Flights of Fandom: Years of Anne Rice
Feb. 27th, 2026 01:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhodrymavelyneI was one of those tender teenagers Lestat described at the beginning of Queen of the Damned; when I first fell in love with Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles. Nor were those the only books of hers I was enchanted by.
I was utterly ensnared by Cry to Heaven, which reminded me of V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic I’d read a few years earlier; only it was brothers, not a mother and a daughter with an uncanny likeness and at odds. Cry to Heaven took place in 17th century Italy, rather than the 1950s America. The familal conflict of Tonio and Carlo was centered in Venice, with Venice also as the prize. The betrayal involved castration, rather than being locked in an attic. As for Tonio’s vengeance, it was part of a complicated journey and a rebirth of self, beautiful and fascinating; where the world of opera and castrati, along with the ideals of manhood were tightly wound together.
Cry to Heaven, Interview with the Vampire, and The Vampire Lestat became my favourite books. How eagerly I awaited Queen of the Damned in mass media paperback. How I devoured that book (I ordered it from Walden’s), seduced by Armand, alluring antagonist/lover to both Louis and Lestat, watching with delight as he swept Daniel Molloy off his feet, while discovering the heart and soul of the 1980s in an endearingly hilarious fashion. How I enjoyed Khayman losing and rediscovering himself; while Jesse Reeves was enthralled by an all-powerful overwhelming mother figure. How jealous Claudia must have been! No wonder the child vampire haunted Jesse, the mortal embodiment of all she wanted to be. The way Jesse stumbled upon Claudia via the Talamasca, only to hurt herself into Lestat’s arms at the concert was great fun. Poor Jesse, but Maharet wasn’t about to let a tragic ending take her child, if she could help it.
Speaking of tragedy, the whole Legend of the Twins made me think of Helen and her lost sister in Talamasca: Secret Order. I wonder if that was a deliberate reference? It’s a classic trope, twins separated from each other, but I enjoy it.
I’m not sure if any of these characters in the new series will survive the resurrection of Akasha, if Lestat’s music awakens her. How fascinating Akasha was in Queen of the Damned in her flawed matriarchal vision and her exquisitely toxic love affair with Lestat. She hated being Queen the Damned. The very notion of her children being proud Children of Darkness made her want to burn them all. She wanted to be good, to be the queen of heaven, as Lestat wanted to be good.
Neither of them were good. They were too good at being monsters, but Lestat was a bit more pure-hearted than Akasha was, or was he? There’s a tremendous irony that Akasha fell to the hands of a pair of women she wronged, all things considered.
In spite of the main conflict; Armand stole the show in many ways in Queen of the Damned. Not only did I love his romance with Daniel, but his beautiful reunion with Marius, from Marius’s perspect. Marius was one of those characters I utterly fell in love with in the books. No wonder Lestat wanted Marius to adopt him. He made a very benevolent, lovably flawed mentor to those he took in.
I really don’t like the way Armand described Marius on the TV series Interview with the Vampire. I hope that wasn’t true.
Strange seeing televised versions of Anne Rice’s work, now I’m middle-aged, when I loved it as a girl. I wasn’t disappointed in The Tale of the Body Thief. I wasn’t truly disappointed in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, until Memnoch the Devil, and even that was compelling, particularly in the beginning. Only recently, after watching both the original Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 2016 version; I found myself imagining Tim Curry as the Victim and Laverne Cox as Dora. The two of them had a spirited argument, while the Vampire Lestat lovingly spied upon them, a disapproving David at his side.
Vampires felt like they rose above the binary constraints and prejudices of mortals in the book, while witches were trapped in them. Much of The Witching Hour was gorgeous, yet Rowan Mayfair felt more like the victim than the protagonist. Michael Curry, with his resurrection, his goals, and his driving passion to return to New Orleans felt like he drove the plot far more than Rowan did. Michael’s meeting with Aaron Lightner and their bond felt as powerful as Michael’s romance with Rowan. This meeting certainly felt like it changed Aaron’s life, far more than his sweet liason with Beatrice Mayfair.
As for Aaron Lighter, he felt like the heart and the soul of the Talamasca, charming the socks off me and everyone else he met with his cozy graciousness and gentlemanly panache, topped with his psychic ability.
I see some of Aaron’s charm in Helen, the agent of Talamasca: Secret Order, even though that mini-series is more about spy-based intelligence, not to mention the Talamasca seems much more tight-fisted with money than they ever were in the books. The Talamasca feels a lot more like White Wolf’s World of Darkness, perhaps reflecting our actual world now. One of the things that made the Talamasca seem painfully different to me than in the books was that they were too cheap to spring for a suit and a dinner table for Guy Anatole in the nice restaurant, so he could spy on Archie.
Welcome to the World of Darkness. Female vampires are still stuck with their mortal fear of rape, while the mortal world is no longer a place immortals can feel detatched from. Bad things happen to witches, but they’re not without power. Rowan was the protagonist in the TV series The Mayfair Witches in a way she didn’t feel like in The Witching Hour or Lasher, due to the sexual biological terror she endured and how she lashed out against that terror. Rowan didn’t really felt like a protagonist to me, until Taltos, when she declared war on Aaron Lightner’s enemies.
I’m sad certain characters are missing from the Immortal Universe. I was looking forward to meeting Mona Mayfair, Yuri, and Quinn Blackwood. At the same time, I’m intrigued by the new characters we’re meeting; Guy Anatole, Doris, Helen, Caroline Ridge, Barton, and Jasper. I’m not sure if any of them will survive Akasha’s resurrection, but I look forward to seeing what will happen next.
