The Vampire Lestat

Interview with The Vampire may have caused a revolution in the vampire fiction genre, but this is the book that started a revolution in the RPG world, giving birth to the narrative focused Vampire The Masquerade. It seems to have served as its main inspiration, at least for what I can tell, as there are so many direct adaptations taken from it.

I first read VtM:2nd and it holds a very special place in my mind as it was so well written, and the mythos so enthralling. Horror is not my thing, but the way White Wolf handled the content it was amazing. Their other books are excellent as well, I highly recommend Demon: The Fallen and I plan to read the rest of them sometime.

The book starts slowly, and with much of the same things that put me off the first one: too much talk about emotions, Victorian prose and descriptions. Even so, that contributed a lot to character building and world setting. Lestat personality is slowly unraveled throughout the book, and these elements makes for a good start.

As Armand starts to tell his story, the book really started to blossom. It was just perfect for what I seek in fiction. A well told story, original, captivating, fiction blended in real history, in a logical way. We get a lot of answers to the workings of the undead life, and they all make sense.

Lestat is an ethical monster, his personality is well fleshed out, and although I mostly disagree with his attitude, it is perfectly reasonable. He is arrogant and selfish, the villain of the story by any kind of measure. Every interaction Lestat has with the other characters is intense and are very heartfelt.

I will mark the following as spoilers at it tells something about the evolution of Lestat's relationships with the other characters. This plus which characters appears is all the book is about. These are minor spoilers I would say, and every other reviewer didn't bother hiding them.

Nikola the violin player, was his first friend, his first love. A companion who shared his views of the world, that society is hypocritical and everything is meaningless. All except beauty. When they do disagree on something, namely Lestat equating beauty to good and Nikola, a complete nihilist, maintaining there is no such a thing, they still manage to be good friends. As the story unfolds, their differences starts to become just too much to ignore. But Lestat never stopped loving him nonetheless.Gabrielle is Lestat's mother, but she is so much more then that. She is his confidant, to whom he shares his inner most thoughts and desires. She makes it tolerable living under the same roof as his father and brothers, to whom he has no great affection. She suggests that he should seek out the friendship of Nickola, who she immediately recognized as an intellectual and emotional match for Lestat. She is the one he pours his soul, wailing about his torments as he struggles with his humanity after becoming a vampire. How he cannot bear to keep away from Nickola, even though he knows they can never be together. How he longs to be loved, and accepted, for the cruel monster he is. He confesses that all he wants is to drink everybody's blood, and expect the should revel at the sight!Armand, the larger then life character from Interview With the Vampire, is now greater then ever, explored in so much more detail. And yet he is nothing compared to Lestat, a shadow of the old world while he is the future of their race. He tells his story from when he was still a mortal, still capable of to love and caring for others. He describes at length his profound love for his progenitor, Marius, without whom he has become an empty shell. As his tale progresses, we get to watch as he slowly looses his humanity. Armand has nothing to contribute to Lestat, as the rules he follows are beneath him. Lestat is the one who helps him to come to terms with the new century, just as Louis helped Armand after.A little more spoilerish, on the same spirit as mentioned above.If Armand was a disappointment, Marius truly captured Lestat's body and mind. For decades he searched for him, traveled the world looking for answers, and he finally found them with him. Where Armand is an empty monster, Marius is ethical and full of love for humans, which he believes is his duty to serve and to live with them in harmony. He only feeds on the wicked, that is his creed, an dit was also shared by Lestat. Another thing both believed in is that there is goodness in beauty, and to produce beauty is the key to surpass the their villainous nature. Marius keeps no information from Lestat, he tells everything he knows. He reveals the origins of the vampires in ancient Egypt, thousands of years ago. And introduces him to Akasha.Akasha, the Queen of the Damned. Well, she is the main plot of the next book. Suffice to say that her impact on Lestat surpassed even that of Marius, by a long shot! Her mere presence physically manifests itself, few can withstand even looking at her. She is in a statue like state, and it is not clear why. She is awakened by the end of the book, ans turn some vampires into balls of fire.Louis is back, and makes a brief appearance by the end of the book. He has by now read Lest's book and although he has not completely forgiven him, he is thrilled once again to be joined with his estranged friend.

The story starts and ends with Lestat's band getting ready and performing for the first time in public. He has generated a lot of anticipation by telling his whole story to the world and exposing the ehxistance of vampires has not made him many friends among his kin. He is joined by Louis and also Gabrielle, who he hadn't seen in centuries.

And it is through music that Lestat expects to redeem himself, to find his place in the new century. Just as he performed in the theater when he was still a mortal centuries ago, he craves for an audience, to reveal himself, and still be loved and accepted for who he is.

This is the epic tale of a man's never ending quest seeking answers to life (and unlife). It has a good amount of philosophical reasoning, good for those who have considered these issues before to critically evaluate them and for those who have never seen them, to have a better understanding of life.

One thing I found disturbing, although expected, reading the reviews about this book. People seem to think Louis was ‘wrong', that Lestat is the hero and Louis is just a whiny little bitch. This is a gross misunderstanding of the story! Louis was right about everything, Lestat is a monster, he did play with Louis emotions, deliberately omitting information in order to control him. Lestat made him into his pet, from whom he only expected obedience and unconditional love. The brilliance of this book, as it is told from Lestat's point of view, is that we can see how he can justify his actions, his evil deeds, to himself and to others. It is Lestat that is the unreliable narrator, as his narcissist personality clearly supports this view.

I might have given this a 4 star, but the narrator, Simon Vance, was just outstanding. And if this was just a romance, I also might have kept a 4 star, but I found this book much more intelectualy and fictionally interesting.

So, for the influence in RPG's, the revolution of the vampire mythos, the narrator, the deep characters and their relationships, the exceptional handling of a horror story and its deep philosophical nature, I give this a 5.