Rating: 
Summary: Queen of the Damned is a truly exceptional book.
Review: Queen of the Damned tells about the much loved two hundred year old vampire, Lestat de Lioncourt, who finds himself in the middle of a vampire war. Queen of the Damned is the third book in the Vampire Chronicles by Anne Rice. The first book was Interview with the Vampire, and was followed by The Vampire Lestat. I recommend you read both of these books before you read Queen of the Damned, to get the appropriate background. In Queen of the Damned, Lestat has just made his Hollywood debut. He has penned an autobiography, entiltled The Vampire Lestat. He has started a band(also called The Vampire Lestat), and has set a date for a concert on Halloween. His fans aren't the only ones to be there- vampires who want to punish Lestat for his outwardness towards mortals will also be in attendence. Unbeknownst to him, Lestat's loud music has woken the ancient vampire King Enkil and Queen Akasha from their millenia long slumber. Akasha immeadiatly starts on a plan to stop all vampires and to save mankind- or rather, womankind. As in The Vampire Lestat, Queen of the Damned is narrated by Lestat. But unlike 'Lestat, Queen of the Damned includes side views and stories by others observers, and after all the events were over, told Lestat the story. If you like this book, I suggest to you the other Vampire Chronicles, and other Anne Rice books, such as Lasher, The Witching Hour, and Pandora.
Rating:
Summary: One of Rice's best books. Amazing.
Review: "The Queen of the Damned" is one of Rice's most intricate, involving and altogether fascinating novels. It takes the reader 6000 years back in time, across continents, and through multiple points of view. It is a true epic. It is also a thoughtful meditation on evil. Real evil.It continues the story started in "The Vampire Lestat" (rather awkwardly, but more skillfully as the novel gains momentum.) Dozens of stories are interwoven, characters from previous novels are players as well as some new characters. At the heart of the novel is the rising of two ancient female vampires Akasha, the Queen, and Maharet one of a set of twin vampires opposed to the Queen and her plan for humanity. Okay, it sounds pretty silly but Rice uses what is basically a comic book plot and makes a fascinating story out of it. Another writer would shy away from the possibly "camp" elements of the story but Rice writes it with great fidelity to her characters and basically writes a great story that is not afraid of going over-the-top. She writes with a great fearlessness and almost an abandon. She's absolutely set on writing whatever the hell she wants. Here she muses on the nature of evil. She is not just writing about some kind of abstract comicbooks evil but she targets a very real and immediate kind of evil that is all about us. The evil of ideas out of control. The evil of disregard of human life. Anne Rice is definitely our greatest Romantic Writer, but here she reveals her gifts as one of our strongest humanistic voices. This from a "comic booky" set up. This is a surprisingly potent novel.
Rating:
Summary: A pinnacle in the series!
Review: This and "Memnoch" are the best of the 5 Vampire Chronicles - after Memnoch, they start going downhill...
Rating: 
Summary: Despite a few flaws, a worthy read.
Review: In comparison to the previous chapters in the Vampire Chronicles, the Queen of the Damned is composed of a lot more fantastical elements--particularly in relation to the vampires' powers--which provide the story with a much more "fictional" feel. Nevertheless, Anne Rice's poetic prose deftly guides the subject matter to a satisfactory conclusion, never pushing the story's credulity to a dangerous level. However, the book does suffer from a major flaw: varying points of perspective coming from far too many different characters. The charm of the previous books was that with the first-person redaction, it was easy to become attached and relate to the main character. Yet when roughly half of the book is spent describing the experiences of minor characters to progress the plot and nothing more, with hardly any worthwhile introspective commentary, it becomes strenuous to retain interest. Thankfully, the latter half of the book, where Lestat returns, more than makes up for this deficiency; by the end of the novel it's incredibly difficult to not wish that the story kept going. If there were one point I would like to emphasize, it is the following: the story of the twins is sheer brilliance. Read the book solely for this; then mourn the fact that Anne Rice makes it impossible to enjoy anyone else's vampire stories. They seem so puerile afterwards, it's unbelievable!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful
Review: This novel is exhilirating. The complex narrative and histories detailed in it is a work of genius; the way the characters are all so inextricably intertwined is wonderful. The story behind Daniel, the interviewer in "Interview With the Vampire", and the allusions to ancient Egypt brought to this novel a mixture of gothic wonder and compex storytelling that Anne Rice excels in. As a closing point, can I also stipulate that I can't believe that some people have problems with the sexual content in the book-- I mean, come on! After 200 years and three novels, Louis and Lestat finally...kiss! Oh, the horror! That's one of the best parts in the book-- it sees a reconciliation of two of the most enduring characters in modern fiction. I strongly urge you to read this, what I feel to be the last of the truly great books in the Vampire Chronicles. Its surpassed only by 'Interview With the Vampire' and 'The Vampire Lestat'. It's all downhill from here, folks. But what a ride it was to start with!
Rating:
Summary: A masterful book of fantastic storytelling!
Review: This is just amazing. It's one of the best books I've ever read. Anne Rice weaves a masterful tale that sucks you in and never lets go. I've heard that the rest of the series isn't as good, which might be true, because this is going to be hard to beat. I'll just have to read the rest and see what I think for myself. The book introduces us to several new, exciting, fascinating people, and explains the stories of several older ones like Daniel, the 'boy' from 'Interview with the Vampire'. It also goes into detail about Akasha, the Queen of the Damned (obviously!) The story of the twins was for me, the highlight of the book. I'd like to see a novel in the future concentrating specifically on Maharet and Mekare (and Jesse too). After reading this, I can't wait to read the rest of the series and everything Anne Rice has ever written. Buy it! You definitely won't regret entering the fascinating, sensual world of Anne Rice's vampires.
Rating:
Summary: A pinnacle in the series!
Review: This and "Memnoch" are the best of the 5 Vampire Chronicles - after Memnoch, they start going downhill...
Rating:
Summary: If you have already seen the movie...
Review: As a long time reader of Anne Rices' work I was very pleased with her efforts in "Queen of the Damned". I try not to read books after I see the movie, but I was already mid-way through this one. I enjoyed the movie only to later find; as you almost always will that much of the story line was lost in the making of the movie. I was upset at the loss of the story line of the twins. The beginning of the movie was false compared to "The Vampire Lestat". I know that I'm more descriptive about the movie in this review, but I feel that to truly understand and enjoy what was happening with Lestat, you'll need to read the books. Rice has this way of putting things that you feel that you are right there with Lestat and every one he encounters. I absolutely loved the entire story of the twins. This gave you a better understanding of the creation of Akasha and Enkil and just exactly how Jessie fit into Maharets' history and what really happened at the end of the story.
Rating:
Summary: Good.
Review: This is my favorite novel by Anne Rice, probably because my favorite character, Khayman is in it, and no other book has him that I know of. It also interested me because it told how vampires came into being.
Rating: 
Summary: Over written, over wrought
Review: A great example of an author not knowing when to quit. Interview and Lestat were both great fun, but in trying to give her story a universal theme [ie: the end of the whole wide world! (gasp!)], Rice completely looses the 'personal' aspects that made the earlier works work. In attempting to create a sweeping epic, Rice gets swept away in her own excess verbige, and would have profited greatly from a through re-write. Its breathtaking in the asmatic sense: everything in it is so BIG! and IMPORTANT!! that the reader simply stops caring. This book either needed to be much shorter, with 90% of its exposition excised, or much larger [a trilogy unto itself] allowing some modulation in the scream a minute pacing. Still, it does fill in some interesting blanks in the history of Rice's vampires, meriting a second star. But really, only die-hard fans need bother with this one.
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