vampires

... and not in a good way. The whole book was one long cringe from beginning to confused end. It felt like a really badly written Mayfair/Vampchron crossover spec with a bit of supernatural James Bond thrown in for the 'big climax'. I seriously cried at the end, because this IS the last of the Vampire Chronicles and I can not believe that one of the most beautiful, eloquent series of novels I have ever come across has ended in such a pathetic attempt at ...... well, I'm not sure WHAT it was an attempt at actually. Not worth any stars whatsoever, but Amazon demands minimum one. I am so disappointed. Merrick was bad, Blackwood Farm was OK but definatly not up to par ( Why bring Lestat or the Mayfairs in at all ? Why not bill it as one of the 'New Series' like 'Vittorio' ?) but Blood Canticle was a farce. What did we die-hard fans do to deserve THIS finale ?

I've read each of Rice's books, save for the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy. If I didn't like her work I would have never done this. If Blood Canticle truly is the coda to the Vampire Chronicles (and, by implication, to the Mayfair Chronicles as well) then her audience has been rudely cheated. Rice can't live in a vacumn; surely she knew the Blackwood Farm setting was not the source of her greatest inspiration. The inhabitants of that dire old mansion are self-indulgant and silly to the point of farce. And their insipid nature all but nullifies the semi-high bearing of her finest creation: Lestat.

I know this novel was, at best, written under the duress of grief for the loss of a spouse. The author would earn nothing but plaudits for simply taking up both Chronicles as if BC never happened, ala an Ira Levine like "it was all one long bad dream" and finishing each series in a way befitting the obvious merits of both.

In the mean time nothing is left to me but her full foray into erotica to quell my taste for blood. "Mon Dieu!"

Blood Canticle was the first book by Anne Rice that I had read. I immediately fell in loe with it and couldn't put it down once I had started it. Shortly After I finished it, I read the Vampire Lestat. Although there were some major changes in Lestat's personality, I still love Blood Canticle. I love how Lestat is talking directly to you, throughout the entire book.

I have heard that this is going to be the last book in the Vampire Chronicles, and I am deeply saddened by it. There were many loose ends in Blood Canticle and that was one of the few things that I did not like about of the book. Hopefully, this will not be the last book in the series.