Merrick - Vampire Chronicles #7

Rice, Anne

ISBN 10: 0701167181 / ISBN 13: 9780701167189

Published by Chatto & Windus, London, 2000

About this Item

Hardcover. 354 pages. *** PUBLISHING DETAILS: Chatto & Windus, London, 2000. First Edition. This is the first UK edition. *** CONDITION: The book itself is in very good condition and comes in very good dust jacket. More specifically: Boards have no wear, rubbing or soiling. Dust jacket has light creasing. Edges of dust jacket have minor chips and/or tears. . Remainder mark on page edges. Pages are lightly tanned. *** ABOUT THIS BOOK: In this seventh volume of the Vampire Chronicles, it is Lestat's friend and coeval Louis de Pointe du Lac who takes centre stage, tortured by the memory of the child vampire, Claudia, whom he loved and lost. Merrick must use black witchcraft to call up her ghost, however dangerous this may be. *** Quantity Available: 1. Category: Fiction; Horror; ISBN: 0701167181. ISBN/EAN: 9780701167189. Inventory No: 24120073. The photo of this book is of the actual book for sale.

Seller Inventory # 24120073

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Merrick - Vampire Chronicles #7
• Publisher: Chatto & Windus, London
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0701167181
• ISBN 13: 9780701167189
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: First Edition.
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good
• Seller catalogs:
  • Fiction

About this title

Synopsis

In this mesmerizing new novel, Anne Rice demonstrates once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of myth and magic, as she weaves together two of her most compelling worlds? those of the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair witches.

Review

Just when you thought it was safe for a bloodsucker to go out in the dark in New Orleans, along comes Merrick Mayfair, a sultry, hard-drinking octoroon beauty whose voodoo can turn the toughest vampire into a marionette dancing to her merry, scary tune. In Merrick, Anne Rice brings back three of her most wildly popular characters--the vampires Lestat and Louis and the dead vampire child Claudia--and introduces them to the world of her Mayfair Witches book series.

It is Louis who brings about the collision of the fang and voodoo universes. Louis made Claudia a vampire in Rice's classic Interview with the Vampire, in which she was destroyed, and now he's obsessed with raising her ghost to make amends and seek guidance from the beyond. (Claudia physically resembles Rice's young daughter who died of a blood-related illness. Rice nearly died of a diabetic coma in 1998, and writing Merrick turned her excruciating recovery into an exhilarating burst of creativity).

Vampire David Talbot lobbies Merrick to call Claudia's spirit and slake Louis's guilt, but Talbot winds up in the grip of an obsession with the witch. You see, Talbot, unlike most vampires, lived 70 years as a human, so his sexual response to humans is still as strong as his blood thirst. Merrick can cast spells to make men crave her, and Talbot is tormented. After she reads his palm, he muses, "I wanted to take her in my arms, not to feed from her, no, not harm her, only kiss her, only sink my fangs a very little, only taste her blood and her secrets, but this was dreadful and I wouldn't let it go on."

The secrets of Merrick are dark and sensuous, but the book is a romp animated by Rice's feeling of coming back to life through the magic of a literary outpouring. The narrative flashes back to the past, to an Indiana Jones-ish adventure in a Guatemalan cave, and to scenes from many other Rice novels. It may be helpful to read Merrick with the Rice-approved guidebooks The Vampire Companion and The Witches' Companion at hand.

After many books, Rice's grand Vampire Chronicles tale was in peril of getting long in the tooth. Merrick Mayfair's magic represents an infusion of fresh blood. --Tim Appelo