Joel is running solo to discuss the latest Vampire Chronicle, Blood Communion, just out in early October 2018. Don't worry if you haven't read the book, we start off spoiler free so join us if you haven't already purchased your copy and see if this adventure is for you.

If you've finished the book, like Joel, stick around for some spoiler discussion (all as the preamble to our eventual full episode when the fanbase at large has caught up).

It's a short one, (both the book and this episode) but there's meat (or at least a lot of blood) in this one.

If you like Anne Rice and her vampires enough to read this, then you like them enough to join our cult...I mean Discord: https://discord.gg/PkbCaMgVu3

If Discord isn’t your thing, we also have a Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/articulatecoven/ or follow us on Twitter @articulatecoven

Spoiler Free (AT FIRST) Discussion of Blood Communion, novel by Anne Rice

Joel: The Articulate Coveen is the original unofficial podcast and fan community for An Rice's interview with the Vampire and An Rice's Immortal Universe from AMC and AMC Plus.

Joel: Hello, and welcome to the Articulate Cove in episode eight. I am Joel Sharpton, your only host for this sowed as our co host, Ashley Wright Eiler, has not caught up on the last couple of books yet. So I I left her by the wayside. Think even if she had cut up in the last couple of books, I don't know that she would have swallowed this one as quickly as I did. So I wanted to jump been the right away for a couple reasons. I really wanted to get an episode out yesterday. It was actually Anne's birthday, so happy birthday to the founder of this feast, the queen of our coven, Anne Rice. And thank you so much for all the wonderful work that you've given us over the years and that you continue to give us as We get ready for the TV series, the Vampire Chronicles. We are the unofficial podcast and fan community for the Vampire Chronicles, the VampireLIST. And Anne Rice's work in general. In particular, we are focused on covering the new TV series that is forthcoming from Anne Rice Christopher Rice paramount television and Hulu. It's gonna be on Hulu. We don't have a production date even yet, let alone an air date, but things are rolling along nicely there. Today though, this episode, we're gonna be discussing the newest iteration or the newest well, the newest novel in the Vampire Chronicles series It's called Blood Community and it's out now. It it was out at the first week of October. I think October second actually was the date that it was released. But I picked it up in audiobook form. I had preordered the audiobook through Audible. And so overnight, as I awoke, I had this notification waiting for me. Bing, your book is ready. You wanna jump in and listen to it. And so I did. I downloaded it right away in that day. And the next day, instead of listening to podcasts, whenever I had a near but in and whenever I wasn't editing something, I was listening to Blood Convenient. It's a very short book. The audio. By the way, I should say all of this conversation at first is gonna be spoiler free, so don't worry even if you haven't read the book or even if you're not caught up on the last couple of books we're not gonna spoil anything for you. Not not in a major way or even really in a minor way. So don't fear. As a matter of fact, there'll be a big chapter marker when we begin to talk about spoilers, so it'll be easy for you to stop the podcast at that point and save it for whenever you do get caught up. But this book in particular is shorter, not only than the some of the older books like the one that we're about to cover in our next regular episode we're gonna be talking the Queen of the damned, that novel, the third novel in this series is huge, both in scope and in actual size. And then, of course, Anne's written even bigger books like the witching hour, which is just monstrous. And, of course, a lot of modern popular authors, people like George r and Martin write these domes, there's the Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan, I believe is the author there. And those books are are gigantic as well. So by those standards, this is a small book. But even by the standards of the last couple of books, Prince L'Estat and Prince L'Estat realms of Atlantis, I think this is a a smaller both a smaller story in scope, but also a smaller story in actual physical size of the book. The audiobook is just over nine hours long, and it was a super quick read. One of the things that I mentioned on a previous episode and I've mentioned it in our Facebook group as well, which by the way, you can join us anytime articulate coven dot com, That's our primary website or go to specifically articulate coven dot com slash facebook to join our Facebook group. And I've mentioned in all those places that there was gonna be a switch of narrators. I I can't remember precisely when this got announced. But it got announced a while back that Eric Shaw Quinn who is a good friend of Christopher and Anne. He is the cohost of a podcast with Christopher Rice, Eric Shaw Quinn was gonna be narrating the new book. Simon Vance has been the narrator I believe on every novel of the vampire chronicles, at least everyone that features lestat. And I believe he did the current version of interview with the vampire that's available if you wanna buy the audiobooks. It's Simon Vance all the way. I said I was concerned about that. First of all, I felt like a little bit like nepotism because Eric is a friend, and and Simon might not be. I don't know. Simon's just a a professional. But also, I had grown to really love Simon's portrayal of these characters, and so I was concerned about that. Here's what I'll say. Eric Shaw Quinn is a very gifted and he is a thoroughly capable narrator, but he does zero accents. He uses his own voice throughout and just uses em emphasis tone. He he acts out the phrases, but they're all or the sentences, the dialogue, but they're all in his own voice. He never puts on a voice at all.

