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Provided by the compucert I finally finished reading Book Five of the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice: Memnoch the Devil.
I must say, this is the finest tale by Rice that I've read thus far.
She tackles theological issues, the concepts of good and evil, the existence of God and His adversary the Devil, what exactly is the role of the Devil. Rice actually does a very good job of tying in her tale with the stories of the Bible.
Memnoch, the fallen Archangel, is by far the greatest character to grace the pages of any of her books.
Usually I feel that Anne Rice bogs down her writings with tons of unnecessary details and banter. It drones on after a while. Grows tiresome. However, this book is a pearl. It's wonderful. Delightful. Just the right amount of description. You love God and the Devil in this book, and learn to hate Lestat. Lestat is probably the weak link in the story. He has trouble grasping concepts, yet has to be philosophical about everything. He wants to be good, but won't help the Devil deliver souls to God. What? What an idiot. Lestat was a fool.
Anyway, the book can be broken down in three portions: the build up, the seduction, the ending. The build up in the beginning is very animated, but grows frustrating as it takes about 150 pages before you get into what the book is really about... THE SEDUCTION of Lestat by the Devil. Once that starts, the next 275 pages are VERY compelling. Great story telling. Then the ending comes and winds down, perhaps on a weak note. Slightly a let down, leaving you feeling empty. But it was a great trip getting there.
This book was really written with a feel that THIS would be the end of the Vampire Chronicles. This big huge Biblical ending with vamps going up in flames, even main characters who've been around since Book 1.
Even though this is the best book of the chronicles, I would still recommend reading the others in sequence before it. They're not imperative to understand this one, but you'll have more insight into the characters.
I'm moving on to The Vampire Armand next...
I must say, this is the finest tale by Rice that I've read thus far.
She tackles theological issues, the concepts of good and evil, the existence of God and His adversary the Devil, what exactly is the role of the Devil. Rice actually does a very good job of tying in her tale with the stories of the Bible.
Memnoch, the fallen Archangel, is by far the greatest character to grace the pages of any of her books.
Usually I feel that Anne Rice bogs down her writings with tons of unnecessary details and banter. It drones on after a while. Grows tiresome. However, this book is a pearl. It's wonderful. Delightful. Just the right amount of description. You love God and the Devil in this book, and learn to hate Lestat. Lestat is probably the weak link in the story. He has trouble grasping concepts, yet has to be philosophical about everything. He wants to be good, but won't help the Devil deliver souls to God. What? What an idiot. Lestat was a fool.
Anyway, the book can be broken down in three portions: the build up, the seduction, the ending. The build up in the beginning is very animated, but grows frustrating as it takes about 150 pages before you get into what the book is really about... THE SEDUCTION of Lestat by the Devil. Once that starts, the next 275 pages are VERY compelling. Great story telling. Then the ending comes and winds down, perhaps on a weak note. Slightly a let down, leaving you feeling empty. But it was a great trip getting there.
This book was really written with a feel that THIS would be the end of the Vampire Chronicles. This big huge Biblical ending with vamps going up in flames, even main characters who've been around since Book 1.
Even though this is the best book of the chronicles, I would still recommend reading the others in sequence before it. They're not imperative to understand this one, but you'll have more insight into the characters.
I'm moving on to The Vampire Armand next...
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