Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis: The Vampire Chronicles

The Vampire Chronicles #12

by Anne Rice

From Anne Rice, conjurer of the beloved best sellers "Interview with the Vampire" and "Prince Lestat," an ambitious and exhilarating new novel of utopian vision and power, uniting the ancient worlds and the legends of the Vampire Chronicles.
"In my dreams, I saw a city fall into the sea. I heard the cries of thousands. I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven. And all the world was shaken . . ."--Anne Rice, "Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis"
At the novel's center: the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, hero, leader, inspirer, irresistible force, irrepressible spirit, battling (and ultimately reconciling with) a strange otherworldly form that has somehow taken possession of Lestat's undead body and soul. This ancient and mysterious power and unearthly spirit of vampire lore has all the force, history, and insidious reach of the unknowable Universe.
It is through this spirit, previously considered benign for thousands of vampire years and throughout the Vampire Chronicles, that we come to be told the hypnotic tale of a great sea power of ancient times; a mysterious heaven on earth situated on a boundless continent--and of how and why, and in what manner and with what far-reaching purpose, this force came to build and rule the great legendary empire of centuries ago that thrived in the Atlantic Ocean.
And as we learn of the mighty, far-reaching powers and perfections of this lost kingdom of Atalantaya, the lost realms of Atlantis, we come to understand its secrets, and how and why the vampire Lestat, indeed all the vampires, must reckon so many millennia later with the terrifying force of this ageless, all-powerful Atalantaya spirit. "From the Hardcover edition.""

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Vampires, Fiction, Paranormal, Supernatural, Gothic

752 pages, Paperback

First published November 29, 2016

About the author

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien) was a best-selling American author of gothic, supernatural, historical, erotica, and later religious themed books. Best known for The Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematic focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.

Anne Rice passed on December 11, 2021 due to complications from a stroke. She was eighty years old at the time of her death.

She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.

Reviews

[Angela]

June 2026 Update - Hmm. Well, I'm loving the show (IwtV/TVL). It's making me slightly nostalgic for the books. Maybe I'll do a re-read and see how far I can get. Who knows. I might give this a shot someday. I'm not entirely optimistic given some of the things I've been spoiled on, but ... never say never.

(previous)How I wish I could go back to the days of The Vampire Lestat, or Queen of the Damned, when I loved these books. How I wish the magic could be captured again.

[Dev · Rating 1 out of 5]

i love how the reviews for this book seem to be comprised solely of 1. people who actually read the fucking trainwreck and 2. people who will look at any book by anne rice no matter how horrible it is and automatically rate it 4 or 5 stars.

this is just ...god it's so bad. like i can't even fully coherently type out how bad it was because 1. it took me over 2 weeks to read and 2. i feel like i've already blocked out parts that were too ridiculous because i just can't even handle how awful this book is. i even skimmed like a good third of it and it STILL took me 2 weeks to muddle my way through it. the entire tale of atlantis part was just me reading every like 3 paragraph and sighing out loud going WHAT while my roommate [who finished the book within like 4 days] laughed at me.

ok

first, don't try to write sci-fi if you aren't going to do ANY kind of scientific research to make things mildly believable. the entire alien side of this book is ridiculous and nothing is really explained or makes any sense at all. i almost wish it WAS a book about mermaids like we all though bc then at least it still would have been fantasy and it would have been bad but it would have made sense in a way. and she wasn't even trying towards the end. 'oh i have to write a brain surgery scene? well lestat is having brain surgery and he's unconscious for it and so i'll just make the chapter his pov so i don't have to actually deal with it literally at all' REALLY ANNE? like she just rambled for half the book, threw in the backstory of atlantis and then thought 'oh fuck i actually have to finish this somehow'

second, the only vampire who is even really in this is lestat and while lestat is my favorite it's the relationships between the vampires that used to make this series so compelling but now i feel like they're just a group of really ooc people like ...standing in rooms together not really connecting or doing anything at all. like what the hell was armand's problem for the entire book? i'm not really surprised he reacted that way but give us some kind of conversation that tells us his motives or something. and all of the random new characters from the last book still don't feel like actual people either. *sigh*

just please let this be the last one. it was so bad and they've only ever been steadily getting worse since ...well since memnoch really. i don't even want to think what the next one will be.

[Tati]

July 26, 2016

Based on the blurb, I think it's time for me to give this series up. The last one was already pretty bad, this one might be pushing things too far.

January 12, 2017

I've already read so many bad books this month I decided to take my chances with this one.

Full disclosure: I'm expecting this to be bad.



After reading 7% of the book:

[Tammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sometimes it's best not to say anything at all.

[Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

I remember how much I wanted to kick George Lucas for Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. A series all about history and myth and religion, then all of a sudden you get smacked in the face with Aliens.
Noooooo.


Spoilers below



And Anne Rice just did the same here.
We have a deep and meaningful history and mythology to our vampires , then Anne Rice suddenly hits us with a bomb after so many books that its Aliens .
So what about the spirits , or Memnoch or Amel. All ghosts of synthetic beings built by Aliens. Fuck that.
So aliens from a distant planet have being screwing with us to get some sort of kicks from our misery .This is used as a source for Christianity in the book indicating Rice has taken another one of her belief swings which feeds into her book.

Like Indiana Jones insane turn of events I still like Lestat and the main crew as much as I still like Indy . But with mad Alien created beings called Replimoids and a complete rewrite of the history to hammer in alien infiltration I can't help but think its all gone a bit bat crap crazy.

Part of me is hoping Disney will step in and buy the whole lot and get it back to where it was meant to be and Anne Rice can enjoy her retirement years with George Lucas with neither being able to further sully their legacy with Alien twists.

