I wonder at what point you tried to read IwaV? Mind you, not that it would have made any difference, necessarily. *g* My thought is that when I first read it, it was a Brand New kind of thing, almost -- barring Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, whose vampire is almost more human. But it wasn't too long after AR caught on that there were more and better-written vampire books available.

I bogged down reading The Vampire Lestat, and never have gone back to read anything more (except the Witch books), but I did enjoy Interview -- mostly because I really liked the character of Louis, who fell by the wayside (probably because he didn't Walk with the author and whisper sweet nothings in her ear), and the idea of a sensual child vampire, which I hadn't run across before Interview came out. Also, Interview was much, much shorter than anything that came after.