Memnoch the Devil

Rating:
Summary: Rice went to the well too many times
Review: This boring installment is a notch worse than "Body Thief." The series is masterful as a trilogy. Don't ruin a good thing. Read only the first three: "Interview", "Lestat" and "Queen."

Rating:
Summary: The first step down the hill.
Review: I warn you that while this book was bad, her latter stories get worse. In fact, the further on the series go, the more annoying & OOC her characters become. Being an athiest & all, I'm pretty openminded, but this was offencively annoying (& not the other way around)

If you liked her earlier books, PLEASE don't read this book! Read Pandora, THAT one was good.

Rating:
Summary: Memnoch the Devil - Book review
Review: Anne Rice's Memnoch the Devil
Book Review
Vampires, witches, and the walking dead are all things you would expect to read about in one of Anne Rice's books. The book I am doing a review on is called Memnoch the Devil and the author is the New Orleans writer Anne Rice. This book is the fifth book in a series of books called the vampire chronicles, and the last and final chapter in the vampire Lestat's adventures and also the most interesting to read out of the five.
I gave Memnoch the Devil five stars because I think the book is the best vampire book Anne Rice has yet to write for many reasons. One, because it end the story of Lestat her most beloved character from the Interview With the Vampire, and second, it gives a different way of thinking on life after death.
This book is very fast paced going from being stalked by the devil (That hates names given to him through out time such as Satan, Lucifer, and the prince of darkness. He wants to be called by his original name, which is Memnoch.) to passing through heaven and hell to help the devil.
The devil in this story is not depicted as the well known evil devil from the bible but he depicted as a compassionate being that's story for being in hell that he created is for getting humans right with God and sent back to heaven.
The language used in this book is very descriptive. In one scene Lestat is in a small restaurant having a cup of coffee, not drinking the coffee but letting the heat rise to heat his face and taking in the drinks smell. The way Anne Rice describes that scene you can almost hear the people around Lestat and can smell the coffee in front of him as if you were actually there because of the way it is described.
The story of Memnoch takes place in New Orleans Louisiana as well as most of Anne Rice's book about vampires and witches. In the story this is Lestat's final adventure he is writing about, in the book it starts with the devil following him around as a ghost finally asking him for help and Lestat is shown heaven and hell and how the creation of man came to be, to finally watching Jesus crucified on the cross and talking with God.
The vampires in Anne Rice's books are not shown to be monsters as they are shown in most vampire movies, her vampires have a personality as Lestat does, he is still depicted as intelligent, and a witty know it all with a French manner of speaking. With all of Anne Rice's vampire books you get a sense of wisdom from the way they speak as if they really have been around for centuries.
Putting a end to the vampire chronicles with this book Memnoch the Devil, the ending of the book will have the reader wishing for another book for more insight because Lestat does not stay in heaven or hell he just goes insane stopping the book with him tied up screaming in his tower after the devil returns his eyeball in a box to him from hell.
I really enjoyed this book; I had to go back and reread it after I was done with it the first time I liked so much. I would recommend Memnoch the Devil to anyone who has ever read any of Anne Rice's books and enjoyed them or to anyone who likes vampire books because she always has the best insight and stories for her vampires. That is why I gave her book five stars in the review because of her sheer brilliance in the book about a vampire and the devil.

Rating:
Summary: Mystifying
Review: Once again, Lestat and Anne Rice have brought the beautiful and sorrowful into a most luscious courtship. The emotions I felt through every word for all the characters involved, actually, was like water being washed over my every pore. The reader can really obtain a unique inside view into both Lestat and Memnoch apart from what they are, and feel really WHY and HOW they are, and why we love Lestat, in particular, so very much.

Rating:
Summary: More like 2.5 stars
Review: _Memnoch_ is not a well-written book. I've never been a huge Rice fan, and _Memnoch_ does not change my opinion, but I do believe it is better than the average Rice novel simply because the idea is somewhat intriguing. Some of the theology is entertaining and having the Devil as a main character is always a good selling point. As usual, Rice is overlong and belabors the point ad naseum, but at least she is trying to accomplish something here. When Lestat is not talking to the Devil, he is constantly preoccupied with another character's menstration and there is plenty of needless and boring explication of exactly how many levels of angels there are and every step of the creation of the universe. I can't recommend the book. But it is better than the trash that the two previous books in the series have been. Disclaimer: avoid the book if you are offended by religious images or ideas that are unorthadox.

