Anne Rice Fizzles

It's time for me to get back to writing about the books I read. One of the books I read while recovering from a surgical procedure earlier this year was Anne Rice's Blood Canticles; indeed, I made my husband drive us to the bookstore prior to going to the hospital so I could have it to read as soon as possible (all her books debut just at Halloween). After having so very much enjoyed Blackwood Farm I hoped she was back on a roll and that this new book, touted as her last in the Vampire Chronicles series, would be equally good. I was wrong, disappointed, and down in the dumps after reading Blood Canticles; not only does Lestat turn into a lovesick do-gooder, but Rice takes the Mayfair Witch series and ends it with a wimper as well, transforming the Taltos into a race of beings more like the Tuatha De Danaan than anything else.

At the end of Blackwood Farm, Mona Mayfair was transformed into a vampire by Lestat to save her from death. Mona and her love, Quinn Blackwood, along with Lestat, must contend with Mona's new existence (part petulant brat, part petulant tart, part "Sophy's Choice" mom looking for her long-lost Taltos child), Rowan Mayfair's involvement in Mona's life, the guilt of Rowan, Michael, and Mona regarding said Taltos child, the ghost of Uncle Julien, determined to make trouble for Lestat because of Mona, and an island run by a drug cartel that imprisoned the civilization the Taltos had begun to create for themselves anew with Mona's child. Everything is in this book, making it extremely dense, and yet not nearly as exciting as it could have been. Perhaps it was the email from the mother of all vampires that did me in, or maybe it was Rowan being horny for Lestat and wanting him to make her into a vampire. Poor Michael - he's kept in the dark so much about the witches that he's nearly TSTL, which is a shame since I adored him earlier in the series. All in all, a flop.

Reading an author who has extreme ups and downs is difficult, and reading Rice has proven this to me more than any other author. Had I not enjoyed Blackwood Farm as much as I did, Blood Canticles would have been less of a disappointment because she's written stinkers before. But to go from a B+ to a D was horrendous.

Last year I blogged about Anne Rice at length and charted my reading of her entire backlist. I thought I'd update it again, with the addition of the two books read since that time. I also provided Amazon links this time around (all of her novels remain in print).  

Interview with the Vampire	1976	A	Vamp Chron #1
The Vampire Lestat	1985	B+	Vamp Chron #2
Queen of the Damned	1988	A+	Vamp Chron #3
Tale of the Body Thief	1992	F	Vamp Chron #4
Memnoch the Devil	1995	B	Vamp Chron #5
The Vampire Armand	1998	D	Vamp Chron #6
Blood and Gold	2001	D	Vamp Chron #7
Blackwood Farm	2002	B+	Vamp Chron #8
The Witching Hour	1990	A	Mayfair Witches #1
Lasher	1993	B	Mayfair Witches #2
Taltos	1994	A	Mayfair Witches #3
Blood Canticle	2003	D	Vamp Chron #9/ Mayfair Witches #4
Pandora	1998	B+	New Tales of the Vampires #1
Vittorio	1999	D	New Tales #2
Merrick	2000	C	New Tales #3 (related to Mayfair too)
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty	1983		Beauty #1
Beauty's Punishment	1984		Beauty #2
Beauty's Release	1985		Beauty #3
The Feast of All Saints	1979		(Never finished)
Cry to Heaven	1982	B
Exit to Eden	1985
Belinda	1986		(erotica)
The Mummy	1989	C
Violin	1997	F
Servant of the Bones	1996	B-

In upcoming bloggings, look for my thoughts on two books by Barbara Kingsolver, two series titles (Wild in the Field by Jennifer Greene and Awakening Beauty by Amy Fetzer), and a book I'm writing about now for At the Back Fence.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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