I was utterly ensnared by Cry to Heaven, which reminded me of V.C. Andrews’s Flowers in the Attic I’d read a few years earlier; only it was brothers, not a mother and a daughter with an uncanny likeness and at odds. Cry to Heaven took place in 17th century Italy, rather than the 1950s America. The familal conflict of Tonio and Carlo was centered in Venice, with Venice also as the prize. The betrayal involved castration, rather than being locked in an attic. As for Tonio’s vengeance, it was part of a complicated journey and a rebirth of self, beautiful and fascinating; where the world of opera and castrati, along with the ideals of manhood were tightly wound together.
Cry to Heaven, Interview with the Vampire, and The Vampire Lestat became my favourite books. How eagerly I awaited Queen of the Damned in mass media paperback. How I devoured that book (I ordered it from Walden’s), seduced by Armand, alluring antagonist/lover to both Louis and Lestat, watching with delight as he swept Daniel Molloy off his feet, while discovering the heart and soul of the 1980s in an endearingly hilarious fashion. How I enjoyed Khayman losing and rediscovering himself; while Jesse Reeves was enthralled by an all-powerful overwhelming mother figure. How jealous Claudia must have been! No wonder the child vampire haunted Jesse, the mortal embodiment of all she wanted to be. The way Jesse stumbled upon Claudia via the Talamasca, only to hurt herself into Lestat’s arms at the concert was great fun. Poor Jesse, but Maharet wasn’t about to let a tragic ending take her child, if she could help it.
Speaking of tragedy, the whole Legend of the Twins made me think of Helen and her lost sister in Talamasca: Secret Order. I wonder if that was a deliberate reference? It’s a classic trope, twins separated from each other, but I enjoy it.
I’m not sure if any of these characters in the new series will survive the resurrection of Akasha, if Lestat’s music awakens her. How fascinating Akasha was in Queen of the Damned in her flawed matriarchal vision and her exquisitely toxic love affair with Lestat. She hated being Queen the Damned. The very notion of her children being proud Children of Darkness made her want to burn them all. She wanted to be good, to be the queen of heaven, as Lestat wanted to be good.
Neither of them were good. They were too good at being monsters, but Lestat was a bit more pure-hearted than Akasha was, or was he? There’s a tremendous irony that Akasha fell to the hands of a pair of women she wronged, all things considered.
In spite of the main conflict; Armand stole the show in many ways in Queen of the Damned. Not only did I love his romance with Daniel, but his beautiful reunion with Marius, from Marius’s perspect. Marius was one of those characters I utterly fell in love with in the books. No wonder Lestat wanted Marius to adopt him. He made a very benevolent, lovably flawed mentor to those he took in.
I really don’t like the way Armand described Marius on the TV series Interview with the Vampire. I hope that wasn’t true.
Strange seeing televised versions of Anne Rice’s work, now I’m middle-aged, when I loved it as a girl. I wasn’t disappointed in The Tale of the Body Thief. I wasn’t truly disappointed in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, until Memnoch the Devil, and even that was compelling, particularly in the beginning. Only recently, after watching both the original Rocky Horror Picture Show and the 2016 version; I found myself imagining Tim Curry as the Victim and Laverne Cox as Dora. The two of them had a spirited argument, while the Vampire Lestat lovingly spied upon them, a disapproving David at his side.
Vampires felt like they rose above the binary constraints and prejudices of mortals in the book, while witches were trapped in them. Much of The Witching Hour was gorgeous, yet Rowan Mayfair felt more like the victim than the protagonist. Michael Curry, with his resurrection, his goals, and his driving passion to return to New Orleans felt like he drove the plot far more than Rowan did. Michael’s meeting with Aaron Lightner and their bond felt as powerful as Michael’s romance with Rowan. This meeting certainly felt like it changed Aaron’s life, far more than his sweet liason with Beatrice Mayfair.
As for Aaron Lighter, he felt like the heart and the soul of the Talamasca, charming the socks off me and everyone else he met with his cozy graciousness and gentlemanly panache, topped with his psychic ability.
I see some of Aaron’s charm in Helen, the agent of Talamasca: Secret Order, even though that mini-series is more about spy-based intelligence, not to mention the Talamasca seems much more tight-fisted with money than they ever were in the books. The Talamasca feels a lot more like White Wolf’s World of Darkness, perhaps reflecting our actual world now. One of the things that made the Talamasca seem painfully different to me than in the books was that they were too cheap to spring for a suit and a dinner table for Guy Anatole in the nice restaurant, so he could spy on Archie.
Welcome to the World of Darkness. Female vampires are still stuck with their mortal fear of rape, while the mortal world is no longer a place immortals can feel detatched from. Bad things happen to witches, but they’re not without power. Rowan was the protagonist in the TV series The Mayfair Witches in a way she didn’t feel like in The Witching Hour or Lasher, due to the sexual biological terror she endured and how she lashed out against that terror. Rowan didn’t really felt like a protagonist to me, until Taltos, when she declared war on Aaron Lightner’s enemies.
I’m sad certain characters are missing from the Immortal Universe. I was looking forward to meeting Mona Mayfair, Yuri, and Quinn Blackwood. At the same time, I’m intrigued by the new characters we’re meeting; Guy Anatole, Doris, Helen, Caroline Ridge, Barton, and Jasper. I’m not sure if any of them will survive Akasha’s resurrection, but I look forward to seeing what will happen next.
