Customer Reviews

The Queen Of The Damned (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition) (Vampire Chronicles (PB))

5 star:		(155)
4 star:		(61)
3 star:		(24)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

The Queen of the Damned is strikingly different in both form and substance from the first two books of The Vampire Chronicles. Several new characters are introduced, a number of truly old vampires we have only heard of up until now become part of the action, and the story is woven together into a mosaic much more wide in scope from what has come before. This is essentially Lestat's book, but he is not really the focus of the tale; while he narrates his own role in events, much of the book is written in the third person. This, plus the addition of so many new characters and the truly elaborate scope that is covered, makes this novel much less cohesive than the first-person narratives of the first two books. The action is spread out over six thousand years from one end of the world to the other, with a lot of mythology and pondering taking the place of the thrilling, energetic action of the earlier novels.

The book begins a week or two before Lestat's legendary rock concert and the ensuing mayhem that erupted outside the auditorium on that night. We follow the paths of other vampires in the days prior to this, including Armand and Daniel, the young man from Interview With the Vampire. We also learn that the immolation of vampires that Lestat, Louis, and Gabrielle saw that night had actually begun several days earlier, as a number of covens were destroyed by Akasha, the newly awakened Queen of the Damned. After the story of her awakening is told, the book takes on a somewhat mystical air. Almost all vampires are dreaming of two red-headed young women preparing to feast upon their dead mother, only to be taken prisoner by soldiers while their village is destroyed around them. The true significance of the red-headed twins does not become clear until the final hundred pages of the book, for their tale is an integral part of the story behind vampirism's very existence. We already knew that Enkil and Akasha, ancient rulers of Egypt, were the first vampires. Now, the whole history of the King and Queen is revealed, including the curse that accompanied their transformation. Rice goes out of her way to explain the beginning of vampirism in a unique way, although the facts of the matter seem a little too elaborate and far-fetched to me.

The one real weakness I find in the novel is Akasha's agenda. She is not exactly the altruistic type, and her mission to save mankind sounds ingenuous at best. It is also a rather laughable plan; having spent the past six thousand years in contemplative thought, I would have expected a character of her strength and moxie to have come up with a plan much better than this one. The final conflict, one prefigured for hundreds of pages in the slow unveiling of the Legend of the Twins, ends so quickly I was forced to stop and make sure I hadn't somehow skipped a paragraph or two. Basically, it's all over in one sentence. Even Lestat is not himself here; I actually enjoyed the stories of the other vampires and the history of the accidental birth of vampirism in Akasha more than I enjoyed the action related first-hand by Lestat. Certainly, Rice is to be commended for vastly expanding her vampire universe and having her characters deeply examine their lives and their purposes on earth, but I just could not fully connect with this novel. Still, it is an essential book for Anne Rice fans, as it offers up loads of information about the vampires who roam the world of her creation and explains the very origins of vampirism itself.

Queen of the Damned tells about the much loved two hundred year old vampire, Lestat de Lioncourt, who finds himself in the middle of a vampire war. Queen of the Damned is the third book in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. The first book was Interview with the Vampire, and was followed by The Vampire Lestat. I recommend you read both of these books before you read Queen of the Damned, to get the appropriate background. In Queen of the Damned, Lestat has just made his Hollywood debut. He has penned an autobiography, entiltled The Vampire Lestat. He has started a band(also called The Vampire Lestat), and has set a date for a concert on Halloween. His fans aren't the only ones to be there- vampires who want to punish Lestat for his outwardness towards mortals will also be in attendence. Unbeknownst to him, Lestat's loud music has woken the ancient vampire King Enkil and Queen Akasha from their millenia long slumber. Akasha immeadiatly starts on a plan to stop all vampires and to save mankind- or rather, womankind. As in The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned is narrated by Lestat. But unlike 'Lestat, Queen of the Damned includes side views and stories by others observers, and after all the events were over, told Lestat the story. If you like this book, I suggest to you the other Vampire Chronicles, and other Anne Rice books, such as Lasher, The Witching Hour, and Pandora.

Following the curse of Frank Herbert and Dune, Anne Rice doesn't know when to let sleeping vampires lie and keeps churning out sequels to her initial monster hit. And each one is just a little less than the one that preceded it.