Joel: No.

Joel: I'm not talking about, like, full on performances for each individual character. I don't do that in fictional books where I am the narrator. And it's not even really what Simon Vance does, I would say. However, Simon does have a very specific voice that he puts on for L'Estat. And since the vast majority of this book and all of the Empire Chronicles are in L'Estat's voice, It is very compelling to hear it, particularly when he uses archaic phrases, which L'Estat does sometimes as he's speaking directly to you. As the narrator. He uses some some phrase that is out of place in the modern world and that sounds better coming through that slight French accent that Simon does. In my ear than it than it does when Eric does it. I am never not aware that someone is reading to me when in Eric's performance here, whereas with Simon Vance's performance that it was often the case. Often it becomes L'Estat in my ear telling me the story. And that's that's a really magical thing when you can have that sort of synthesis of the way that these books are written and the way the narrator can deliver it. I'm sort of sad to see that go. It'll be interesting to see what the popular response is and whether or not Eric continues to do these books as they move forward. I think it's very clear that there will be more of them, and that's not a spoiler. But when we get the next Vampire Chronicles book, will Eric also read that audio book, or will they return to Simon Vance? That's it's gonna be an interesting question to me. Maybe there's more inside baseball since I'm also a narrator. But it's something that I thought about. Alright. Why don't we go ahead and do our non spoiler story discussion? We're gonna talk specifically about the story, but all in a very non spoilerory way. Okay. First and foremost, if you have enjoyed the last couple of books, the last two in particular, principal start, and Prince Let's Not realms of Atlantis. If you've enjoyed those books, if you've read them and enjoyed them, you're all set. Stop right here. Go buy, if you haven't already, a copy of blood community and read it and enjoy it without reserve. Go go get it. It is absolutely of a piece with those two books and you will enjoy it, quite a good deal. If you have read those books but you haven't enjoyed those books or perhaps you haven't read those books specifically because of some story plot you've heard that suggests to you that you might not enjoy it. And so you've just decided to skip them so far. Let me suggest that this book blood community might be a good place to jump back on. First and foremost, if your primary problem with the last two books was some of the new quote unquote, ancient vampires. I'm talking about vampires from those first few generations, the first brood. And there's a there's a different name. The first brood, and they call they call them two separate things. Anyway, the other vampires of the age of Cayman and Maharet and Macare there were several of them in the last book that were sort of introduced. If you weren't a fan of that, well, I'm sorry. This one's not gonna fix your problem. Many of those characters have a great deal to do with this story in particular. So so this is not helpful there. However, if your primary issue in the last couple of books was the new wrinkles that Anne has added into the Vampire Mythos, the sort of the creation story as it were, then this book largely leaves those in the rear view. She mentions them in a very clear sort of catch you up sort of way. That's another reason why I say this is a good sort of jumping on place. If you've missed the last two books, you get caught up on all the particulars of what has happened as far as you need to know it with the story moving forward. And then if that interests you, you can always go back and fill in. But not only she mentions it there, she also mentions it sort of or it's