telling people the secret trick to destroy all vampires would be kinda bad."
Lestat: "No prob.  Who am I going to tell, my dad?  Louis, who freaks out so much I haven't even explained the mind-reading?"
Claudia: "What about me?"
Lestat: "Aww, you're so cute when you're innocent!  Yes you are, oh yes you are.  You are such a good girl!"

Lestat: "Armand killed Louis and Claudia.  The world is boring now.  I think I'll go crawl into a hole."
Armand: "Hey what about me?"
Lestat: *crawls into a hole*
Armand: *sigh* "Why does nobody love me?"

Lestat: "Hey, I hear rock and roll, and I think it's awesome!!!  I'm going to crawl back out of my hole now and form a rock band!"
Lestat: "Hey kids, my name is the Vampire Lestat, you're my backup band, and we're going to be famous!"
Kids: "Lestat...oh you mean like that fictional character written by Louis."
Lestat: "What?  Show me!  Now!"

Lestat: "Wow Louis, you broke all the rules.  That's MY job.  I'm going to do you one better by in addition to an autobiography, have music videos and live concerts.  Also, you don't know half the shit I do!"
Louis: "Hi, read your book, cool stuff, let's go to the concert!"
LoserPires: "You must die for what you have done Lestat!!!"
OVER NINE THOUSAND: *incinerates LoserPires* "Hey sexy, I'm back!"



Needless to say...much better than the first book for me.  That was actually enjoyable...especially towards the second half of the book when stuff started getting more and more ridiculous.  It is, however, noteworthy that I still find her descriptions of the mundane part of the universe pretty underwhelming.  It's not like I can't enjoy mundane (I'm a big Jane Austen fan and all that) I'm just not hugely impressed by Anne Rice's mundane.

[Lady Door]

And falling, fly

Unique concept, massive reduction in points due to STEALTH ROMANCE. I could go into a long rant about my irritating with the trend in SF/F to go romance and stick those books in with the rest of SF/F, but I know how genre discussions go here. Suffice to say: HATE. THAT.

So, I wasn't expecting the romance (or, um, the graphic depictions of sex), but the overall concept was kind of nifty. You ever get really disappointed in a book because the idea was stellar but the execution left much to be desired? Yeah. Me with this one.

Am now reading The City & The City, FINALLY. Looking forward to this. Hyped by many authors I respect, plus nominated for a Hugo this year. Plus the cover blurb intrigued me before I even heard any of that stuff. I was just waiting for it to come out in paperback.

[NotMiki]

So, I wasn't expecting the romance (or, um, the graphic depictions of sex), but the overall concept was kind of nifty.

There's an award given out every year, wish I could remember what it's called, for the most unnecessary sex scene in a fantasy novel.

[DjinnAndTonic]

The Vampire Lestat


Needless to say...much better than the first book for me.  That was actually enjoyable...especially towards the second half of the book when stuff started getting more and more ridiculous.  It is, however, noteworthy that I still find her descriptions of the mundane part of the universe pretty underwhelming.  It's not like I can't enjoy mundane (I'm a big Jane Austen fan and all that) I'm just not hugely impressed by Anne Rice's mundane.

...I just don't understand you. How can you rave about Twilight but rag on the Vampire Lestat... I'm just having troubles wrapping my head around this.

[superaielman]

Pride and Prejuice and Zombies- Is bad fanfiction that at least has the good graces to realize it's bad. This puts it ahead of certain other undead related materials that are popular at the moment.

The art style was fantastic, while the rest was lacking.

[Cotigo]

The Vampire Lestat


Needless to say...much better than the first book for me.  That was actually enjoyable...especially towards the second half of the book when stuff started getting more and more ridiculous.  It is, however, noteworthy that I still find her descriptions of the mundane part of the universe pretty underwhelming.  It's not like I can't enjoy mundane (I'm a big Jane Austen fan and all that) I'm just not hugely impressed by Anne Rice's mundane.

...I just don't understand you. How can you rave about Twilight but rag on the Vampire Lestat... I'm just having troubles wrapping my head around this.

From the MC Owners Manual:

Is the MC talking about

A) Math?
B) Programming?
C) The Vijiagame industry?
D) Her own personal experiences?
E) None of the above?

If E, then ignore.  Everything else is probably worth paying attention to.

[NotMiki]

Pride and Prejuice and Zombies- Is bad fanfiction that at least has the good graces to realize it's bad. This puts it ahead of certain other undead related materials that are popular at the moment.

The art style was fantastic, while the rest was lacking.

The main problem with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is that, even with the zombies, it's still Pride and Prejudice, and inherently insufferable.

[superaielman]

You actually read the dialog?

[NotMiki]

My brother read me a couple chapters of it.  I asked him to stop, because Austen.

(for me, Austen dialog hits the "just shut up and get on with it" line very quickly.  Like David Eddings, but without the guarantee that eventually, when everyone stops talking, something will actually happen.)

[Grefter]

Man you guys confuse me.  I always find her takes on things absolutely fascinating.  They can be utterly unexpected which makes it so much fun.  mc makes so much sense and is incredibly logical and at the end of the day still manages to be delightfully human. 

Also what is wrong with ragging on Vampire Lestat?  It isn't like it is good anyway.  It is big dumb and stupid.  It knows it, you know it, Anne Rice knew it.  That is what makes it fun.  Lestat is so over the top that he just revels in it.

The mundane things being boring is part of the whole HEY GUYS MY VAMPIRES ARE HUMAN GUYS thing.  They are boring because they are mundane things, partly so because they are mundane boring things in a book about a ROCK STAR VAMPIRE NIHILIST WHO IS TOTALLY SO POWERFUL HE CAN SURVIVE A DAY IN THE SUN WITHOUT BEING KILLED!!!!  That doesn't make it actually good or well written though.

It is a big dumb stupid fun book, which is EXACTLY what works best with 80s/90s vampire stuff in V:TM, it is exactly the stuff that Troika embraced in Bloodlines.  It knows not to take itself overly serious.  That of course is the biggest complaint most people aim at Twilight.  It is painful, bad stupid and obnoxious and TOTALLY actually a straight love story about an annoying bitch and her creepy abusive stalker boyfriend.

[Hunter Sopko]

They are boring because they are mundane things, partly so because they are mundane boring things in a book about a ROCK STAR VAMPIRE NIHILIST

That must be exhausting.

[Captain K.]

We're referring to MC as "her" now?  I always thought MC was genderless, like a Legendary Pokemon (or a Ditto...).

[AndrewRogue]

We're referring to MC as "her" now?  I always thought MC was genderless, like a Legendary Pokemon (or a Ditto...).

And now I'm picturing MC as a Magnemite with a little bow. Thanks.

[Cotigo]

Man you guys confuse me.  I always find her takes on things absolutely fascinating. 

MC's not a character in a work of literature, and I'm not pretending to be an anthropologist/psychologist.  Fascinating doesn't enter into the equation on this.

[superaielman]

Neverwhere- Blame LD. Just finishing this up tonight. It's been a very enjoyable read- Gaiman's style works well in the short novel format- but any further thoughts will require sleep.