Author: Anne Rice
Publisher: Arrow
Publication Date: 2015 (2014)
Pages: 451
Format: Paperback
Genre: Paranormal
Source: Gift
The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world.
Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why?
There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight? (Goodreads Synopsis)
Prince Lestat was a huge disappointed for me. I have long been a fan of The Vampire Chronicles and thrilled to hear that Rice would at last pick up the story and characters once more. Sadly Prince Lestat falls flat. I think one of the main issues is the prevalence of narrators, some of whom are new characters to us, because we get so little time with each, we never truly get to know them. Lestat himself doesn't come across as well as he should either. He was always my favourite, but in this piece he simply whines and mopes, and even when he acts, it's nearly always due to someone else telling him what to do. The editing in general lacked focus. In one scene it was hard to work out who was speaking, and from what I could deduce, that was because the wrong dialogue tag was attached to one of the lines.
On the one hand, I enjoyed spending time with these characters again, but on the other hand, I barely recognised several, given the way they behaved in this story. It makes me nostalgic for the earlier books, and perhaps I'll go back and reread those, but based on this effort and the outlandish blurb for Book 12, I don't think I'll bother continuing with the story into the future. A shame really as, until now, this was a standout vampire series.
No comments:
Post a Comment