used that that some of that new wrinkle in the mythos or the the Genesis story, Those new wrinkles are used as an inciting incident, perhaps for the overarching narrative of this story, but they are far in the back ground. None of that stuff really is foregrounded in this story at all. It can be easily ignored. You can sort of head candidate into whatever form. You want it to be that makes it more palatable for you. Very, very convenient, I think. Again, makes this a good jumping on point if you haven't read or didn't really enjoy the last couple of books. So here are my big pros as far as spoiler free goes. Lots and lots of our mind in this story. He's got a lot to do. He's central to the storyline. Lots of L'Estat, lots of vampiric powers on display. There's gonna be a lot of good special effects in the TV version of this. It's gonna be awesome. It has a very tight, concise narrative. There's not a lot of large pot or potholes to get caught up in. Things move along at a good clip. It was it's one of the reasons why I was able to to read it or listen to it in basically two days. It moves fast. It moves very fast. Not only is it short, but it moves fast. So here are my big cons. Again, spoiler free. It is very brief. It is a very brief book. It feels episodic in a way that I don't recall any of the old series or even the last two novels feeling. It's not that it's not a complete story, but it feels very much like one adventure in the life of someone who has many, whereas the other stories always felt like even again the most recent novels have felt like major events in the life of someone who does have a very eventful and exciting life. But these are so amazing that even if even if this was the only thing that had ever happened to them, it would be novel worthy. This feels less than that, slightly. So, yeah, it's it just feels episodic, I would say. This feels more akin to this is a book more on the scale of Pandora. Or Vittorio, the vampire, that short little novel. What do they call them other tales of the vampires or something like that? It feels more like that instead of one of the chronicles proper even though this advance is the main narrative, features all the primary characters. I don't know. I wonder if this might not be the new plan for the books moving forward. You know, to keep their scope focused, write a new one every two years or so on a very regular schedule, don't let them get big so that they don't go over time wise. And because of that, you turn them sort of more into episodic adventures. It strikes me very much more like something like an author, like Laurel k Hamilton, does with her series. There's nothing wrong with that. Just hasn't been what the vampire Chronicles was so far. I'm a little worried that that's where we're headed. It's concerning. It's not inherently bad. Doesn't mean that it's a death knell for our beloved List Dot and Print or anything like that. Just just makes it just is an issue in my mind. Maybe my concern about the brevity just comes from having so recently finished the queen of the damned, which is only small if you compare it to the witching hour for size, literally, and narratively too. Anyway, if I'm gonna rate this book, I give it three and three quarter stars out of five stars. It was solid. It was very solid. Is it one of my favorites? I won't revisit it again until we talk about it again for this show. And when we do our full episode, I will I will have listened to it again, but Maybe even read it directly instead of listening to it the next time. But those are my thoughts. Those are my spoiler free thoughts. Alright. Here we go. Spoiler horn Alright. It's a new chapter. Did you see that? We're in our spoiler discussion now. So if you haven't read the book, if you have not read this book, please Don't listen beyond this point. Okay? Alright. Are you still here? Okay. Spoilers. Spoilers. Alright. So

