Word: lestat
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...relentless pursuit of Rowan and the newly embodied Lasher. The broad historical and global scope which Rice so adeptly pulled off in the Vampire Chronicles and even managed well enough in The Witching Hour seems overly ambitious here. The globetrotting which takes place in the world of the vampire Lestat here seems part and parcel of Rice's desperate attempt to re-create the aura of mystery and erotic power commanded by her vampires. But witches are a whole different ballgame and Rice takes much too long to resolve the problem at the heart of the novel: Lasher is searching...
These sly borrowings, more evident than ever in this fourth of the author's vampire tales, have worked brilliantly. We're absolutely convinced, for instance, that Rice's star, the blond, handsome vampire Lestat, is exactly the 200-year-old bloodsucker he claims to be. He was the dark eminence in Rice's first chronicle, Interview with the Vampire, and his monstrous self- fascination has taken over succeeding narrations. Lestat is something of a windbag, alternately luxuriating in the dark perfection of his sin and then writhing in rather stagey shame for his moral awfulness. This foppish introspection fogs...
Thus the plot: Lestat, in a male human body, charges about the world with his mortal friend David Talbot, trying to reclaim his vampire body. As usual, author Rice is eerily good at making the impossible seem self-evident, in this case, showing how painfully uncomfortable it is for the con man, Lestat and finally Talbot to be stumbling about in the wrong bodies. Of course there are a couple of breathless, will-he-or-won't-he subtexts. Will Talbot and Lestat make love? And -- the same theme restated -- will Talbot let Lestat turn him into a vampire...