Vampire Queen Akasha, first of the immortals, awakens by the secret-revealing rock music of Lestat from her eons of slumber, to initiate the vampire-human apocalypse and implement a New World Order. The pearls of immortality have for too long been cast before swine, and she wants to clean house. Cleaving her Chosen Few to her bosom, her plan is to eliminate all lesser immortals and men, and rule over a carefully controlled and bred human world. Needless to say, those not Chosen - from either species - have something to say about that, and even her own favorites rebel against her. "How sharper than a serpent's tooth..."

It's a great plot, but the devil is in the details, and Rice dwells on unimportant details at the expense of the plot. The climax is terribly anticlimactic for such an inordinate buildup, and the novel's structure is more than usually loose. Her historical accuracy is hit-and-miss, though nothing to be concerned about.

The book's greatest problem is simply its length. It actually climaxes halfway through - which is when the plot truly begins - leaving a long, long stretch of exposition to what the story is really all about. And by the time it gets to where it's going, the reader's interest is drastically diminished. The vampires are a loquacious lot, and keep repeating their points in a talky finale that then concludes all too abruptly. The epilogue is actually better than the rest of the novel.

Rice's fans will certainly embrace Queen of the Damned, but her new readers will want to start with her stronger work - namely, the original Interview with the Vampire.

The movie really wasn't bad, considering this is an all but unfilmable novel as written.

I have to wonder if all the people who bash Anne Rice have read this novel. Far and away the best work in the entire Vampire Chronicles, Queen of the Damned left me hanging on the edge of my seat from cover to cover. Unlike the other books in the series, it picks up exactly where the previous book, The Vampire Lestat left off. Anne Rice has long been one of my favorite authors and this one does not disappoint. Told in Rice's glorious, sensuous style, readers are taken on quite a strange trip--from the ancient sands of pre-dynastic Egypt to a San Francisco rock concert. For the most part, the characters are rich and enthralling (however I found Eric and Santino to be little more than 2 dimensional cardboard cut-outs). I instantly fell in love with Maharet, that lovely red-haired enchantress, her beautiful mystique and the sorrow she carried for millenia. I even named a MUD character for her (LOL!). Truly a tour-de-force, and by far the best in the series (they started going a bit downhill from here IMHO). If you are new to this series, please *PLEASE* for the love of the gods read Interview With a Vampire first and do the books in order. Otherwise you will have no clue what's really going on, and you will definitely not be able to appreciate this book as much. Trust me on this, my friend made that mistake. Also, there were some parts of this book that squicked even me (particularly parts of Maharet's story) and I *DON'T* squick at all. I just have to congratulate Anne Rice on doing what I thought was impossible for an author :P BTW, don't bother with them after Tale of the Body Thief. Except for some precious few parts Memnoch was the absolute pits (no pun intended :P).

The Mother of all vampires, literally has been asleep for nearly 6,000 years, give or take a thousand. Akasha, Queen of the Damned and former Queen of the Nile in Ancient Egypt has woken from her slumber mysteriously after hearing the music from another vampire singing in a rock group calling themselves The Vampire Lestat.
Lestat, or known among the vampire circle as 'the brat prince' has made it his mission to wake Akasha from her sleep and take on the world's vampires. Lestat is tired of this life and his neverending quest for good and redemption. What he doesn't know is that Akasha was better off asleep.
What Lestat dreams of her being and what she truly is are two very different things.
Evil in the purest word is what she is.
Kept asleep with her husband and fellow vampire Enkil, King and Queen, or as all seem to know them as, Those Who Must Be Kept, the vampire Marius tells us how he came to get them and how he kept watch for nearly 2,000 years until Akasha awakens.

Going back 6,000 years the story of Akasha and Enkil and how vampires began is told in detail. Along with the Legend of the Twins and how they seem to be forgotten after all these years.
Fascinating work here. More fasinating than the previous books.
Creepy and truly frightening at times, this one is a keeper.
Will Lestat find Louis after nearly a hundred years? Will the older ones seek to destroy him? What does Akasha intend to do now that she is awake?
I was torn at times on who I felt sorry for and in the end I was shocked. Unbelievable read.

Tracy Talley~@

Queen of the Damned is a good book but I was wondering why all of her characters seem to have the same likes and dislikes. They always love classical music and have a deep appreciation for Renaissance Art. What about a vampire who likes rap and hip hop and whose favorite artist is Andy Warhol. What about a vampire with bad taste? Hey, what about a vampire who watches Tom Green and whose favorite movie is Dumb and Dumber? And why are they always gay or bi? I have nothing against gay people but what about a straight vampire for once. Surely there must be some straight people made into vampires! I was also wondering why all of her male characters are so much more sympathetic and nice than her female characters. There wasn't one nice female character in The Queen of the Damned. For some reason her female characters are always kind of cold and distant while her male characters are always very feeling, always weeping and stuff like that. And why does she always use the word weep instead of cry? Iam going to weep says Lestat. Anyway its a good book and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys vampires and other things that go bump in the night.