Joel: there is a point in this book at which L'Estat is victorious. Rashamondi's has been vanquished and yet we are not really celebrating because we think the cost of this victory or the cost of this whole adventure has been the deaths of Marius and Lewis or Louis and Gabrielle. And the the thought occurred to me in between these reading sessions that this was done deliberately, perhaps, because when they get to this point in the TV

Joel: series, when they're ten seasons, twelve seasons in or something, you really wanna cut out some of the actors that have been around since season one or two. In particular, actors like Marius and and Louie Gabriel. They'd all be season one, at least season two actors. You could clear all their contracts, save a bunch of money. And I was so convinced that that was true. I got so angry at the idea that Anne had killed off characters for contract concerns and another medium of all things. And I I literally wrote angry tweets about it. I saved them in a folder for later because I didn't wanna spoil anyone right away. I had never even considered the fact that it was gonna be a fake out. In the end, it is, though. It's a fake out. The these characters aren't dead, of course. And those characters or or fine at the end of the novel. The real kicker here was that our mind remains alive at that point in the story. When you think that these three are dead Lasada's victorious Rashamundis has been vanquished. Araman's still alive. And in fact, there's a great scene between Mond and Lestat where they argue about these deaths and the fact that Lestat's sort of culpable for them because he hadn't defeated Russian mondays already or he hadn't allowed the tribe to defeat him. It never occurred to me that if you were going to clear a contractor, kill someone off, to ease TV production of the series, it would be Armand since he's also a season one character definitely. And he's also an eternal boy. I don't that never occurred to me. So anyway, that was a a big hang up for me at that point. Up until then, I had enjoyed the book fine, but I got very mad at that point when it when I was like, she's killed these characters and I think she's done it for the TV show, but it's not the truth at all. Anyway, the finish of the the book is actually quite satisfactory. The question of, as I mentioned in the non spoiler stuff in a hazy way, you know, the the new wrinkles to the mythos involve the children of Atlantis, the the REVLIMID. And if you want to sort of ignore that in this book you can. However, it is clear in this book that that question is hanging over the the tribe of empires moving forward. It's not resolved in any way. And yet the character that's that brings it up our mind. That's what the argument is about, really, in the end. And his concerns aren't settled. They're not answered, they're not responded to. And so they will come to a head eventually, you gotta say. But otherwise, the new status quo for the governor of the articulate is one of peace and understanding and, you know, the fledgling from all over the world are coming to the court and trying to be understood. Again, another, I think, plot Boy for a future novel current human slavery in the dungeons below the stats chateau. I don't I don't think that's gonna be tenable forever. It makes like, they they bring it up and then it makes sense. It's the sort of thing that's she's written herself and has written herself a a lot of things in the creation of the court. I feel like that are convenient answers to possible issues that you would have with such a thing. And she's done these things because she really wants this to happen. She wants this sort of gathering to exist, and she doesn't want it to be easily poked apart by simple plot holes but but it is a real

Joel: she's written herself a lot of convenient answers to those issues. One of them being this human slavery question. I I hope that she revisits it in the future in a novel. And even if they are, you know, drug dealers and and pimps and, you know, killers and rapists, etcetera, etcetera. There's still people there's still people torture in a cell

Joel: is weird for these good guys in this book even if they are vampires. That's sort of my thoughts on it. Final thought is this. The fight with Roshamondi's is gonna be epic when we finally see that in season ten or twelve. As is there's one of the inciting incidents when he's in the home in Louisiana at the beginning. I can't remember the character's name, but when he's goes to visit the elder vampire that lives in Louisiana, and the house gets torched by well, a different bad guy. It's actually not Rajamondi's. But anyway, one of the other minor characters in this novel, when he destroys the home and tries to attack LaSott, that scene's gonna be really awesome on TV too. So they've set themselves up some great adventure in action in this one. And I do wonder if this is what we should

Joel: expect moving forward sort of bite size adventures, lower stakes, perhaps

Joel: more intrigue in the court. And, yeah, I do also worry a little bit now about potentially killing off some of these characters for contract reasons. Although, I guess, if you go in fourteen seasons deep, like she almost is now, maybe it doesn't matter. Anyway, okay, that's my thoughts. I'd love to hear your thoughts too. For our eventual discussion of this novel in particular, I'd love for you to email me articulate covenantgmail dot com. You can email your thoughts. You can post them in the Facebook group. If you want to, we can start a spoiler thread there. For blood communion and then then post the thoughts in the comments. That way, no one will be spoiled in the Facebook group if they don't wanna be. And of course, the biggest thing that we want you to do is to share the show. If you have friends that love Anne Rice or L'Estad or the Vampire Chronicles or even just Things that go bump in the night. This show might be for them. So why don't you share it with them? We're on Spotify. We're on Apple Podcasts. We're on Google Podcasts as well. And of course, you can find us always at articulatecoven dot com. In the next episode, we're gonna be discussing the Queen of the damned, the novel Ashley Wright Eiler, my cohost will be back with me. It'll be a full length episode, so stay tuned for that. It'll be in your feeds as soon as we can. Until then, I remain part at least of the articulate cabin.

Joel: Thanks for listening to the Articulate Covem. You can join our community on Facebook by following the links in the show notes or searching for articulate Kevin on Facebook. You can subscribe to the show in Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or at articulatecoven dot com. And share us with your An Rise loving friends.