Blood Communion is the book that fans of Anne Rice have been hoping for ... The novel opens up with Rice providing a brief but detailed history of Lestat, as well as descriptions of her prior work and all the current main players. This wisely allows even the novice visitor to the Vampire Chronicles to be able to dive right in and fully enjoy it without feeling lost in the backstory ... I will not divulge anything further, but will simply say that the action produces both exciting and unexpected results. Blood Communion is a triumph for Anne Rice.
Rice’s latest thrilling installment of the Vampire Chronicles, a 'memoir' written by Lestat himself, shows a different side of the prince ... Readers will enjoy this new perspective on Rice’s series and will talk about it well after the last page ... This latest incarnation of Rice’s seemingly immortal and unceasingly popular Vampire Chronicles is right in sync with today’s issues and will be a title of desire for myriad fans.
...the novel starts off interestingly enough, but soon devolves into one long battle with plenty of deaths, differentiated only by whoever is the current antagonist, and punctuated by long commentary ... It seems each and every character created by author Rice has to have a say in what’s going on, so much so in fact, that some of the narration appears nothing more than a roll call of names, and may tempt the reader to commit what the devotee would term a sin—skimming the pages.
Anne Rice is more than in love with her creation. Lestat de Lioncourt is a masturbatory fantasy who can do no wrong for the author, even at his most erroneous. Lestat is a narcissist and Rice is his biggest enabler ... Some of the most interesting characters are dispatched too quickly ... To be fair, with so many vampires sticking around from earlier books, and all of hovering around the Court, Rice would be hard-pressed to give them all page time ... Blood Communion is short for Rice, at 257 pages, and it begins and ends slow.
The story takes some time to gather momentum, a shame for a book that’s so short, especially as compared to others in the series. Still, while most of the proceedings seem a familiar footnote to the larger series as it’s unfolded over the decades, there are some nicely icky passages that would give Stephen King pause ... Just the bucket of blood for die-hard Rice fans.
...this story is distinguished by the sensuality with which she describes her vampires and their way of life. This installment stands out in particular for showing the transformation of Lestat ... Fans old and new will find this book an effusive celebration of a saga now more than 40 years in the making.
