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A review by arnrockwell
Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Lestat de Lioncourt is a famous rock star in the 1980s and he is having his first concert. His music attracts both human admirers and vampire threats. It also has the unfortunate effect of coaxing Akasha, the mother of all vampires, from her millenia-long slumber. She proceeds to kill all the vampires targeting Lestat, and abducts him. What follows is a race against time to somehow stop her before she raises hell of earth.
The Queen of the Damned takes place directly following The Vampire Lestat. While the events of the novel take place over a short span of time, much of the book is focused on developing multiple characters, old and new.
Two characters that have only been mentioned by name in the previous book are formally introduced to us: Pandora and Khayman. Pandora herself is a child and former lover of Marius, while Khayman was part of the "First Brood," a vampire about as old as the Queen herself.
Some new character were introduced that actually matter: the red-haired Twins, whose backstory is closely interwoven with Akasha and the creation of vampires; Jesse, a witch and investigator of the supernatural; and David Talbot, the leader of the organization known as Talamasca, who have kept an eye of all things supernatural for centuries.
And of course, aside from Lestat, several characters from prior books have made their return. Most notably Louis, Armand, Gabrielle, Marius, Mael, and "the boy" from Interview with the Vampire, who is introduced to us as Daniel Malloy.
Lestat's abduction by Akasha starts as something magical and wondrous. He only has eyes for her and believes a dream has come true. She feeds him much of her blood, allowing him to gain greater strength and new powers. However, the longer he spends time with her, the more he realizes not only her incredible power but also her ambition. She believes all men to be evil and seeks to create a world where women rule, believing this would bring an end to war. She starts killing men in a few locations around the world, and fashioning herself as a mother goddess to be worshiped. Lestat, knowing she has the power to kill him any time, becomes fearful of her.
A large chunk of the novel is setting groundwork for the history of the vampires and how they were created. This is important, as it is connected to the history of Akasha and the Twins. However, as it also described some detail that either is repeated or dragged out a bit too long. I can understand why some readers think of the book as slow. The battle at the end is also short, but that is be expected considering Akasha's power. However, that didn't bother me near as much as the one thing that prevented me from rating this book 4-stars.
Very early on in the novel, there is a chapter concerning a character, a young vampire, who only exists for this chapter and nothing else. This chapter doesn't bring anything new to the story and felt like unnecessary padding. If this chapter was all there was, I could've forgotten about it and moved on. HOWEVER, the character from this chapter is mentioned not once but four times throughout the rest of the book. It is said that Akasha made Lestat see what happened to this character, but when asked why she says to simply "forget about it." Why would you show Lestat and the readers this character if it's ultimately unimportant? Every mention of this character felt shoehorned in to justify the chapter's existence and it aggravated me so much!
Overall, this novel is a good addition to The Vampire Chronicles. Not as good as The Vampire Lestat, which I feel would be difficult to top. Still it imparts some much needed history and backstory that answers a lot of questions. An enjoyable 3-star book.
The Queen of the Damned takes place directly following The Vampire Lestat. While the events of the novel take place over a short span of time, much of the book is focused on developing multiple characters, old and new.
Two characters that have only been mentioned by name in the previous book are formally introduced to us: Pandora and Khayman. Pandora herself is a child and former lover of Marius, while Khayman was part of the "First Brood," a vampire about as old as the Queen herself.
Some new character were introduced that actually matter: the red-haired Twins, whose backstory is closely interwoven with Akasha and the creation of vampires; Jesse, a witch and investigator of the supernatural; and David Talbot, the leader of the organization known as Talamasca, who have kept an eye of all things supernatural for centuries.
And of course, aside from Lestat, several characters from prior books have made their return. Most notably Louis, Armand, Gabrielle, Marius, Mael, and "the boy" from Interview with the Vampire, who is introduced to us as Daniel Malloy.
Lestat's abduction by Akasha starts as something magical and wondrous. He only has eyes for her and believes a dream has come true. She feeds him much of her blood, allowing him to gain greater strength and new powers. However, the longer he spends time with her, the more he realizes not only her incredible power but also her ambition. She believes all men to be evil and seeks to create a world where women rule, believing this would bring an end to war. She starts killing men in a few locations around the world, and fashioning herself as a mother goddess to be worshiped. Lestat, knowing she has the power to kill him any time, becomes fearful of her.
A large chunk of the novel is setting groundwork for the history of the vampires and how they were created. This is important, as it is connected to the history of Akasha and the Twins. However, as it also described some detail that either is repeated or dragged out a bit too long. I can understand why some readers think of the book as slow. The battle at the end is also short, but that is be expected considering Akasha's power. However, that didn't bother me near as much as the one thing that prevented me from rating this book 4-stars.
Very early on in the novel, there is a chapter concerning a character, a young vampire, who only exists for this chapter and nothing else. This chapter doesn't bring anything new to the story and felt like unnecessary padding. If this chapter was all there was, I could've forgotten about it and moved on. HOWEVER, the character from this chapter is mentioned not once but four times throughout the rest of the book. It is said that Akasha made Lestat see what happened to this character, but when asked why she says to simply "forget about it." Why would you show Lestat and the readers this character if it's ultimately unimportant? Every mention of this character felt shoehorned in to justify the chapter's existence and it aggravated me so much!
Overall, this novel is a good addition to The Vampire Chronicles. Not as good as The Vampire Lestat, which I feel would be difficult to top. Still it imparts some much needed history and backstory that answers a lot of questions. An enjoyable 3-star book.