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Memnoch the Devil
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| Author |
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Anne Rice |
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| Realease Date |
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1996 |
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9.43 with 14 Votes
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Amazon.com |
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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 --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition. |
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From Publishers Weekly |
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Rice has made a career out of humanizing creatures of supernatural horror, and in this fifth book of her Vampire Chronicles she requests sympathy for the Devil. Having survived his near-fatal reacquaintance with human mortality in The Tale of the Body Thief (1992), the world-weary vampire Lestat is recruited by the biblical Devil, Memnoch, to help fight a cruel and negligent God. The bulk of the novel is a retelling of the Creation story from the point of view of the fallen angel, who blames his damnation on his refusal to accept human suffering as part of God's divine plan. Rice grapples valiantly with weighty questions regarding the justification of God's ways to man, but their vast scope overwhelms the novel's human dimensions. God and the Devil periodically put on the flesh of mortals, and too often end up sounding like arguing philosophy majors. Meanwhile, the ever-fascinating Lestat, whose poignant personal crisis of faith is mirrored in Memnoch's travails, becomes a passive observer, dragged along on trips to Heaven and Hell before being returned to Earth to relate what he has witnessed. Though Rice boldly probes the significance of death, belief in the afterlife and other spiritual matters, one wishes that she had found a way to address them through the experiences of human and near-human characters, as she has done so brilliantly in the past. One million first printing; BOMC and QPB main selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. |
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From Library Journal |
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The strangely appealing and dashing Vampire Lestat returns in this fifth installment of Rice's popular "Vampire Chronicles" (e.g., The Queen of the Damned, Audio Reviews, LJ 6/1/95). Like Robin Hood, Lestat chooses as victims those who inflict harm; when we first meet him, he is stalking Roger, a drug lord with a past as a hit man. Roger's only real treasure is his gargoyle-like statues, which he desperately wants his televangelist daughter, Dora, to inherit. Lestat, feeling unusually tender toward Dora, does everything to protect her, including meeting the devil (who despises the moniker Satan, preferring "Memnoch" instead). What follows is a rich and fantastical journey through otherworlds. Rice quickly grabs the listener with this superbly crafted fantasy that is perhaps best enjoyed in audio format. At times a bit contrived, it is nevertheless an intriguing story that will not disappoint Rice's well-established following. Reader Roger Rees turns in an excellent performance. For most popular collections.
Susan McCaffrey, Legg Middle Sch. Lib., Coldwater, Mich.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. |
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From AudioFile |
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"Let the Devil take you," Lestat confronts this extraordinary challenge in what is already an extraordinary life of vampires, mortals, angels--the entire world Rice has so carefully and believable consructed. Roger Rees has a lustrous voice--rich and precise with tremendous range. His timing is impeccable, alternating between conversation and menace in a heartbeat. He can make a whisper become a kiss then a bite with one breath. The production is excellent as well as catching each low tone and soft word. R.F.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition. |
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From Booklist |
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Any book by Rice is a hot commodity, especially in the wake of the movie version of Interview with the Vampire, but even so, a million copy print run for her latest, the fifth in the cultishly beloved Vampire Chronicle series, seems extreme. Rice has brought her suave and deadly hero, the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, back to center stage at a tricky conjuncture in his long, monstrous life: the murderously powerful and seductive immortal is being stalked by some terrifying force he can't identify. This is interfering with his plans to kill Roger, a handsome drug dealer whose passion for religious art is only exceeded by his love for his daughter Dora, a lithesome televangalist. As Lestat spies on Roger, falls in love with Dora, and tries to figure out who or what is after him, he finds himself in the grip of a spiritual crisis. Yes, this dandyish bloodsucker wants desperately to discover the meaning of life, and, lo and behold, his stalker, Memnoch, the Devil himself, is just the creature to guide him. Memnoch claims that God is merciless and he is compassionate, and he needs Lestat to help him rescue humanity from this vale of tears. Rice routinely fills her novels with tedious pseudotheology, but she really goes overboard here. Not only does Memnoch take Lestat to Heaven where he talks with God, he even takes him back in time to the Crucifixion where the vampire drinks Christ's blood. This clumsily told tale manages to be both ludicrous and offensive. Surely only die-hard Vampire Chronicle fans will be able to stand it, but they, like Rice's monsters, seem to be rampant. Donna Seaman --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. |
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Book Description |
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In Anne Rice's extraordinary novel, the Vampire Lestat--outsides, canny monster, hero-wanderer--is at last offered the chance to be redeemed.
He is brought into direct confrontation with both God and the Devil, and into the land of Death.
We are in New York. The city is blanketed in snow. Through the whiteness Lestat is searching for Dora, the beautiful and charismatic daughter of a drug lord, the woman who arouses Lestat's tenderness as no mortal ever has.
While torn between his vampire passions and his overwhelming love for Dora, Lestat is confronted by the most dangerous of adversaries he has yet known.
He is snatched from the world itself by the mysterious Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil. He is invited to be a witness at the Creation. He is taken like the ancient prophets into the heavenly realm and is ushered into Purgatory.
He must decide if he can believe in the Devil or in God. And finally, he must decide which, if either, he will serve.
In the first four Vampire Chronicles, Anne Rice summoned up for us worlds that are fantastic and distant, making them as resonant, real, and immediate as our own. In this, her most daring and darkest novel, she takes us, with Lestat, into the mythical world that is most important to us--into the realms of our own theology. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. |
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Ingram |
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In Anne Rice's extraordinary fifth novel of "The Vampire Chronicles", irresistible antihero Lestat encounters his most dangerous adversary--the mysterious being Memnoch, who claims to be the Devil. Ushered through the realms of Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell, Lestat must finally decide if he can believe in the Devil or God--and which, if either, he will serve. --This text refers to the Paperback edition. |
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About the Author |
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ANNE RICE lives in New Orleans with her husband, the poet and painter Stan Rice, and their son, Christopher. --This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition. |
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Deborah |
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I am amazed, awesruck, and overwhelmed by her description of all that is in this book! I have read the other four but this one puts me in a total state of excitement. How totally bizarre and refreshing!!! |
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Posted By |
Last Post |
| Anne Rice |
The Library |
Dark Emily |
05-14-2005 @ 11:41 |
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