[Erin Clemence · Rating 5 out of 5]

Anne Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles” continues with this fifth instalment, “Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis”, the follow-up novel to “Prince Lestat” (from 2014).
In this instalment, Lestat is still the reigning Prince of Vampires, living with the spirit Amel inside him, a spirit that connects him to the rest of the Vampire world, but a spirit that no one (not even Lestat) truly understands. When the Vampires are visited by a small group of beings claiming to have a deep understanding of the spirit, Amel, we are then introduced to the “Replimiods”, the almost-human life forms that came from the planet of Bravenna and lived on the long-lost city of Atalantaya (or presumably, “Atlantis”). Soon Lestat and the survival of his vampires is at-risk, and Lestat must make important choices that will deeply affect his own life and the life of his followers.
I am a die-hard, life-long fan of the great Ms. Rice. I cannot turn away from anything she writes, and consume everything she publishes with a passionate voracity. This novel was no different. Ms. Rice continues the story of the much-loved Lestat, re-introducing us to his past and the important characters in his life, while still keeping the storyline new and exciting. Old characters are mixed in with brand new characters, old storylines are continued and new storylines are introduced and never once was I bored or disinterested. Each chapter and each page grips a reader in the creatively unique way that only Anne Rice has, and the page-turning power of this novel is unmatched.
The Replimiods are a unique group of characters, ones that could very easily be cheesy or overdone if the writer was someone other than the extremely talented Anne Rice. They are creative characters, characters that generate an immediate bond with the reader and are extremely novel, introducing a new level of ingenuity and imagination. A reader continues to forge a passionate bond with Lestat and his followers, and this novel generates a new breed for readers to form relationships with.
This novel is a must-read for fans of Anne Rice and “The Vampire Chronicles”, especially the passionate devotees of Lestat and his brood. This page-turning, addictive, thrill-ride of a novel will draw you in from page one, and keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The ending is satisfying, leaving a reader wanting for more yet leaving no questions unanswered. It is written such that another novel could easily come after this one, and I would be more than willing to stand in line and wait for that one too. After thirty-five novels, Ms. Rice continues to blow her readers away, and has not slowed down yet. I eagerly await her next novel and encourage any and all of her fans to experience this new novel as soon as possible.

[Kerri · Rating 1 out of 5]

I keep reading Lestat books hoping to reclaim some of the magic of the first two in the series, but I'm always disappointed, some more than others. I should have known not to even pick this one up when I read the title, but I thought I'd give it one more shot. No. Just no. I am so tired of the insertion of otherworldly beings into Rice's books; I am even more tired of the syrupy sentimentality. Okay, it's abandoned. I've learned my lesson. If I want a Lestat fix, I will go back and re-read Interview with a Vampire and The Vampire Lestat.

[Elise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anne Rice made a mistake by always involving other species into her vampire chronicles, she did this with the witches in Blackwood Farm and Merrick, with the Taltos in Blood Canticle and now there are aliens which she wants us to enjoy. People read the Vampire Chronicles because they are about vampires, and most of people don't want to read about other creatures and that's something Anne should finally realize.

I recommend reading the spoilers, because it doesn’t matter if you’re going to be spoiled, this book doesn’t have any shocking revelations anyway.

SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS! SPOILERS!

To go into the story, this is one of the worst books in the chronicles. I never felt I was very interested in the story and I read this purely because I have read all the previous books and I wanted to know what would happen to Louis and Lestat. The plot is completely ridiculous and the whole idea of aliens living in atlantis and being able to replicate through amputation is something nobody wants to read.

We get multiple different perspectives in this book, just like in Prince Lestat. This makes the book even more boring than it already was because I didn’t care about 75% of the characters in this book. The replimoids are not interesting and the whole 74 pages of description from Kapetria is so redundant. This book was only slightly better than Memnoch The Devil, which I gave 1 star because of its endless monologue about religion. This book gets two stars, but skip it if you’re a fan of the series because this belongs to the list of books of the Vampire Chronicles which are the result of Anne going a bit crazy.

[Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

Anne Rice has gone off the deep end.
I mean, where do I even start?

1) Aliens? Really?! Come on.

2) Said aliens are some kind of bird dementors that feed on negative emotions, abduct and genetically modify humans (to render them immortal and gift them with godlike powers, obv) and create humanoid... things. *deep sigh*

3) Where are my beloved vampires? Where, I ask?! The only vampire featured prominently is Lestat and he is pretty much unrecognisable. Some vampires, like Sybelle and Daniel, get mentioned ONCE. Seriously, if you disrespect your characters like that, you need to step away from the computer.

4) Related to my previous point, what happened to the relationships that made the previous books so magical? The core of these books used to be complex dynamics between the characters, while there's almost nothing left of that in this latest installment.

5) What this monstrosity IS full of (besides the aforementioned aliens) is this weird sciency gobbledegook. Like, no Anne Rice, no one cares about the ~science~ of vampires. Just stop. I have never given a flying **** about Amel. This isn't a friggin' history or biology textbook. This isn't what made these books so special and beloved.

Anne Rice has just completely lost sight of what this series is about. Or maybe it's a conscious decision on her part. I'm not sure which is worse.

[Latasha · Rating 5 out of 5]

OH! Anne Rice! you had me terrified, enthralled, in love, delighted, scared again then crying. I adore you.

[Vini · Rating 4 out of 5]

man i just really love these books

[Rinoa Heartilly]

man anne my girl, what are u doing

[Pisceschick]

"My good opinion once lost is lost forever" - Fitzwilliam Darcy in Jane Austen's "Pride & Prejudice"

[Lucy Banks · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

Ambitious, inventive, satisfying to read... but a little confusing in places.

