Pandora - Softcover

Rice, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099271087 ISBN 13: 9780099271086

Publisher: Arrow, 1999

Synopsis

A Vampire Chronicles novella from the internationally bestselling Anne Rice

In a cafe in modern-day Paris, in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the fearless and beautiful Pandora begins to tell her tale of treachery, vengeance and love stretching across two millennia. As a young mortal in Imperial Rome in the time of Caesar Augustus, Pandora was first introduced to the blood-tainted cult of Isis. Later, in exile in Antioch, she was drawn even further into the dark, ancient rites. Now looking back across the centuries, Pandora decides to return once more to New Orleans, to find the love of her early life, Marius, and to see once again the Vampire Lestat...

About this title

Review:

Anne Rice wasn't the first writer to show vampires as sexy--there are powerfully perverse sexual undercurrents in Bram Stoker's Dracula, granddaddy of all modern vampire novels. But Rice's 1976 Interview With the Vampire made vampirism lusher and more explicitly attractive. Though there's still a dark and messy side (as with sex), non-vampires are irresistibly tempted by perks like immortality and great good looks. Pandora, one of many follow-ups, is the partial autobiography of a heroine born human in Augustan Rome and still undead today. Much of it reads like historical romance, but involvement with the cult of Isis makes Pandora dream about blood-drinking ... Characteristically for Rice, the romantic climax--foreshadowed from paragraph one--means finding not true love but true vampirism with Mr Right. Indeed the horror aspect has almost vanished and draining people of their blood is considered acceptable since Pandora and friends kill only bad guys. (Compare the morality of Terry Pratchett's on-the-wagon vampires, who make do with animal blood from kosher butchers.) Sensuality alternates with dollops of historical research and references to previous novels such as The Vampire Lestat-- referred to by title--whose events readers are expected to remember. Pandora is written for, and will satisfy, Rice's many established addicts. --David Langford

Review:

"This is Rice in top romantic form."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"SEDUCTIVE . . . [RICE] HAS RETURNED TO THE SOURCE OF HER BEST WORK, her sexy and invincible vampires. . . . Pandora is a superheroine: beautiful, of course, but also smart, fearless, independent, lusty, resourceful, and so pumped up at the end of her breathless narrative, she takes off for New Orleans, hot on the trail of Lestat and Marius."
--Booklist
"EERILY VIBRANT . . . The title character is a highborn woman of Augustan Rome who later names herself after the Pandora of mythology, opening her own box of surprises. Sitting in a modern-day Paris cafe in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the vampire Pandora accepts the challenge of recounting her history and immediately sets to work, filling the blank pages of an elegant leatherbound notebook. . . . A wealth of narrative twists and period detail."
--The New York Times Book Review
"RICE'S MOST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN WORK . . . A BOOK THAT CELEBRATES THE WONDER OF THE WORLD ON EVERY PAGE."
--Raleigh News & Observer
"TANTALIZING."
--Library Journal"

-This is Rice in top romantic form.-
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
-SEDUCTIVE . . . [RICE] HAS RETURNED TO THE SOURCE OF HER BEST WORK, her sexy and invincible vampires. . . . Pandora is a superheroine: beautiful, of course, but also smart, fearless, independent, lusty, resourceful, and so pumped up at the end of her breathless narrative, she takes off for New Orleans, hot on the trail of Lestat and Marius.-
--Booklist
-EERILY VIBRANT . . . The title character is a highborn woman of Augustan Rome who later names herself after the Pandora of mythology, opening her own box of surprises. Sitting in a modern-day Paris cafe in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the vampire Pandora accepts the challenge of recounting her history and immediately sets to work, filling the blank pages of an elegant leatherbound notebook. . . . A wealth of narrative twists and period detail.-
--The New York Times Book Review
-RICE'S MOST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN WORK . . . A BOOK THAT CELEBRATES THE WONDER OF THE WORLD ON EVERY PAGE.-
--Raleigh News & Observer
-TANTALIZING.-
--Library Journal

"This is Rice in top romantic form."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"SEDUCTIVE . . . [RICE] HAS RETURNED TO THE SOURCE OF HER BEST WORK, her sexy and invincible vampires. . . . Pandora is a superheroine: beautiful, of course, but also smart, fearless, independent, lusty, resourceful, and so pumped up at the end of her breathless narrative, she takes off for New Orleans, hot on the trail of Lestat and Marius."
--Booklist

"EERILY VIBRANT . . . The title character is a highborn woman of Augustan Rome who later names herself after the Pandora of mythology, opening her own box of surprises. Sitting in a modern-day Paris cafe in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the vampire Pandora accepts the challenge of recounting her history and immediately sets to work, filling the blank pages of an elegant leatherbound notebook. . . . A wealth of narrative twists and period detail."
--The New York Times Book Review

"RICE'S MOST BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN WORK . . . A BOOK THAT CELEBRATES THE WONDER OF THE WORLD ON EVERY PAGE."
--Raleigh News & Observer

"TANTALIZING."
--Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0099271087
• ISBN 13: 9780099271086
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 416