Hi readers,
As promised here's my review of Anne Rice's latest book! Though I do have to confess that I've not finished it. It's a long, hefty book and since I so wanted to read it and not wait for it to come out in paperback, I've not been able to take it places with me as I'd normally do if I wanted to read a book quickly.
So, this post is going to be a lot short then it should be! But I wasn't going to write too much about the plot anyway, as I don't want to spoil it for people. As normal I'll say to go and read my last two posts about Interview With The Vampire and The Vampire Lestat, but also the post I wrote about Prince Lestat, which is here;
http://hailscrazyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/book-review-prince-lestat-by-anne-rice.html
I also just noticed that this post was my first book review of this year and now Lestat and Atlantis, as I like to shorten it too, is going to be my last! How weird is that? (This is because I've decided to do two life update posts on either side of Christmas).
The first thing I noticed about this novel is that Rice has given us a very brief summary of the other Vampire Chronicle books and four pages of terminology at the front of the book. At the end of the novel are two appendixes; a list of vampires and places followed by all the Vampire Chronicle books and a blur about them. These are useful, but to me pointless for her long time readers and fans of Lestat. It's nice to be reminded of these things, but I felt it wasn't needed.
On a side note, I'd so not recommended reading this book if you've not read Prince Lestat. The characters are all mostly the same and there's a lot of them again! I'm not sure if you could get away with reading just this two books out of the whole of the Chronicles either. Rice has written a rich history of vampires over the years and all her past novels really have made it easier for her to write these new ones. The background of each vampire is also important to understand them better and their place within the plot of the novel.
Sticking with characters; Lestat did not come across as his normal daring, bratty self. I think that having the core - the true source of vampire creation- who is called Amel, within him has altered his attitude. If anything happens to him a lot of vampires would die. I did feel caught up in his view of the story though, even after all these Rice is still able to give him a good voice.
The other main vampires felt a little too in the background for me, beside from Louis. He comes back to help Lestat and even after everything they have been through together, the love is still there between them, which was nice to see. Claudia's name gets brought up and there's references to Interview and Lestat, which I thought was a nice tie in and good to remind reader's who've not read the books in awhile. I do like all the vampires coming together and it's nice to see them like that, but it just means there are too many characters to try to keep tabs on.
There are some other background vampires, some of which have appeared in other books. My mind really struggled to remember though, but I'm sure die hard fans with great memories won't have a problem.
The new characters which are the four immortals from Atlantis are interesting and I enjoyed hearing their stories. It was nice to have the history of something else for a change, because really there's not much left Rice can write about the history of vampires! I like also how the legend of Atlantis was weaved into the history of the vampires. These characters come across well and keep a good air of mystery.
The narrative of this novel took me awhile to get into. It's written in both first person and third person, with different characters telling different points of view. Lestat is the main voice that comes, through there is a also the vampire scientist, Fareed and the vampire Roshamandes who is the antagonist. The Atlanteans; Garekyn and Derek also have chapters. This switching around narrative does work, but I think it effects the overall flow of the novel. Rice has been clever with it and I don't think many other writers would be able to pull it off as she has. I remember Prince Lestat being written in this way too.
Actually speaking of chapters - these are too long for me. It seems to be a thing that Rice really likes to do in the style of her novels. I guess most people wouldn't find anything wrong with this and I don't mind it as I'm use to her books being like this, but I've found shorter chapters help me to read a faster and it means my brain can have more breaks.
As I wrote in my review of Prince Lestat, Rice's writing has changed over the years. In compared to Interview and Lestat, the descriptions of people, clothes, places, rooms and objects has lost some richness. Yes, we still get lengthy descriptions of all these things, but they don't feel as deep as they did before to me. I guess a part of this is because Lestat and Atlantis is set in 2016 and as we are currently living it there's less of a need for Rice to describe things for us whilst with the first Chronicle novels there was a need because they were set in the 1800's and 1900's.
I do like the plot of the story though and it's nice to bring something new and mysterious into the vampire world, which no vampire actually understands. It works well and I'm super interested to find out what's going to happen. So far, some of the vampires have seen images of a city, often described with glass towers being on fire and falling into the sea. This city seems to be the long lost Atlantis which even the vampires believe is a legend. However, Amel is somehow connected to all of this and four immortals are trying to find him.
The immortals have been split up for years though, each not sure if the others are alive. The first of these, Derek is being held prisoner by Roshamandes, who is still mad at Lestat for things that happened in the last book. Roshamandes wants Derek to explain what he is to help Rosh decided what to do with him. Meanwhile, Garekyn, is on the run after tracking down the vampires at Trinity Gate and killing a vampire close to there. The vampires are hunting him down. The last two immortals are actually together; Kapetria and Welf, they have heard the news of Garekyn and are looking for him.
My thoughts are that all the immortals and vampires will get together and everything will be cleared up. The story of Atlantis and what happened there will come through and things will be decided upon.
Overall so far, I am enjoying reading this novel. I still think it has the problems that Prince Lestat had though, but it's great to see Anne Rice bring Lestat back to us. I can't help but wonder when she will decided to stop writing the Vampire Chronicles though, how much more can be said about these vampires? I'll be sad to see her stop, but everything must. I'd say if you were an Anne Rice fan and like the Vampire Chronicles then this is worth reading because it carries on the story in a different way and brings us new mysterious to solve.
Thanks for reading and if you want to share your thoughts then please do. See you all next week!
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