I've read 11 Vampire Chronicle books in my life. I've read them as soon as they were published back in my teenage years. There are so many girls like me out there, growing up with Lestat.
Seeing that the Series got a continuation was a shock to me. When did I miss it? How did I miss it? I was more than eager to dive into this again.
Appearantly I missed another book as well? Appearantly there is a book previous to this title? I tried reading this but gave up really soon, as nothing made any sense without knowing the previous one.
Sadly I guess I have to poastpone reading Atlantis, till I manage to read the one before.
I'm sorry for the hassle.

IT took me a while to read this book and I struggled with the language, whilst the length failed to keep my interest, it didn't help that I've not read the previous books in the series however.
After the first few chapters, I did catch up to what was going on but I still couldn't quite submerge myself in the book.
The characters were interesting though slightly shallow and romanticised, if you're a fan of Anbe Rice and have read the series, I'm sure you'll love it, unfortunately it was not for me.

I really don't see the point of this book being published. What once was a thrilling, vampire series with a real gothic feel is starting to decline into a comedy, not worth laughing with. I didn't even finish it.....

I do love this series. As I have written (so very many times) on the site, I consider Rice’s The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Damned to be one of my favourite books — I always read them together, so I think of them as one. With each novel, Rice has built on the impressive vampire mythos she’s created. In Prince Lestat, the author took a pretty bold step in developing the mythology: in fact, she pretty much upended everything we’ve come to learn so far. I was surprised, and a little nervous, when I realized that, in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, the author was going to do it again…

[NB: If you read this review, you will come across some spoilers for past novels in the series.]

Nobody likes it when people start messing with things we have come to love: be it TV or movie adaptations of books, comics and so forth, fans develop very strong attachments. For some (emotionally disturbed) people, messing with the canon can be grounds for anger and dismay. Generally, I believe an author’s intellectual property or artistic creation is theirs to do with as they please. And so, while I was hesitant about the new direction, I was prepared to give Rice the benefit of the doubt — after all, she is the author who created the characters in the first place, and has written many novels I’ve re-read multiple times. Having finished the novel, my feelings are mixed.

This novel is very much about Amel, the spirit that now inhabits Lestat, and is the source of the vampires’ powers and weaknesses. It is so much about Amel, in fact, that there’s a large chunk of the novel in which Lestat and Co. pretty much vanish from the story. This is fair enough — we’re taken back to a time before Akasha took Amel into her body to become the first vampire.

Lestat and the court of vampires has come into unexpected contact with what appears to be a new race of supernatural being. I won’t spoil who they are, but Rice spends some time building their past and identities. It’s maybe drawn out a little longer than necessary, and the more science fictional elements were unexpected (and not entirely to my taste). These new arrivals throw the vampire court into disarray, as they must decide on how best to address this potential new threat or opportunity. It also leads them to a new discovery relating to the nature of Amel.

“Lestat, Amel has lived before. He is not a spirit evolving, he is a spirit with an identity, a personality, nourished in flesh and blood that can be restored to him.”

Rice continues to bring together her various supernatural series — the witches, the ghosts/spirits, the Talamasca are all represented in this novel. Old friends and antagonists return, or are given a new context (thinking, in particular, Memnoch). Rice’s thoughts on religion are discussed, incorporated into the nature of the vampires, ghosts, and so forth. It’s never preachy, and includes just as much skepticism as it does personal belief. For example:

Much of what I saw and heard I couldn’t understand until I came awake in the twentieth century and saw the blessed affluent world of the West in this time, in which people carry enormous cultural burdens from earlier economic periods without even being aware of it. Take for example that hundreds of millions today still subscribe to an authoritarian religion inspired almost entirely by an early Mesopotamian agricultural revolution and the development of the monarchical city state that arose from it and fostered it.

Rice’s prose is, as one can expect, very well composed. It flows brilliantly, and she’s kept some of the extra-emoting to a minimum. This time, it feels more like the exaggerated emotions of the vampires, rather than universal. Her gift for description is still intact, and it’s rare that a scene is not vividly displayed on the page.

