Memnoch the Devil (Vampire Chronicles, Book 5) - Softcover

Rice, Anne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345389409 ISBN 13: 9780345389404

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1996

Synopsis

"STARTLING. . . FIENDISH. . . MEMNOCH'S TALE IS COMPELLING."
--New York Daily News
Like Interview With the Vampire, Memnoch has a half-maddened, fever-pitch
intensity. . . Narrated by Rice's most cherished character, the vampire Lestat, Memnoch tells a tale as old as Scripture's legends and as modern as today's religious strife.
--Rolling Stone
"SHOCKING. . . A BRILLIANT BOOK."
--St. Louis Post Dispatch
"Rice has penned an ambitious close to this long-running series, as well as a classy exit for a classic horror character. . Fans will no doubt devour this last visit with Lestat."
--The Washington Post Book World
"MEMNOCH THE DEVIL OFFERS PASSAGES OF POETIC BRILLIANCE."
--Playboy
"[Memnoch] is one of Rice's most intriguing and sympathetic characters to date. . . Rice ups the ante, taking Lestat where few writers have ventured: into heaven and hell itself. She carries it off in top form."
--The Seattle Times
"RICHLY DESCRIPTIVE. . . A HORRIFIC TOUR OF HELL."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

A MAIN SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF-THE-MONTH CLUB
AND THE QUALITY PAPERBACK BOOK CLUB

About this title

Review:

The fifth volume of Rice's Vampire Chronicles is one of her most controversial books. The tale begins in New York, where Lestat, the coolest of Rice's vampire heroes, is stalking a big-time cocaine dealer and religious-art smuggler--this guy should get it in the neck. Lestat is also growing fascinated with the dealer's lovely daughter, a TV evangelist who's not a fraud.

Lestat is also being stalked himself, by some shadowy guy who turns out to be Memnoch, the devil, who spirits him away. From here on, the book might have been called Interview with the Devil (by a Vampire). It's a rousing story interrupted by a long debate with the devil. Memnoch isn't the devil as ordinarily conceived: he got the boot from God because he objected to God's heartless indifference to human misery. Memnoch takes Lestat to heaven, hell, and throughout history.

Some readers are appalled by the scene in which Lestat sinks his fangs into the throat of Christ on the cross, but the scene is not a mere shock tactic: Jesus is giving Lestat a bloody taste in order to win him over to God's side, and Rice is dead serious about the battle for his soul. Rice is really doing what she did as a devout young Catholic girl asked to imagine in detail what Christ's suffering felt like--it's just that her imagination ran away with her.

If you like straight-ahead fanged adventure, you'll likely enjoy the first third; if you like Job-like arguments with God, you'll prefer the Memnoch chapters. --Tim Appelo

About the Author:

ANNE RICE lives in New Orleans with her husband, the poet and painter Stan Rice, and their son, Christopher.

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0345389409
• ISBN 13: 9780345389404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 464