Home :: Books :: Audio CDs  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs

Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian
Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Blackwood Farm : The Vampire Chronicles

Blackwood Farm : The Vampire Chronicles

List Price: $29.95
Your Price: $18.87
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 .. 23 >>

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Lushly Devine
Review: It is one of Anne Rice's greatest reads. Tarquin Blackwood and the history of his family are written in the lush, romantic and almost poetically erotic style that Anne Rice has captivated readers with since her first vampire book. Does the book stray? It twists and turns magnificently, and every page I poured over drew me further into a story within a story. I became so captivated that finally I gave in and read it to the end in the middle of the night. My only disappointment? Waiting for the next book on Mona Mayfair and Tarquin Blackwood. Anne, keep me spellbound, this is the first book in a long time that I've wanted to read cover to cover in a day. Oh, one last thing. Anne, could you please set me up with a family that will endow me monetarily the way the Blackwoods did with Tarquin? As a starving artist, I could use his credit card limit right now!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A further integration of the vampires and the witches
Review: It seems that Anne Rice's current intention is to combine the characters in her vampire novels with those in her series about the Mayfairs, a powerful family of powerful witches. She began her integration in "Merrick", and now continues it with "Blackwood Farm", a worthy addition to her canon.

The main characters she's introduced in both series - Lestat in the first; and Rowan Mayfair and her husband Michael Curry in the second - are just incidental players here, but they figure importantly in the story being told. That is the story of one Tarquin (Quinn) Blackwood, the young master of Blackwood Manor, an estate just outside of New Orleans. Quinn's tale has three major points - how he met and became involved with the Mayfairs; how he became a vampire; and most importantly, his "relationship" with a spirit he calls Goblin, who is both less and more than just an ordinary ghost. It is because of Goblin that Quinn meets the Mayfairs, and also why he seeks out Lestat.

Rice gives Quinn an intelligence and voice that is more than worthy of the tale he tells. Lestat is, as always, a powerful presence, despite the comparatively minor role he plays here. And many of the characters Rice introduces us to here are also extremely three-dimensional, incredibly - dare I use the word in describing an Anne Rice character? - human.

But there are some disappointments, which is why I can only give "Blackwood Farm" four stars. I couldn't help feeling that Rice was somehow suppressing Rowan and Michael - they should have had more to do, bigger roles to play. The character of Petronia, the hermaphroditic vampire, seemed flat and one-dimensional - more of a joke than anything else. And the character of Stirling Oliver, the only representative of the Talamasca in this book, didn't have much of a role at all - as little, in fact, as the entire Talamasca itself. That was a disappointment - Rice has built up the mythology and character of the Talamasca throughout most of her novels, and to suddenly see them relegated to bit players comes as something of a shock.

With all of that, however, this book is definitely worth your time.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Another wonderful Anne Rice Masterpiece
Review: This was a wonderful read, which is what I have come to expect from anything written by Anne Rice! It incorporates both the Vampire and Witching series to make an entertaining and enjoyable reading experience! I reccommend this to anyone who enjoys reading Anne Rice's series!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A passionate blending of The Vampires & The Mayfairs
Review: Once I picked up this novel by Ms. Rice I found myself unable to put it down! All I could think about was what had happened to Tarquin. What was his story? Read this book and find out what I mean.

Once again, Anne Rice has found her power to weave a seductive and entrancing narrative about a boy growing into a man, luxuriantly living his life in the back swamps of Louisiana. Steeped in all the riches that a royally wealthy life could provide, Tarquin travels from the depths of the unknown swamps of Louisiana to the ancient ruins of Europe, only to return to a world much changed on his cherished Blackwood Farm.

Like she did in The Witching Hour, Anne Rice takes the reader on a long, thought out journey of Tarquin's life and how he came to be the vampiric creature that he was. He begs the help of the infamous Lestat and with the help of Merrick Mayfair they bond together to rid Blackwood Farm of the pestering spirit that had been inhabiting its century old walls for the duration of Tarquin's mortal life and beyond.

The Vampire Chronicles and The Mayfair Witches storylines find themselves deftly blended together in this tale. It's a readers dream to see these two "families" come together with the promise that there would be even more to come with their adjoining. Though the ending feels short and unexplained it only leaves the reading anxiously waiting for the follow-up ... Blood Canticle.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A new "classic character" by Anne Rice
Review: Blackwood Farm is a fast and furious read through typical Anne Rice territory. The new twist is the creation of a great new bloodhunter, whi accompanied by a "friend" from his childhood, provide a modern twist to the Lestat legends.
Quinn Blackwood is new to the vampire game when this story opens, and his horror and pleasure of the first year of this life makes for great reading. But BLackwood is accompained by a doppleganger from his youth, named Goblin, who fuels Quinn's passion for blood, while at the same time promoting anguish over the lifestyle.
Blackwood's confusion prompts him to seel out the infamous Lestat, and drives this novel over various glamourous and dark settings. Of course, the story is at its best in some of the creepier settings in New Orleans, where Quinn confronts other bloodhunters, witches and characters which only Rice can convincingly create.
The story moves forward very quickly, with a great mix of horror, humor and style. It's not likely to win new fans for Rice, but if you like her style, you'll enjoy Quinn, and this book.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: This should have been the last of "The Vampire Chronicles"
Review: Like its predecessor, "Merrick," "Blackwood Farm" combines both the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair Witches saga. In this book, it's not such a bad combination.