If you’re a fan of the series, I’d certainly recommend you give this novel a try. If, however, you didn’t like Prince Lestat, then I think you may finish this slightly disappointed, too. While I was less keen on the aforementioned science fictional elements of the novel, I am eager to see what Rice does with the characters next. I can’t really elaborate on that without ruining the ending and “fix” that the cast comes up with, but I really hope we do get more novels in the series.

After a brief hiatus Anne Rice returns to her most famous character The Vampire Lestat. I fell in love with the Vampire Chronicles many years ago and have devoured the titles related to Lestat over the years. If your after one last fix of Lestat or indeed Marius and Armand this is the book for you. If you're a fan of Aliens, Sci Fi and Atlantis then this will hit all the right spots. Unfortunately for me it made me yearn for a simpler time when Louis and Lestat were kings of their world.

The Vampire Chronicles were seminal books for me growing up. They were taboo at a time when I was just delving into adult fiction, and they changed the way I read books. But unfortunately, the magic of the series is gone. The dark lyricism of the early books has all but disappeared replaced by plot devices that are, well let's face it, just a little bit silly. Lestat is so different from the prince of the vampires we learned to love. It's like we're reading about someone else. And he's basically the only vampire in it. I don't know how this series has gone oh, so very wrong. :(

If you haven't read Prince Lestat then you really need to read that first. This review contains spoilers of Prince Lestat.

The story starts where Prince Lestat ends:

Amel is inside Lestat and they are trying to build their Court, the vampires story continues and we are also introduced to a new character who's story is crucial to the narrative.
Lestat is dreaming of a city falling into the sea and so begins the story of the Realms of Atlantis.

Anne Rice is a great writer, the atmosphere in her novels! It’s as though you are right there experiencing it all for yourself. The characters as always are real and breathing (do vampires breath?) beings, our favourites are there and it feels like meeting up with old friends. I loved the continuity- Lestat thinks about his past and remembers Claudia and little moments that I recall from the previous novels. I can’t really put into words how delightful it is to read about these characters again and read about the events in The Vampire Chronicles which I so loved to read and reread in my pre-teens!

I read some bad reviews of this novel and was uncertain whether I wanted to read it. Straight away I felt that there was just too much talking and not enough action. At times the story felt directionless, there's a lot of talking and nothing much seems to happen. It pains me to give a negative review to anyone who has sat down and poured out their soul and imagination on to paper, but I like to be honest. There's a lot of description of clothing and surroundings but that isn't always bad, it builds up atmosphere. Loyal Anne Rice fans won't be concerned. I did get into the story though and continued reading and enjoyed it immensely until the moment of revelation where Lestat is being told a story. It reads like a report and I felt that this section did not flow very well. I skimmed through some pages because there was so much information the information did not seem relevant to me, there were too many excruciating details of Atlantis which did not seem to aid the story's plot in anyway.
I was frustrated but…

I can’t say I hated this book! I enjoyed reading about Lestat again, Lestat had been and always will be my favourite literary character. Anne Rice-despite the sluggish parts- is a great writer, her world comes to life off the page. And I loved the story, I loved the ideas and how they all come together so naturally. So how can I say I hated it!

After that section of story where I skimmed, only a few pages, I was then hooked again, it was like being in my pre-teens again where I read the books at breakfast or during school dinner break (yeah, I’m a bookworm!) eager to get to the end, devouring the contents of the book. I had to know if everything was OK and then without realising I got to the final page! And I didn’t want it to end! Confusing I know, I went from skimming pages and being frustrated to not wanting to say goodbye to Lestat. Despite what I’ve said I loved this book, I felt happy and sad: I felt everything with the characters, I lived everything with the characters.


That’s the thing that has always kept me reading, that is Anne Rice’s main accomplishment: her characters are amazing. And if you love the characters as much as I do anything that lets this book down maybe overlook. After all how can you resist Lestat? I know I can’t.