Customer Reviews

Taltos

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

A very good read as expected! Very descriptive making you feel as though you know the characters and places personally....wish there was a part 4. I will miss my Mayfield Witches!!!!!

ok, easily the best book i have ever read. all of her books just seem to lead up to this masterpiece. The Witching Hour, although incredibly amazing and captivating, was really nothing but a platform. Then came Lasher, which revolved around the Mayfairs' discovery of what a Taltos is, and a lot about Lasher. It ends dramatically. Then came this book, which is easily the climax. It is was better written than anything i had ever read, with all the right descriptions and stories and fantasies. it evoked images of olden times, dancing in stones, letting the animalistic response to music control you. oh god, if i could only express how much i enjoyed this book. i think the only way i can get that across to you is for you to just go buy the book!!!!!

I agree with another reviewer on this list that Rice should have stopped while she was ahead. She told a wonderful and gripping story in the Witching Hour. This installment paled in comparison. I usually love Rice's rich detail and the epic scope of her stories, but here it just dragged. If you like Anne Rice, you probably will not hate this book, but there is little here to love.

Haunting and mysterious. The strange non-human Tessa sent shivers up my spine, and to this day, I spend evenings wondering about her and her peculiar kind. Why does she weave? Why does she speak so strangely? What was her early life really like? Buy this book and be haunted for a life time.

I think that I was the odd one in my family who actually like this book. I enjoyed learning more about the main characters. Towards the end of the book I did feel like something was left out that needed to be addressed. Possible Rice does address this in the next book. I enjoyed learning the so called history of the Taltos.

Although I find this to be the weakest of the three books in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, Rice has undoubtedly mastered the art of characterization and reinventing history. The history of the Taltos left me wishing that they actually did exist.

This is the last volume of the trilogy on the Myfair witches, that starts with "The Witching Hour". This book is not as good as the first volume, but it's nevertheless fascinating and you definitely won't be tempted to abandon this book in the middle.
The main character here is Mr. Ash, who is the last Taltos alve, or so it seems. This fascinating, misterious creature's life will become intertwinned with that of the current designee of the Mayfair family legacy in and odd way, and despite all that occurs throughout the book you won't be prepared for what happens at the end.
Though the mistake made in the 2nd volume of the trilogy ("Lasher")is repeated here when Ash talks about his life - some 3 chapters devoted to describing everything in detail, which is interesting at first but then becomes boring and kind of makes you want to skip that section - this book is much more intense and involving than "Lasher", especially if you are a faithful follower of the Mayfair family. I just read the whole trilogy for the second time and I already feel like starting over again! This is the most fascinating story, full of mystery, history, love (and a pinch of erotism)... a mix that will win you over!

Being an Anne Rice fan after reading this book I have to say I was a little dissapointed. I was really expecting something a little more...not what it was. The first two, "The Witching Hour," and "Lasher" were definetlly something good. But I dont quite know what happened here. It seemed to drag on forever then the ending was a shocker, but hey what do you expect from a witch. It wasn't that bad, it was quite interestring, especially what happened to Mona. I would read it but just don't get your hopes up, and don't rush through the book expecting some wild ending, it'll be what you expect from the Mayfairs.

After Lasher dies in the previous book ("Lasher"), a new Taltos is introduced to this series: Ashlar (aka: Ash, Mr. Ash, Ash Templeton, Saint Ashlar), who is supposedly the oldest Taltos alive, and was often confused in history as Lasher and vice versa. However, the two characters are completely separate beings. While Lasher had been a devious, evil Taltos spirit that haunted the Mayfair family for generations, Ash is a more even-tempered, kinder flesh-and-blood Taltos that lives in Manhattan as a very rich doll-making entrepreneur. (Between the two, I still prefer Lasher because he was so wicked. ;)

For centuries, Ash has been alone, never encountering another of his kind, until news from his good friend, Samuel (one of the Little People in Donnelaith), has Ash traveling overseas to London in the hopes of finding another Taltos. While abroad, Ash roots out the corruption in the Talamasca and kills those who are guilty. Aaron Lightner's murder in this book is among the many occurrences that prove the Talamasca's fall. Because he was so loyal to the Mayfair family, despite his obligations to the Order, it was sad to see Aaron go.

During Ash's search, one of the Talamasca members (Stuart Gordon) claims to have a real Taltos and entices Ash to meet her (Tessa) for his own selfish reasons. However, Tessa is barren and cannot carry on the Taltos line; yet Ash is still hopeful in finding a mate. His persistence pays off when he eventually meets Rowan and Michael, who are attempting to avenge Aaron's death. Through their meeting, Ash unknowingly makes a connection with another Taltos, one that isn't born yet. Remember Mona from "Lasher"? Well, she has a big surprise for everyone: she's pregnant with a Taltos (Morrigan). But will Ash find her in time, or will Morrigan be murdered like Lasher and Emaleth, destroying Ash's chances of ever finding a mate and continuing the Taltos line?

Although "Taltos" detours from the Mayfair family, it's still a pretty good addition to this trilogy. It expands on the Taltos mythology and gives the reader more insight on this species than what Lasher could previously offer. However, I missed Lasher, the Mayfair witches, and New Orleans. The Taltos history is all well and good for background information, but I prefer the witchcraft, demons, and drama in "The Witching Hour". That's why I gave "Taltos" a 4 instead of a 5. If you've read the previous two books ("The Witching Hour" and "Lasher") and enjoyed them, then I'd recommend this book; otherwise, skip it.

If there is reincarnation, surely Anne Rice is Mary Shelley. Taltos, especially, hearkens back to Frankenstein.

I have not read the other Mayfair Witches books, so I can't compare Taltos to them, though I have read most of Rice's books and a good portion of The Witching Hour (first in the Mayfair series), which is generally better written than Taltos.

Taltos has extremely well-developed and interesting characters, and more straight plot than is usual for Rice. The Taltos are a "mythical" race of near-immortal demigods, the history and exploits of which are recorded by a sort of occult research Order known as the Talamasca, who are also aware of (Rice's) vampires and the Mayfair family of witches. In fact, the Mayfairs are related to the Taltos, deriving much of their psychic ability from that genetic line. The mating of Taltos and humans is a precarious affair at best, often resulting in madness or death, which the Mayfairs have had to deal with as a sort of family curse throughout their known lineage.

In Taltos, friends of the Mayfairs in the Talamasca are being murdered by a person or persons unknown. The Talamasca are as anxious to figure out who is responsible as are the Mayfairs, themselves. Into their midst arrives Ashlar, the last known survivor of the Taltos race, which is a potentially catastrophic circumstance both for him and any of the Mayfair line, since they are compulsively drawn to breed with one another and the result is far from pleasant - the present head of the Mayfair clan only recently survived one such attempt, and is just now coming out of her trauma to rejoin the world of the living.

It's hard to say more without giving too much of the game away, and Taltos is worthy of reading. It is better plotted than most of Rice's novels, and has her usual memorable characters with their fascinating moral ambiguities, but suffers from her episodic style of writing. Rice's ancient history is always spotty, and questionable at best, and she spends too much time detailing it, bogging down pretty much the entire final third of the book. But the story is dramatic and good, and it comes to a believable climax.

Certainly not Rice's best, but worth the time if you like her style.