No one paints a picture with words like Anne Rice. Blood Communion is the last book in the Vampire Chronicles and is a thrilling—if not bloody—fantasy rich in texture and full of surprises on every page. Lestat, The Brat Prince, has finally realized his dream of creating a haven for the undead by refurbishing his ancestral home high in the mountains of France. But just as Lestat’s dream of vampires living peacefully together begins, the ancient Rhoshamandes, who carries off Lestat’s closest family and friends, threatens everything. Only by offering himself to a monster can Lestat save those he loves. I’ve read and loved all of the Vampire Chronicle books, and this one did not disappoint. It was a fitting end to a stunning world of horror and passion. ( )

Maybe I'm over Anne Rice? (Is that possible?) But I couldn't wait to be done with this book. This is also the first time I've done Anne via audio book so maybe it was that but here's are my insights:
1. Lestat constantly names vampires around him
2. Major characters die off w/out much of a fan fare which then makes you suspect either she's really lost it OR they aren't dead
3. Major characters, who are again supposedly dead, one just keeps getting not mentioned when the two others are constantly mentioned
4. Lestat names the same vampires he's already named 3x and keeps describing their clothes
5. Lestat spends 15 minutes naming and describing clothes of vampires in a painting

Oh, my, god this book was boring. And, I didn't feel like much happened at all. literally it was just a bunch of naming of vampires and talking about their fucking clothes.

OH, and let's not forget that Pandora is now a battered woman who can't stand up for herself. /puke. ( )

Pure guilty pleasure. Not the best vampire book from Rice, but there were still Lestat, Armand, Marius, and even Louis got a line or two. It was fun to dip into this world again. ( )

Meh. I think I may have outgrown Lestat... ( )

This is a big nothing of a book. While the last couple books were weird and tone-deaf as hell, a lot more happened.

The first 25% of the book is largely a vague and repetitive retelling of the previous few books. For someone who has read the series, this is a waste of time. For those who are jumping in at book 13 for some obtuse reason, these summaries are so vague and disorganized that they would be of no help.

Lestat is made prince of the vampires for reasons that aren't well-explained. Despite being prince, he has no actual authority or input - he's easily coerced into doing whatever the current petitioner wants him to do, and in the rare cases when he does object to something, he's roundly ignored and the others do whatever the hell they want anyway. He also seems to have only two settings: loving everything and everyone, or feeling absolutely nothing. It just doesn't feel like Lestat anymore - for Gods' sake, he was a rebel! And now he's enforcing a monarchy.

The lush descriptions from previous books rarely raise their head in this one, but when they do, its the same description of the same types of fashion over and over. There are only so many ways one can describe velvet, lace, and brocade. The Gothic tone of the earlier books is largely gone - there are a few haunting descriptions of torture/violence that are effective in the middle of the book, but for the most part it reads closer to wish-fulfillment fanfiction. The character's voices are largely interchangeable (and some, like Pandora, lose all their earlier characterization), and with a cast that continues to grow unabated, what is intended as a rich tapestry of individuals becomes more of a muddled, shifting crowd.

The story is terribly paced, starting just before the middle of the book and ending about 2/3s of the way through. Before that we just have endless rehashing and circular conversations lifted nearly verbatim from the previous book. After that we have...endless rehashing of the events that just occurred, and circular conversations lifted from the previous books.

Anne retcons her own mythos a bit by stating vampires can have their abilities totally blocked by iron (and, by extension, steel). This didn't feel well-thought-out and seemed more like a desperate attempt to make the one (entirely predictable) twist work. Part of me wonders if it will even be in the next book. ( )