The Queen of the Damned
~ Macdonald 1989 (UK)

Akasha - Queen of the Damned, mother of all vampires - rises after a 6,000 year sleep and sets in motion a heinous plan to "save" manking from itself, by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods.

These narrative threads wind sinuously across the vast, richly detailed tapestry of the violent, sensual world of vampirism. We are swept across the ages, from Egypt to South America to the Himalayas, to all the shrouded corners of the globe where vampires have left their mark. And finally in an astonishing climax, the fate of the living dead - and perhaps of all the living - will be decided.

In this most elaborate and enthralling of Anne Rice's vampire novels, she transports us again into that complex, erotic, electrifying world she has so masterfully created.

The Queen of the Damned ~ Macdonald 1989 (UK)

The Queen of the Damned
~ Knopf 1988 (US)

In 1976, a uniquely seductive world of vampires was unveiled in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire... in 1985, a wild and voluptuous voice spoke to us, telling the story of The Vampire Lestat... and now, Anne Rice continues her extraordinary "Vampire Chronicles" with The Queen of the Damned. It is a feat of mesmeric storytelling, a chillingly hypnotic entertainment in which the oldest and most powerful forces of the night are unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Three brilliantly coloured narrative threads intertwine as the story unfolds:

The rock stat known as Vampire Lestat, worshipped by millions of spellbound fans, prepares for a concert in San Fransisco. Among the audience - pilgrims in a blind swoon of adoration - are hundreds of vampires, creatures who see Lestat as a "greedy fiend risking the secret prosperity of all his kind just to be loved and seen by mortals," fiends themselves who hate Lestat's power and who are determined to destroy him...

The sleep of certain men and women - vampires and mortals scattered around the world - is haunted by a vivid, mysterious dream: of twins with fiery red hair and peircing green eyes who suffer an unspeakable tragedy. It is a dream that slowly, tauntingly reveals its meaning to the dreamers as they make their way toward each other - some to be destroyed on the journey, some to face an even more terrifying fate at journey's end...

Akasha - Queen of the Damned, mother of all vampires - rises after a 6,000 year sleep and puts into motion a heinous plan to "save" mankind from itself and to make "all the myths of the world real" by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods: "I am the fulfillment and I shall from this moment on be the cause"...

These narrative threads wind sinuously across a vast, richly detailed tapestry of the violent, sensual world of vampirism, taking us back 6,000 years to its beginnings. As the stories of the "first brood" of blood drinkers are revealed, we are swept across the ages, from Egypt to South America to the Himalayas to all the shrouded corners of the globe where vampires have left their mark. Vampires are created - mortals succumbing to the sensation of "being emptied, of being devoured, of being nothing." Vampires are destroyed. Dark rituals are performed - the rituals of ancient creatures prowling the modern world. And, finally, we are brought to a moment in the twentieth century when, in an astonishing climax, the fate of the living dead - and perhaps of the living, all the living - will be decided.

In this most elaborate and enthralling of Anne Rice's vampire novels, she transports us more deelpy than ever before into the complex, erotic, electrifying vampire world she has so masterfully created.

The Queen of the Damned ~ Knopf 1988 (US)

Twenty Six Years with my Beloved Immortals ~ The Queen of the Damned

This was the first book which really accomplished what I wanted it to accomplish. Everything before had been more spontaneous and instinctive. In this book, I had a vision that included every element, and I set out to execute that vision. It was like trying to draw exactly what you see. And I saw plenty.

In the days when I was finishing the manuscript, I positively hated it, and certainly had no idea that it would be my first number one bestseller. In fact, it never occured to me that a book so weird, so perverse, so full of extravagant ancient tales and overwhelming vampire personalities could become a mainstream book at all. I don't know what I thought I was doing. But as I said, I had this vision - this big vision.

And with each dramatic moment I was extremely energized.

Having just reread the book (Winter 1999), I still marvel that people actually liked it. Queen is full of my philosophy of history, my depression, my fancy, my exuberance and above all, my ghastly capacity for imaginative scheming.

Do I hate it now? Far from it. I remain happy with its form, its patterns, his big scenes. Of course Lestat is the hero. Lestat is the First Person Voice. Lestat pulls it all together.

Anne Rice

The third vampire Chronicle, told by Lestat as a sequel to VL. Lestat writes QD as part of his recovery after Akasha's death. Much of the story comes from plumbing the memories of the other vampires as they ride from the Sonoma compound to Miami. Marius does not want him to write the story, Jesse asks him to change the names (which he ignores), and Maharet urges him to get the Legend of the Twins right. Lestat himself calls the novel a "chronicle of seduction and pain."

The idea for the theme of this novel came to Rice on a a plane. "I was watching one of the Star Wars movies. I think Luke Skywalker was fighting with Darth Vader, and Vader was saying, 'Give in to the dark force inside you.' It was horribly cliché. That's when it came to me what Queen of the Damned ought to be. Essentially, the queen should have an extremely good idea, but it should still be evil. The real evil in the world is always a complex and seductive thing that sounds brilliant."

Switching styles from VL, Lestat in QD weaves together the events and activities of a number of characters, both vampires and mortals, in order to build up to his abduction by Akasha. In QD, he introduces Khayman of the First Brood, Jesse, Maharet, Daniel, Pandora, Azim, and Mael. He also covers the story of Baby Jenks as representative of what happened to ordinary, otherwise nameless vampires when Akasha went about destroying the Children of Darkness.

Akasha wants Lestat to join with her as she slaughters mortal men in order to bring about her plan for world peace. They debate the pros and cons of her plan as Lestat twice participates in the blood fest. Although Lestat is strongly attracted to Akasha, he feels increasingly alienated from her bloody vision.

Meanwhile, the vampires who survived or were spared Akasha's worlwide purge of her own progeny meet together with a vampire who is as old as Akasha: Maharet. This vampires is one of a pair of twins who, as mortals, were witches, and it was one of the spirits that the twins knew, Amel, who entered the body of Akasha and made her a vampire. Akasha in turn made her husband, Enkil, and her steward, Khayman, into vampires, and Khayman then gave the Dark Gift to Maharet's sister, Mekare, because she had foretold that she herself would be the agent of the queen's downfall. Mekare gave the Gift to her sister, who is now insisting on the need for the surviving vampires to stand against Akasha to protect the human race. The other vampires know this would mean their demise: because of the powerful blood, whatever happens to Akasha happens to them. But ethics and morality inspire them to stand together and resist the queen.

Eventually, Akasha comes with Lestat to the Sonoma compound where these vampires are meeting. A philosophical confrontation between Akasha and the other vampires ensues, and then Mekare arrives. She has traversed continents to fulfill her promise of bringing down Akasha. Mekare shoves Akasha against a glass wall, which shatters and slices off Akasha's head. Thinking quickly, Maharet has Mekare eat Akasha's heart and brain, thus destroying Akasha, aborting Akasha's plan, and preserving the vampire race.

"The Queen of the Damned was the first book I wrote exactly the way I wanted to write it: says Rice." All the other novels involved a compromise that had to do with my abilities. I wasn't skilled enough to do what I wanted. With Queen, the [storytelling] process started, and I thought, no, I can't pull that off. And then I thought, I'm going to do it, those two twins, the whole thing, I'm going to do everything it takes to tell the story. It was the first totally realised vision that I had ever created, and it was a very pleasant experience. It was scary, because it's much safer to compromise - to say, I can't pull that off'."

The Vampire Companion ~ Katherine Ramsland