The latest in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles follows 'Prince' Lestat, still housing the ancient spirit Amel within him. As with many of the books in the series, it's an exploratory tome, which takes a popular myth and creates a fresh 'factuality' for it. In this instance, it's the legend of Atlantis, which is tied beautifully into Rice's vampiric legends.

The book follows a number of character perspectives; Lestat himself, Rhoshamandes (an enemy of Lestat's), plus a series of strange creatures we later discover are 'replimoids' - Derek, Kapetria, Welf and Garekyn. For me personally, the stories of the replimoids were the strongest, especially their experiences in the ancient city of Atalantaya (I won't give away too much at this point, but it's a fascinating take on the Atlantis story).

As usual, the book is elevated by Rice's highly readable, yet prosaic style - I find she's quite remarkable at setting the scene, whether it's at Lestat's court or the streets of Paris. This in itself is enough to carry the book nicely - though there were a few moments where I was left a little baffled, not least the 'scientific' explanations behind creating a replimoid, which I didn't find terribly convincing.

However, this is a minor point. Mostly, it was an enjoyable read - and definitely needs to be read by those who are fans of the series.

[Gary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to give this 5 out of 5 and say this should be the end of the series and that hard for me to say as I love this series like no other as it's what got me reading to start with but with the way she ended the book it does the hole series justice

[Gareth Otton · Rating 2 out of 5]

Umm... I think someone accidentally cut some sci-fi into my fantasy...

Just one book from the triumphant return to the Vampire Chronicles and already I'm starting to regret the words in my last review. In that review for Prince Lestat I spoke of how excited I was to have Anne Rice back in action on this series, how she could finally show the world what vampires really are again and take back the genre from the YA imitations that rose in her absence. Sadly, Prince Lestat and the realms of Atlantis is less a vampire novel than it is a sci-fi novel.

Now, as we all know with the popularity of Star Wars, fantasy and sci-fi can mix. However, as the Indiana Jones franchise proves with Kingdom of the Krystal Skull, you need to set up that relationship from the start, not spring it on people after you've already established the rules for this universe. The Vampire Chronicles has always been a series that has felt mythical in origin. The lore has surrounded demons and spirits, delved into religion and theology. The introduction of a sci-fi element in the 12th book feels entirely out of place.

Were it not for the writing style, I would be hard pressed to say that this was a Vampire Chronicles novel written by Anne Rice.

What is worst about this is that the sci-fi elements are now so interwoven into the overarching story of the series that it's not even something you can ignore. It's the kind of thing that can retroactively change your opinion of earlier novels and the series as a whole.

Honestly, I'm struggling on what to think about this book. On the one hand, I could enjoy it for the story that it was. All of the elements were there to be interesting and enjoyable. If it was the first novel in a series or a stand-alone novel, then this new direction wouldn't be a problem. But it is neither of those things and it left a bad taste in my mouth as a result.

I think that the perfect way to so sum this up is actually to call it Anne Rice's Kingdom of the Krystal Skull. Like that movie it has all the same ingredients of the franchise and there are certainly parts to enjoy, but overall it's a mess that doesn't quite work.

It's a 3-star novel that loses another star because, in my opinion, it shouldn't exist.

[Davyne DeSye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun read – how can you miss when you combine a vampire story with the legend of Atlantis?

I’ve always been intrigued by the legend of Atlantis. I’ve also enjoyed Anne Rice’s Lestat vampire novels, so picking this one up was a DUH.

This is the fourteenth (!) book in Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles, but I admit, I haven’t read all of them. I started, quite naturally with the first in the series, Interview with the Vampire. (I read that one in the 80s because Sting said it had inspired one of his songs.) I followed with the next two or three books (which all included Lestat, one of my favorite vampires ever – he’s both irreverent and a lover of life). After that, I kind of petered out on the series, mostly because many of the other in the series aren’t about Lestat. I picked up the series again with Prince Lestat, the book previous to this one. Happily, reading this newest book, I was not lost for failing to read the entire series. I’m certain that my reading of this one might have been richer if I knew the entire back story, but this book was enjoyable nonetheless.

In this story, Lestat is the newly appointed “Prince” of the vampires. As you can imagine, there are power struggles amidst the attempt to organize the vampires of the world into a coherent culture. Even better, we learn early in the book that there is another species of walking, talking beings on the planet that are neither vampire nor human: Enter the Atlantean legend. Are they friend or foe to the vampires?

I loved reading about Atlantis (or Atalantaya as it is referred to in this book) – how it was created, by whom, and ultimately what befell the fabled society. I also loved the suggestion of ties between Atlantis and the creation of vampires. Naturally, in exploring this potential tie, I also learned a lot of about the creation of vampires (more than we’ve already discovered in the series), which makes for great fun.

I enjoyed being able to spend time with Lestat and his favorite companion, Louis (the vampire who gives the interview in the first book). While I wish I could have spent more time with some of my other favorites from prior books, they are all included in this book with the added benefit of meeting the new Atlantean characters. Of those, Kapetria was the one I most want to resemble while Derek was the one I most related to.

Anne Rice knows how to write a good story, and when I visit the series again (at least to re-read the books I’ve already enjoyed), this will definitely be on my “read it again” list.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you keep going to the same well, you're bound to come up dry. With this, Book 12 of the Vampire Chronicles, Rice is scraping the bottom for a story. I would only recommend this to die hard Rice fans (like myself, I guess) who have read all of the prior books in the series and want to know how it "ends" -- and yes, this does feel like an actual ending to me in a way that 'Blood Canticle' and 'Prince Lestat' did not. If you haven't read the prior books, I think this one would be incomprehensible.

