Pandora by Anne Rice
Series Name: New Tales of the Vampires
Volume Number: 1
Genres: Historical, Horror, Supernatural, Vampires
Intended Age Group: Adult
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Edition: Hardcover
ISBN: 0-375-40159-8
Rating: 2/5
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Description from the Book
Anne Rice, creator of the Vampire Lestat, the Mayfair witches and the mazing worlds they inhabit, now gives us the first in a new series of novels linked together by the fledgling vampire David Talbot, who has set out to become a chronicler of his fellow Undead.
The novel opens in present-day Paris in a crowded café, where David meets Pandora. She is two thousand years old, a Child of the Millennia, the first vampire ever made by the great Marius. David persuades her to tell the story of her life.
Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to recount her mesmerizing tale, which takes us through the ages, from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. She carries us back to her mortal girlhood in the world of Ceasar Augustus, a world chronicled by Ovid and Petronius. This is where Pandora meets and falls in love with the handsome, charismatic, lighthearted, still mortal Marius. This is the Rome she is forced to flee in fear of assassination by conspirators plotting to take over the city. And we follow her to the exotic port of Antioch, where she is destined to be reunited with Marius, now immortal and haunted by his vampire nature, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift as they set out on the fraught and fantastic adventure of their two turbulent centuries together.
Personal & Info
This month (October, 2024) is my first time trying any Anne Rice novels. At this point, this is only the second. I might try more if I come across them, but I likely won’t go looking for them.
While this is not directly part of Anne Rice’s series, The Vampire Chronicles, it is associated with it. I haven’t read that series, so I’m basing my knowledge on what information I have been able to gather. The events and characters mentioned in chapter one are supposedly relevant to The Vampire Chronicles, but you do not need to be familiar with any of it to understand the meat of the book.
The New Tales of the Vampires series only has two volumes. The second book is Vittorio, The Vampire. I have no intention of reading it, but now you know what to look for if you do.
Content Warnings
You can expect the story to include or mention things that were normal in the historical time period in which the book is set. These include things like slavery, rape, grooming, and pedophilia.
Characters
Pandora is the main character. Her birth name is Lydia, and ever since her childhood, she’s always been smart and well-read. She is a citizen of Rome and daughter of a Senator. Her father, the Senator, is Maximus. She has five older brothers, two of whom are Lucius and Antony. I don’t recall any mention of names for the other three.
Marius is a friend of Pandora’s father, Maximus. He is a traveling scholar from a nation of people the Romans consider barbarians. He is also the only man Pandora has ever truly loved.
Flavius is a philosopher and scholar. He has an ivory leg, and has been a slave all his life.
David is the vampire who asks Pandora to write her memoir, and therefore, the recipient of her narration. There is another David in the story with a son by the name of Jacob, but they are not relevant to this David, and they only play a transitional role in the story.
Story & Thoughts
I admit, I didn’t know what this was when I got it. Upon seeing the title Pandora, my thought process led me to think about the Pandora of the Pandora’s box myth. That is not what this is, but the story does have Greek and Roman themes, which is something I tend to enjoy.
The book is basically a journal style memoir about this vampire Pandora’s life. This guy David Talbot makes a request in chapter one that she write it. He wants to know her story. That’s all fine and dandy, but chapter one is a slog! It was a struggle to get through four pages, let alone finish the chapter. Pandora spends the whole chapter reflecting on the request, the café she’s sitting in, the pen in her hand, the journal she’s writing in…Her musings are so boring and agonizingly slow. Plus, if you’re not familiar with The Vampire Chronicles, a chunk of what she talks about regarding other vampires is nonsensical.
Once the story gets going, though, it’s actually kind of enjoyable. I like things with Greek, Roman, or Egyptian themes, so the setting of Pandora’s history is at least interesting. I’m no history buff, but I think at least some of the things mentioned in the story are historically accurate. They line up with some other things I’ve read that have similar themes.
Pandora’s journey from child to adult to vampire is definitely interesting, but only enough for me to finish the book. It’s not very long, so her whole life is crammed into only about two hundred pages. The book could have been much longer. The majority of her existence is crammed into the last chapter. It literally glosses over everything in her life after her first night as a vampire. That’s practically the entire two thousand years. You can’t seriously tell me that nothing else interesting happened during those years. Apparently, Pandora feels only her sightings of Marius are worth mentioning.
I got some amusement out of this book, but all in all, I’m just glad it’s done. I have no interest in pursuing any of the other volumes or relevant series. It was okay, and it had its moments. That’s about all I can really say about it.