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A review by jnikolova
Pandora by Anne Rice
2.0
I read The Vampire Chronicles and a bunch of other Anne Rice books a couple of years ago and to be honest, I overdosed. It took me around 6-7 years to start another one of her books.
I can never be sure weather I like her style or not. Her ideas are almost always very good, but her writing is lacking. It is a bit over the top and wayyy too melodramatic for me. But nevertheless, there are a few books of hers that I really like, most of all Queen of the Damned, which was so, so inspired. To this day I remember Maharet, Akasha, Rock!Lestat and the rest of the bunch like I have read it yesterday.
Pandora was never one of the characters that I cared much about, she has always been background noise for me. I think the reason behind this might be the fact that before ever starting the books, I watched the QofD movie where she was a weird old lady, not very like her actual description in the books.
But, ultimately, I liked much of the story in Pandora. I have always been a die-hard fan of Ancient Greece, Egypt and the Roman Empire, so it was quite interesting for me, in comparison to Lestat's origin story, which was set much, much later, at a less interesting period. What was it, Classicism? I could be wrong.
Despite liking the story, there was one thing I found extremely annoying, and that was the fact that if you haven't read the Vampire Chronicles, you would be completely in the dark about this. Now, as I pointed out, I read them a while back and by now I have forgotten much of the details from books like Memnoch the Devil, although I remember liking that one in particular. I have no recollection, however, of Armand's story beyond his role in the first three books from the Chronicles. Which means that Pandora felt like another companion book, not like the beginning of another series. It just explains another side of the same story which is part of the Vampire Chronicles. Not to mention the fact that. Pandora is first introduced by Lestat as an ex-courtesan who caught Marius' eye. In the Pandora book though, she explains that Marius was what, trying to keep her virtue by explaining that bitch used to be a hooker? I'm not buying it. I have this nagging suspicion that Rice was simply not planning on writing a book about Pandora so she just came up with a random story. And then, a couple of years later, she was like 'There is still money in our Pandora'. So she wrote an entire book with a completely different backstory under the excuse that Marius, for reasons unknown, made the courtesan thing up. Stop milking it, Rice. Come up with some new characters, why don't you?
Also, the melodrama was at top notch. I mean... Rice's over-the-top love and sex conversations can be a little overwhelming, right?
*** I am once again at crossroads. Maybe I should rate it with three stars. Realistically, I think it is 2.5 stars, but somehow I don't feel right overrating it. ***
I can never be sure weather I like her style or not. Her ideas are almost always very good, but her writing is lacking. It is a bit over the top and wayyy too melodramatic for me. But nevertheless, there are a few books of hers that I really like, most of all Queen of the Damned, which was so, so inspired. To this day I remember Maharet, Akasha, Rock!Lestat and the rest of the bunch like I have read it yesterday.
Pandora was never one of the characters that I cared much about, she has always been background noise for me. I think the reason behind this might be the fact that before ever starting the books, I watched the QofD movie where she was a weird old lady, not very like her actual description in the books.
But, ultimately, I liked much of the story in Pandora. I have always been a die-hard fan of Ancient Greece, Egypt and the Roman Empire, so it was quite interesting for me, in comparison to Lestat's origin story, which was set much, much later, at a less interesting period. What was it, Classicism? I could be wrong.
Despite liking the story, there was one thing I found extremely annoying, and that was the fact that if you haven't read the Vampire Chronicles, you would be completely in the dark about this. Now, as I pointed out, I read them a while back and by now I have forgotten much of the details from books like Memnoch the Devil, although I remember liking that one in particular. I have no recollection, however, of Armand's story beyond his role in the first three books from the Chronicles. Which means that Pandora felt like another companion book, not like the beginning of another series. It just explains another side of the same story which is part of the Vampire Chronicles. Not to mention the fact that. Pandora is first introduced by Lestat as an ex-courtesan who caught Marius' eye. In the Pandora book though, she explains that Marius was what, trying to keep her virtue by explaining that bitch used to be a hooker? I'm not buying it. I have this nagging suspicion that Rice was simply not planning on writing a book about Pandora so she just came up with a random story. And then, a couple of years later, she was like 'There is still money in our Pandora'. So she wrote an entire book with a completely different backstory under the excuse that Marius, for reasons unknown, made the courtesan thing up. Stop milking it, Rice. Come up with some new characters, why don't you?
Also, the melodrama was at top notch. I mean... Rice's over-the-top love and sex conversations can be a little overwhelming, right?
*** I am once again at crossroads. Maybe I should rate it with three stars. Realistically, I think it is 2.5 stars, but somehow I don't feel right overrating it. ***