Review: The Queen of the Damned by Anne Rice

Back in the day, I reread Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles every single April. They were my favourite books in all the world and, as such, an important part of my life. I looked forward to these month-long wallowing sessions with the sort of obsessive focus that made all other books I read immediately before and immediately after pale in comparison.

This sort of intense, regular reading has one major drawback: it wasn’t long before I had the entire series all but memorized. I couldn't quote them wholesale or anything, but key lines, all the beats, and the emotional tone were as familiar to me as my own mind. And, as such, they became... well, not stale, but less compelling than something I couldn't mouth along to.

Horrified, I decided to take a little break. I’d let the Vampire Chronicles rest for a year or three so I could once again approach them with the love and enthusiasm they deserve.

That was nine years ago.

Oops.

I mean, it’s not like I totally ignored Anne Rice during that almost-decade. I’ve mostly kept up to date with her new releases (I still need to get to OF LOVE AND EVIL and THE WOLVES OF MIDWINTER), and I’ve dipped back into her bibliography here and there. I used INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE to help me ease back into the regular reading world after I discovered Sarah Monette’s Doctrine of Labyrinths series in 2008¹, and I devoured THE MUMMY just last year². I also revisited the first two Vampire Chronicles on audio, with many thanks to Simon Vance for his excellent performance³.

I had such a good time with the audios of IWTV and TVL that I wanted to experience THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED the same way, but my library doesn't own the production. So I dithered around until I absolutely needed to read something awesome and wallowsome and familiar.

I plucked THE QUEEN OF THE DAMNED off the shelf not quite at random, but with less foresight than one might expect. These days, I try to read from my TBR as much as possible so I can get to a place where I feel free to pluck books off the shelves whenever I please. (TBRs have their good points, but they do tend to expand at an alarming rate unless you keep on top of them.) As soon as I peeked inside the front cover and discovered it'd been nine years since my last reading, though, my course was clear. To hell with la TBR; I had to reread THE QUEEN OF THE DAMEND next.

Best. Decision. EVER.

Review: Stardust by Neil Gaiman

I’ve written about STARDUST twice before, after my fifth and sixth readings, and my opinion hasn’t changed overmuch. I still love the book deeply, and for the same reasons I’ve loved it all along.

Why review it, then?

Well, because I love it, and because the previous reviews appeared on my old blog. It seems like most of my current readership (hello, readers! I love and appreciate you all!) followed me over from Stella Matutina, but I don’t want to count on y’all already knowing how I feel about STARDUST. I want to tell you straight out so you can say, "Hey, I should read that because it is loved!" Or maybe, "Hey, I remember that book! I should revisit it because I loved it, too!"

Okay, then. Let’s get down to this.

When Tristran Thorn's favourite lady offers him his heart’s desire in exchange for the star they watch fall together, he heads off to the far reaches of Faerie to retrieve the thing and win himself a bride. Tristran expects to haul a hunk of rock home with him and is shocked to discover that the star is, in fact, an opinionated woman who isn’t even slightly interested in helping him win his true love’s affections.

Awkward.

Also, totally awesome.