On October 18th, Anne Rice bounced back onto the publishing scene with her first novel of The Vampire Chronicles series in a decade: Prince Lestat. Reintroducing her vampiric mythology into the mainstream was a risky and bold move after renouncing anymore Vampire Chronicles novels in 2000. However, it has proved fruitful as her writing and characters are as vibrant and enticing as ever.

In Prince Lestat, Lestat de Lioncourt wanders off from of his fascination with humanity and delves deeper into the world of the supernatural beings he has known for centuries. The plot is set in the present day, in contrast to the other Vampire Chronicle novels, whose settings range from ancient Mesopotamia to America in the 1980s.

As a fan of all of the other novels in The Vampire Chronicles, Prince Lestat is a wonderful addition. Picking up the story where Lestat left off in the Queen of the Damned and Tale of the Body Thief, the intrigue and mysticism of the gothic world Rice began crafting in the 70s is back. Multiple immortal favorites of Rice’s world return,  including Armand, Louis, Marius, and more.  (Spoiler Alert: even some who were thought to be deceased).

Once one becomes re-accustomed to the excess of description Rice fills her novels with, the story is enjoyable and exciting just like all of the others. The vampires presented within its pages are of a different ilk than those before. There are new, more modern vampires who are dismissive of those who have lived for centuries and watched as humanity has evolved/declined into what it is today. These modern creatures of the night also have their own internet shows and culture such as the child-vampire Benji Mahmoud, who is a companion of Armand. Benji runs a radio show for “Children of the Night” around the world. Reading Lestat’s interactions with this “new wave” of vampire culture is very enjoyable since the reader is guaranteed  his cynical and sarcastic manner of observation.

One of the new characters, Gregory (also known as Nebamun, the captain of Akasha’s Queen’s blood guard), says, “This is the greatest age for the undead.” With abundant synthetic lighting, movies, and television shows to show vampires the sunlit world they once thought were lost to their lives, along with worldwide communication ensuring the existence of others of their kind, the vampires in Rice’s modern world are living large. They even make use of advanced medical technology to study vampiric blood and its properties. This is a highlight of Prince Lestat as Rice makes them come alive and, through her imagination, grows the vampire tradition.

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There are numerous new characters. My favorite is a French musician named Antoine who ends up being taken in by Armand and Louis at the beginning of the novel. He is the mysterious character to whom Lestat refers in Interview with a Vampire when arguing with Louis and Claudia; “I’ve met someone who will make a better vampire than both of you!” His tragic backstory of being left alone by his maker (Lestat) and playing for money in bars and taverns until hideously injured by fledgling vampires and fleeing into a deep sleep until the 1980s is captivating and his lost soul attitude reflects that of Armand (who is, and always will be, my favorite Vampire Chronicles character).

Other new characters include Rose, a young human girl who is under the care of a mysterious Uncle Lestan (I suppose Lestat was feeling a bit uninspired when selecting an undercover name). Fareed is a fledgling who is an experienced doctor. Seth is Fareed’s ancient Egyptian creator.  Every one of them contributes to the novel’s overall idea: there is something threatening the well-being of the world’s population of vampires, and they must act.  Superheroes of the undead?

In Queen of the Damned, the looming figure of Akasha, the world’s first vampire, using her telepathic and telekinetic strength to set multiple immortals on fire, makes the plot all the more suspenseful. This sense of a universal threat to a group of individuals who are supposedly indestructible (with the exception of sunlight) is introduced again in Prince Lestat. Instead of Akasha, in Prince Lestat there is an entity called “the Voice.”

The Voice not only affects the fledgling vampires but the elite as well; even Lestat, who has the blood of Akasha in his veins, is troubled by it. Since Anne Rice puts Lestat in danger along with other, more ancient beings, the danger of the vampiric world’s condition is emphasized. This raising of the stakes kept my attention and increased my desire to read on.

By communicating with elder vampires, who have the ability to set fire to newer vampires and objects, the Voice commands them to commit mass murders of fledgling new-age vampires. This plants fear in everyone, as they do not know the cause of these killings. Along with these massacres, the red-haired twins Maharet and Mekare go into hiding, instead of aiding the younger generations.

Mekare, who, by consuming the brain of the late Akasha, absorbed the source of the entire vampire race, is mentally unconscious. When one of the twins’ homes goes up in flames, along with some newly-made companions inside, Maharet is concerned that they interacted with her sister. Afraid of a repetition of the crazed, tyrannical actions of the late Queen of the Damned, Maharet goes into hiding with her sister and their companion Khayman. She refuses to communicate with her friends and goes completely “off the grid.” Even Lestat does not know where they are and is not allowed to visit them.

Over the course of the novel, Lestat’s “brat prince” attitude is a tad irritating but, hey, he’s the same charismatic vampire he has been since his introduction into the series.  Prince Lestat is a must-read for fans of the other Vampire Chronicles novels.

See Anne Rice speak about her latest novel