Blood Canticle (Anne Rice) [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Anne Rice (Author), Stephen Spinella (Reader)

Book Description

Series: Anne Rice | Publication Date: October 28, 2003

Anne Rice continues her astonishing Vampire Chronicles in a new novel that begins where Blackwood Farm left off — and tells the story of Lestat’s quest for redemption, goodness, and the love of Rowan Mayfair.

Welcome back to Blackwood Farm. Here are all of the brilliantly conceived characters that make up the two worlds of vampires and witches: Mona Mayfair, who’s come to the farm to die and is brought into the realm of the undead; her uncle, Julian Mayfair, guardian of the family, determined to forever torment Lestat for what he has done to Mona; Rowan Mayfair, brilliant neurosurgeon and witch, who finds herself dangerously drawn to the all-powerful Lestat; her husband, Michael Curry, hero of the Mayfair Chronicles, who seeks Lestat’s help with the temporary madness of his wife; Ash Templeton, a 5,000-year-old Taltos who has taken Mona’s child; and Patsy, the country-western singer, who returns to avenge her death at the hands of her son, Quinn Blackwood. Delightfully, at the book’s centre is the Vampire Lestat, once the epitome of evil, now pursuing the transformation set in motion with Memnoch the Devil. He struggles with his vampirism and yearns for goodness, purity and love, as he saves Patsy’s ghost from the dark realm of the Earthbound, uncovers the mystery of the Taltos and unselfishly decides the fate of his beloved Rowan Mayfair.

A story of love and loyalty, of the search for passion and promise, Blood Canticle is Anne Rice at her finest.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

For her 25th fan-pleasing outing, Rice reunites some of her most popular creations and, for the first time since Memnoch the Devil (1995), lets the Vampire Lestat "write" the book. Taking up where last year's Blackwood Farm ended, the now-doppelganger-free Quinn Blackwood and Lestat save Quinn's true love, the witch Mona Mayfair, from certain death by making her an immortal. In his effort to attain sainthood, Lestat must deal with a lot of metaphysical angst. The opulent Blackwood estate and its spooky swamps, as well as New Orleans and a Caribbean isle, provide the settings for many elegant costume changes as the exquisite vampiric triumvirate gleefully suck several deserving victims dry and lay waste to dozens of a drug lord's minions. The vampirisation of young Mona, a true child of our times, gives Rice a dynamic new vampire personality with whom to play. Writing as if her blood-inked quill were afire, Rice seems truly possessed by her Brat Prince of darkness as she races through the story. She sometimes slights members of the vast supporting cast, both dead and alive, but neatly ties up all their loose ends. The complete unification of the Mayfair witch saga with that of the Vampire Chronicles provides either a befitting end or a new beginning for the Queen of the Vampires.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Elements and characters from many of Rice's previous books come together in her new novel, which picks up where her previous one, Blackwood Farm (2002), left off. This time, popular antihero Lestat is the narrator, and he's become obsessed with becoming a saint. As a vampire, the option isn't really open to him, but the desire to be good nags at him. He wrestles with the decision of whether or not to change the dying Mona Mayfair, the love of newly made vampire Quinn Blackwood, into a vampire. He finally gives in and changes her, despite the wrath he knows her family will feel when they learn she is a vampire. Rowan Mayfair, who was Mona's doctor when she was sick, immediately captivates Lestat when she arrives at Blackwood Farm demanding to see Mona. When Rowan's own secrets threaten to drive her insane, her husband, Michael, comes to Lestat, begging him to help her. Deeply in love with Rowan, Lestat agrees, and upon his visit to Rowan, he learns she and Mona share a secret. Both gave birth to Taltos children--an ancient species that evolved separately from humans but can occasionally mate with them. Mona's daughter was taken from her by a Taltos man, and she wants to track her down. Lestat boldly agrees to help her. Though a lot of elements from Rice's previous novels play into this one, new readers won't be lost and old ones will enjoy how the different threads come together. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739306308
• ISBN-13: 978-0739306307
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1 x 4.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (397 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #515,488 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #1 in Books > Books on CD > Authors, A-Z > ( R ) > Rice, Anne

More About the Author

Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science.

She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O'Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir, Called Out of Darkness;and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana,

Anne publicly broke with organized religion in July of 2010 on moral grounds, affirming her faith in God, but refusing any longer to be called "Christian." The story attracted surprising media attention, with Rice's remarks being quoted in stories all over the world.

Anne is very active on her FaceBook Fan Page and has over 550,000 followers. She answers questions every day on the page, and also posts on a variety of topics, including literature, film, music, politics, religion, and her own writings. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics.

Her latest novel, The Wolf Gift, a werewolf story set in Northern California in the present time, will be published on February 14th, 2012. With this book, Anne returns to the classic monsters and themes of supernatural literature, similar to those she explored in her Vampire Chronicles, and tales of the Mayfair Witches.

Her first novel, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and has gone on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She continued her saga of the Vampire Lestat in a series of books, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, which have had both great mainstream and cult followings.

Interview with the Vampire was made into a motion picture in 1994, starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. Anne's novel, Feast of All Saints about the free people of color of ante-bellum New Orleans became a Showtime mini series in 2001.

