Publishers Weekly
10/31/2016
Rice teases readers with questions—what is the place called Atalantaya, and what does Amel, the Core that connects all vampires and currently resides in vampire prince Lestat, have to do with it?—for fully half of her 12th Vampire Chronicles novel (after 2014’s Prince Lestat), which spans our entire world and beyond, before a cohesive narrative coalesces around the answers. When any of the 12,000-year-old self-cloning aliens called Replimoids take center stage, there are interesting sparks. They soon fade, though, as Lestat and his confidants (and the reader) wait for anything to happen. But when Kapetria, who speaks for the Replimoids, begins to give real information to Lestat and members of his court about Amel and the Replimoids’ origins, the book finally catches fire. Initially, the concept of adding aliens to vampires, spirits, and witches is an eye roller, but Rice exhibits tremendous skill in making the impossible seem not only possible but logical. She sets up a nail-biting dilemma involving the continued existence of vampires, and the second half of the book roars satisfyingly past. Agent: Lynn Nesbit, Janklow & Nesbit. (Dec.)
From the Publisher
Excitement about Anne Rice’s
PRINCE LESTAT AND THE REALMS OF ATLANTIS
“Remarkable . . . Prepare to have your imagination shaken. Rice has constructed a wholly original view of Atlantis, and, like all of her luscious descriptions, it will leave you craving for more . . . Readers will be delighted . . . Rice’s ability to ease into her beautiful world with the same seamless transitions readers have come to know and love will assure you that Lestat has never fully left the building and neither has Rice’s immense talent.”
—Rebecca Munro, Bookreporter
“Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis will undoubtedly win Rice new fans and welcome back old ones.”
—Toni V. Sweeney, New York Journal of Books
“Alluring . . . Rice invites us to look carefully at our society and consider what we are carrying along with us simply by virtue of the path on which we arrived . . . Powerful and thought-provoking . . . We recommend it unreservedly.”
—Andrea Sefler, Pop Mythology
“Rice exhibits tremendous skill in making the impossible seem not only possible but logical. She sets up a nail-biting dilemma involving the continued existence of vampires, and the second half of the book roars satisfyingly past.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Anne Rice is the Queen of Sexy Vampire Fiction.”
—Kelly McClure, Cosmopolitan
“A few pages in, I was sold . . . Lestat always felt real to me to a somewhat discomforting degree . . . Beautiful . . . Suave, complex . . . I will always be so grateful that Anne has given me another opportunity to follow the adventures of this very intriguing vampire, who is much more than just a one-dimensional caricature.”
—Carol Hoenig, Huffington Post
Kirkus Reviews
2016-10-19
Having perhaps bled all the possibilities out of earthly children of the night, Rice (Prince Lestat, 2014, etc.) takes a bite out of two big bodies of myth.Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. Pity poor Prince Lestat; he was once able to roam the world without a care, nipping and frolicking, but now he has administrative duties and, with them, fresh enemies seeking a shot at power. One constant source of irritation is the stately Rhoshamandes who has suddenly come into an all-day sucker of a captive whose ever flowing juice has "nutrients that human blood does not have." A fine thing for a vampire's inventory, to be sure, but a portal as well into a world whose technology, as so often happens, has outpaced its morals. Down in that watery realm, the denizens scorn the place where "a dreadful thing had happened in that mammals had gained self-awareness and intelligence and now ruled the planet." The better to provide vampire chow, one might say. But the Atalantayans have their hungers, too, and the hungriest of them seems to have latched on to poor Lestat. Inner voice, nothing: Amel is much more than a haunting spirit, "as different from ghosts," another superevolved being tells us, "as angels are from humans." Who will prevail? Well, if Amel sometimes conjures Charlie Manson, Lestat sounds like Twiggy once the fussing and feuding between immortal domains is settled: "This is our universe," he says, "We too are made of stardust as are all things on this planet; we too belong." Yeah, well. Fans of Rice's vampire fiction will feast on whatever they can of hers, but Ignatius Donnelly/Edgar Cayce aficionados may twitch at all the "kindred in the Blood" stuff uneasily mixed in with the old lost continent mythos. Rice's latest excursion into otherly realms may leave some readers feeling overstuffed—but others, to be sure, will be hungry for more.
