The Stories of our Lives

[This was written a little while ago - at the end of summer I think. Kept it in another version of the site I was working on, but since it won’t be released… here you go!]

Am now reading “Lasher” by Anne Rice, the author of Interview with a Vampire and many other books.

Lasher is the second novel of a trilogy comprising The Witching Hour, Lasher and then Taltos.

I had read Interview with a Vampire years ago, when I was still in high school. At that time, I had had some trouble with Anne Rice’s writing style, which was slower than what I was used to reading. Descriptions of locations and characters are legions. This time around, I was charmed.

First, the story is set in New Orleans, where a old family of witches is “rooted”. Descriptions of locations, especially the house of First Street, captivated me. I’m now planning to visit New Orleans someday.

As for the characters, they were also well written. They are presented with enough detail and preciseness to be credible. The main character is Rowan Mayfair, the last generation, is living in San Francisco and knows nothing of her origins.

The story is well-balanced. Of course, some people would think some parts are too lengthy (the first tome alone is 1024 pages!), but I thought rythm flowed nicely and was easy to bear.

A little something though… tender hearts beware! Anne Rice was never known for awfully conservative worlds and everything finds a place here: erotism, gore, incest, horror… far from any children’s book.

That said, (I can’t imagine what that can say about my tastes but…) I really like this saga, so far, and would recommand it to those who like fantasy literature.

[Since I wrote this, I have read the third book as well. I have to say the third one takes on a totally different direction, which I didn’t enjoy as much. I still recommend the trilogy, though.]

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 2nd, 2004 at 19:41 and is filed under Émilie reads. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.