~ BLOOD AND GOLD ~
Book 8 of The Vampire Chronicles
Anne Rice

Review by: I. Indigo

Once again, an Anne Rice novel was provided with numerous, conflicting reviews, and I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked up Blood and Gold. As it turns out, I don't agree with anything I previously read. Each review was some extreme, either claiming Blood and Gold to be as good the first two editions of the Vampire Chronicles or claiming it to merely be a glorified rehash of old stories. In fact, it's neither and takes a spot in-between.

This is the story of Marius' life in its many ups and downs: the quest for Pandora, the injury by Santino, the keeping of the Divine Parents, etc. This he tells to a vampire named Thorne, new to the books but allegedly very old and created by Maharet herself. His life, he thinks, has been a series of lies, but what I perceive is that it has been a series of very human mistakes and great loneliness.

The story itself seemed to me to be written a little more along the lines of Tale of the Body Thief in that the paragraphs were short and the story often moved very quickly from one point to the next, lingering only on the parts that affect Marius to the greatest extent. Though the events in Marius' life and the effect they had on him were all emotional in some form, the narration of the story itself was a little on the cold side. Even more so was the beginning which was told from the point of view of Thorne. But that's something to be well understood - after all, he's been sleeping in the tundra for several hundred years.

Overall, this novel was very interesting and gave us a clearer picture of Marius' life and the things that drove him. Once again Anne Rice manages to cover certain events that she's already written about without making them boring or redundant. I'm always pleased to see another side of the same story in the Vampire Chronicles because I may do so without wanting to flip past it. And even if, for some moment, I happen to get bored, she always recaptures me with the last paragraph of every chapter.

I also found that I may, indeed, have a liking for Pandora - but considering she has only been a peripheral character, I will have to read her book to find out more. But I also liked Bianca. Her behavior was refreshing in that she seemed to understand what Marius taught her, even if she had to conquer a fear of it, and she did not (at least not in this story) complain about being made a vampire. She actually seemed to come to terms with her new life very quickly.

There were a couple of problems I did perceive in this novel, and for the most part they centered around unresolved elements of the story. For instance, Daniel was presented in the first few chapters, but nowhere in the middle or in the end did we hear from him again. This isn't any big deal regarding whether or not he comes out of his little obsession. But it seems silly to bring up a character who has no larger purpose or who never shows up again. Second, at one point in his narration Marius mentions a woman who had met Santino and walked through flame unharmed, thus being the first person to begin the alterations on Santino's thinking. Marius claims to know who this might have been but does not say her name. Considering it could not have been any of the other women we have heard about up until this book, it seems a useless thing to mention someone who the audience cannot guess at and who is not later revealed or elaborated upon.

As for the ending, I will only say that, yes, it went a little quickly and it could have had more emotion and time put into it. I can't seem to decide whether or not it was properly related to the story as a whole, but I suppose it was adequate.

ISBN: 0345409329
Edition: M.M.Paperback