Blood Canticle: The Vampire Chronicles (Paperback)

How wrong I was! This book is basically unreadable. The returning characters are behaving in un-character like ways, the plot (if there is one) is turgid and the style of writing just annoyed me. For lovers of the Vampire Chronicles, to hear Lestat say phrases like 'Yo!' and 'Cool!' just sends shivers down the spine.

This book has the feel that it has been ghost written as all of Ann Rice's usual magic is missing.

Avoid!

Sadly all the reviews were rite.

This story lacks a plot. I read the thing in 2 nights waiting for the plot to kick in and then the book ended.

It's an appalling mockery of the former glory reached with Interview with a Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned.

Like one of the other reviewers says - AVOID! Avoid like the plague.

        Lestat, in my mind, is still a rebel, still a brat, still mischievous, still questions things, still fearless, still angst driven, still a fighter, and still perseverent.  He's still riding around on his Harley, hunting down his killers and falling in love with the world.  He's still an optimist (He has a pessimistic view of humanity in Blood Canticle.)  He still views society today as an age of innocence and he's still my Lestat.  All the rest...  to me.. They're just fan fictions.

       I wish Anne Rice had done a book that she once hinted about wanting to do years ago- the idea of the vampires being found out by some mortals and possibly captured and studies and then the escape...  Lestat talks about this idea in The Vampire Lestat.  That could have been a great novel, especially with our proud and defiant Lestat.  This conformist, prude, depthless, two-dimensional Lestat would fold under that pressure but the Lestat I know would not.  The first three vampire chronicles- that's my Lestat.  That will always be my Lestat and no one can take that away from me.

I miss Lestat. Lestat in Blood Canticle is whining. And he's become a conformist. He's now a hard-core Catholic who questions nothing, a cold hypocrite, a misogynist, a prude, and pessimist. This is not our Lestat! Our Lestat was a brat. Our Lestat questioned things. Our Lestat was always a rebel. Changing his personality this abruptly is like saying he now has blue hair and orange eyes. The angst is gone. The fearless soul that could never be oppressed is gone. I did not love the fangs or the blonde hair. I loved his personality. I related to Lestat, not the vampire! She's forgotten who Lestat was. Lestat used to see this world as an age of secular innocence where evil doers were scarce. And now he says there are many in the cities who deserve the vampire's kiss. He's become depthless (if he had much depth to begin with.) He's become two-dimensional. He's hunting down rogues and rule breaker vampires! He is a rogue and rule breaker! I want Lestat, I don't want Angel from Buffy The Vampire Slayer!

I want Lestat the way he was meant to be. If Anne Rice needed a new character to express her obsession and new-found conformist mentality she should have used ANYONE but The Brat Prince to express it! I think this book disappointed every Anne Rice fan, everywhere, one way or another.

What happened to our man of action? Where's The James Bond of the Vampires? My God! In these later novels the character himself can't even get his own age right. He keeps saying he was twenty, he was twenty-one as a mortal when he killed the wolves so how could he appear twenty now?

I know I'm being harsh but Anne calls this maturing for Lestat. Being mature does not mean clinging desperately to something without question. Being mature does not mean becoming sexist with fashion, and seeing evil everywhere where he once was in love with the goodness in society. Lestat was a brat but he had faith in goodness. Now he doesn't seem to have that faith. His real and pure faith has been replaced by something superficial, something dark. And the restless spirit, the angst driven rebel, the one who could not be dominated... Our beloved antagonist, he's gone.... I don't know who this creature is who is narrating the story but it's not our Lestat.

I'll always love the first three vampire chronicles, Interview with The Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and The queen of the damned. By my advice to anyone just starting, don't go any further than that. Tale of the body thief is good for comic relief if you have a dark sense of humour but that's about it.

I take comfort now in the novel that I fell in love with. The Vampire Lestat.