Customer Reviews

Queen of the Damned

5 star:		(137)
4 star:		(38)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(13)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Anne Rice revamped vampire fiction in "Interview with the Vampire," the first volume of her bestselling Vampire Chronicles. But the highest point of the entire series was "Queen of the Damned," an epic vampire story full of sensuality, terror, and a haunting picture of greed and power's effect.

Not only are vampires everywhere having odd dreams, but they are getting peeved about Lestat's music videos, which reveal secrets about vampire history. Some even plan to kill him. But those same music videos wake Akasha, the mother of all vampires, who kills her sleeping husband and casts Marius into an icy prison.

Then she goes on a rampage, setting vampires on fire and finally escaping with the Brat Prince himself. The vampire cast thus far gather together, hoping to defeat the malignant Akasha; elsewhere, Lestat begins to think the same when he finds that Akasha is a mad megalomaniac. But Akasha cannot be destroyed without killing every vampire on earth...

Out of her entire bibliography, Anne Rice wrote only one epic story -- one that spans the world, time, and three novels' worth of characters (Armand, Gabrielle, Marius, Louis...). Lots of fictional memoirs, but no more epics. Perhaps she should write more, because this book remains not only her finest novel, but a stirring, creepy read on its own.

Rice's lush prose is well-suited to many characters, whether they're rogue Talamasca or biker vampires. She skips effortlessly from ancient Egypt to a hard-rock concert, with the same level of skill. And most importantly, she creates a stunning explanation for why the vampires exist, wrapped up in ancient Egyptian imperialism and malevolent spirits.

The plot twists and winds itself every which way, before finally smoothing out into a finale that makes perfect sense. And the present scenario is just as gripping, with Lestat realizing that Akasha plans to kill off 99% of the men in the world, and be a goddess. That's what happens when you run off with strange women, Lestat.

The large cast in this means that almost everybody gets a turn in the spotlight -- Armand, Marius, Louis, Pandora, the guy who recorded Louis's story in the first book, and Gabrielle. Not to mention a few new ones, like the ancient Maharet and Mael. And the Brat Prince shines the most brightly of all, in his nastiness, naivete, and delight in his own unlife.

"Queen of the Damned" is a remarkable epic novel, despite the spotty series it was a part of. This is Anne Rice at her peak: thrilling, chilling, and almost magical.

I am a big fan of Mrs. Rice's Books. I fell in love with her characters from Interview with a vampire and have followed ever since. This is definitely her best. The way she jumps from one character to another makes it all the more interesting. The movie does NOT give this creation justice what-so-ever. If you need to read an Anne rice novel, start with Interview with a Vampire then continue on to this one, it will be well worth your time.

Compared to 'The Vampire Lestat,' this story is not nearly as good. There are tons of random characters in this story that eventually come together and effect the story as a whole, but it gets confusing for quite awhile. Also, the ending of the book is a little disappointing. When the climax actually happens, you find yourself looking for extra pages. Is that all? It was kind of a let down, although Rice does a fabulous job in the sections where Lestat and Akasha are spending time together. I was really able to visualize the mass island murders. A good book, but not as good as her first two.

I cannot deny that Anne Rice is an incredibly gifted writer. Yet for some reason it takes me forever to get through her books. They are just not page turners for me. I can go a good three weeks between readings, and then I forget where I am and it's a struggle to make sense of anything. I probably will stop after this one and not read any more Vampire Chronicles books.

This is just amazing. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Anne Rice weaves a masterful tale that sucks you in and never lets go. I've heard that the rest of the series isn't as good, which might be true, because this is going to be hard to beat. I'll just have to read the rest and see what I think for myself.

The book introduces us to several new, exciting, fascinating people, and explains the stories of several older ones like Daniel, the 'boy' from 'Interview with the Vampire'. It also goes into detail about Akasha, the Queen of the Damned (obviously!) The story of the twins was for me, the highlight of the book. I'd like to see a novel in the future concentrating specifically on Maharet and Mekare (and Jesse too).

After reading this, I can't wait to read the rest of the series and everything Anne Rice has ever written. Buy it! You definitely won't regret entering the fascinating, sensual world of Anne Rice's vampires.

This and "Memnoch" are the best of the 5 Vampire Chronicles - after Memnoch, they start going downhill...

As a long time reader of Anne Rices' work I was very pleased with her efforts in "Queen of the Damned". I try not to read books after I see the movie, but I was already mid-way through this one. I enjoyed the movie only to later find; as you almost always will that much of the story line was lost in the making of the movie. I was upset at the loss of the story line of the twins. The beginning of the movie was false compared to "The Vampire Lestat". I know that I'm more descriptive about the movie in this review, but I feel that to truly understand and enjoy what was happening with Lestat, you'll need to read the books. Rice has this way of putting things that you feel that you are right there with Lestat and every one he encounters. I absolutely loved the entire story of the twins. This gave you a better understanding of the creation of Akasha and Enkil and just exactly how Jessie fit into Maharets' history and what really happened at the end of the story.

This is my favorite novel by Anne Rice, probably because my favorite character, Khayman is in it, and no other book has him that I know of. It also interested me because it told how vampires came into being.

Anne Rice excels in her writing ability in this book which includes references to all of her main and secondary characters from the Vampire Chronicles. The author goes into detail about the characters that we had heard of before but had no idea what their background was. The book jumps around from character to character a lot but without losing the reader. One of her best books written so far, Anne Rice let's her readers in on her supernatural world more than ever.

A great example of an author not knowing when to quit.

Interview and Lestat were both great fun, but in trying to give her story a universal theme [ie: the end of the whole wide world! (gasp!)], Rice completely looses the 'personal' aspects that made the earlier works work.

In attempting to create a sweeping epic, Rice gets swept away in her own excess verbige, and would have profited greatly from a through re-write. Its breathtaking in the asmatic sense: everything in it is so BIG! and IMPORTANT!! that the reader simply stops caring. This book either needed to be much shorter, with 90% of its exposition excised, or much larger [a trilogy unto itself] allowing some modulation in the scream a minute pacing.

Still, it does fill in some interesting blanks in the history of Rice's vampires, meriting a second star.

But really, only die-hard fans need bother with this one.