What can I say about this? Well, it was pretty boring. Not much really happened, and Pandora didn't even become a vampire until more than halfway through, then there was really nothing about her life as a vampire, with or without Marius. But I guess I at least made it through this one. I quit Marius' story after 100 pages because it was just literal history of Rome, and that is not what I read fiction for. Pandora had the opportunity to be a captivating story and it just wasn't. I basically just pushed through because I hate DNF-ing a book.

All in all, I'd skip this one if you didn't like Marius' story, or if you're iffy about the series in general. You wouldn't seem to be missing a whole lot. Anne Rice has always been a difficult read for me, but some voices are better storytellers than others, and this did not hold up to Quinn's voice in Blackwood Farm, which is the only Rice book that I was actively trying to read more of. ( )

I love my girl Pandora but after two thousand years she should really have learned something about toxic relationships. Accidentally, this makes her one of the most relatable of the Vampires, which in itself is very sad.

Given all her desire to be independent in her mortal years, her immortal life is defined by her relationships and the men she meets. Which is also sad. And in the end she does it all over again...

All of this makes this book and this character just so very believable and I did get the feeling none of it was romanticized, so I still love it as a tragic story about how we sometimes make the same mistakes over and over again. And a basic rule of Rice's Vampires is: we never really change, we just become more and more who we really are. But I still wanted something more substantial. ( )

Anne Rice has stated she wants book reviewers to be required to post with their full, real name. In response, I am removing all my reviews of her novels as I am unable and unwilling to do this. I am no longer comfortable reading or reviewing her work. Thank you.

Not as gripping a story, not an engaging character, a lot of history. Pandora is not likeable...I did not come to care about her or her journey. ( )

I struggle to find the words to do justice to the artistry of this book... From the very beginning [b:Pandora|353503|Pandora (New Tales of the Vampires, #1)|Anne Rice|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327199611s/353503.jpg|2926330] entralls the reader with rich details of the powerful, monstrous, yet also reverent and beautiful Pandora.

( )

This book was rich with history, both of the vampire Pandora and of the world around her.

This was my first Anne Rice novel and I quote enjoyed it. I lived getting to see Pandora as a child and seeing her go from an outgoing, educated child, to a strong willed woman, to a vampire now recounting all that had happened to her leading up to her becoming a vampire.

Her beginnings were sad, though it was nice seeing her pull herself together and stand on her own once more. ( )

This book was rich with history, both of the vampire Pandora and of the world around her.

This was my first Anne Rice novel and I quote enjoyed it. I lived getting to see Pandora as a child and seeing her go from an outgoing, educated child, to a strong willed woman, to a vampire now recounting all that had happened to her leading up to her becoming a vampire.

Her beginnings were sad, though it was nice seeing her pull herself together and stand on her own once more. ( )

Here lies my favorite Rice Novel ( )

Vampires in Italy. A fun historical Rice with some stilted language. ( )

This was a discarded library book and I picked it up because the price was right and I thoroughly enjoyed the vampire trilogy that started with Interview and ended with Queen of the Damned.

Pandora's story was mildly interesting at points but mostly irritating. I don't love Rice's style of writing and it's really the plot that enticed my interest in the first 3. I didn't like Pandora, the character, and I couldn't care less about any of the other characters. Half the time that I was reading it I was deciding to just quit when something piqued my interest, and then the cycle would begin again. ( )

A fairly good book -- much quicker read than most of Rice's stuff. More back story on the whole Vampire Chronicle-thing, but this time with a decidedly heterosexual female character. Reminded me a little of McCullough's Rome stuff with the ancient Rome/Greece historical setting. Overall, pretty good. ( )

I just re-read this book. Anne Rice writing is something to behold. Her stories are captivating..I must admit, though, I sometimes get lost in the time-scheme of things and I find myself thinking, wait; I thought that was just one day, when in actuality it was many weeks. ( )

I just re-read this book. Anne Rice writing is something to behold. Her stories are captivating..I must admit, though, I sometimes get lost in the time-scheme of things and I find myself thinking, wait; I thought that was just one day, when in actuality it was many weeks. ( )

3.5 stars

In the first book of Anne Rice's New Tales of the Vampires, she looks back on the life of one of the original vampires, Pandora. As Pandora writes her own story, she goes back to her childhood in ancient Rome before she was a vampire, through the massacre of her family, and how she escaped to the port of Antioch (in what is now Turkey) and her life there.

