Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles

Am I too old to enjoy Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles or is Anne Rice too old to make vampires seem cool? I loved her earlier work: Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned. They were fresh, vibrant and cool. I have some memory of The Tale of the Body Thief and Memnoch the Devil, but it began to feel like the next book would be the Vampire Lestat goes to the circus or on safari-Lestat became the Choose Your Own Adventure of the supernatural. Any Anne Rice books following the aforementioned that I may have read (The Vampire Armand, Pandora, Vittorio the Vampire) have not stayed with me. The characters became less distinguishable from each other regardless of gender. When I realized that she was going to start crossing over another series with her vampire books, I tapped out. I am a completist so my decision to stop following the Vampire Chronicles was a damning comment in itself. I am not sure why I decided to come back when Rice published Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles, but the old saying is true, “You can never go home again.” It was not necessarily a mistake, but a confirmation of my earlier decision to abandon the vampires that I once loved. Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles is more like an anthology following different vampires during the same period and does not solely focus on Lestat. The title is a kind of spoiler so you will see where Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles is heading long before it gets there. One of the twins’ action or inaction in certain parts of the story makes no sense if you think about it for more than two seconds. Rice has philosophical ambitions regarding free will, the nature of evil, existence, but she is more interested in the style of her vampires. Here is a quote that illustrates how she lost me forever, “Like many of the old ones made in the Middle Ages, he favored ornate and big-sleeved shirts, tight-fitting pants that were almost like leggings, and fancy mostly velvet coats. And these things he ordered online with his big dazzling Mac computer (page 177-78).” No. Just no. I don’t care if Daniel Craig walked by in that outfit, I would not find that look hot. If Rice is trying to make her vampires seem outdated and pathetic, she succeeded. Also whenever Rice describes technology, it is awkward–probably intentionally so because vampires-and consistently jolted me out of the fictional world. Prince Lestat: The Vampire Chronicles is dated even now. I have a Mac. I love my Mac, but dazzling it is not unless Jobs made a special Mac just for vampires. If I participated in drinking games, I would drink whenever iPhone is mentioned. Not one vampire is into Android phones or Blackberry. I just can’t. You don’t h