The focus of the novel is on new vampire Quinn Blackwood's request for Lestat's aid in getting rid of a demonic doppelganger. This spirit, Goblin, has been both friend and nemesis to Quinn since childhood. Now, however, Goblin is jealous and becoming increasingly dangerous. Much of the narrative consists of Quinn telling his life story to Lestat in order to gain his help.

"Blackwood Farm" shares with "The Witching Hour" a focus on place that makes the house and surrounding swamp characters in their own right. This is good. Rice's descriptive ability is her strong suit, and it shows here. The history of the Blackwood family, much of which is told through some very unsettling ghostly encounters, is almost as interesting as that of the Mayfairs. Quinn may not have quite the elan that many of Rice's earlier characters have had, but he's adequate for the purposes of the book. Aunt Queen is a true gem, and Mona Mayfair provides vitality, as well as a love interest for Quinn.

That said, "Blackwood Farm" is not Rice's strongest book, although it's better than many of her recent ones. The major problem with the book is that it really needs tighter editing. It goes on and on and on and on, as the characters emote repetitiously. At times the narrative is over the top. At 600 plus pages in the paperback edition, the book really is too long. Cutting it by even a hundred pages would have improved it immensely and still left the kind of long, involved novel that Anne Rice's fans have come to expect.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A disappointing addition to the Chronicles
Review: I've read every book in the Chronicles up to this point, and to be honest, this one was so awful I couldn't finish it. I found myself being bored by Quinn's excrutiating detail of his early life before being a vampire. And what happened to Lestat? He's not the same character anymore. He use to be so alluring and attractive. Now he's just annoying and over-done. Quinn's life was just too over-the-top, as was Marius's life in "Blood and Gold." I don't think Rice has written a good book in at least ten years. She's sold out!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: very boring and strange
Review: i must start this reveiw by stating this is the first ann rice novel i have ever read. and i must say i wish i had a better introduction to her work.

its a well written book from a literature standpoint, but the subject matter left me with a bitter taste. the end of the book is thrown together and some of the events that happen in the storyline are bizzare.

after narrating every mindless detail of his childhood to lestat, he then hastly moves through things in his latter teen years.

when he meets the soultry red head teen girl thats his lover, one of the reasons he cant marry her is because she has some problem with giving birth to too many children. hyper-pregnancy or whatever its called. now in the storyline as he recants this all to leastat its just glazed over as if he was talking someone getting their teeth cleaned. if a 15 year old waton sexual freak has a problem where shes having too many children and gets pregnant easily........... wouldnt you like to understand or discuss this more? not just accept it without question? this is where the book loses all basis in reality.

not only that, but as another reviewer stated the money situation and inheriatance. 100,000 a month left in a will to his mother? excuse me, are we sure the blackwoods real last name is not Gates or Rothschild. the financial situation amongst the household was just way over the top. william randolph hearst would envy the way these folks are living.

then to all this you add his bi sexual curiousness. it added nothing to the plot and almost seemed out of place. another issue i have is the lack of restraint shown amongst the women in the novel regarding sex with him. a 35 year old female house servant is going to have sex with some 18 year old without fuss or hesitancy?

i know ann rice has a very large home in san fransisco. she must have written this book there in 99 and 00 and gone to a few to many dot com millionaires partys because some of this book is just out there and too much to belive. the unbelivable part is the characters and there lives not the paranormal or ghostly things.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Positively addictive!
Review: Welcome to "Blackwood Farm". Meet Quinn Blackwood, the gorgeous young eccentric gentleman who sees ghosts and is destined to be master of Blackwood estate. But Quinn has a problem; now that he's been bestowed the gift of the Vampire, his egregious doppelgänger is now his enemy. Injuring and stealing his blood each time Quinn feeds, this doppelgänger is determined to get what he wants.
Remember Lestat? Well, he's back, and just in time to come to Quinn's rescue. This top-notch novel reintroduces Merrick, Lestat, and Mona, and fuses Anne Rice's Witching novels with her Vampire novels, positively creating one of her best stories to date.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Blackwood Farm
Review: This is one of the best books that i have ever read. i am not the biggest fan of reading larger novels, but this book, to date i have read it twice and nearing the end of my third time because it is so amazing.


<< 1 2 3 4 .. 23 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates