The Vampire Chronicles

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The first book
The first book

The Vampire Chronicles is a series of novels by Anne Rice that revolves around the fictional character Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman made into a vampire in the 18th century.

The chronicles have gained a large fanbase since the publication of the first volume in the 1970s. The first five books, which feature Lestat prominently, are especially popular; the later books have been criticized as having lost some of the sparkle and vitality of the earlier works. Most of the books are in first-person perspective (in particular, those 'written' by Lestat), with only a few being in third-person. Interview With the Vampire was made into a 1994 film starring Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt and a young Kirsten Dunst, while portions of The Vampire Lestat and Queen of The Damned both were used for the 2002 film Queen of the Damned, starring Stuart Townsend and Aaliyah. In a recent interview with TIME magazine, Anne Rice stated that she was working with possible ideas for a final installment in her popular series. Assuming that the idea ever came to fruition, it would be written after Rice's current Christ the Lord series is concluded. Rice stated that the book would be a Christian novel, following her return to faith, dealing with Lestat and the Talamasca with a heavy theme of redemption and possible salvation for the vampire hero. Though Rice did not give an official name for the book, she hinted at the name "Angel Time" as a possibility on her website.

Contents

[edit] Books in the series

[edit] The Vampire Chronicles

[edit] The new Tales of the Vampires

[edit] The Lives of the Mayfair Witches

Vampire Chronicles and Lives of the Mayfair Witches had a few crossover novels making Lives of the Mayfair Witches part of the Vampire Chronicles world.

They Are:

[edit] Vampiric properties

Anne Rice's vampires are different in several ways from classic vampires like Dracula. Rice's creatures are not affected by the usual weapons against classic vampires: garlic, crosses, and they cannot be killed with wooden stakes.

They need blood, but in some cases not every night. Human blood is preferred as it is more nutritious, but animal blood can also be drunk. They do not age physically (instead becoming more "statuesque" as they age, developing very smooth, white skin), and in all but a few cases, vampires younger than a thousand years old can usually be killed by exposure to sunlight or fire.

They do not possess stereotypically "vampiric" magical powers, such as changing into bats, but some of the stronger, older ones do have the power to fly. Most of them also have the power to read the thoughts of mortals and weaker vampires. They have other physical abilities: they can move very quickly (faster than human eyes can see), and possess great strength and extremely keen senses. Very old vampires or ones who have been made or strengthened by feeding on blood that is close to the root of the vampiric mother may have additional gifts like the ability to move matter with the mind and the ability to set things ablaze by the force of will. They have many artistic talents, like singing, painting and acting, and a preternatural "understanding" of any type of problem, puzzle or machine. They also have the uncanny ability to almost perfectly mimic anything (movement, playing musical instruments, etc.).

The main characteristic of Rice's vampires is that they are all excessively emotional, sensitive, and sensual, being easy prey to intense suffering and aesthetic passions. They are usually quite attractive, even beautiful, as vampires tend to make fledglings from humans they have grown to love.

The physical changes are apparent-- their eyes become luminous, their skin pale and reflective, their fingernails like glass, and their hair will grow back during their sleep if it is cut. As they lose all natural bodily fluids, they are unable to have children.

In Pandora and The Vampire Armand, David Talbot makes the wry comment that with his entry into the pantheon, vampires have "evolved" somewhat, as David can see spirits, while other vampires such as Armand and Pandora cannot. This can perhaps be attributed, however, to David's limited control over Candomble spirits that he learned as a young mortal man.

[edit] Vampiric gifts

Those who have lived for more than a thousand years are by far the most powerful of the vampires; they are called the Children of the Millennia (including Khayman, Mekare, Maharet, Marius, Pandora, Mael, and Santino). After several hundred years, and depending on the strength of their maker, vampires begin to exhibit special powers, referred to by most of them as "gifts".

