Publishers Weekly
10/08/2018
A furious battle with an implacable enemy of the vampire Lestat energizes the plot of this new episode in Rice’s sprawling Vampire Chronicles. Upon returning to his court in France, vampire Prince Lestat is informed that the ancient vampire Rhoshamandes, bound by a truce forged following his murder of the vampire matriarch Maharet, is once again antagonizing members of the vampire hierarchy. When Rhoshamandes begins picking off members of the court one by one to avenge the death of his lover, the stage is set for a grisly final face-off between him and Lestat. As in Rice’s previous books, this story is distinguished by the sensuality with which she describes her vampires and their way of life. This installment stands out in particular for showing the transformation of Lestat, over time, from the brash “Brat Prince” to a lover and protector of those whom he now thinks of as “my people, my tribe, my family.” Fans old and new will find this book an effusive celebration of a saga now more than 40 years in the making. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit. (Oct.)
From the Publisher
Praise for Anne Rice and The Vampire Chronicles:
“[Rice’s] undead characters are utterly alive.” —The New York Times Book Review
“No one writing today matches [Anne Rice's] deftness with the erotic.” —The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Anne Rice will live on through the ages of literature. . . . To read her is to become giddy as if spinning through the mind of time, to become lightheaded as if our blood is slowly being drained away.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“Fans old and new will find this book an effusive celebration of a saga now more than forty years in the making.” —Publishers Weekly
“Bloody marvelous.” —Time
“Rice never lost touch with the exuberant, often witty, and always fearless voice of irrepressible vampire Lestat de Lioncourt.” —BookPage
“Immense and rich.” —Elle
“Anne Rice is the queen of sexy vampire fiction.” —Cosmopolitan
“Lestat is . . . an engaging character who manages to live up to his own hype.” —The Boston Globe
“Popular fiction of the highest order.” —USA Today
Kirkus Reviews
2018-08-21
Of crunching bones, collapsing veins, and nicely coordinated outfits: Rice's Vampire Chronicles gets a fresh transfusion.
Alas, poor Rhoshamandes: He was about the only character to breathe any new life, so to speak, into Rice's pallid vamp saga thanks to some stately if gory moments in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016). And now—well, like the series, old Rosh has seen better days. Meanwhile, the longtime ringmaster of the sharp-toothed show, Lestat, is consolidating his power while taking an increasingly evident interest in aesthetics that, in lesser hands, would likely translate into a barrage of product placement. As it is, a few brand names slip through: Wouldn't you just know it that a vampire wouldn't be seen dead with an Android? It's not just that, as Lestat observes, "Almost all vampires are beautiful," but that the good stuff gets called out, from "English Chippendale chairs" to "rubies, emeralds, diamonds, sapphires everywhere that one looked, or ropes of pearls and barrettes and pins of gold and silver." And why so much attention to the things of the world? Perhaps because, as it seems, Lestat doesn't have much to occupy himself with apart from a literal rock-star moment and all that politicking with Rhoshamandes, who, it has to be said, had more than a shot or two at making things good with Lestat and company. The story takes some time to gather momentum, a shame for a book that's so short, especially as compared to others in the series. Still, while most of the proceedings seem a familiar footnote to the larger series as it's unfolded over the decades, there are some nicely icky passages that would give Stephen King pause: "I threw the headless body onto the coverlet, tossed the smashed and empty head on top of the body, then gathered up even the heart and what I'd vomited of the brain and the eyes, and flung them all together…."
Just the bucket of blood for die-hard Rice fans.