The mystery and mystique of the Rice vampire is gone. Every aspect of their origin and history has now been explained, along with every aspect of their biological and spiritual existence. Rice has always been best when she writes in a Gothic and historical setting. She evokes Europe of the 18th and 19th centuries so beautifully. But this is current day Paris. The vampires have houses and use iPhones and have podcasts and scientific labs, etc., yet still dress in velvet and linen and lace? All a bit silly. Like the prior book, Prince Lestat, this novel reminded me more of True Blood than it did the Vampire Chronicles. If Sookie Stackhouse had popped up in the Chateau looking for a campy romance with Lestat, it would not have been out of place.

Happily, the story picks up in the last 100 pages or so and I will admit the ending was surprisingly satisfying, with the last couple of paragraphs being the best written and most effective of the entire novel. The final sentences truly wrapped it all up for me, after two decades of reading this saga.

[Heidi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars: Another terrific installment in a favorite series. This book gets to the roots of the vampiric condition and it evolves the characters.

Lestat is now the Prince of the Vampires, the one who holds the fate of the entire race in his being. He is still visited by the strange, spirit, Amel. Who is Amel and why is he sending visions of a beautiful, sophisticated city with tall skyscrapers, falling into the ocean? Meanwhile two other blood drinkers, have encountered an eccentric, immortal being who amazingly regenerates. What is this creature? Where did he come from? It turns out, the long lost city of Atlantis just might hold the key. What happened to Atlantis?
What I Liked:
*Confession, I am a long time fan of Ms. Rice's Vampire Chronicles. It is the one series that I have continued to read for over twenty years. I adore the characters, and I am thrilled to finally be getting new, sophisticated stories in the collection. This latest book, blends the vampiric condition with the legend of the lost city of Atlantis. I loved the interesting story, and I especially enjoyed the evolution and maturity of favorite characters. If you are a fan of Ms. Rice's series, this is a book to read.
*I admit, I have never been a huge fan of Lestat. In fact, I loathed him in the early books. The Brat Prince with his rash, selfish ways was never endearing to me, I have always been a Louis girl. However the last two books, have brought forth a new, mature Lestat, who I actually love. I like this new, sophisticated, kind and thoughtful Lestat. He has finally grown up, and I am so pleased to see his metamorphosis.
*Now let's talk about Louis. I adore Louis, he is one of my longest running book boyfriends. My heart ached for poor tortured Louis, who wants nothing more than books and peace. This time around, Louis has grown and matured and finally accepted his vampiric nature. No more tortured Louis. I loved seeing him happy, and I liked that he played an important role in this one. I especially liked that he and Lestat are in a good place.
*This book is full of sophisticated and complex ideas, as the whole series has been. It is all about souls, evolved consciousness and higher purposes. I enjoyed exploring these ideas. I especially liked that the vampires have come to more positive conclusion regarding their vampiric nature. No more Children of Satan and Children of the Damned.
*I liked the way the story of Atlantis was woven into the story. It was interesting and exciting. I also liked that the mystery surrounding Amel was exposed, and that there was finally an answer as to where the vampires came from.
*Once again, this book like its predecessor, has a full cast of characters. I like that all the vampires are working together, and that many favorites are back from Louis, Marius, Pandora, Armand, Seth, David and Gabrielle. If you have read all the books in the series, you will like seeing your favorite vampires again.
*I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Simon Vance. Vance had a tall task with all the voices, especially considering the numerous ethnicities represented. I thought he did an excellent job with the narration, and I would definitely listen to his work again.
And The Not So Much:
*If you have not read the previous books in the series, don't even try to read this one as you will be hopelessly lost. This book brings back all the characters from the other books. Even I had a hard time remembering all the vampires and their stories, especially since it has been twenty years since I read some of the books.
*Even though I like that this book incorporates so many characters, it is so easy to become lost. I have forgotten so many details.
*I am still not sure what to make of the Replemoids. I am not sure that I liked them or not.
*There are times when the book drags as it spends a great deal of time exploring philosophical issues. I enjoyed the ideas put forth, but sometimes it got to be too much.

Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis is a sophisticated and complex book that puts forth many interesting ideas while refashioning the legends of Atlantis. I loved reconnecting with all my old favorite characters, and I appreciated their evolution and maturation. If you are a long time fan of Ms. Rice's Vampire Chronicles, these last two books are definitely ones to read. I love that this series continues to evolve and reinvent itself after forty years. I can't wait for more.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own, and I was not compensated for this review.
Posted@Rainy Day Ramblings.

[hedgehog]

All right, all right, this one I won't rate, because it is truly beyond rating and the ken of my feeble, mortal mind, but 100 stars for sheer trainwreck value. I'm that kind of person, it is true. But it's fine, because at least I'm not the religion worms in *nn* *ic*'s head! Small mercies.

I went straight from Interview With the Vampire to this book, the 12th in the series, and—can I level here, internet? I love a good trainwreck, and it's always been fascinating to me what happens to authors who reach a certain level of fame where editors no longer have power to contain their baser impulses. The obvious part is that usually the pages start multiplying, but also you get to really dig into an author's terrifying, unfiltered id.

In this case, forty? fifty? years after IWTV, we're still very angry about Christianity! I get it, same, but this was less of a fictional novel and more like dollops of a hodgepodge of Western-based deist screed sandwiched in between vampires and aliens. Also, frantic and unnecessary attempts to retcon or explain vampire biology, which absolutely no one asked for. Also also, this one has nothing to do with anything, I just think it's funny, the author loves four-hour work days and I know this because it is mentioned repeatedly in the 20% of the book that is a character recounting their time in Atlantis.

