Blood and Gold

Rice's Vampire Chronicles are always wonderful tapestries of history, blood, love and hate, and this latest instalment is no exception. Marius the Roman, who has been a vampire for thousands of years, tells his story to Thorne, an ancient blood drinker who has lain in a cave of ice for many centuries and craves company. A vital, intelligent young man, Marius was abducted by a group of druids and given to their tree god, a vampire. As a new blood drinker he travels south to Egypt to see if he can discover the reason for the mysterious great fire which had recently struck down all but the oldest vampires. It is there that he embarks upon his career as caretaker of Those Who Must be Kept, a role that will dominate his life for the next thousand years. Marius is an attractive and well-drawn character, and as ever Rice draws on the myths of old to create a vivid and original narrative. Although the books in this series are closely linked, with characters and events occurring in more than one novel, each can be read in isolation - however, you will probably get a taste for more! (Kirkus UK)