An Apocalypse 6000 Years in the Making: Anne Rice's Queen of the Damned

"I was paralyzed.  I stood beside her, lest one of them get close to her.  But they didn't have a chance.  This was beyond nightmare, beyond the stupid horrors to which I'd been a party all of my accursed life." -Anne Rice, Queen of the Damned

The conclusion to Anne Rice's Vampire
Chronicles, Queen of the Damned

I just finished reading Anne Rice's The Queen of the Damned, the last book in her Vampire Chronicles, and I am still reeling from it.  This is the first time I've actually read anything by Rice, one of the trailblazers in vampire fiction, and while I have seen the movie version of her Interview with the Vampire, reading her is an entirely different experience.  The recent (and somewhat waning) interest in vampire books like Twilight and Vampire Academy hasn't seemed to lead many I know back to Rice's books, and I now, at least in part understand why: While the newer breed of books might more appropriately be classified as vampire romance or supernatural suspense and action, The Queen of the Damned is true horror in its most shocking and raw form.

After 6000 years in hibernation, the being Akasha--the original vampiress and mother/queen of all vampires--is awakened by, of all things, a rock concert being performed by Lestat, a vampire featured in Interview and The Vampire Lestat (proving, apparently, the rule that "if it's too loud, you're too old").  Given renewed existence, the ancient Egyptian "Queen of the Damned" plots to rule the world by ridding it of most mortal males and subjugating those who remain to her all-powerful will by forcing them to serve her congregation of human women and lesser vampires.  Recently, however, several individuals both living and undead have been dreaming of red-headed twin sisters--women who may provide the key to destroying Akasha permanently and delivering both humans and vampires from her terrifying wrath.  Simultaneously the story of a present-day threat by the ultimate undead and a revelation of ancient vampire lore, Queen of the Damned is a frightening, gory, and thrilling end to a trilogy whose first two books I now have to go back and read.

Of all the horror I've read this year, I've yet to encounter a book that fits the genre's typical description as fully as Queen.  Most of the books I've read have involved ghosts or other such beings whose presences, though blood-chilling (especially when you're reading late at night in a quiet house that creaks and rattles in the wind), aren't physically harmful.  In fact, one recurring concept in many of the books I've read--The

Akasha from the film adaptation of
Queen of the Damned

Lovely Bones, Far Far Away, Shade--is the inability of the dead to physically affect the world from which they have been cast out.  In Queen, however, not only humans, but supernatural beings themselves are at risk of terrifying and uncontrollable physical harm--and not just of having their blood forcibly drawn.  There's one twenty-page passage about three-quarters of the way through the book where I, admittedly weak of stomach, had to stop and take a break because of how intense and gory it got.  Of course, if intensely gory is your thing, you need to read this book.

I much enjoyed the sense of climax that carried through the entire book, and only wish I'd read the other two Vampire Chronicles books first.  I've read that The Vampire Lestat ends on a huge cliffhanger, and I'm somewhat disappointed I won't feel that suspense if I do go back and read it.  I've also read that the film version diverges greatly from the book, leaves out multiple (and multiple rather important) characters, and generally might be best described as having been inspired by rather than based on the book.

Have you gotten hooked on vampire fiction?  Do you think the sub-genre has played itself out?  Let me know via comment, and let me know if you'd consider reading Rice's work.  She is, compared to others I've read, the "Queen" of the form.

Happy reading.