Read: 26 August, 2008In some ways, I'd say this was the worst of the three. In other ways, I think it was better than The Vampire Lestat. The story was more interesting, certainly, but the writing style was fragmented and annoying.
I think that Rice is much better at writing in the third person. That being said, the whole multiple narrators thing was infuriating. Every time I'd get really into one narrative, she'd rip me away and into a story I wasn't all that interested in. This was especially true near the end where novel kept bouncing back and forth between Lestat's experiences with Akasha and Marahet's legend of the twins. I desperately wanted to hear more about the twins and I would read those bits ravaneously. Then, I'd be thrust into Lestat's whining: "I love Akasha, she's evil, I love her, she's evil, I'm tempted by blood, I love her, she's evil, mmmm, she's so tasty!" Booooring.
This was made doubly frustrating because it was a good opportunity to explore whether or not Akasha was right. Lestat is never tempted by her plan. He is only tempted by her - even then, though, I never really got the feel that he loved her (beyond how tasty her blood was) until after she had died and he had to mourn. In fact, most of the arguments characters brought up against her plan were as irrational as the plan itself! "But but... it's so mean!" No one mentioned the simple fact that Akasha's world wouldn't work and that she herself was proof! As a female, while still human, she had ordered the torture of Mekare and Maharet. So why does she think that all other women would be all nice and friendly? As a vampire, she was commanding the mass slaughter of all men - proof in and of itself that women would be just as capable of genocide, if they had the chance, as men! But does anyone bring this up? Of course not.
Rice also seemed to experience with syntax in a really annoying way. "With leather straps they'd been bound [...] Naked to the waist they were." It breaks up the flow and is just a pain to read.
There were also inconsistencies between this book and The Vampire Lestat. For example, the final portion of Lestat describes the concert, which would have meant it was written after the book it was included in was published. If we assume this was added later, that would have meant that it had to be written right about the same time as The Queen of the Damned. Despite this, Lestat never mentions Jesse at the concert (instead, it has an anonymous biker jumping on stage). Considering how important this becomes, it should have been mentioned - if only as "and then a really nice looking red-head jumped on stage!"
And, finally, the names annoy me. Why would two women with names as Egyptian-sounding as Mekare and Maharet name their daughter something as Semitic-sounding as Miriam? Why would someone from Sumeria be named Akasha, which clearly has Indian roots? Why does Enkil's name not fit phonetically with Egyptian names? If names had been chosen a little more carefully, it would have made this whole series a great deal more readable.
I did enjoy it, though. I know I'm complaining a lot, but it was an okay read. I thought the climax was very well handled - or, at least, the resolution was worth trudging through all of the novel's flaws. I do think Jesse should have gotten a whole lot more page time, though. In fact, I would have liked to have had it all written just from her perspective and put as a "secret file from the Talamasca vault" or something like that. It would have made the multiple narratives more credible since she would have had her reason to collect data, while Lestat seems far too concerned with his own problems to have cared enough even to have bothered with the others.
Other books in the Vampire Chronicles series:
- Interview with the Vampire
- The Vampire Lestat
- The Queen of the Damned
- The Tale of the Body Thief
- Memnoch the Devil
- The Vampire Armand
- Merrick
- Blood and Gold
- Blackwood Farm
- Blood Canticle
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