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People ask me where to start. Start at the beginning, and read them in the
order they came out; she wrote each one knowing what the last one said, and a
lot of the pleasure is in how each book makes you rethink the one before it.
Below is the order I'd give a friend, with one line of opinion apiece and no
plots spoiled. If a line here sounds like a summary, it's only what's on the
back cover.
The Vampire Chronicles
| 1 |
Interview with the Vampire (1976)
Louis tells a young reporter in San Francisco his life story, beginning on a Louisiana plantation two hundred years ago. The one that started everything, and still the saddest. |
| 2 |
The Vampire Lestat (1985)
Lestat answers back. My favorite of all of them, and the reason I switched sides; it's funny and huge and it opens the whole world up. |
| 3 |
The Queen of the Damned (1988)
Picks up right where Lestat leaves off and goes back to the very first vampires. Many voices and a lot of characters; stick with it, because the payoff is worth every page. |
| 4 |
The Tale of the Body Thief (1992)
Lestat, bored with immortality, makes a very bad trade. The most fun to read of the later ones, and David Talbot is a wonderful addition. |
| 5 |
Memnoch the Devil (1995)
Lestat meets someone who claims to be the Devil and gets the grand tour. People either love this one or throw it across the room. I did both, in that order, in one weekend. |
| 6 |
The Vampire Armand (1998)
Armand finally tells his own story, and Renaissance Venice is so gorgeous on the page it almost hurts. If you only knew Armand from the movie, this will change your mind about him. |
New Tales of the Vampires
Two shorter books on the side. Read them any time after
The Queen of the Damned.
| † |
Pandora (1998)
Ancient Rome, told by a woman we'd only glimpsed before. Short, elegant, and the best picture of the ancient world in any of her books. |
| † |
Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
A young nobleman in fifteenth-century Italy and a whole new cast. It stands on its own, so it's the one I'd hand to someone who wants to try her without committing to six fat books. |
The Lives of the Mayfair Witches
A separate story, set mostly in New Orleans, about a family of
witches and the spirit that has followed them for generations. Read these three
in order, before or after the vampires; it doesn't matter.
| 1 |
The Witching Hour (1990)
Nearly a thousand pages and I wanted more. The best book ever written about the Garden District, and the reason I walk through it every chance I get. |
| 2 |
Lasher (1993)
Darker, stranger and harder going. Some scenes I had to put it down and walk around the block. It earns its place. |
| 3 |
Taltos (1994)
Gentler than the first two, and it reaches from New York all the way back to the Scottish Highlands. Ashlar is one of the best characters she ever wrote. |
And the rest
Not vampires, not witches, all worth reading:
- The Feast of All Saints (1979): the free people of
color in New Orleans before the Civil War. Her most underrated book, and the
one I'd give my history professor.
- Cry to Heaven (1982): the opera singers of
eighteenth-century Italy. Lush. Lusher than lush.
- The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989): pure
adventure, London and Egypt before the First World War. Fun on a rainy weekend.
- Servant of the Bones (1996) and Violin
(1997): two stranger, quieter books. Violin is set partly in New Orleans and I
think it's more personal than people gave it credit for.
She's also written some books under other names. They are not for this page,
and that's all I'm going to say about that.
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