The Queen of the Damned (Anne Rice in general)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	Anne Rice in general
Date:	24/04/02 (67 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: lots of different topics to pick from, some excellent writing

Disadvantages: a couple of ehr books are melons., very angsty

Anne Rice is one of the few women writing in the horror genre. She has left a striking mark on the face of vampire fiction with her vampire chronicles, but ther eis more to her work than this better known collection.

Born in 1941, Rice married quite young (Stan Rice, whose poetry is often quoted in her books). In the 1960s, she had a daughter who died, leaving Rice with guilt and pain that would echo through her work. Her daughter became Claudia in "Interview with a Vampire " a girl destined to live as a child for all time, but who also meets a tragic fate. "Violin" includes a section about the loss of a child so close to Rice's comments in interviews that I cannot help but suspect it is close to autobiography.

Rice largely sets her fiction in New Orleans, but does go into exotic historical settings a good deal of the time. There is a lushness to her work, often the lushness of soemthing on the brink of decay. She employs a good deal of overtly Catholic imagery in her horror, and her paranormal encounters have a definite influence from that religion - again, the plushness, the guilt, and frequent contemplations of good, evil and god.

The Vampire chronicles - (to date) "Interview with a vampire" "The Vampire Lestat," "The Queen of the damned", "The tale of the body theif" "Memnoch the devil" "Armand" "Pandora" Merrick" "Vittorio."
I haven't read some of the later ones. Interview took us into the mind of a soul searching, angsty vampire, characters since then have been varied in nature - playful, vengful, hailing from Rome, from Renaisaance Italy, from the Americas - a good deal of reasearch has gone into these. Sensual, brooding tales of imortality, very gothic, very popular. A must for vampire fans and absolutly central in the Rice cannon.

The Witching hour - "The Witching hour," "Lasher" &quo
t;Taltos" (I wouldn't be surprised if there are more in the fullness of time.)Weaker than the vampire books, these follow the adventures of an incestuous witch family from Scotland to New Orleans. Dark, morbid, inconclusive and somewhat long winded.

"The Feast of All Saints" - an early Rice novel, dealing with creole society. Not read it.

"Cry to Heavan" - fascinating tale about a young castrati singer and his quest for vengeance - helps if you like early music, not really horror, lots of sex though.

"The Mummy" about a Mummy, as far as I can make out - I started this one and couldn't get into it.

"The Servant of the bones" about a spirit tied to its gold covered bones - very gruesome, excellent plunge into history, follows the vampire formula a touch - being recounts its life to unsuspecting audience.

"Violin" - a woman who has lost her husband to AIDS encounters a ghost with a violin. Time travel, obsession and music ensue. I think to make much sense of this, you have to have a handle on what it might be like to fall in love with a musical instrument. This is without a doubt my favourite of the lot - it is remarkably positive at the end, richly written and very moving.

Rice has also written under other names - A. N. Roquelaure, and Anne Rampling, under which name she wrote the "beauty' series, which are quite pronographic in nature.

Rice does not write conventional horror - there isn't all that much suspense in her work, and most of the horror is very physical gore rather than psychological stuff. Her writing is far more about character and philosophy than about frightening people. There are sequences that have made my skin crawl though. On the sex fnt, most of it isn`t graphic (beauty aside), the early vampie stuff is remarkably circumspect in fact, but later on it does get more ofert. She writes for a thinking audience, fo
r one that can appreciate a slightly disturbed and morbid errotica - very gothic stuff. Her work is also depressing, and can leave you feeling like life is a pointless, miserable thing. I've encountered plenty of people who could not abide her writing, and I have given up on one book myself.

Rice is not the greatest author living, and to many her work will not be effective. If you like your blood mixed with questions about what it might mean to be god, if you want your horrors laced with angst and questions that might keep an existentialist awake at night, then this is for you. If you want Stephen King, read Stephen King. She can be troubling reading, but there is a lot going for this.

For anyone looking for a place to start, "Servant of the bones" would be my recomendation - it doesn't give you a whole follow up series to deal with, but it does give a good impression of what Rice is like as an author.

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