Taltos

Rating:
Summary: The least strongest book out of the series.
Review: Taltos is the last book in the series, "Lives of the Mayfair Witches" by Anne Rice. The novel begins with a Taltos named Ash who has been alive for centuries and is now a billionare living in a New York skyscraper. He's also one of the world's largest doll makers, taking submissions from people all around the world to make some of the best dolls out there. His friend, Samuel, who is not a person of very tall stature, calls him in hopes that he can come see him and Yuri, who he has saved from an asassin. And so begins the tale of the Taltos.

A major character is killed here pretty early on and Rowan and Michael head to London to confront the Talasmac and find out who's behind the evil plot to bring a male and female Taltos together. Along the way they meet up with Yuri, Samuel and Ash, and together the five of them find out who's turned bad at the Talasmac as well as discovering another female Taltos that's been hidden by a member of the Talasmac for quite some time, only she's so old she is barren and can no longer reproduce any children.

Meanwhile Mona Mayfair and a new character to the series, her cousin Mary Jane, are back at first street getting into trouble with Michael and Rowan gone. Mona is pregant by Michael and it may or may not be a Taltos. The story follows them as they become quick friends and Mona's pregancy looms closer every minute. They look at files that Rowan and Lasher made from the second novel and end up running off to Fountervault, in Louisiana, to a house in the middle of the swamp and literally tilting at a five degree angle, just so Mona can have her baby somewhere that people can't find her.

After taking care of the problem in the Talsamac, Rowan, Michael, Ash and Samuel return to Ash's sky scraper in New York, where he relates the story of his life to the two of them. His life chronicles the Taltos beginning in the Lost Land and moves through the centuries past Christianity into almost modern times. We learn what it was like when it was just Taltos, why they had to flee, how they came to be at Donneleith, and why there aren't many left anymore. His story also ties into Lasher's tale from the previous novel at one point. After this, Michael and Rowan return to First Street and the tale winds down to the finale, which I won't give away here.

The prose is up there with the rest of Anne Rice's wonderful books on Vampires and Witches. She's as vivid in her descriptions as always and paints a wonderful picture of what these characters are, how they're thinking, and where they are. Most of the characters here are as wonderful as her last two books on them, especially Michael and Rowan, and the newly introduced character Mary Jane Mayfair. Even Ash the Taltos is well written, although towards the end when he gets fairly whinny I didn't like him as much. Mona is a different story though. She was a character I greatly enjoyed from the previous book, but in this one, towards the middle when her pregancy is in full swing, the character changes quite dramatically. She becomes more of a child looking after a child. There's not that strength in her anymore. Also, her child, Morrigan, is pretty annoying once she's born too. She thinks she knows everything and she is quite pushy when Michael and Rowan get home, so the character never grew on me. I was hoping that Rowan or Michael would decide she had to die, but alas, that didn't happen.

And finally the plot. This book had the weakest plot out of the three. The first one set up all of these wonderful characters and told an amazing story. The second book continued the first story and was a race to stop Lasher before he could kill off any more of the Mayfair women. This third story isn't as exciting. They don't do a whole lot in the book, and during the last third it's mostly Ash's tale of how he came to be and what happened to him and his kind through the centuries. It's interesting stuff, but nothing to exciting. Which leaves the ending. It seems fitting what happens, but I wanted more to it then what we got. I feel like more could have been said about these characters and where they were going and what they were doing, since this is the last book of the series. All and all, a good read, although it is the weakest of the three books.


Rating:
Summary: The Grand Finale!!
Review: Ashlar Templeton is the last of an ancient race called the Taltos. Tall, handsome and born full-grown, these beings were eradicated by mankind centuries ago. Ash has lived for hundreds of years, since the Taltos were converted to Christianity in the 13th century, disguising himself, and hiding the history of his kind to escape annihilation. He longs for a Taltos mate so he can perpetuate his race. He contacts Rowan Mayfair, the reigning Mayfair witch, and her husband Michael Curry in 20th century New York. Ash knows that one of his race, Lasher, had been haunting the Mayfair family for hundreds of years, and was recently brought into the real world of man, made into flesh and bone, and then destroyed soon after. Rowan and Michael were the parents of two Taltos, now dead. Ash relates the history of his people to the couple. Ashlar's particular story, a tale of survival through the ages, is one of the strongest and most fascinating parts of this novel.

Meanwhile, Rowan's niece, Mona Mayfair, discovers she is pregnant with a Taltos fetus, fathered by Michael, Rowan's husband. (Don't ask...you'll have to read what happened!). She runs away with her cousin, Mary Beth Mayfair, to protect her unborn child. There are many who would kill the Taltos baby in the blink of an eye. Mary Beth, the country cousin from the Bayou, is absolutely delightful and provides some comic relief in an intense narrative.

