The one thing you can say about all of Anne Rice's books (well, the one's I've read anyway) is that she has a grand sense of melodrama, and if there could be any more melodramatic end to the Vampire Chronicles (which this volume is purported to be) than Lestat meeting and confronting God and the Devil (who would rather not be called Satan, thanks very much), I certainly can't think of one...

Yes, all the latent homosexuality is there, hidden just un... well, not really hidden at all, and the only three people Lestat drinks blood from in the book are a man that he fell in love with and stalked for half a year (Right, Mr. Howard, what do you intend doing about supernatural stalking? Imprisoned in a cell filled with garlic for three years?), the man's daughter, but in a novel departure from the usual vampire mythos, he doesn't drink it from her neck, I'll leave you to imagine the source, and oh yes, God, of course.

The book's fine, it's just that at moments when reading it, you lift your head from the pages and say to yourself "Oh, come on!", still I dare say that the Anne Rice harpies will adore it and weep that they will read no more of Lestat de Lioncourt (at least until Ms. Rice runs out of cash again, I expect).

Ben gives it:

Price: I only have an American edition of the paperback, but that costs $7.50
Published by: Berkley (ISBN 0-345-40499-8)

last updated: 10th November 1996