Blood Canticle
Anne Rice continues her astonishing Vampire Chronicles in a new novel that begins where Blackwood Farm left off – and tells the story of Lestat's quest for redemption, goodness, and the love of Rowan Mayfair.
Welcome back to Blackwood Farm. Here are all of the brilliantly conceived characters that make up the two worlds of vampires and witches: Mona Mayfair, who's come to the farm to die and is brought into the realm of the undead; her uncle, Julian Mayfair, guardian of the family, determined to forever torment Lestat for what he has done to Mona; Rowan Mayfair, brilliant neurosurgeon and witch, who finds herself dangerously drawn to the all-powerful Lestat; her husband, Michael Curry, hero of the Mayfair Chronicles, who seeks Lestat's help with the temporary madness of his wife; Ash Templeton, a 5,000-year-old Taltos who has taken Mona's child; and Patsy, the country-western singer, who returns to avenge her death at the hands of her son, Quinn Blackwood. Delightfully, at the book's centre is the Vampire Lestat, once the epitome of evil, now pursuing the transformation set in motion with Memnoch the Devil. He struggles with his vampirism and yearns for goodness, purity and love, as he saves Patsy's ghost from the dark realm of the Earthbound, uncovers the mystery of the Taltos and unselfishly decides the fate of his beloved Rowan Mayfair.
A story of love and loyalty, of the search for passion and promise, Blood Canticle is Anne Rice at her finest.
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
so, the last part of Lestats adventures. I am pretty happy with this book, thought it is worse than many of the parts before it. In this novel Lestat is deciring to become a saint (as we all know, it isn't that natural for him). the very best thing of the story is that the old Lestat is back. Since the Interview with the Vampire, Lestat had developed to be a kinda boring creature with only love in his ways and words. now he is again that selfish lord that wants to be worshipped with no question. other ways Blood Canticle is a tired breath of a dying queen. I love Anne Rice and how she writes. the problem here is the lack of old friends. Where's Louis? Marius? Armand? it is all about the new Little Brother and Taltos and high heeled shoes.. not so very interesting. I would have wanted to know, what came to the others.
Blood Canticle is the last vampire book, which is a good thing, because almost all the books since The Queen of the Damned have been more or less bad and disappointing books. Blood Canticle is a bad book and I can't recommend it to anybody. You shouldn't read this book, so try to avoid it.