Ashlar then discovers that the Talamasca, a group of scholars who have studied and chronicled occult happenings for centuries, is rife with corruption. Aaron Lightner, a dear friend of Rowan's and Michael's, is murdered by a renegade faction of the order who want to keep the history and legend of the Taltos secret. Ash decides to eliminate the evil, rogue element of the Talamasca without destroying the entire group..

"In "Taltos" Anne Rice takes the saga of a family haunted for hundreds of years by a supernatural being, and turns the tale into something more epic in scope. The story of Lasher's roots, the history and legacy of the Taltos, brings the trilogy into an almost mythical realm. While Lasher, as a representative of the Taltos, was viewed as a threat throughout books one and two, "The Witching Hour" and "Lasher," Ashlar changes the readers' perception of his race by revealing their entire history of contribution and persecution.

Although I liked this book, it is the weakest novel of the three. I was certainly ready to have the loose threads tied together from the first two novels, but there is way too much information and unnecessary description here. The novel sometimes drags - the pace is too slow and there is too much filler. Precisely because "Taltos" is the trilogy's conclusion, anything and everything that has been left for last to be resolved, should wind-up here in a neat package. It doesn't. There is unnecessary rambling and too many repetitious summaries of the previous novels. However, there is still much here that is well worth reading, and the conclusion is a good one.

Overall, this is a superb trilogy, filled with lore of the occult, the entire range of passions that generations of one, very odd family can contain, mystery, chaos, murder and much love. Anne Rice has written a fitting conclusion to her series with "Taltos." I recommend that "Taltos" be read as part of the trilogy, rather than on its own.
JANA

Rating:
Summary: Tolerable distraction
Review: As someone who is not typically a Rice fan, I found this book more digestable than some of her other work. In general, the Lives of the Mayfair Witches is considerably more enjoyable than the vampire books, I felt. The Witching Hour is probably the strongest of the three books; Lasher is wash out...at least until the end, where Rice has Rowan act like a rational person and appears to put a very final ending in place. So I wasn't sure what to expect in this third installment. Indeed, it has very little to do with the other novels except to have some of the same characters stand around and listen while Ash, the Taltos, tells his story. I guess one reason that I liked this one a little more was that the story happens mostly in the present tense (except for a portion of the final third of the book) and that the plotting is fairly straightforward. The only point that made me slap my head in disbelief was when Mona suddenly decides to keep her baby/monster at all costs. That is inconsistent with the character that Rice had created for her.

But mostly it's harmless enough. You won't find anything life changing here--but hey, we're reading Anne Rice, not F. Scott Fitzgerald. It's less grating than much of her other work, and for that alone, I'm willing to give it a decent, three star rating.

Rating:
Summary: Another link in the chain
Review: When we think of a chain, we rarely think of the end of the chain. What we see is a link, which can be connected with others in different directions. From reading Taltos, we remember the characters from prior stories, and we can see where new links will be forthcoming.

The Taltos is a special being, and Rice brings us more than our share. With the Mayfair witches, we have the beginnings of a new race of beings, which many are trying to control. This book deals with the creation of a Taltos and the infighting that ensues from different factions trying to gain control. This is where we learn about the Talamasca, which is a secret organization that is trying to understand and control the supernatural.

From the end of the book, the reader has no doubt that there will be a continuation of one or many of the storylines here. Rather than feeling that the book is complete, the reader feels that he or she has merely held one link in a longer chain. Rice's writing does keep you involved and eager for more.

I would recommend this for Anne Rice fans everywhere.

Rating:
Summary: Where is the next book???
Review: I just finished reading Taltos about 30 minutes ago, and came on here to see if there was a fourth book! Darnit, there isn't. Oh well, there really could be, the way Taltos left off. But I enjoyed reading all of the books. All the history in The Witching Hour seemed a bit much at the time I read it, but as I progressed through the series, I came to know it's purpose. A really great read, they may as well have been one huge book, the way I read them, going directly from the last page of one to the first of the next!

Rating:
Summary: Not her best effort
Review: Haunting and mysterious. The strange non-human Tessa sent shivers up my spine, and to this day, I spend evenings wondering about her and her peculiar kind. Why does she weave? Why does she speak so strangely? What was her early life really like? Buy this book and be haunted for a life time.

Rating:
Summary: Taltos
Review: I think that I was the odd one in my family who actually like this book. I enjoyed learning more about the main characters. Towards the end of the book I did feel like something was left out that needed to be addressed. Possible Rice does address this in the next book. I enjoyed learning the so called history of the Taltos.

Rating:
Summary: Fast paced and imaginative
Review: Although I find this to be the weakest of the three books in the Lives of the Mayfair Witches, Rice has undoubtedly mastered the art of characterization and reinventing history. The history of the Taltos left me wishing that they actually did exist.