Goodreads Choice Awards Book Club discussion

Winner of the Horror category

Prince Lestat

The 11th (pfiouuuu that was quite a series) and final of book of the Vampire Chronicles series

Book Summary
The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolation, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world.

Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why?

There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight?

Anne Rice’s epic, luxuriant, fiercely ambitious new novel brings together all the worlds and beings of the legendary Vampire Chronicles, from present-day New York and Ancient Egypt to fourth-century Carthage and Renaissance Venice; from Louis de Pointe du Lac; Armand the eternally young; Mekare and Maharet; to Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the Secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true child of the Millennia. It also introduces many other seductive supernatural creatures, and heralds significant new blood.

So ... wtf voted for this?

Did they even read the book?

If you check the reviews, they are either abysmally bad (rightly so) or a reminiscence about the Vampire Chronicles in generally.

I'd say about 40-50% of the book are nothing but summaries of everything that happened in the 10 books before this one ... with lots and lots and lots and lots and lots of remarks of how brilliant those books were .. how deep .. with such an astonishing level of philosophical and psychological insight. Seriously?
Obviously, Mrs. Rice thinks herself a genius and is infatuated with her own work. Good for her. Kind of makes me dislike her intensely .. especially since there is really no foundation for those feelings of self-aggrandizement.

Anyways .. by that time (around half-way through) .. I was really neither willing nor able to focus on all those endlessly boring paragraphs highlighting Lestat's & Mrs Rice's awesomeness .. I seem to have missed the actual plot contained within the book. (Skipping doesn't help, but it was just unbearable to read all that crap).

I miss Mrs Ward and her eloquent bunch of vampires and I really really hope, the obvious failure of this novel makes it clear to Mrs Rice that no one needs another tale of Lestat and his splendid adventures.

Worst book I've read in ... let me think .. almost 40 years.

Wow, I'm so glad I decided not to go with this series.

Thanks for saving me ton of time!! @Janina

Janina, before I delve into previous threads and reviews, do you recommend previous books in the series? I always find it interesting when only part of a series is a miss and the rest is dead on. Would appreciate your insight!

Janina - Yikes! Sorry it was so terrible. As Lynn said, I'm glad I decided not to read this series.

I only liked the first 2-3 books of the series (didn't love them, but they were ok). I only skimmed some of the later previous volumes .. so the series itself doesn't appeal to me. But, seeing other reviews, it seems like even fans of the series were mostly disappointed with this book ...

I guess we all have different tastes and there must be people who enjoyed this book? After all, it won the award ...

I read the first four books in this series. My favourite being The Body Thief. But then I heard the series just TANKS.
I used to "follow" Anne Rice on facebook until I decided she's a terrible human being and probably one of the biggest hypocrites on the planet.
I was shocked to see that this book won, especially because there were many other worthy contenders. I LOVED The Girl with All the Gifts, The Last Town and Bird Box. I think she won by [her] name alone.