Pandora

With narration that is sensuous, yet gentle, cultured, yet elemental, Janet McTeer brings an atmosphere of passion and love, world-weariness and an eternal interest in life to the story of Pandora and her long life as mortal and vampire. Framed as the narrative that Pandora writes at the request of David Talbot, a relatively new vampire, after their meeting in Paris, the tale begins in ancient Rome where she meets Marius, her great love and the being who will change her into one of the Undead. McTeer captures the independence and intelligence of this remarkable character with a voice that has great strength within its velvety tones. Her performance wraps the listener in the folds of the story. M.A.M. (c) AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine

March 2, 1998
Although Rice bid goodbye to the vampire Lestat in Memnoch the Devil, her fifth novel in The Vampire Chronicles, she has not abandoned vampires altogether. Two installments are planned this year in her New Tales of the Vampires series, and in the first of these, the ancient vampire Pandora tells her story. Urged on by David Talbot--fledgling vampire, self-appointed chronicler and former psychic detective--Pandora documents in sophisticated detail her pre-vampire existence as the privileged daughter of a Roman senator. She's a curious character, first introduced in The Queen of the Damned, in which Marius described her as the Greek courtesan who seduced him into making her a vampire and helped him care for the vampire progenitors until strife forced them apart. Here, Pandora herself sets the record straight. Born early in Augustus's reign, the educated, spirited Pandora was no courtesan--though we do see her challenge the sexual mores of her moment. When Tiberius brings chaos to Rome, and dishonor and death to Pandora's family, she goes to Antioch and tries to solve the mystery of her compelling blood dreams about Egypt. There, she reunites with her childhood crush, Marius, and learns from him what it means to be a vampire. Along the way, we find little of Rice's trademark eroticism, but Pandora has long been one of her more elusive characters, so fans will relish this vivid rendering of her life and times. Random House audio.