The Vampire Armand

The Vampire Chronicles

By: Anne Rice

Narrated by: Jonathan Marosz

In the latest installment of The Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice summons up dazzling worlds to bring us the story of Armand—eternally young, with the face of a Botticelli angel. Armand, who first appeared in all his dark glory more than twenty years ago in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire, the first of The Vampire Chronicles, the novel that established its author worldwide as a magnificent storyteller and creator of magical realms.

Now, we go with Armand across the centuries to the Kiev Rus of his boyhood - a ruined city under Mongol dominion—and to ancient Constantinople, where Tartar raiders sell him into slavery. And in a magnificent palazzo in the Venice of the Renaissance we see him emotionally and intellectually in thrall to the great vampire Marius, who masquerades among humankind as a mysterious, reclusive painter and who will bestow upon Armand the gift of vampiric blood.

As the novel races to its climax, moving through scenes of luxury and elegance, of ambush, fire, and devil worship to nineteenth-century Paris and today's New Orleans, we see its eternally vulnerable and romantic hero forced to choose between his twilight immortality and the salvation of his immortal soul.

©1998 by Anne O'Brien Rice (P)1998 by Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"ARMAND'S LIFE UNFOLDS IN RICH, VELVETY PROSE. . . . THIS IS A SUMPTUOUS ADDITION TO THE SERIES."--Library Journal

"ANNE RICE FANS WILL NO DOUBT BE THRILLED. . . . [Armand] until now has played a small role in the Vampire Chronicles. Here he assumes center stage, relating his five hundred years of life to fledgling vampire David Talbot, who plays amanuensis to Armand as he did to Lestat. . . . It's not just the epic plot but Rice's voluptuary worldview that's the main attraction. . . . Elegant narrative has always been her hallmark. . . . Rice is equally effective in showing how Armand eventually loses his religion and becomes 'the vagabond angel child of Satan,' living under the Paris cemeteries and founding the Grand Guignol-ish Theatre des Vampires. In the twentieth century, a rehabilitated Armand regains his faith but falls in love with two children who save his life. By the conclusion of Armand, the pupil has become the mentor."--The Washington Post

"A FASCINATING AND DAZZLING HISTORICAL TAPESTRY . . . BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN, INCREDIBLY ABSORBING."--Booklist

i struggled with the voice

struggled with the voice. Armand is supposed to be young and european. the voice actor was very American and obviously adult. he also has a "creeking" quality of speaking especially at the end of sentences

Decent story, passible narration.

If you absolutely need to experience every detail this is your only unabridged audio option. The narrator (Marosz) is terrible as Armand although every other character is pretty good and decently distinct. His pronunciation of many words leaves much to be desired. Overall Marosz's narration is passible at best. The story is decent but be warned it spends much time on many sex scenes (most involving one or more young boys) that do nothing to really serve the story and could ultimately be skipped and nothing would be missed.

If you do not need every detail or would prefer brief and fewer depictions of sex scenes and just the bare essentials then the abridged version is more for you. The abridged narrator (Alfred Molina) as Armand is far better and much easier on the ears but the other characters are far less distinct as the Molina has far less vocal variation. Unfortunately, Molina's pronunciation of many words is also grating, for instance he pronounces Lestat as "Leshtaht". Quite annoying.

Ultimately a new recording with a new narrator would better serve this story. Hopefully some day we will get one.

The narrator made this a difficult listen

I had such a hard time getting into this story because the narrator was so hard to listen to. The first 6 books were so wonderful and I’m realizing how much of that has to do with who narrates. Obviously Anne Rice is an incredible writer. But the wrong narrator can really kill a book.

Not my favorite Vampire Chronicle

After struggling to finish the previous book, Memnoch The Devil, I was disappointed to discover this was a direct continuation of that story. Getting Armands back story and his time spent in Venice was lovely, but the religious overtones that drag on and on made it a difficult listen. If you're into Christianity you might not mind, but I didn't start reading a series about Vampires to delve into Christian lore. It's making me wonder if I want to even continue the series. The new narrator was jarring at first and took me some time to adjust. but I appreciate having a different voice since the POV has switched from Lestat to Armand.

Needs a new narrator

The story is good. But the narrator is very dull. Has a basic monotone story telling. Don’t get me wrong, story is good. But the telling is very bad. The guy who does the Lestat stories is ten times better.

I keep waiting for the good part...

...It keeps not coming.

The narrator has such a rich deep voice it's surprising how absolutely monotonous he is. The whole thing settles into this "then, and then, and then, and then" dreary narrative.

I can't honestly tell how much of that is the book's fault. Armand was always portrayed as a bit of a whining, sniveling character... now we have a whole book to verify it.

The abridged version could read:
David: "Why did you believe Lestat's tale?"
Armand: "Because I was raised and surrounded by religious zealots for 450 of the last 500 years."

Lots of surprises in this one!

Would you listen to The Vampire Armand again? Why?

Absolutely. I intend to listen to the entire series again once I have finished.

What other book might you compare The Vampire Armand to and why?

Interview. It is right up there with Interview.

Amazing story

As the story of Armand is one of my favorites. The reader was lackluster at best. I was very disappointed and am having a very hard time even finishing the story I love.

Good but not as good

Good book. I was expecting more in Armond but the book explains a good deal about his beginning mortal life and predanatual life. Still important part of the ongoing series. Next is Pandora.

Jonathon Marosz as Narrator

I love Anne Rice and her books. Especially the Vampire Chronicles. I have read all of them, but now I'm listening. Although the story itself is great, this narrator drives me to distraction when compared to the other narrators. He feels uninvolved in his own story. When he uses the characters voices,Jonathon Marosz is fine. But as the character Armand is telling his story, Marosz gives him no personality. My rating of the book is strictly on the content, not on the read. I will avoid future listens when I see his name as the narrator. I wish that Roger Rees had been the narrator for this as he did such a great job with Blood and Gold.