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Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN num: 9780345422385
ISBN number: 0345422384
Label: Ballantine Books
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 368
Printing Date: December 26, 1998
Publishing house: Ballantine Books
Release Date: December 26, 1998
Sale Popularity Level: 79591
Studio: Ballantine Books
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
'Eerily vibrant. . . . The title character is a highborn woman of Augustan Rome who later names herself after the Pandora of mythology, opening her own box of surprises. Sitting in a modern-day Paris cafe in the aftermath of a fresh kill, the vampire Pandora accepts the challenge of recounting her history and immediately sets to work, filling the blank pages of an elegant leatherbound notebook. . . . A wealth of narrative twists and period detail'.--'The New York Times Book Review'.
Amazon.com Review:
Anne Rice fans will greet Pandora: New Tales of the Vampires, the very first of her new vampire chronicles, as hungrily as the Fang Gang facing a fresh new neck. Our heroine, Pandora, a senator's daughter in Augustus Caesar's day, flees to Antioch when her family gets killed and discovers the antidote to stern Roman rationalism in the occult wisdom of the East. 'Something attacked my reason,' Pandora writes. 'The very thing the Roman Emperors had so feared in Egyptian cults and Oriental cults swept over me: mystery and emotion which claim a superiority to reason and law.'
Pandora gets her sexy vampire initiation at the fangs of handsome Marius (who later inducted Rice's famed vampire Lestat). Pandora tells how a nice Roman girl became a vampire in modern Paris, but mostly the book celebrates the sights and sounds (and philosophical bloodlettings) of the classical world. Pandora is more like Robert Graves's sublime I, Claudius than Rice's The Complete Vampire Chronicles.
Yet Pandora is a logical extension of Rice's work, and Pandora is a combination of her past vampire heroes and the nakedly, horrifyingly autobiographical heroine of Rice's 1997 novel Violin. Now, Violin is remarkably messy, but it captures the volcanic passion that erupts in her best work--Rice calls it 'a study in pain.' Pandora is really a dramatized debate between passion and reason, which Pandora calls 'male reason.' She teases her vampire mentor: 'Marius guarded his delicate rationality as a Vestal Virgin guards a sacred flame. If ever any ecstatic emotion took hold of me, he [would] tell me in no uncertain terms that it was irrational, irrational, irrational!' (To hear how close Pandora's voice is to her passionate creator, listen to the 1997 audiocassette Interview with Anne Rice.)
Rice's research gives fresh blood to her storytelling. Even her chronic third-act problem scarcely slows down this brisk romp of a novel. Pandora has intellectual thirst as well as blood lust, and she conveys the high old time Rice obviously had imbibing historical lore. 'It is fun to read these mad Gnostics!' exults Pandora in the early Christian era. It is also fun to read this mad Pandora. Anne Rice hasn't been this fun to read in years.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers -
it's a good book, i love her vampires, they're very human and she's so detailed, that it feels like you're going through the things that happen as well.
Rated by buyers -
I have always been interested in the character Pandora ever since very first reading about her in Queen of the Damned. I caught the glimpses of her and her relationship to Marius and was so curious to find out more about her. She was intriguing to me, even with the very little that Anne wrote. So I was delighted that a book soley on Pandora was being written. The book is more of a novella, it is a quick read, but so full of information. Everything you could have possibly wanted to know about her. It delves deep into her ancient past and you get to see her before becoming immortal, meeting Marius, getting into trouble. Its fascinating. Its just great to break away from the Lestat Centric novels and into something new and refreshing. Its a great book and very informative as well. Anne really does a great amount of research when she writes anything. Especially about history, the architecture or a particular period, the style of clothing, it really goes on and on. She did a fantastic job with this book.
I'd like to say that you can read this as a stand-alone book without having to read the other Vampire Chronicles, but, though not in depth, it does go into some of the other books and might be a tad confusing for readers who have never read them. However, as to an order of reading, its not terribly important. But definitely read IWTV, TVL and QOTD, before reading this one.
