Review

The Vampire Armand is the sixth book in The Vampire Chronicles and was first published in 1998. The novel takes the focus away from Lestat who is lying in a catatonic state in a chapel in New Orleans and tells the tale of Armand who was born in the 15th century in Ukraine.

Armand or Andrei as he was known at that time, has a skill for ikon painting and has been living in a monastery against the wishes of his father who thinks the monks are stifling his son’s talents. However, Andrei is abducted by slave traders at a young age and transported to Venice where he catches the attention of Marius de Romanus,, who falls in love with the boy’s great beauty. Marius, a Renaissance painter, shelters orphaned boys in his household and educates them so they can take up respectable positions as adults. However, Marius is so besotted with Andrei that he takes him into his bed and renames him Amadeo which means beloved of God.

Amadeo is given more privileges than the other boys but as time goes by he realises there is something different about Marius and their relationship, while sexual in nature, is not complete. Marius avoids Amadeo’s questions by leaving him at a brothel for several days where he learns how to make love to women, and then later at a male brothel where he learns what it is like to be with a man. Amadeo embarks on a disastrous affair with an English nobleman, Lord Harlech, whose jealousy causes him to attack Marius’s home and kill two young boys. Amadeo is mortally injured and Marius has no choice but to transform him into a vampire to save him.

Marius teaches Amadeo everything he needs to know about being a vampire to ensure his longevity but the transformation awakens long forgotten memories of Amadeo’s childhood and he is compelled to return to his mortal family. Amadeo showers them with a great deal of money while realising he can never return to them. Back in Venice, Marius continues to mentor Amadeo but there happiness is cut short when Santino, the leader of the Rome coven, attacks the household and appears to destroy Marius by setting him alight. Amadeo and the mortal boys are taken prisoner and transported to Rome where the boys are thrown on to a great bonfire. Amadeo is held prisoner until he breaks and vows to accept the Great Laws. Renamed Armand, he becomes the new leader of the coven in Paris until it is all blown apart by Lestat.

The Vampire Armand is a return to form for Anne Rice after the banality of the previous book, Memnoch The Devil, but is also disturbing as it is far more openly sexual than the previous books which skirted around that content. The story is narrated by Armand, as told to David Talbot, and we already know that Armand was seventeen years old when he was finally transformed into a vampire. Long before that, he is rescued from slavery by Marius who takes him into his bed and performs sexual acts on him at a very young age. Apparently, the age of consent during the Renaissance period was 12 years for girls and 14 years for boys so technically Marius is doing nothing wrong but from a modern perspective it feels icky.

The setting in Venice is glorious and for once I did not mind Anne Rice’s endless descriptions of buildings and the clothing of the characters as the Renaissance is once of my favourite periods of history. However, the passages where the newly transformed Amadeo is transfixed by the details he can now see in paintings goes on for too long and speaks of overindulgence by the author. The companionship between Amadeo and Marius is an intriguing one despite the initial ickiness, and it is quite upsetting when they are torn apart. Having said that, I don’t feel like this was the same Marius we got to know in The Vampire Lestat so it will be interesting to read Marius’s account in his book.

.Once Armand has finished telling his tale to David, he takes up the reins himself to explain why he felt compelled to immolate himself after Lestat’s adventures with Memnoch but it failed as he is too old to be destroyed by the sun. Armand is desperate to know if Lestat genuinely drank the blood of Christ and realises the only way to do that is by tasting Lestat’s own blood. However, the sleeping Lestat has already subconsciously turned one vampire to dust with one blow of a powerful arm and Armand is warned against approaching him. However, Armand decides to risk it and Lestat makes no move against him.

Armand witnesses the Crucifixion through Lestat’s blood but his joy soon turns to despair when he physically pushed away even though Lestat has not moved. Armand then comes to the painful conclusion that the Lord himself did not want him gazing upon His face. As with many of Anne Rice’s books, there is much debate about Christianity as the immortals, especially those who were born after Christianity spread throughout the world, wrestle with the notion of whether they are good or evil. Armand feels this quite keenly as there are hints that his hand was being guided by something divine when he painted his ikon as a young mortal.

Armand also reveals he has two mortal companions who he loves dearly but he is devastated when Marius decides to turn them into vampires behind his back. Marius’s reasoning behind this is so that Armand can have them as companions for eternity who are not his fledglings since his transformation of Daniel Molloy ended in them hating each other. This is highly questionable since one of the mortals, Benji, is only twelve years old and we all know the rule about turning children. Since Armand’s relationship with Marius was described as being so intense, it feels bizarre that we did not get a scene where Armand confronts Marius over his abandonment of him.

While this novel goes somewhat towards helping you understand why Armand behaves the way he does, he is just not as interesting as Lestat and his narration is bland in comparison.