Blood Canticle - Anne Rice

...was passed to the fellow Blood Children in his know, Lestat blasts us back into our seats from the get go.

For those people who haven’t read any of the Vampire Chronicles please allow me to lay a brief outline. The Vampire Chronicles are a series of fictional (?) novels, supposedly real narratives passed to Anne Rice to inform the world about the true nature and habits of Vampires - they are also a baring of souls for the tormented ...
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Merrick
Blood and Gold
Blackwood Farm
Blood Canticle

Anne Rice ever so kindly starts her novels exactly where she left us. She picks us up off the floor, dusts us down while we are frantically rifling the back of the book looking for the chapters she surely missed and voila! Here they are in her new book.
And so with Blood Canticle, Lestat flawlessly takes over the story-telling from Quinn ... more

Lestat, the irrepressible monster with a conscience is back. Our hero tells this latest chapter of the Vampire Chronicles in his own words - cockier, more arrogant and even more irresistible than he ever was before. After a break of what feels like eons when the telling of the Chronicles was passed to the fellow Blood Children in his know, Lestat blasts us back into our seats from the get go.

For those people who haven’t read any of the Vampire Chronicles please allow me to lay a brief outline. The Vampire Chronicles are a series of fictional (?) novels, supposedly real narratives passed to Anne Rice to inform the world about the true nature and habits of Vampires - they are also a baring of souls for the tormented beings that reside within the pages. They can be read as a series but can also be picked up at random as stand alone novels - Anne Rice, sorry, the Vampires, always give us a brief intro to the past Chronicles in all the books. However - I really would recommend reading from the start, as there is so much ingenious intricacy and history that you would miss out on if you didn’t.

**The Chronicles**
Interview with the Vampire
The Vampire Lestat
The Queen of the Damned
The Tale of the Body Thief
Memnoch the Devil
Pandora
The Vampire Armand
Vittorio, The Vampire (Not actually part of the chronicles but a vampire tale none the less)
Merrick
Blood and Gold
Blackwood Farm
Blood Canticle

Anne Rice ever so kindly starts her novels exactly where she left us. She picks us up off the floor, dusts us down while we are frantically rifling the back of the book looking for the chapters she surely missed and voila! Here they are in her new book.
And so with Blood Canticle, Lestat flawlessly takes over the story-telling from Quinn - the Vampire Master of Blackwood Farm, and draws us straight back to New Orleans, to Blackwood Farm, to the very day, the very hour where we were left one year ago.

Having performed ‘The Dark Gift’ on Mona, Quinn’s terminally ill beloved, Lestat finds himself besieged, bullied and tormented by a furious Julien. Outraged at the fact that his darling niece Mona is now a Vampire he throws the full weight of his wrath at the Devil responsible - no worries for an ancient old Vampire you might scoff - but wait. Julien just happens to be the all-powerful, all seeing, all mighty (very miffed) ghost of the legendary family of witches, The Mayfair's. (A whole other series of books begging to be read by moi.)

Finding himself in deeper shtook as he realises and revels in the magnetic love and growing desire between himself and the magnificent head of the Mayfair clan - Rowan Mayfair - Lestat decides to dig himself an even bigger hole. With the ever present Julien howling furiously at his heels Lestat promises both Rowan and Mona that he will find Morrigan, Mona’s demon (Taltos) daughter, making sure she is safe and not causing/plotting Armageddon for the entire human race or vice versa.
Torn between his desire for Rowan and his deep-rooted respect for her husband Michael. His fascination with the ghost Julien entwines with hatred and suspicion. His obsession with wanting to be loved the world over reaching Saint-like proportions you can but wonder whether the supernatural world has got it in for the Brat Prince of Darkness - however no one said that the undead was going to pull any punches. Boy, when they start ‘em rolling the preternatural beings KEEP ‘em rolling.

I was instantly hooked from page one. Though the writing style was different - edgy, angry even. I soon settled into it and realised that the previous novels had been in the words of the other Vampires and so of course it would make sense that the style was different too. Though there was no real history in this novel as there had been in other novels which had almost seemed like a travel through space and time - this was by no means any less magnificent. A lot of the book was given over to completely merging the Vampire Chronicles with the Mayfair Chronicles. So well in fact, that although I have not read the Mayfair novels I felt I knew the characters as intimately as I knew the Vampire characters. This didn’t detract from the story at all, so skilfully done I was actually quite surprised when I reached the end of the novel - it snuck up on me!

I have read many a vampire novel and have to say that nothing has ever compared to Anne Rice, not even the original - Bram Stoker’s Dracula (don’t all scream and berate me at once) Nobody seems to be able to make you feel for these, let’s face it, monsters, the way that Anne Rice does. You empathise, you grieve, you laugh you even sometimes cry with the characters - a very powerful and moving gift.
Knowing that her husband passed away last year made me a bit uncomfortable at the angriness in Lestat to begin with - was this Anne angry or was it Lestat? However this soon faded though never quite went away as I got into the book.

Of course I give Blood Canticle full marks though I do so with a little sorrow. I mentioned earlier that Anne Rice ends her novels as though she had merely ended that chapter - as if there was more to come. This time there was a finality to this book for me. As if she really was saying “that’s all folks”. I do hope I’m wrong.

Please don’t be put off reading the Vampire Chronicles if you saw the latest adaptation, the Queen of the Damned movie. This film was so utterly, utterly unfaithful to the novel as to be criminal. The only saving grace was the wonderful performance by Aaliyah. Please give the books a go.

I’m sorry this has turned into a bit of an epic opinion - as you can probably guess I am a major fan of Anne Rice - if I have convinced just one of you Cioaers to pick up one of her books I will be happy!

ISBN 0 7011 7355 6

This book can be found in the ‘Horror’ section of most good book stores - however I really wouldn’t class it as horror. She never goes into gut wrenching gruesome detail and there is so much history, mythology, superstition, love, romance and tragedy in these novels it almost seems crass to merely classify it as horror.

Price stamped at £17.99 this hardback was purchased for me by Craig, he informs me it was got for £14.99 in Ottakers, I see it also goes for £7.19 from Kelkoo with £1.00 P&P (He is swearing at me now!)

A good site to visit is the official one www.annerice.com it takes a while to load but is well worth it. Almost as beautiful as the books themselves. Almost. There is a lot of info, merchandise and personal messages from the lady herself.

One message relates that due to recent events her writing style will be changing drastically after Blood Canticle and she fears that many of her fans will desert her.

I have one thing to say -

Anne, I await with bated breath!

Thanks for reading :o)

 

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