(That's right, imagine my surprise when I figured out that the interesting novel structure in IWTV—it's framed as a vampire telling his life story to a contemporary journalist who is tape-recording the eponymous interview—was less purposeful and more like... well, this entire book was people lurching from one meeting to another. If anything happened externally, it was only to promote yet another round-table meeting where characters talked about stuff that happened off-screen, or sometimes the author's theological underpinnings. (Or both. Oftentimes, both.) This is the opposite of the "you know what that is? Growth" gif. Good to know you can make a pile of money without ever improving in your craft 😬)

I'm surprised I'm holding it together here because nothing about this book made any gd sense and I spent a lot of time screaming at my bookclub over things like (no spoiler cut because as a collection of words, none of them collectively make any sense, so what am I spoiling???):

— The part where the alien person creates a clone of himself when his arm gets chopped off, and then the arm crawls towards him and it has grown a little face, with a little mouth, and then the sentient arm with the face on its palm latches onto his nipple to breastfeed
— We're still not done with weird underage incest vibes in these books because a page later, the clone arm has grown an entire rest of its body and uses that body to, uh, kiss its clone dad on the mouth, as you do, all normal-like
— Get this, and that alien person, tens of thousands of years old and created by nonhumans, was named... wait for it... DEREK
— Atlantis existed and it was destroyed by an extraterrestrial race of vengeful bird aliens who fed off mammalian misery via like, livestreaming human life into their living rooms
— Truly, truly incredible attempts to make the concept of "vampires" (sexy immortal people who drink blood and set things on fire with their minds... you know, hard science!) have scientific backing, so there are technobabble passages that even a neural network in its early learning stages could not make less comprehensible, e.g.:

Remember that the nano-thermoplastic of the web of connections is the only part of you not directly feeding on the folic acid in blood.

— That quote knocked me out on the floor for ten minutes while I tried to get the strength to pick my Kindle back up
— By the way, vampires are made out of plastic. This is a thing now, special alien plastic
— The THING the author does, the author who wrote this book, which is to take a noun and then repeat the noun and add another clause to it, a clause that couldn't simply stand on its own or be combined to make one sentence. If I were ever to do Nanowrimo again, I would use this trick, a trick that is a marvelous way to waste space or possibly to prove that I am a god who fears no delete key, to expand my wordcount 2x. It also contributed to the feeling, the feeling that rose within me within every desperate moment I spent with this book, that I was having a mf'ing stroke.

This book simultaneously gets 100 stars and also -100. That is probably the etheric biological soul of the book, working on my thermoplasmic psychic connections to the last strand of my sanity. Or maybe it's the alien bird people. Or maybe it's Jesus Lestat. So many options, options that spiral off into the chasm of the infinite!

Unlike, you know, the ideal work day. Four hours, people. Let's make it happen. Chop chop.

[Cyndi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wanted to love it. Rice's writing, as always, is magical. However... spoilers about to happen, look away if you haven't read it.

I get why she wanted to explain exactly where Amel came from, that's the whole point of the book, but I really didn't care for the backstory. Bird-like aliens? Plus, another thing that has always bothered me in her books is the vampires ability to instantly love someone. Really?

Despite my issues I will always recommend the entire Vampire Chronicles to new readers. Some books are definitely better (Marius!) than others.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the Vampire Chronicles, in part because the first few were a formative influence on my teenage years and in part because they continue to be distinctive among supernatural novels. Even at their most absurd and annoying, there’s a weight and thoughtfulness to them that very few vampire novels achieve. Anne Rice’s vampires are relentlessly materialistic, with close attention paid to their clothing and furniture, while also engaging with philosophical questions of why they exist, what immortality means, and how they can live together in peace. Overall I found this instalment cohered better than Prince Lestat as it falls back on the classic Vampire Chronicles conceit of the extended flashback. On the other hand, the plot centres on aliens and the lost city of Atlantis, which is frankly crazytown bananapants. Somewhat to my surprise, Anne Rice pulls it off. I enjoyed the whole thing, although I felt the ending left several very significant questions unanswered. I can’t get into that without spoilers, though.

My three outstanding questions are:

1. Are birdlike aliens still trying to exterminate multi-cellular life on Earth and, if so, is this not something the vampires and everyone else who lives here should be seriously concerned about?? Actually, the Parents (as they call themselves) have probably been observing climate change for decades and have thus realised that we can destroy ourselves just fine without their needing to put time and resources into the project. Still, aliens exist! Many kinds, it seems. There is less excitement about this than I would expect.

2. Why did Amel’s fusion with Akasha result in a race of creatures who have to drink blood to survive? I didn’t notice any explanation as to why luracastria + spirit with alien modifications + host human body = thirst for blood + allergy to sunlight. Indeed, the section set in Atalantanya implies that luracastria generates solar power. Shouldn’t the vampires therefore feed on sunlight in the manner of Superman? If it’s solely due to Amel (which the disconnection suggests it probably isn’t), what’s his whole thing about blood? Relatedly, why haven’t the vampire scientists looked into substitutes for the consumption of blood? I know Fareed protests that they have a massive research agenda and he's terribly busy, but that still seems pretty important. Anyway, I found the luracastria/silver cord explanation for vampirism quite ingenious while also lacking in some respects.

3. Finally, what the hell possessed Anne Rice to name her mysterious alien protagonist DEREK, of all things? I simply couldn’t take him seriously. Did she intend it to be pronounced Dee-reque or something a bit less stolidly mundane? We may never know. Certain names simply do not lend themselves to strange beings from other planets and Derek is one of them. Nigel and Bert are two others.

