Blackwood Farm (The Vampire Chronicles) (Mass Market Paperback)

by Anne Rice (Author) "Lestat, If you find this letter in your house in the Rue Royale, and I do sincerely think you will find it-you'll know at once..." (more)
Key Phrases: marble desk, rusted chains, Aunt Queen, Big Ramona, Blackwood Manor (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
In the past few years, many fans have sworn off Anne Rice, flinging her later novels against the wall with cries of "First draft!" and "Never again!" But these same fans may want to take a chance on her Southern gothic Blackwood Farm, a fast-paced and erotically charged, though uneven, novel of the Vampire Chronicles. Blackwood Farm has an unusual flaw: it isn't long enough. Many of its triumphs and tragedies demand more development than they receive. Motivations are sometimes unlikely or unexplained, and the ending is far too rushed.

Blackwood Farm introduces Quinn Blackwood, the sexy, eccentric young gentleman who becomes both a vampire and the heir to the Blackwood estate. All his life, Quinn has been haunted by Goblin, a doppelgänger no one else can see--or believe in. But Goblin is real, and he is becoming maliciously tangible, strengthened by the blood that Quinn unwillingly drinks. Quinn's only hope of liberation from his increasingly dangerous doppelgänger is to find the legendary vampire Lestat. But Lestat has vowed to destroy any vampire who sets foot in New Orleans....

Blackwood Farm features characters from both the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches series, but this self-contained novel makes a good entry point for newcomers to Anne Rice's fictional world (however, Vampire Chronicle virgins really should start with Interview With the Vampire, the first in the series and arguably the finest vampire novel of the 20th century). --Cynthia Ward --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly
Just in time for Halloween, Rice's latest gothic epic blends her beloved Vampire Chronicles with her Mayfair Witches series. Near the dank Sugar Devil Swamp, sinister bayou country where critters far more fearsome than gators lurk, overheated Quinn Blackwood suffers a protracted case of adolescent angst driven by his violent love-hate relationship with Goblin, his spirit-world doppelganger. As heir to Blackwood Farm and an enormous fortune, Quinn enjoys every luxury the decadent Deep South of Rice's imagination can provide, from culinary delicacies to Jasmine, his equally satisfying mulatto housekeeper. Seemingly hell-bent on seducing everyone within range, regardless of gender, age or consanguinity, he falls into a passionate but fatal relationship with 15-year-old nymphomaniac Mona Mayfair, offshoot of the Mayfair clan of witches. But he cannot control Goblin's ferocious jealousy or his nefarious double's taste for blood, particularly once Quinn is made into a Blood Hunter by Petronia, a malignant bisexual spirit who stalks the haunted family cemetery at the edge of the swamp. Rice fleshes out her slim plot line with gory set pieces of vampire history in ancient Athens, Pompeii and 19th-century Naples. She excels at vivid descriptions of macabre landscapes, gloomy estate houses and the lust that motivates her Blood Hunters and propels her ghoulish narratives. Her dialogue and characterizations, however-even of the durable Vampire Lestat, called upon by Quinn for deliverance from Goblin and Sugar Devil Swamp's unholy spirits-are flat and predictable here. But it's intrigue, eroticism and obsession that fans want, and they'll find plenty of all three.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Ballantine Books (September 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345443683
• ISBN-13: 978-0345443687
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 3.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (269 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #5,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 9 in The Vampire Chronicles Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Better Than I Expected, May 8, 2003

By	wysewomon "wysewomon" (Paonia, CO United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackwood Farm (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

I've been increasingly disappointed in Anne Rice's books. It seems that she, like many authors, is wonderful at starting an engrossing series and less able to continue with it. _Blackwood Farm_, however, harkens back to some of her eariler work lends fresh blood (heh heh) to the Vampire Chronicles.

Quinn Blackwood, a young (both in human age and in terms of his "change") vampire, has a problem. As long as he can remember, he's been haunted by a sometimes loving and sometimes malicious spirit whom he calls Goblin. Since Quinn's change, Goblin has become more sinister and more powerful. Quinn seeks out the most famous and powerful vampire he knows of -- Lestat, in quite a good cameo role -- to help him put an end to the spirit who is threatening Quinn's mortal friends and relations.

