Blood Canticle (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

by Anne Rice (Author) "I WANT to be a saint..." (more)
Key Phrases: double parlor, sailor dress, honey bunch, Aunt Queen, Oncle Julien, Blackwood Farm (more...)

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.

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

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (October 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 037541200X
• ISBN-13: 978-0375412004
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (384 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #169,822 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 10 in The Vampire Chronicles Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Did I read the same book?, November 16, 2003

By	linda liu (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

Usually, I think that appreciation for every book is up to an individual's taste. Believe me, there are a few classics that I would rather be bludgeoned to death with than have to read again. But, how can anyone who has appreciated Anne Rice's earlier work even give this novel 2 stars? I mean, it is really bad.

The work (or lack thereof) is just terrible and shoddy. I have read short stories by 8th graders that had more thought than this drivel did. I have read every novel Anne has written. Some have been better than others. But nothing has been as poorly done as "Blood Canticle". She has just completely lost touch with reality. Does she really think that people speak like that? And does she truly think that by having Lestat use words like "Yo" and "Bro" that he has adapted to modern times?

Religion is great and Lestat used to be so interesting. But Lestat, like the author, seems to have found a new orifice that he like to speak out of.

I won't comment on the characters. They are all one dimensional idiots. There is no plot, even though we are promised one. And... I just can't even go on. I will never read or purchase another Anne Rice book. This is just too insulting. I think I will join two Taltos in the deep freeze and just pray that it goes away.

51 of 62 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)

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.)

57 of 70 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The characters deserved better, May 30, 2004

By	abt1950 "abt1950" (usa) - See all my reviews

What can I say about this book that hasn't already been said by other reviewers? This has to be the worst book Rice has written, and it took an act of will for me to finish it. Rice has said that this is the last of her Vampire Chronicles. I only hope she keeps her word.

So why is this book so bad? First of all, the story is thin. Newly made vamp Mona Mayfair (who spends most of the book acting out) wants to find out what happened to her Taltos child. Ok, interestng premise. Could have made for a good story. Mayfair family dynamics come into play--Mona's daughter was fathered by Rowan's husband Michael and Mona's mad at Rowan. Could have been interesting. Oncle Julien haunts Lestat because he's mad that Mona has been vamped. Interesting idea. There are other glimmers of a plot that could work, but mostly they get a superficial, breakneck treatment that reads more like the outline of a longer, more developed novel.

However, my major complaint about "Blood Canticle" (and much of Rice's recent work) is her treatment of her characters. In her earlier works, they were better fleshed out and more complex. In other words, they were believable, and from book to book Rice maintained their integrity. In recent books, however, she's turned them into one dimensional cartoon characters that bear only a superficial resemblance to what they used to be. She manipulates them like puppets to suit her whims--disposing of them off-handedly when it suits her fancy (poor Ash, poor Morrigan, poor Merrick--oops, wrong book). Her characters have lost any psychological reality they originally had. For instance, Mona's just an spoiled, immature brat; Rowan's a controlling Mad Scientist who wants to leave her husband for Lestat; and Quinn (Rice's best developed recent character) is so bland he fades into the woodwork. Even Oncle Julien becomes a incompetent ghostly meddler who can't get anything right. As for Lestat, now he's a do-gooder who wants to become a saint. You know the book is in trouble when it begins with Rice using Lestat's voice to whine about how "Memnoch the Devil" was misunderstood. Much of the Vampire Chronicles has been about Lestat's moral evolution, but please, give the vamp his fangs back!

Part of the problem here is that Rice has written some very good books that conveyed a real sense of the uneartly. "Blackwood Farm," Rice's most recent book before this one, was downright creepy and spooky in spots. Even "Merrick" had an eerie atmosphere to it. "Blood Canticle" suffers in comparison and does justice to neither of her major series. Both deserved a better sendoff.

Vampires & Mayfairs alike, may you rest in peace and be subjected to no further indignities.