That said, the ‘replimoids’ (those aliens really sucked at naming things) were interesting characters, or rather Kapetria was. I appreciated that she was the uncontested leader of the small band and that she had the gall to walk right into Lestat’s ridiculous castle and lie to the faces of all the vampires present. The other three didn’t get much personality; Derek cried continually and the other two rarely interjected. I did like Derek’s reaction to his clone being much more competent than him. Although his intense emotional reactions were for a reason: he was supposed to be the most empathetic and emotionally attuned of the group. I assume he was given the task of narration because his initial plight generated sympathy. Had it been given to Kapetria, she could easily have taken over the story and overshadowed Lestat. It pleased me that she was one of perhaps one and a half characters who weren’t in love with him. Her somewhat opaque plans and motivations created considerable tension and were the main impetus for plot developments. I hope she turns up again.

Inevitably, the ideology and politics of both the vampire world and Atlantis fascinated me. By setting up a vampire royal court in his castle, Lestat is carefully recreating feudalism in microcosm, except with even less rule of law. He only seems to be getting away with it due to immense personal charisma. Although the entire Vampire Chronicles have made it clear that, yes, he is extremely charismatic, it strains credulity that every vampire (except apparently Rhoshamandes) would unquestioningly adore their king by divine right. There are two reasons why I didn’t think this entirely impossible, even when the Amel factor is removed: 1. Lestat requires very little of his subjects. He doesn’t tax them or impose laws. At least, he hasn’t yet. If he did something they didn’t like, the older vampires could easily crush him. 2. His court is a massive, constant party and vampires are all about that. I was very intrigued by Marius (Lestat’s professed Prime Minister) attempting to draw up a vampire constitution and apparently finding it very difficult. I don’t imagine that Lestat’s occasional suggestions were terribly helpful. Who else is he consulting, I wonder? If there was a genuine disagreement between Lestat and his Council (which does not appear to have a specific membership list or quorum), who prevails? Would Lestat play the, “This is my castle and I’m the Prince so sit down and shut up” card? Or would he shrug and proclaim disinterest in politics when it doesn’t directly concern someone he loves? How long until a younger vampire says, "I didn't vote for you so why should I do as you say?"

Elsewhere, the world-building of Atlantis reminded me of Rousseau’s Discourse on the Origin of Inequality in which he comments, ‘For it is no light enterprise to separate that which is original from that which is artificial in man’s present nature, and attain a solid knowledge of a state which no longer exists, which perhaps never existed, and which will probably never exist, yet of which it is necessary to have sound ideas if we are to judge our present state satisfactorily.’ Atlantis is a utopia because it combines futuristic technologies and sophisticated governance methods with a pre-capitalist state of grace. As Kapetria puts it, ‘I will tell you what was different. This earlier world was an innocent world that had never known centuries of military developments or the agricultural or industrial revolutions that all today on Earth take for granted as inevitable precursors to technological advancement; and therefore these people did not labor under the immense weight of cultural or political or moral traditions from such revolutions’. This allows for commerce without competition and technological development motivated by imagination not profit. What a sweet dream. There’s also the magical building material/power source/medicine luracastria, which appears to have ended resource scarcity.

Nonetheless, Amel built the city of Atlantis and is as much a dictator as Lestat. We have only the word of Kapetria, who did not spend long there, that he was benign. In fact, he remains remarkably enigmatic. It was notable that the alien beings (who I refuse to call replimoids) are so much more interested in political economy than the vampires. Where are the vampire social scientists? Why didn’t Marius consult Kapetria, even Amel, on how Atlantis was organised and governed? That aside, the theme of fall from grace as Atlantis fell was nicely handled in Kapetria’s narrative. It is also noted that religions which value suffering for the sake of it prevented the rise of a neo-Atlantis, as well as enabling the rise of industrial capitalism.

In Kapetria’s tale and elsewhere, the unreliability and blinkers of narrators were well deployed. Louis is not given any narration duties, making it all the more effective when he steps out of Lestat’s shadow at the end and provides the key to solving the Amel problem. The discussion in which he tries to explain his theory includes supportive boyfriend comments from Lestat such as, “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about,” and, “Are you serious with all this?” Louis responds, “Look at me. Pay attention. Listen to me for a change.” (I suspect Lestat was checking his iPhone.) It is pretty satisfying when David interjects, “Lestat, do be quiet.” Lestat seems to have forgotten that before they called him the Prince he was known as the Brat Prince, and for good reasons. I find him a very lovable character, as well as a deeply exasperating one. Consequently I have considerable sympathy for Louis.

Additional briefer observations are listed below:

- I’m so glad Quinn and Mona didn’t make it. How those two annoyed me. Viktor and Rose are quite enough of a mooning young couple to be going on with.
- Lestat appears to be physically attracted to everyone he meets and willing to profess undying love at the drop of a hat, but Louis is still his favourite.
- It gladdens my heart to see Gabrielle occasionally interjecting a sarcastic remark. In general the female vampires are rather underrepresented in the narrative. With the single exception of Kapetria’s tale, all the narrators are male.
- Does Anne Rice have a thing about butter? It’s mentioned twice in this novel for no particular reason, plus there was that memorable scene in Exit to Eden.
- Is anyone surprised to hear from Lestat that he likes being called a slut.
- Gregory is a fascinating character. He’s thousands of years old and has reinvented himself as a plutocratic avatar of capitalism.
- I approved of the fact that Atlantis was largely vegetarian, although their drunken meat festivals sounded truly awful. I was with Maxym (AKA Memnoch?) on that.
- I couldn’t help but be amused by Kapetria starting her tale with (I paraphrase), “I know time is short and this is world-shaking stuff, but wanted to let you know that us alien beings definitely have sex. We love the sex, with each other and with humans, just FYI.”
- I retained some sympathy for Rhoshamandes and liked that he gave Lestat a book by Marcus Aurelius as a peace offering.
- It’s nice for Lestat that one of his ultimate fantasies comes true: he kisses and drinks the blood of almost his exact double. He really got to taste the rainbow in this instalment, actually. Alien beings and incarnate spirits!
- The point in the story when I blinked and thought ‘this is some weird shit’ was when Derek’s severed arm crawls over to him, grows a FACE in the palm of its hand, and fastens itself onto his nipple. Fine, grow clones by budding, but must you do so in such a strange fashion?

