From: "Reggie Bautista" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Killer Bs Discussion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: Science Fiction In General Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2004 15:42:23 -0600
Travis wrote: > Some other series', universes though, that make my top ten > are as follows: > > -The Vampire Chronicles/Mayfair Witches (same Universe) - Anne Rice
Hmm. This is a tough one for me. I thought _Interview_ was incredibly interesting but ultimately quite flawed.
Interview is definitely one of the best books of the series. But flawed? How so?
I really enjoyed _Lestat_ and _Queen of the Damned_ (especially the latter),
Lestat was IMO a better book than Queen. But Queen was very good in it's own right. It gave us some "present time" action and events, which was nice. But the funny thing is that all the people I know who have read Queen didn't like it very much. They think it was too jumpy. And I have come to realize that indeed it was/is. However when I read it I had an advantage, as I had read some of the later books before reading Queen, thus giving me enough information to coherently break down that book.
>liked _Tale of the Body
Thief_ a whole lot,
Body Thief was like unto an easter egg for Rice's fans. VERY funny, entertaining, and it introduced us to new concepts within that Universe.
and thought _Memnoch the Devil_ was the best in the series (in fact, I think it's probably the second best book Ann Rice has written, behind only _The Violin_).
Personally I wouldn't go that far with it, as it deviated from the series a little. However it is a great book, one that stands alone in Rice's works as pure genious. Besides, Lestat (our favorite anti-hero) needed a new foe.
But my reaction to all of the Vampire Chronicles books since then can be summed up in one word; "Eh."
I cannot agree with you there. Especially when I consider Armand to be one of the best books she has written. Blood & Gold, the story of Marius was simply fascinating. As was Vittorio, one of "The New Tales..."
The only disappointments were Pandora, which is pure filler, and Blackwood Farm, which was only mildly disappointing.
I thought
the first Mayfair Witches book was ok, but haven't much liked the ones since
then.
I love the Mayfair series.
I think even _The Mummy: or Ramses the Damned_ was better than any of the Mayfair books.
I havent read any of her stand alone's. Including Violin which you asked me about.
I just find it hard to connect to them for some reason,
I see where your coming from. The Mayfair characters are more alien than the Vampire characters. But I think this is Rice's intention. As a matter of fact it's quite blatant. The Vampires are her way of proverbially describing the outsider in all of us, which is quite human. And the Witches are in many ways the anti-thesis of the Vampires.
> -The War Against The Chtorr - David Gerrold
This series is in my "to read someday" list but it doesn't look like I'll be
getting to it anytime in the next year or two.
Reggie Bautista
I highly recommend that series, if only for the reason that Gerrold has managed to create one of the most loveable characters I have ever come across in Jim McCarthy. Of course the series is incomplete, but the four books already published are worth reading.
-Travis
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