Prince Lestat

this series is just completely off the rails

Finally, the Vampire Chronicles are back to the origins with very similar feeling to the first three books.
All the old vampires have the reason to come back together, however they felt like a collection of faceless individuals to form the backdrop of the book and provide the necessary numbers in support of Lestat. When they are in the same room, they rarely interact with each other, as though the histories between them is inconsequential. The established characters are accounted for with only a brief remark. Most of the cast just felt underused.
Their role as supporting characters is overshadowed with the introduction of several new characters. Other ancient vampires are introduced, none of whom are interesting or different from the current caste. The addition of Rose and Viktor felt random and hardly needed, even more, what happened in the ending.
Rhoshamandes, as secondary antagonist, could have been developed more, more of his history, more of his motivations could have been shown (and not just chalked up to ‘the Voice made him do it'). For most of his appearances he goes on how much he hates Armand and how he wants to kill him. However, they are finally in the same room, Rhoshamandes seems to just forget all of his hatred (of course, at the moment there are more pressing matters, however even a small reaction to seeing Armand would have been interesting to see).
Also, for being the oldest vampire in the current era, and closes to what Akasha was like in The Queen of the Damned, Maharet does lose very easily to a far weaker vampire. The Voice's motivation for everything it does in the book is very cliché and it is forgiven very easily.
Lestat has lost some of that razzle dazzle over the years, he's become less interesting. He does not feel like the Brat Prince of past.

Watch out, it's Gehenna time! This explanation makes my previous sentence a spoiler. If you watched the TV series Highlander, the Talamaska are like the Watchers. If you know Vampire The Masquerade, Gehenna refers to the vampire apocalypse where the old ones would rise and consume their progeny. This book is about both topics.

I nearly gave 4 stars, but it is a huge book and most of it did not earn it for me. Still, Ane Rice is back with her true and tried formula:
- grandiose writing
- mythos expanded
- short stories introducing new characters
- more ancient and more powerful vampires
- character evolution
- big events happening
- everyone is too beautiful and loves everyone
- Lestat, Lestat, Lestat

The plot resolution felt hushed. The final confrontation was very lack lusting. The whole time I was thinking of many moves and counter moves the villain and the good guys could have made, but none of that happened. For instance, Rhoshamandes had previously met with Maharet. They could have discussed her suspicions about The Voice and/or just stated that she couldn't bare to exist in this world anymore because of thes tate of her sister Macare. This could have been his justification for so callously killing her.

Some of the characters had small roles in comparison to their importance in the Chronicles overall, like Lestat's son and adopted daugther. But their story was entertaining none the less. There were completely new characters, and others related to the protagonists, like Lestat's and Marius makers, both thought to be long gone.

The history of the Talamaska is expanded. We get to know it's founders and their motivation. We're introduced to a new kind of supernatural creature, the ghosts, whom come from two sources: the reminiscing essence of the dead, be them mortal or vampire, and the solidification (?) of the spirits from humanity's early times, those spirits who talked to Macare and Maharet. . I really wish she explored more the Talamaska plot, maybe even introduced some Hunters. Anything from The World of Darkness world could have been added and I would had been happy really.

The book marks the beginning of the Camarilla, something I absolutely loved. I was hoping for The Voice to start The Sabbat, but Rice has never been big on antagonist as far as I can tell.

The vampire apocalypse was a welcome advancement to the series. Rice connected this plot with explanations for unresolved mysteries, like the Elder trying to burn the Father and the Mother, the Children of Satan and Akasha's awakening from her torpor and turning vampires into piles of ash.

I found really cathartic Lestat's “punishment” for revealing the vampires to the world. I think he tricked himself into a position he did not want to be. From brat prince to the actual Prince. From someone who didn't want any responsibilities and loved breaking the rules to THE one responsible for all of the kindred, and the one who called for rules to govern them all. This is like giving the Joker a “sane” pill.

On a side note, it continues to amaze how such intelligent readers “misses the point” of Rice's books, like the one who wrote the first review you find here on Goodreads. I liked the review a lot, and agree with many criticisms, but to that reviewer and others:

- you say you won't be reading the next book, yet you did not like the 3rd and this is the 11th. Every other book after Queen of the Damned got considerably worst, the previous one to this being THE worst. This happens with every other single author in existence who tries to write dozens of novels using the same universe. The exceptions usually involve pandering to their audience. Don't get me started on The Dresden Files :-(.

- this is a work of fiction, and the characters are purposely flawed. Does Rice think it is OK to kill evildoers? Is Lestat wrong to think he is a good guy when he clearly is a monster (at least in the previous books)? Stop blaming the author's age or religion for not writing the Lestat fanfiction you want to read

- also, and I can't repeat this enough, as I have before: THIS IS NOT A ROMANCE! Stop complaining you don't get to see 50 Shades of Gray like chapters splattered all over the book! Or young adult like Twilight romance.

- saying you don't want to offend people while making sure you are offending people does not mean what you think it means. Also, the fans you take so much care “not” to offend, hated this book. So who exactly are you addressing when you say allude to diehard fans drama?

My rating may be higher than is reasonable for nostalgia reasons. This was quite solid in the continuum of Vampire Chronicles books. Definitely not a standalone, and full of all the usual Anne Rice camp - as delightful and ridiculous as that is.

Hopeful for some closure on the original three novels of the Vampire Chronicle I found this novel very tedious. The writing is bloated and the plot does not move the mythology significantly forward.