Mostly, I liked this. I got a bit bored with the vampire parts, though. Mostly I preferred Pandora's life story, and luckily that was the majority of the book. I do plan to continue with the next in the series, Vittorio the Vampire. ( )

I quite enjoyed reading this book. One thing I should note though is that this book really should be read before The Vampire Armand for reasons of continuity. ( )

A compelling story about love, wrapped in Rice's trademark turgid prose. The vampire Pandora details her life, from wealthy Roman woman to Paris sophisticate, and in the process rediscovers her love for Marius, a vampire who has loved her for two thousand years.
The research Rice put into this is sometimes obvious, but always interesting. The only fully formed character is the narrator, but there is a nice contrast between Pandora's thoughtful hedonism and Marius' almost stereotypically brooding vampire.
It's been years since I read Rice's vampire chronicles (and totally missed the last three or four books). I sometimes felt that the narrator was talking about events and characters I should know, but didn't, without the backstory necessary to understand the plot. ( )

Pandora wanted to set the record straight about Lestat's version of what Marius said about her. She does so, but not much more was revealed to us about her thousand-year life than the beginning and her transformation into a vampire. She wandered Europe for centuries, but chooses to spend 400 pages on the first 35 years of her life. It was still interesting to read about, but I was hoping for more than a rehash of things we pretty much already knew. ( )

As with all the books of Anne Rice I've read, the feelings I had about this book were quite conflicting. I liked reading it. Especially since it was mostly set in Ancient Rome. But something about her books always irks me a little. I have yet to figure out what it is that rubs me the wrong way. (But make no mistake I still enjoyed reading it.) ( )

The story of how Pandora became a vampire during the reign of Tiberius.

The main body of the story was good, but the introductory chapter where Pandora narrates how David Talbot asked her to write down her life dragged a bit. The epilogue dealing with the 2000-odd years after she became a vampire was rather rushed and tended to hop about in a disconnected way so that I was often not quite sure when events were taking place. ( )

A fantastic read on the story behind Pandora. It's a very quick read, and definitely worth it. I just wish Anne had written more in the "new tales."

I'm not sure why Rice doesn't clump this one in with the Chronicles where it should be. Pandora is incredibly intertwined in the other vampires lives...specifically in Marius'. I loved Pandora's character...her spunk, her intelligence, her daring. And her back story gives a great deal of insight into the Vampire's history and into their capabilities and needs. A must, must, must read! ( )

Interesting book. This time was in fact a re-read -- I first read this when it came out twelve or so years ago. It's been gathering dust in my library ever since. Turns out to have been good dust as the book is still worth reading. ( )

One of her vampire novels, Anne rice cleverly tells the tale of Marius' lover Pandora and thier life together. I enjoyed reading about the 2 charachters outside of the novels where they are only minor characters. I gave a greater ounderstanding of them. i liked the story very much and found it a great light read. ( )

Pandora begins, reluctantly at first and then with increasing passion, to recount her mesmerizing tale, which takes us through the ages, from Imperial Rome to eighteenth-century France to twentieth-century Paris and New Orleans. She carries us back to her mortal girlhood in the world of Caesar Augustus, a world chronicled by Ovid and Petronius. This is where Pandora meets and falls in love with the handsome, charismatic, lighthearted, still-mortal Marius. This is the Rome she is forced to flee in fear of assassination by conspirators plotting to take over the city. And we follow her to the exotic port of Antioch, where she is destined to be reunited with Marius, now immortal and haunted by his vampire nature, who will bestow on her the Dark Gift as they set out on the fraught and fantastic adventure of their two turbulent centuries together. ( )

I didn't particularly care for the novel. I love the series, but didn't enjoy this one as much as previous ones. ( )