What I liked best about this book is that it's essentially Quinn's tale of growing up among the people and ghosts of a rich southern family -- a family with its own mysteries and legends. The characterization of people, spirits and place is deftly handled. In fact, this is one of the things I think Anne Rice does best: weaving character and setting together into a specific atmosphere, and I was glad to see her get back to it after neglecting the practice in her last few novels.

I also liked the way she brought together her two major New Orleans mythologies -- the Vampires and the Mayfairs (although it still seems a bit contrived to me, the way that everyone seems to be a member of one or the other group.) I was glad to see what became of Mona Mayfair, as well as Rowan and Michael. I think, however, that it would be difficult to understand everything that was going on without having read the three Mayfair Witches books; a lot of reference was made to the events in those and I know I would have been confused and distracted had I not read them.

Another thing I liked was that in _Blackwood Farm_, Rice relies a lot less on the same old tired vampiric events to move the story along. Not only is Quinn a new vampire completely unrelated to and even (for the most part) unaware of the vampires we know from former books, but also his transformation doesn't take place until relatively late in the story. So there's quite a bit less of the Blood-Hunt-Identity Crisis-Yikes I'm Immortal! flavour of some of the more recent vampire chronicles.

We still have the requisite Scholarly Tweedy Englishman of a Certain Age to represent the Talamasca. And we're still dealing with people who, even as mortals, have more money than God, which sometimes makes the story hard to swallow. (I wish sometimes we could follow the adventures of a working class vampire who was not so ready to give up his culture of origin.)The predictable ending gets points for getting rid of a character who never should have existed in the first place but loses some points for transforming yet another interesting mortal.

On the whole, though, I liked _Blackwood Farm_. It actually reminded me of _Interview with a Vampire_ more than any of the other books. I think most people who like Anne Rice will enjoy it.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Anne is Back!!!!!, November 4, 2002

By	Nancy O (hobe sound fl) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blackwood Farm (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

I spent all of yesterday devouring this book, and literally did not put it down until I had finished all 500+ pages. Anne Rice seems to have conquered her slump, and has created a tale encompassing a great ghost story, vampires from the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair witches. I have been waiting for something like this since I read the The Witching Hour, which I still say is her finest book ever, and I was not disappointed. I took a big chance buying this book and it paid off.

As the book opens, young Quinn Blackwood is a newcomer on the vampire scene, and it is through him that this ghostly tale unfolds. It is a chronicle of Quinn's life, involving all of those connected with Blackwood Farm, both past and present. I will not dive into the plot, but suffice it say, it is positively haunting and eerie. As with all good books, I was very sorry to see this one come to an end. One caveat: it would help if the reader was familiar with the story of the Mayfair witches from The Witching Hour before reading this book.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A wonderful opportunity totally wasted!!!, November 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Blackwood Farm (The Vampire Chronicles) (Hardcover)

"Blackwood Farm" could have been a great novel. It has much promise and the idea of the novel seemed actually intriguing. Of course that was until I actually read the book. Flat, lifeless, boring, predictable... the adjectives could go on and on. The skilled hand of a good editor would have been the saving grace for "Blackwood Farm". By the same token, if it were edited what was actually interesting in the novel, there would be about 250 pages left out of the entire novel. Again, we are subjected to another vampire sitting down and recounting their life story. We've seen this in too many of Mrs. Rice's novels and the each time the device that she uses to get her overblown and longwinded vampires to lull us into stupor gets more strained (even in the year 2002, her newly created vampires speak in the most ridiculously overwrought purple prose). Most of the Blackwood Family history has little to do with the "Goblin" storyline, but it takes up most of the novel. Nothing ever really amounts to anything and when we do find out all of the "secrets", we are left rolling our eyes and wishing we hadn't even bothered. Combining the Mayfair witches with the vampires is an excellent idea, but, unfortunately, everyone seems to have forgotten who they were in the previous novels. But, character assassination seems to be Mrs. Rice's goal lately in all of her novels (especially with Mona Mayfair! When did she become so stupid?) Two new and very interesting vampires are introduced but they get the least amount of attention, and even their reasoning and objectives don't make a bit of sense. Instead, we are subjected to endless descriptions of the swamp and the family lineage, and cameos and hermaphroditic creatures ... the list goes on and on. If you are a fan of the Vampire Chronicles or the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, do yourself a favor and follow the lead of one of the vampires in the novel -- jump into a fire, and put an end to it before you subject yourself to "Blackwood Farm".