Review of the Best and Worst Anne Rice’s Books

Have Anne Rice’s novels literary quality? I don’t think she will win the Nobel Prize of Literature ever, but again, literature quality is subjective. Anne Rice wrote some entertaining books, she sells like crazy, and with no doubt, she is part of the contemporary literature world. I read her books in Spanish first, and I can say to make her justice, that the translations of her book are terrible, she definitely looses many points in unfair traduction. I will talk first about the books I did not like.

The Mummy or Ramses the Damned”, this novel could be perfectly be published in Harlequin; it is a romantic empty bunch of pseudo sexual encounters between the mummy of an Egyptian cursed pharaoh and the stereotyped beautiful and sexy girl. Paragraphs full of clichés, unbelievable characters, and forced sensual atmosphere make this book the worst in Anne Rice’s work.

“Violin” is pretty boring; the main’s character personality is confusing, the descriptions tedious and the rithym slow. Again, we have tortured relationships, a mature woman interacts with a ghost, but Rice’s style gets so baroque that after a couple of pages the reader’s headache becomes a migraine.

“Eden”, published under the pseudonym Anne Rampling, goes between the pseudo erotic boring pamphlet and the miserable intent to portrait an independent but lonely woman. The writing quality is poor, but does not matter; reader is so embarrassed with the story that does not even perceive it. It is the story of a woman who works training sexual slaves. It is true, I promise.

“The feast of All Saints” is not a bad novel, the writing has some good moments, the atmosphere is well painted, and Rice brings New Orleans’ streets to life. This book reminds me Margaret Mitchell’ work, (“Scarlett”), a colored portrait of the South and the evolution of the black community from slavery to freedom. However, I would go with Toni Morrison (“Sula”, “Solomon’s Song”), if you are interested in the subject. Rice’s book is somewhat confusing, and lacks of rithym.

Between the Anne Rice’s novels that I like he have “The Vampire Chronicles”, of course, these series are the good example of the Anne Rice’s originality. She created an interesting new kind of vampire, sexy, sophisticated, full of complicated feelings, and she won with that a place in the fantastic literature world. I love “Interview with the Vampire”, the atmosphere, the rithym and the characters.

It is here where we fell in love with memorable characters, like Lestat, Lois or Armand, and we cannot wait to follow them to “The Vampire Lestat”, “The vampire Armand” or “The Queen of the Damned”. “Pandora”, from the “New Tales of the Vampires”, or “Vittorio, the Vampire” gives us hope that she will continue with the saga. This books are not only entertaining, are time machines that transport the readers to remote and attractive historical periods.

I confess my weakness for “Lives of the Mayfair Witches”, the first book “The Witching Hour”, traps us with a well-elaborated plot, loving characters and beautiful descriptions. The love story between a surgeon able to kill and a man who can see trough his hands get complex with the discovery of a family full of dark secrets, which will continue in “Lasher”, the story of a ghost and his dangerous ties with the Mayfair Family.

Love, magic and wonderful trips to attractive moments of History keep us reading with enthusiasm. Taltos” is the last of the trilogy, another ghost story related to the Mayfair Family, again the historical descriptions and the folkloric approach make it worth of a reading, but I don’t think is at the same level of the other two books of the series. The end is kind of abrupt and disappointing, but hopefully opens the door to a continuing.

Are not here all Anne Rice’s books, only the ones I read, I just started “Servant of the Bones”, and I will tell you about it when I finish it. In the mean time, watch out your neck!