69 of 79 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
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.
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47 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Mills & Boon-esque Trash, March 7, 2005
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.
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82 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Thank god?, October 11, 2004
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.)
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