Memnoch the Devil (Vampire Chronicles)

Well, Anne can certainly Spin a grand tale that keeps you turning those pages faster and faster. The subject kept me right up to the very end, then I don't know what the hell happened. I did love her interpretation of God. Someone you can't wait to meet and be with. Jesus on the way to the cross was another superb interp. I felt that she gave so much to the main part of the book that she just so sort of dwindled away. Maybe I lost my focus, but I couldn't wait to see what happened and how all of this was going to come out. I was not satisfied, by any means. Several of her books do that...

Great book. Although a fiction based novel, I had to keep reminding myself "it's only fiction/keep an open mind" as the vivid details wrestled and shook several foundations of my Christian belief. Still traveling through Lestat's world and have yet to see what happens next -- Excited!

This was an unusually good read. Ann Rice has consistently raised this genre of writing to a higher level. The conflict between the Devil and God poses interesting questions concerning God's relationship with humankind and his legions of angels in heaven. This book reminds me of an intricate game of chess, which left me guessing, about the characters true motives, until very end.

Clarifying my review to be, actually, useful.
This book, as others have put it, really made one re-look at Christianity. I am an atheist, but I believe if religion was presented this way to me originally, today I might be either agnostic or a believer. This book, honestly, I viewed as an examination of Christianity with Lestat thrown in for fun. :) Even now, years after I have read it, I -still- think of it often. As a matter of fact, if one listens to the song 'Almost Human' by Voltaire, it almost sounds a bit like this books soundtrack. I can't listen to that song and not play the book in my mind like a movie.

The Devil is not just "evil" and God isn't just "Good." This book, if it had NO vampires and just had a single stand-alone party, would still be amazing... maybe more so. This is one of the must reads of the Vampire Chronicles, just for the quality of the writing and the questions that must be asked. Anne Rice clearly has a very solid view of Christianity that is based on the writings, not the Church. She is a rarity, and I certainly appreciated it. I might buy a few more as a matter of fact.. a nice hard cover and a few paper backs for my storage and loaners. Seriously, buy the book. If nothing else, the entertainment value is certainly worth the $4-$5 you will spend on a used copy, or the $8 you will spend for a brand new one.

So, after Lestat, the Brat Prince of Vampires, the James Bond of the Nosferatu, our defiant Lestat, has awakened the progenitor of the Vampire race and seen her apocalyptic vision, after he's learned what it is to inhabit the body of a mortal man, after he is again beautiful, enigmatic and anonymous (as in, not a world famous rock star), when he is again among the few remaining Vampires of the world...Lestat encounters The Devil. Please don't call him Beelzebub or Lucifer. Memnoch will do. And here Anne Rice embarks on something that would look like hubris if we didn't know that she went ahead and wrote novels about Christ essentially from Christ's point of view. Lestat, almost like Daniel Webster, is put in a position to judge the justice of Memnoch's case against the Almighty. He visits Christ during the Temptation, he meets G-d the Father and he sees Hell (or does he?). This novel is a question mark and it is through this evasion of certainty that Anne Rice negates the hubris for which she might otherwise be accused. We aren't certain, really, to what extent we can be credulous of the Devil (he is supposed to be the Father of Lies, whatever Claudia had to say on the subject). A lot of readers were uncomfortable with the ambiguity, but I found so many images in this novel haunting, beautiful and worth considering. On my first visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City, having read this novel, I could not stop picturing the tableaux Anne Rice painted there. I don't know if it's destined to be one of the great works of literary worth or theological depth, but it is a beautiful and artistic novel meant to make you question everything. After all, that's exactly what the Devil wants, isn't it?

In this volume of the vampire chronicles I think Anne Rice spent too much time searching for her own answers and not enough on the characters. Very slow read. Not up to standards of the other Lestat novels.

I have thoroughly enjoyed most of The Vampire Chronicles series. This one was a let down. Rice takes too long developing the story and half-way through I was still waiting for something to happen. The ending was an unexpected surprise, but overall the book did not live up to my previous experience with Anne Rice's work.

FIVE STARS PLUS 100!!!! This book was so amazing I finished it in a day! if you don't read any other books from this series, you HAVE to read this one. I couldn't put it down and found myself crying several times. This book is a true masterpiece! Go Anne!

If you are reading the vampire chronicles simply for vampire lore, then consider skipping this installment. If, however, you find real truth in Ms. Rice's writing, then read and read carefully.
-MSC

Love the Vampire Chronicles - catching up on them after being unable to read for a few years'. Loved the book, but found Memnock a little long winded. Thought was so much, was rather confusing. Loved the plot and story of Lestat going through Heaven and Hell. It amazes me what Anne Rice comes up with for Lestat to go through. Amazing!!!!!

Memnock The Devil shows that Ann Rice is not "losing it"--she's LOST it in this 5th of the Vampire Chronicles. Lestat has decayed into a helpless, hopeless and hysterical character unable to cope with himself, with what's happened to himself--falling in love with the mortal daughter of way too rich drug-lord type promising he'll "take care of her" when he comes back as a ghost.

Next, Memnoch takes Lestat for a "tour of Hell" from which he barely escapes, making it back to his posh New York digs only to collapse on the floor to tell of his disbelief in the Hell concept--even after having seen it(!), his defiance in NOT helping Memnoch fight God, and is 100% undone by his experiences with The Devil.

Finally--after not having "fed" for too long--his blood lust takes over in his hotel suite--and this is where Rice becomes vulgar, disgusting, and repugnant IN THE EXTREME by the way Lestat satisfies himself on the daughter with the others of his close Vampire clan looking on. This particular scene is pornographic voyeurism of the most twisted and sick/Sick/SICK sort but Rice goes ahead and describes it IN DETAIL--and it is here in the book that she sold herself to "prurient interest" became an author-to-avoid for me.

Read it if you must, but you're wasting your money to buy a copy at ANY price.

This is probably my least favorite Anne Rice book. I read it before when it first came out and after all these years I forgot I hated it. It drags and I had to force myself to finish the book in case it's referenced to again in any of the other vampire books. Skip this one if you haven't already bought