Pleasingly escapist stuff overall, and I had fun. At the end I was left wondering where the Vampire Chronicles can go from here. Much as I love Lestat, he’s had more than his fair share of airtime. My suggestions: focus on a new female fledgling to give an original perspective and/or Vampire Chronicles: Civil War, in which bitter acrimony erupts over the vampire constitution. I mean, can you imagine? Not only are you trying to agree a rule of law between every culture in the world, but also people aged between about twenty and many thousand years. While there are only two thousand of them or so, that still leaves ample space for disagreement. I’d love to read about that and ‘Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis’ definitely lays the groundwork for it.

[Ms. Nikki · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don't have much time to read so I can't waste my time on unworthy stories. This is one of them. I skipped and skimmed and even from the bits (Aliens!?!?! Really!!) I was able to absorb and digest, they were thoroughly disappointing. The "science" of this read was shoddy, to say the least.

Not for me~

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was one of the weirdest books I’ve ever read.

[Isabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are two ways to approach reading this book: as a die-hard Vampire Chronicles fan, in which case you will be disappointed; or as a stand-alone, if you (like me) cannot quite make the leap from the Gothic romance to mostly-science fiction flavor of this novel.

I had so many thoughts while reading this book, and all of them contradictory. I wavered from 3 stars to 4 stars at several points in the story, and finally settle at 3.5, though Goodreads does not give out half points. I suppose it makes sense, in a way, that our beloved Vampires have to make the transition to the 21st century, and Anne Rice does it by going way back in the past - a past that is a curious mirror of our world today. It makes a bizarre kind of sense, and yet... I still found myself distracted by talk of synthetics and polymers and found myself longing for the arsenic and faded old lace...

The Children of the Night have a Prince, and a Castle, and a Court, but I found little to no trace of the old romance that so beguiled me with the earlier books. A big part of it is (ironically) the intrusion of science into the story, and the explaining away of religion. Whatever else its faults, Christianity lent the novels an air of mysticism and a brooding beauty; spawning terms like The Devil's Road and the Children of the Damned.

With this latest installment in the series, all the voluptuous gloss has been scraped away, leaving me feeling somewhat lost, like losing one's Faith. So Amel the core is not a Spirit; and the old legends are stripped of meaning. I find it interesting that Anne Rice, who has authored books on Christ's early life, muses in this book about the inherent evil of a Force that glorifies Suffering to Its own ends. She (through Kapetria) questions the justice and love of a God that teaches the virtue of suffering, when suffering has no worth in itself.

Now this is the very theme that Memnoch railed against in the fifth book of the series; and how crushed I was to be told that he was a mere spirit, that it was all fabrication! I loved that book; I love it only second to The Vampire Lestat, mainly because I loved Memnoch and his lonely defiance of Heaven. And in Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis he is reduced to a few sentences and a joke. Woe!

It was the Mystery that so enthralled me about the earlier books; it was the infinite possibility that could never be grasped, the mystery that could never be explained. Beginning with the Vampire Lestat, the mysteries were uncovered only to reveal more mysteries, more questions that could never be answered satisfactorily enough. It was the Romance, it was the violins and the Swoon, it was dancing with the devil in the pale moonlight and howling in defiance at the Brief Candle.

All gone... supplanted with self-replicating aliens, and the Sacred Core revealed to be an Ancient demi-god who founded the lost realm of Atlantis. Talk of glittering skyscrapers growing from seed; talk of experiments and chemistry and nano-biology. I am tickled pink that Anne Rice was inspired by both Ancient Aliens and Fingerprints of the Gods (Graham Hancock), both mentioned once or twice on her facebook page. I too watch the show and have read the book. But oh how these muses have laid to waste the dark beauty that was the Vampire Chronicles.

Now we have countless five-thousand year old vampires that fail to capture my attention - Rhosh, Seth, even Gremt - they are mere names scattered here and there. Marius, my beautiful aloof Marius, relegated to Prime Minister and scribe. David Talbot is barely mentioned. Louis (who has never been a favorite of mine) is there to nod and smile and cry. Armand gets to hiss "Destroy the enemy!" a few times. The beloved tribe of old are barely even there in this volume; instead we have the rantings and ravings of the "Ancient Ones", who don't hold a candle to Khayman, the way I see it. I just fail to care about all these new characters, and as for Amel...

Amel might be the saving grace of this whole fiasco, after all. In the previous book, Prince Lestat, Amel went from a childish, greedy spirit to an annoying, demanding Voice. In this story, though, particularly towards the end - I feel that I came to understand why Lestat loved him. It's the author's prerogative to turn their whole mythos upside-down; and while it feels wrong to take away the Core, the Heart of the vampires, as it were - to sever the web (the canon?) that literally and figuratively held the Children of Darkness together - Anne has found a way to do it with grace, in the end.

There is an undeniable emptiness to the whole affair, a sense of wrongness that turns the whole history of the Undead something of a lie, or a mistake. But somehow, when Lestat finally meets Amel face to face... there is a bittersweet poetry to the scene that has the essence of the old romanticism, and we glimpse the Brat Prince once again.

