The Vampire Armand (The Vampire Chronicles #6)

Armand until now has played a small role in the Vampire Chronicles. Here he assumes center stage, relating his five hundred years of life to fledgling vampire David Talbot, who plays amanuensis to Armand as he did to Lestat ... It's not just the epic plot but Rice's voluptuary worldview that's the main attraction ... Elegant narrative has always been her hallmark ... Rice is equally effective in showing how Armand eventually loses his religion and becomes "the vagabond angel child of Satan," living under Paris cemeteries and foundling the Grand Guignol-ish Theatre des Vampires. In the twentieth century, a rehabilitated Armand regains faith but falls in love with two children who save his life. By the conclusion ofArmand, the pupil has become the mentor.

I decided to come back to a series that captivated me in college. The Vampire and sexual tension that riddled my mind for years all came back to me in lucid detail. Dear lord, how I have missed these characters. 

I had to get myself back into the mind frame for Anne's poignant style. My brain had to be retrained for the imagery assault on my mind. Oh, how this will not disappoint. 

Armand has always been one of my favorite characters. The boyish, devilish demon of the night. His adventures in prior books (yes, I had to refresh my memory) were what drew me to him. Now his story solidifies him as my favorite. 

We get to see in graphic detail the upbringing of a young servant of the church who is ripped from his home and taken into slavery; doomed for a brothel. 

The only saving grace was the blonde, devil himself....Marius. 

We see a relationship develop between these two. Soon, Armand is in a sexual relationship with Marius. The vampires of Rice's books cannot have sex directly, but most of the story is riddled with sexual pleasures. Armand is described going to brothels himself, enjoying the pleasures of men and women. This adventure brings doom to his home. 

A man...

A choice....

A immortal consequence.

When Armand leaves his mortality behind, he sets out. Finds his parents and says a final goodbye. Upon returning to Venice, Armand is captured by the Children of Darkness. Here another dark path in Armand's life is revealed. 

All along, the diligent David is taking his story from the spoken to the written with the graceful strikes of his hand.  

The later part of the book, it is revealed what happened when Armand went to the sun. Here is where he meets Sybelle and Benji. His children. His mortal loves.

While David is taking Armand's story, Armand's maker makes a decision that could change him forever. 

Great book! If you are into an easy read, this series is not for you! You have to read, listen and absorb what Anne is trying to say.

Quotes:

“We can't stand it, to be alone. We cannot bear it, any more than the monks of old could bear it, men who though they had renounced all else for Christ's sake, nevertheless came together in congregations to be with one another, even as they enforced upon themselves the harsh rules of single solitary cells and unbroken silence. They couldn't bear to be alone.

"We are too much men and women; we are yet formed in the image of the Creater, and what can we say of Him with any certainty except that He, whoever He may be--Christ, Yahweh, Allah--He made us, did He not, because even He in His Infinite Perfection could not bear to be alone.”

Rating:

Until Next Time,