Anne Rice

So as I said, fifteen years ago I hadn’t read much contemporary writing. A friend suggested I read ‘Interview With A Vampire’. I thought it was a great premise, an original take on the historical myth of the vampire. But, I found it a bit slow. Still, I enjoyed it and thought maybe contemporary writers weren’t as repetitious as I once thought they were.

When I picked up ‘The Vampire LeStat’, I was completely taken. Anne Rice had really done it. She created characters that were evil, yet gracious and lovable. LeStat himself is a rogue that we love and hate at the same time. We see Louis and him as the dichotomy of the vampire attitude, if I can use that term. That makes him thus the more intriguing. Then bringing Armand into the picture gives a completely different view. What a freaking great piece of character conflict and difference.

I don’t abide any vampire stories after Rice. She said it all. Everyone else is just a watered-down version of what she wrote. Read them all. There are four or five vampire novels and three or four witch novels. She’s a great developer of characters and a plot master.