The Queen of the Damned
Bram Stoker Award nominee 1988.
In 1976, a uniquely seductive world of vampires was unveiled in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire... in 1985, a wild and voluptous voice spoke to us, telling the story of The Vampire Lestat. In The Queen of the Damned,
Anne Rice continues her extraordinary "Vampire Chronicles" in a feat of
mesmeric storytelling, a chillingly hypnotic entertainment in which the
oldest and most powerful forces of the night are unleashed on an
unsuspecting world.
Three brilliantly colored narrative threads intertwine as the story unfolds:
– The rock star known as Vampire Lestat, worshipped by millions of
spellbound fans, prepares for a concert in San Francisco. Among the
audience – pilgrims in a blind swoon of adoration – are hundreds of
vampires, creatures who see Lestat as a "greedy fiend risking the
secret prosperity of all his kind just to be loved and seen by
mortals," fiends themselves who hate Lestat's power and who are
determined to destroy him...
– The sleep of certain men and women – vampires and mortals scattered around the world – is haunted by a vivid, mysterious
dream: of twins with fiery red hair and piercing green eyes who suffer
an unspeakable tragedy. It is a dream that slowly, tauntingly reveals
its meaning to the dreamers as they make their way toward each
other – some to be destroyed on the journey, some to face an even more
terrifying fate at journey's end...
– Akasha – Queen of the
Damned, mother of all vampires, rises after a 6,000 year sleep and puts
into motion a heinous plan to "save" mankind from itself and make "all
myths of the world real" by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover
to the level of the gods: "I am the fulfillment and I shall from this
moment be the cause"...
These narrative threads wind
sinuously across a vast, richly detailed tapestry of the violent,
sensual world of vampirism, taking us back 6,000 years to its
beginnings. As the stories of the "first brood" of blood drinkers are
revealed, we are swept across the ages, from Egypt to South America to
the Himalayas to all the shrouded corners of the globe where vampires
have left their mark.
Vampires are created – mortals succumbing to the sensation of "being enptied, of being devoured, of being nothing." Vampires are destroyed. Dark rituals are performed – the rituals of ancient creatures prowling the modern world. And, finally, we are brought to a moment in the twentieth century when, in an astonishing climax, the fate of the living dead – and perhaps of the living, all the living – will be decided.
Anne Rice
Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien; 1941–2021) was an American author of gothic fiction, Christian literature, and erotic literature. She was best known for her series of novels The Vampire Chronicles. Books from The Vampire Chronicles were the subject of two film adaptations - Interview with the Vampire (1994) and Queen of the Damned (2002).
Born in New Orleans, Rice spent much of her early life there before moving to Texas, and later to San Francisco. She was raised in an observant Catholic family but became an agnostic as a young adult. She began her professional writing career with the publication of Interview with the Vampire in 1976, while living in California, and began writing sequels to the novel in the 1980s. In the mid-2000s, following a publicized return to Catholicism, Rice published the novels Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana, fictionalized accounts of certain incidents in the life of Jesus. Several years later she distanced herself from organized Christianity, citing disagreement with the Roman Catholic Church's stances on social issues but pledging that faith in God remained "central to [her] life." However, she later considered herself a secular humanist.
The Vampire Chronicles
The Vampire Chronicles consists of thirteen books. The current recommended reading order for the series is provided below.
Related series New Tales of the Vampires
Book Reviews
The Queen of the Damned is a good horror and dark fantasy book, but unfortunately it isn't as good as the previous books. The story is interesting, erotic and beautifully written, but in my opinion it could've been a bit better. If you've read the previous books, you'll probably like this book.