  • Mind Gift (the combined abilities of telepathy and telekinesis). This is the ability to communicate and read thoughts, especially of humans, and to move objects with the mind. This gift is used largely to obtain blood - since via telepathy a criminal or amoral human can be sensed, and many of Rice's vampires refuse to feed on the innocent, this allows them to identify their prey. It is impossible for a maker or fledgling to contact each other directly, although in some cases it is possible for a vampire to seek out their master/fledgling by looking through the eyes of those near their fledgling, or by hearing the thoughts of their master/fledgling through others in a relay effect. A vampire of sufficient power or age may also unwillingly 'hear' the thoughts of all the humans within range of this power, leading to an old vampire saying: "If you do not learn to silence the voices, they will drive you mad." Khayman of the First Brood possessed this level of telepathic power, but had trained himself to hear the multitude of thoughts as "one annoying noise." Older vampires may also possess the ability to move objects with the mind, as witnessed through Akasha's destruction of the Elder, or Akasha's habit of opening the doors to the tabernacle, and Marius' opening and unlocking the doors to Akasha's shrine in Blood and Gold.
  • Spell Gift. Mentioned in Blood and Gold and Queen of the Damned, this gift allows a vampire to cloud the mind of a human, bending the human to his or her will. Marius employs the Spell Gift often, especially when employing humans to move Enkil and Akasha to a new location. Armand uses it almost exclusively to draw those who "wish to die" to him.
  • Enhanced physicality and senses. All vampires have superhuman senses(sight, hearing, etc) and strength, and are able do things many times faster than humans can, with little or no effort (for example, her superhuman strength allowed Baby Jenks to handle a large Harley-Davidson motorcycle without difficulty, despite possessing the body of a rather slight 14 year old girl). Eidetic memory from the moment of becoming a vampire seems to be natural, as Lestat tells David in Memnoch The Devil, however, memories of their humans lives, particularly those relating to sensation, fade over the years. They can move faster than the human eye can detect, see in the darkest of nighttime, pick one sound out of even the noisiest area, and raise the volume of their voice to painfully loud levels.
  • Fire Gift. Another power usually only developed by a Child of the Millennia. This gift is known to be possessed by Marius, Akasha, Khayman, Lestat, Mekare and Maharet, and later the vampires Merrick Mayfair and Quinn Blackwood. With the Fire Gift, a vampire can set alight an object or being of their choice, for example, in Blood and Gold, when Akasha destroyed Eudoxia's body by fire, or in the film when she set fire to the vampires in bar and at the concert. The power is only shown to affect vampires or inanimate(and flammable) objects. No vampire has ever been mentioned to set a mortal human directly on fire, as the ability ignites the "changed" blood found within a vampire.
  • Cloud Gift (flight). Depending on the novels or the cinematic depiction, not all vampires have this ability. According to the books, Lestat, though young by vampire standards, gains this ability after repeatedly drinking Akasha's blood. Quinn Blackwood was given the strength to use this gift by his maker, Petronia. Otherwise, flight is a power only exhibited by the Children of The Millenia. Louis, Gabrielle,and Santino are among a few that do not have this gift or are never mentioned having it. Most if not all vampires dislike or even hate flying, as they find it extremely unsettling.
  • Killing Gift. Believed to be possessed by the eldest Children of the Millennia, like most gifts it comes with age. Known holders of this power are Akasha, Marius, Lestat, Maharet, Mekare, Khayman and Mael. This power was originally combined with the Fire Gift in Queen of The Damned, but by Blood & Gold Rice had decided the two powers should be made separate abilities. The exact nature of the power is unknown, but it seems to cause numerous fatal ruptures in the entire cardiovascular system.
  • Immortality. Unless killed by one of the vampire's weaknesses, namely sunlight and fire, or an elder vampire's powers, it is said that they have the potential to live eternally. As they age they become more powerful and slowly their skin becomes whiter, smoother, and more reflective, resembling marble as seen with Akasha and Enkil, Maharet, Mekare, and Khayman. Lestat and Jesse Reeves share much of this ancient appearance due to receiving blood from Akasha and Maharet, respectively. During their immortality, vampires will sometimes go into a kind of hibernation, either because they have become mentally unbalanced from knowing what they have become, or because their surroundings have changed too much for them to cope with. This is hinted to usually happen within 100-200 years of being created, and is mentioned as the "dangerous time" by the elders. Many vampires commit suicide if they continually exist in the world, leading to Marius' telling Lestat that he should live out one lifetime pretending to be human and watching the world change. Maharet is the only vampire explicitly said to have never "gone underground"; she has lived, night by night, for over six thousand years, mainly by keeping the records of her mortal daughter's descendants.
  • Rapid Healing. Vampires are immune to most attacks other than their known weakness and even then are apparently able to heal quickly, especially if they feed or are covered in vampire blood. All vampires can potentially heal from any non-fatal wound, but time and blood are needed. A bullet wound, for instance, would heal within seconds, but serious burns from a fire would require decades, if not centuries, to heal.
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The Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice
New Tales of the Vampires
Cinema adaptations
Characters