PS What about a plain and not too good looking vampire? Even when their suppose to be 70 yrs old they still somehow keep their looks like David Talbot. How about Ernie, the 40 yr old redneck vampire with the buck teeth, beer belly and thinning hair, whose favorite type of music is Elvis and Hank Williams and whose idols are Steve Austin and John Wayne.

This novel is exhilirating. The complex narrative and histories detailed in it is a work of genius; the way the characters are all so inextricably intertwined is wonderful. The story behind Daniel, the interviewer in "Interview With the Vampire", and the allusions to ancient Egypt brought to this novel a mixture of gothic wonder and compex storytelling that Anne Rice excels in. As a closing point, can I also stipulate that I can't believe that some people have problems with the sexual content in the book-- I mean, come on! After 200 years and three novels, Louis and Lestat finally...kiss! Oh, the horror! That's one of the best parts in the book-- it sees a reconciliation of two of the most enduring characters in modern fiction. I strongly urge you to read this, what I feel to be the last of the truly great books in the Vampire Chronicles. Its surpassed only by 'Interview With the Vampire' and 'The Vampire Lestat'. It's all downhill from here, folks. But what a ride it was to start with!

After the highly original and well-done Interview With the Vampire, Anne Rice certainly fell from my good graces with this mishmash of the supernatural. Rice has committed the beginner's cardinal sin (she was still a beginner when she wrote this) by peopling her novel with so many extraneous characters just to keep the pot boiling we need a scorecard to keep them straight. Many of them seemed to have nothing at all to do with the story. And where, for goodness sake is the plot? So many readers and reviewers talk about Rice's lush, gorgeous prose but I think purple prose is a more apt description as far as this novel is concerned. Sorry, Anne. You can't cover bad writing with flowery prose and get away with it. Your readers are just too smart!

I am an avid Anne Rice reader. I await her books with impatience and I love to revel in her older stories (I cannot count how many times I have read Interview). I love to go back to Lestat's stories, how he came to be, what has happened to him. The Queen Of The Damned picks up where The Vampire Lestat left us and the book is a joyride into vampire and Egyptian mythology, as well as in eroticsm and darkness.

The Queen of The Damned as awakend and she is killing off all of the earth's vampires, save for Lestat's covent. She has a purpose; to get rid of the men of the earth in order to find peace in the world. She wants to destroy violence and create a pure world which she will rule. She kidnaps Lestat in the hopes that he will join her in her quest.

The tale spirals from every corners of the world, going from mythic Egypt to today's modern rock-scene world. Anne Rice brings the stake to a whole new level with this book; although I just can't imagine how they will turn this story into a movie. There are so many wonderful characters (old ones like Louis, Arman and Marius as well as new ones like Jesse, David and Khayman) and Rice's narritive style is so poingnant that this is one book you will not want to see end.

Anne Rice has reinvented the mythology behind the idea of vampires with this book. She gives them a new origin and a new form, and I quite enjoyed her vision. No one writes vampire literature like Anne Rice does. This is one book that you will keep coming back to time and time again.

If you wondered what on earth vampires where anyway, than here is the asnswer, all wrapped up in a fine new volume in the Vampire Chronicles.

I'll admitt, I dont like this book as much as I like the first two ones (which are nothing short of amazing), but it is still a good read.

Some of the mystery goes out the window off course, and it lacks the delightfull darkness of Louis, and the fast-pased "here-I-am"-Lestatian tone from "the Vampire Lestat".

But what is really great about this book is the many little stories intertwined with the large one. I particularly enjoyed "the story of Jessie, the great family, and the Talamasca", "the short happy life of Baby Jenks and the Fang Gang", and "Khayman, my Khayman".

As a bonus, we finaly find out what happened to Daniel, the interviewer from "Interview with the Vampire".
And we see Armand, finaly emerging into the modern world. A rare treat, and many gloríous moments.

Another thing is the inventive chapter titles, amusing and beautiful.

In short, If you love the Vampire Chronicles, you will love this one as well, but dont begin here.