Rated by buyers 
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I have no idea why there has to be New Tales of the Vampires, when this book seems to be exactly the same sort of thing as The Vampire Armand or Blood and Gold, etc. That being a detailed look at the background and history of the vampire Pandora, and again, this book is of similar quality to those two.
Pandora is an interesting character, and it is certainly a change to have a female as the focal point rather than yet another pretty boy.
Rated by buyers 
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This book is definitely one of my favorites from the Vampire Chronicles. I love the character. Some of Anne Rice's books are so drawn out with boring stories while Pandora seems alive. She's independent, smart, curious, mad, searching for comfort. We also get a good look at Marius, the elder vampire in charge of protecting the Queen of the Damned and her consort. I found the story riveting and a definite must-read for anyone who has read the other chronicles.
Rated by buyers -
I only wish to be an honest reviewer, and as an honest reviewer I think the story Pandora was decent enough but not the best one Anne has written. To make some clarifications I'm not making any demands for an author to write a book to my standard, I'm only expressing my opinions.
I just became a huge fan of Anne's vampire books (interview, Lestat, Queen of the Damned) and loved Blood and Gold. After reading Blood and Gold (or the story of Marius) I thought the book Pandora might fill in some holes, For marius since he didn't have enough time to tell everythign about her. In the book Pandora, Pandora writes a story about her life to David Tabolt. In her big leather notebook it talks a lot about her Mortal past and her dreams of "rebirth". Almost half of the book is filled with mortal memories. Her past, unlike anyone else except Marius, has the most interesting past as a Roman lady. Her character even as a mortal and vampire is well expressed through the book, She independent, strongly intellectual, proud, clever, and free-spirited. She can be very fierce in arguments which can get pretty annoying at times. Her relationship with Marius is Errotic and loving, yet filled with arguments. Here, for those who admire Marius, Pandora reveals a lot of Marius' weaknesses more than Marius himself. He's depicted as weak (not his power, but more of his character and personality) and childish more than strong and mature which is very interesting. The book has done a good job describing some of the major conflict between Pandora and Marius, which I found sad and tragic.The book did very well with explaining how Pandora became a vampire.
To the darkside, Pandora warned that her story would be short and basic. For those who do not like short stories yet like Anne's books, I hope you'll bear with the book as you read. Pandora didn't mention about her point of view in certain events: Queen of the Damned, how she felt when she rescued marius, how she met Santinio for the second time, and attended a meeting with powerful and well known vampires. Blood and Gold, How did she meet an Asian (Indian to be more specific) male who became her fledgling and, ironically, a master. She didn't also describe her relationship with the Indian vampire. The funny part for me was, how did he turn out to enslave one of the most powreful vampire subsequent to Marius? Also it contradicts her character, she's independent, strong, intellegent, and clever, yet she's controlled by this vampire? Maybe he was was too seductive to her but who knows. She didn't talk about the time when she killed the roman coven and met Santinio. The book never talked about how Pandora tried to search for Marius. Since Pandora's story is a short one, she didn't describe a lot about her relationship with Marius. It did however wrote about the factors that lead their relationship to break apart, but I just felt like there wasn't enough descripton about her relationship with Marius. Pandora also wrote other things that were for David Tabolt which would seem unimportant for some readers. About half of her book is about her mortal life which was well described and crucial, yet the other half ,which is about her life as a vampire, didn't really talk much about her vampire experience. The only part in the story about her vampire life that seemed important was her relationship with marius. The end of the book wasn't satisfying as well, she only talks to David Tabolt and wanted to go see Lestat (and Marius, who should be worth looking for if you're pandora). Despite these honest criticisms, Pandora did warn that her story would be short.
What Now? Do I reccomend readers to read this book? Yes and No. If you read Blood and Gold, Queen of the Damned, and Memnoch the Devil then You should read it but you might find it some-what dissapointing. If you only care about knowing Pandora, then yes I reccomend you this book. This book was written about Pandora and for Pandora, which I give credit for to Anne Rice especially how she wrote every word elegantly and dilegently.
I didn't find what I expected, but I did find more about Pandora herself and her philosophy.
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