Tale of the Body Thief: Amazon.ca: Anne Rice, Richard Grant: Books

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It's been said that Vladimir Nabokov's best novels are the ones he wrote after starting a failed novel. Anne Rice wrote The Body Thief, the fourth thrilling episode of her Vampire Chronicles, right after she spent a long time poring over that most romantic of horror novels, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, to research a novel Rice abandoned about an artificial man. Perhaps as a result of Shelley's influence, The Body Thief is far more psychologically penetrating than its predecessors, with a laser-like focus on a single tormented soul. Oh, we meet some wild new characters, and Rice's toothsome vampire-hero Lestat zooms around the globe--as is his magical habit--from Miami to the Gobi desert, but he's in such despair that he trades his immortal body to a con man named Raglan James, who offers him in return two days of strictly mortal bliss.

Lestat has always had a faulty impulse-control valve, and it gets him in truly intriguing trouble this time. On the plus side, he gets to experience romance with a nun and orange juice--"thick like blood, but full of sweetness." But Lestat is horrified by an uncommon cold, and his toilet training proves traumatic. He's also got to catch Raglan James, who has no intention of giving up his dishonestly acquired new superpowered body. Lestat enlists the help of David Talbot, a mortal in the Talamasca, a secret society of immortal watchers described in Queen of the Damned.

The swapping of bodies and supernatural stories is choice, and there's even a moral: never give a bloodsucker an even break. --Tim Appelo --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Amazon.com Author Profile

Read about the author. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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134 Reviews

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3.9 out of 5 stars (134 customer reviews)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Another Dark Adventure In The Life of Lestat, April 1 2004

By

I ain't no porn writer (author, "Crippled Dreams") - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tale of the Body Thief (Mass Market Paperback)

I thought "Queen of the Damned" was a little boring, but I liked this next novel in the vampire chronicles. Good story. Especially the last part of this book was very suspenseful and fast-paced. Sophisticated readers will enjoy some intellectual dialogues in the story too. A keeper.

p.s. I much prefer Anne Rice's vampires to her witches and erotic fairytales.

David Rehak
author of "Love and Madness"

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Something's Missing..., Jan 29 2004

By

Preyanka (Bangkok, Thailand) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Tale of the Body Thief (Mass Market Paperback)

I've been reading a lot of Anne Rice lately. And while I can't say I haven't been moved at some points, generally speaking, my experience has been one of frustrating disappointment. Anne has come up with these fascinating and alluring CONCEPTS--these vampires who travel through centuries, across myriad lands and a panoply of cultures, forging and breaking relationships with one another--and with mortals all the while--sounds like a great idea for a series of books, and it IS, that's what's sad.

Somehow she fails when it comes to actually writing about these characters. Something's lacking. I think it's her main character and narrator, The Vampire Lestat. In my opinion he's too whiney and weak to be the hero of the chronicles. He goes on and on at the end of "Body Thief" about how he simply cannot help but be gleefully happy--that it's in his nature and he cannot be depressed for long. This was flabbergasting because Lestat--mischievous though he might be, is ALWAYS upset about something. Rice seems to want Lestat to be viewed in a certain light, so she tells the reader what to feel, but Lestat's actions throughout the book do not SHOW this at all.

In the other books of the chronicles, such as in QUEEN OF THE DAMNED, when she deals with the relationship between Armand and Daniel, THEN it becomes hard to put the book down. But the rest of time, when we are going round and round in circles with Lestat, rather than feeling absorbed and entertained, I find myself hoping she'll write more about those OTHER things.

I haven't read MEMNOCH THE DEVIL, and to be honest, I am afraid to because I hear it's quite dreadful. What I can say is that I think QUEEN OF THE DAMNED was the best book of the chronicles so far, and I recommend it highly.

Rice is a master when it comes to descriptive language, that is for certain, and I agree with all the literary critics who have ever labeled her writing as being "lush" but unfortunately that doesn't make up for the feeling I get when I read Anne Rice, that she is WASTING these wonderful concepts, and that in someone else's hands they could truly come alive.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, but episodic, Jan 8 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Tale of the Body Thief (Mass Market Paperback)

It is important to note that while this book is mighty interesting, it's much different then the first three. The first three seem like these big epic histories, but this is more of a melodrama. It's as if the vampire chronicles become a tv show and this is an episode.
It is, however, easier to get into. The plot is much quicker in this book then QotD, and because there is more action and less descriptive prose. Although, since it is Anne Rice, there is still a good amount of prose! It is definitely worth your time if you are able to overlook some especially sexual scenes!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars My favorite Ann Rice book of all time...!!
This is byfar her best that I've read. Great characters (as always), awesome storyline, and it keeps you enthralled until the very end...!! Excellent...!!

Published on Nov 11 2004 by Melissa

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoy, you should
Now, there are very clear words that will tell you whether you'll like it or not. Read the introduction it's all there. Simply, it's unlike the past three. Read more

Published on May 6 2004 by Ruben Valenzuela