[Gabbo Parra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since I usually go first to the one-stars to see what's what, according to a lot of people this book was a waste of time. Nevertheless, I got the audiobook from the library and heard it while doing other things (therefore not truly wasting my time solely focused on it).

I liked it. I liked very much the situation, how it was handled and everything else. Don't see what people are complaining so much about. The fact that most complainers want to keep Anne pigeonholed within a certain mechanism shows how little these people know about creativity.

You clearly see where the situation is coming (and heading) from the get-go; it's not some random twist around the middle of the story. It was perfectly sprinkled in her usual fantastic way.

Now, I'm not giving this book five-stars due to its immense and unnecessary descriptions of everything (clothes places emotions smells). I can understand vampires see and experience everything in ways deeper and more complicated than us mere mortals, but dang be appreciative of people's time. Descriptions were given ad nauseam and it was honestly annoying. I'm almost certain that if I had taken the time to actually sit and read this, I would not have finished it, just by the sheer amount of boring (yes boring because they weren't even that imaginative) descriptions.

I don't recall her being so descriptive before she returned. Perhaps I am idealizing her previous works, I don't know... I'm not going to go back and reread them (I'm afraid I might lose the joy I had upon discovering them).

Still, if you don't mind characters walking to a door and you learning everything crossing their minds before they reach the door (including the descriptions of the floor, the curtains, the material of the door, the smell of the flowers in a vase near the window, why their mothers spanked them when they were little etc etc etc) go for it.

I think liquor could be a fabulous reading companion too.

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've so missed Prince Lestat! I hope this story will continue.

[Paul]

breaks my heart to say DNF

lestat and rice hit their peak with blood canticle imo

[Rosamund Taylor]

This book is very bad but I enjoyed reading it. Anne Rice changes her whole series in order to explain that vampires are actually aliens. In some ways, this is heinous because it retrospectively ruins everything, but it's also entertaining. The main downside of the later books is that Lestat has become a lot less unhinged and a lot more likely to be reasonable, which is a real bummer of a quality in a main character. Not enough Armand.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't often write reviews but I have a lot of thoughts on this book and no one to discuss it with so here comes a review.

Anne Rice and I have been on a long journey together. I first read the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches series when I was a teenager and for many years she was my favorite female author. After Stan died and Anne became a born again Christian for a few years I was gravely disappointed in her writing and her personal views. Now, Anne has been reborn again, having denounced Catholicism and returned to her roots. The religious bits still hover around the edges though, and always have. In this book, I felt in many ways that she was trying to create spirituality for the vampires beyond the gods and goddess figures of Enkil, Akasha, Maharet, and Mekare that had come previously. For a long time, the spirit of Amel has been central to this mythology. From the early days of Queen of the Damned, we learned bits and pieces about this spirit that animated the vampires but until now we never knew where he came from.

I feel that the mythology of this book was incredibly intricate and I could see how Anne Rice tried to gather so many loose threads she had left hanging decades ago in other books in order to weave them into a new kind of mythology that connects the vampires to other immortal races in the universe. I did however, have a few questions.

1) The elder vampires keep insisting that there can be no other immortal races on the planet that appear human but are not human. But, what about that Taltos? Were they not an ancient race that came back into being due to their mixing with the Mayfairs? They are a non-human species that looks human (as human appearing as vampires anyway). Are they not still around in the world? Even if the vampires don't know of them specifically (which Lestat absolutely should after the events of Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle) the Talamasca are also members of the vampiric court. They know about the Taltos. The very existence of the Taltos renders this argument from the elder vampires as moot but no one ever brings that up. Did Anne Rice specifically ignore the main thread of her other series, that has already entwined with the vampire chronicles? How? Why?

2) On the subject of the Mayfairs, I was highly disappointed to learn that Mona Mayfair and Quinn Blackwood were killed during the great burning offscreen, their deaths mentioned so casually in one chapter. This also renders Blackwood Farm and Blood Canticle as essentially pointless books. Did Anne Rice know how much fans hated what she did to the Mayfairs in those books and wanted to retcon some of this stuff?

3) What exactly were the Parents trying to accomplish? I thought the whole tangent about how the Parents were trying to create strife on Earth in order to harvest negative energy that they somehow feed off pretty weak. Also, why did they destroy Atalantaya when they did? Why bother sending the Replimoids at all, if they already had the power to just destroy it as they wanted them to do? Everything with the story of the Parents seemed pretty shaky to me and the mythology needed to be built on a better foundation.

4) The term Replimoid is so stupid I almost can't handle it. This isn't a question.

5) In writing this mythology the way she did, is Anne Rice trying to switch over to being a sci-fi writer? It seemed as though she really wanted to fuse the sci-fi and the fantasy and while I appreciate that, a lot of the science was really hokey and I still don't quite understand the whole etheric body vs. biological body bit. In theory, I understand it, but the way it plays out here is highly confusing.

In the end, I devoured this book in the space of two days. It was definitely enjoyable, and compulsively readable despite the slow pacing in many sections and the leaps in time and narrative. This was definitely her most existential book since Memnoch the Devil (another question, she kept bringing up Memnoch and potentially giving him a history and backstory related to Amel and the Replimoids but he never appeared in the book. Will we see him in future books?). I also feel that it is possible that Anne Rice may be trying to set up a new series to spin off of this one, the future stories of Kapetria, Amel, and the Replimoid race. I would definitely read those books, I just desperately hope they come up with a better name for their race than Replimoid because no, just no.

So, definitely not my favorite but still a fascinating and super weird book to read. I'll be thinking about it for awhile.