Rating:
Summary: Wish this was the real story
Review: I loved this book. This is how I would like to believe if there truly is a devil. The real struggle between good and evil.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing, but vaguely interesting.
Review: I hate to suggest that this is anything less than four stars for the wonderful Vampire Chronicles, but I have to be honest: this is kind of a letdown. But I also have to say that is was not entirely unexpected, at least on my part. My personal tastes regarding the Vampire Chronicles is the history and adventures of the vampires. Rice is a very unique author in that she blends rich, textural description with historical accuracy. That, to me (and many others) is what made her books so interesting. With Memnoch the Devil, she forsakes that to tell an interesting, but flawed story.

First of all, my main complaint is that this really didn't have to be a book of the Vampire Chronicles. This story could have happened to a mortal man as well as a vampire. Every novel before this, from "Interview" to "Tale of the Body Thief" was centered around the vampire experience and/or told from the point of view of a vampire. Memnoch the Devil is a story that could be told by any person, so in that regard it loses points for failing to live up to the rest of the books in terms of a vampiric adventure.

Secondly, the book drags, which is something fairly unusual for a Rice novel, as she can usually make the most mundane of stories interesting. Some passages seem a little boring or pretentious in description. I had to re-read a page or two every time I picked it back up and it took me the longest of the Chronicles to finish. Another thing that I dislike, although many will consider minor, is that there were not enough of the other vampires present in this novel, although I am probably spoiled from reading Queen of the Damned. Louis, Armand, David, and extremely brief appearances by Maharet and Mael are all there is. David is only second to Lestat, and he is the least interesting of vampires, as far as I am concerned. Still, it was good to see Armand and Louis make a reappearance, though it was odd that Marius couldn't be in this one, especially near the end. The ending, also, is a little too unbelievable for me, with the plot involving Veronica's Veil (which I won't mention here). It requires alot of faith on the part of the reader, which many may not be able to stomach.

All bad things aside, this is actually a very intersting story. Rice's conception of Christianity and the Creation is an interesting one that manages to weave alot of different beliefs into a huge tapestry and still make it believable, although this book requires huge suspensions of disbelief for the most part. Reincarnation, Creationism, and Evolution are all convincingly (for the most part) woven into an interesting conception of the creation of the universe. Her views on God and the Devil are especially interesting, with each seeming to take on the other's role at various times. It is a far cry from the Christian Bible's portrayal of God, and it manages to raise a few questions: can the Devil loath his position? Can God be all-powerful? Her Catholic upbringing is very obvious in many parts of the book, especially in the descriptions of Heaven, which includes the famous Nine Choirs, and all manner of angels, including Michael and Gabriel. Memnoch's position is especially interesting, and very different from all the other preconceptions of the Devil and his actions.

The other good point to this book is that Rice manages not to totally abandon her style: she revels in discriptions of historical events, no matter how brief, from the Crucifixion, to the Fourth Crusade desecration of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Scenes and battles are described very accurately and thoughtfully, not submitting to literary embellishment, like alot of romanticizing authors.

Still, this book will probably disappoint most expecting a more "contemporary" vampire adventure. I still think the story itself is fairly good, but could have been better as a seperate novel in its own right, with more description of the fall of Memnoch and the arguements between Memnoch and God. Vampires simply aren't necessary to this story, which, to me, is not really an edition of the Vampire Chronicles at all.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant... the best of the series
Review: Anne Rice gives us exactly what we need after the previous book in the series (Tale of the Body Thief). Deep textures and rich prose yields a wildly emotional novel that takes us from Heaven to Hell. Memnoch the Devil gives us more of the intricate storytelling that was so prevalent in The Vampire Lestat and Queen of the Dammed but sadly missing in Tale of the Body Thief. As of now, this is my favorite novel in the series. The only disappointment is that we don't really learn more about Lestat (whom I love).

Rating:
Summary: Simply brilliant ...
Review: My favourite from the series. Deeply philosophical. Not a book I would consider "religious" this oeuvre has it's place in mythology. Whether you beleive in God or not, is not the point in this book, it is a view of what could be, of what might be, perhaps, of what should be.

Rating:
Summary: excellent novel
Review: If indeed that was Ms. Rice sticking up for her book, she doesn't need to. Certainly most thoughtful readers will be moved immensely by Lestat's spiritual quest, perhaps even so much as to reconsider their own deepest held beliefs. This novel reminds me of another often misunderstood American classic challenging and ultimately recasting the character of the punitive afterlife so dear to Western power brokers: James Branch Cabell's Jurgen. Read that as well if you appreciated Memnoch. My only complaint about this novel is that it takes a while to get going. But then so does Gravity's Rainbow.