Anne Rice is also the author of other novels, including The Witching Hour, Servant of the Bones, Merrick, Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, Violin, and Cry to Heaven. She lives in Palm Desert, California.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

68 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Spare your eyes, time, and image of Lestat from this..., May 7, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Blood Canticle (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

I remember when I was first introduced to the wonderful, deeply lyrical and darkly enchanting world of the vampire chronicles for the first time by reading 'Interview with the Vampire'. How I was moved by 'The vampire Lestat', drawn into 'Queen of the Damned' and 'Tale of the Body Thief'. Then I remember how I gradually started to lose interest in these once so colorful, wickedly beautiful characters in 'Memnoch' which took me ages to finish, because it was just, so, very, boring. After that, reading the vampire chronicles became nearly painful, the stories grew more and more colourless, and Rice just kept repeating herself. Blood and Gold was slightly more interesting than the rest, but my hopes were crushed by the lousy 'Blackwood Farm'.
Now, I'm the type of person that can't start a series without finishing it, unfortunately, because the characters I once loved have turned into something grotesquely boring and idiotic.
My reading the rest of the chronicles made anything better, it feels as if Anne is just writing new books, losing inspiration, forgetting past stories, and how thoose characters FELT in the first place, just to make more money out of her name.

So, let me put it in a way that no one can misinterpret. Blood Canticle sucks. I hated it. It's amateurish, bleak and even though all it's overdramatics never delves deeper into any of the people or incidents. And what's with the way Lestat is speaking? I cringed when I read his ghettotalk. And his ramblings about being a saint, his extreme LOVE for christianity. This change from how he was is poorly done, and hardly believable. I didn't think it could get worse than 'Blackwood Farm' really, which annoyed me beyond reason, with all it's sad oh-so-beautifully-tragic people, the overdramatic yet pointless rants etc. But Blood Canticle somehow manages to be worse.

Anyone, who like me, fell in love with the first Vampire Chronicles, spare yourself from this! As a matter of fact, don't read the latter Vampire Chronicles, they're basically just boring, and repetetive crap. I won't force anyone, it's hardly possible, and everyone's free to read it and see or themselves what a piece of junk it is. But if you want to keep the image you have of the characters and Rice's style, don't even go near 'Blackwood Farm'.

So, now, I will go and sit down with my copy of Interview with the Vampire, and enjoy the Vampire Chronicles when they were worth reading,(because they certainly arent after the 4th book), and try to push this horrid piece of literature in the darkest corners of my mind, where it will hopefully lie until being forgotten.

47 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Mills & Boon-esque Trash, March 7, 2005

By 

Da Beck (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blood Canticle (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

If I want to read "literature" where the protagonist uses words like "cool," "babycakes" and "pah-leeeze," I'll get into an online argument with a teenaged troll.

Anne Rice, you were an amazing writer-- your works were full of beautiful, inspiring prose and muted meditation. Some called it turgid, though others like myself loved it. I bet even those critics are eating their words now. It's like you went from one extreme to another.

Doubtless I'll get the trolls coming out of the woodwork with their cries of "OH Noes!11! You didn't just diss Teh Greatest Writer Evah!!!1!" and the rather mundane and predictable "OMG let's see u rite 25 bezt sellaz!!1"

I don't need to be a farmer to know that pig swill is rubbish; likewise I don't need to be James Joyce to know that five exclamation marks and an undead 18th century French libertine trying to get down with da kidz through L337-speak is never going to be "Ulysses."

I'll keep hold of the books from "Interview With the Vampire" to "Tale of the Body Thief." They're classics; they're sharp, well-written with great characterisation. If you're looking for quality writing by Anne Rice, try those books. If you've come here to tell people that they're wrong for daring not to like a book, or to roll out the "write 25 books" line, nothing will persuade you otherwise.

Adieu, Lestat. It was fun while it lasted.

Also, "Lestat" didn't write it. Apart from Lestat being a (hugely enjoyable) fictional character, he has been used as a sock puppet by Rice to berate people who recognised Memnoch the Devil to be an insulting rip-off of finer theological works.

82 of 98 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Thank god?, October 11, 2004

By 

E. Bernard - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Blood Canticle (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

If Anne Rice herself is glad that the series is finished, it only goes to prove how tired the whole lot of books has become.

She claims she doesn't need editing. Even Hemingway had an editor. If she weren't such an egomaniac, which is obvious from her rant, Rice would have established an ongoing relationship with an editor that she trusted.

She says that she doesn't want to hear someone else's voice blended in with Pavarotti's or Horne's. But if she were at all educated about the opera world, she would know that even the greatest opera singers continue to have teachers help them to hone their craft. Rice believes that she is such a genius that she doesn't need instruction or editing. Well, the continued decline in the literary quality of her books speaks otherwise.

This book is truly awful. If she hadn't already had so many books published, no reputable publishing house would have touched it.

And no, I have nothing personal against Ms. Rice. I wish her the best. (And I wish she would get an editor rather than rail against the people who actually read her books and see the desperate need for one.)