Blood And Gold: The Vampire Chronicles 8 - Softcover

Rice, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099548151 ISBN 13: 9780099548157

Publisher: Arrow, 2010

Synopsis

The 8th novel in Anne Rice's internationally bestselling Vampire Chronicles

Here is the glorious and sinister life of Marius: patrician by birth, scholar by choice and one of the oldest vampires of them all. From his genesis in ancient Rome, to his present day we follow the story of this aristocratic and powerful killer.

His is a tale that spans the breadth of time. When the Visigoths sack his city, Marius is there; with the resurgence of the glory of Rome, he is there, still searching for his lost love Pandora. So prevalent is Marius that it is he who gives the dark gift to the illustrious vampire Armand.

Intertwined with the stories of a magnificent Pantheon of the undead this account of Marius is the most wondrous and mind-blowing of them all.

About this title

Review:

With Blood and Gold, Anne Rice is firing on all cylinders again, producing the kind of heady mix that distinguishes her best work: a bizarre mélange of gothic horror, overripe romanticism and a genuinely poetic vision that is very much her own. This latest vampire novel boasts all the Rice specialities, notably a moody, patrician vampire protagonist.

Marius, from a noble family (and a distinguished scholar), is one of the oldest of all vampires, his origins lost in the mist of ancient Rome, in the time of the Emperor Augustus. But all of his encounters over the centuries have not prepared him for his meeting in the present day with a sinister being of snow and ice. The northern vampire Thorne is seeking Maharet, his "maker", a centuries-old Egyptian vampire queen whose unbreakable hold over him rests in chains made of her red hair. As the Visigoths looted and pillaged, Marius looked on; he strode the decadence of the Roman empire, still seeking his lost love Pandora, but was later beguiled by Renaissance beauty Bianca, and the boy Amadeo. Rice, as usual, intertwines her diverse and complex narratives, keeping a massive cast of characters always alive for the reader. But the emphasis here is on the brilliantly created Marius, in thrall to Pandora and his alter ego Mael. As Rice conjures him, Marius may be the most distinctive protagonist in all her fiction. Throughout the seven volumes of the Vampire Chronicles, and most notably in such recent books as Memnoch the Devil and Merrick, Rice showed that she would never be content to repeat herself. Blood and Gold is further evidence of her willingness to tackle new areas in her colossal vampiric mythos.--Barry Forshaw

Review:

"Erotic and disturbing, Anne Rice is still the best modern Gothic novelist" (The Face)

"Rice's writing is wonderfully imaginative and as creepily splendid as a hot-house orchid" (Sunday Times)

"Rice has produced a novel that is erotic and sensuous" (The Times)

About this edition

• Publisher: Arrow
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0099548151
• ISBN 13: 9780099548157
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 752