Anne Rice is back again with book three of The Vampire Chronicles. The Queen of the Damned, published in 1988, picks up where The Vampire Lestat left readers hanging.

Something different about The Queen of the Damned is that the story is told through the eyes of many characters. Readers learn many things through out the book. The reporter who interviewed Louis that was in An Interview with the Vampire is named Daniel and has become Armand’s human pet. Armand keeps Daniel around to learn how human beings work, feel, and adapt through the years. Armand saves Daniel many times from dying, and when Armand knows that he can no longer save him, he makes Daniel into a vampire. Readers also learn how vampires came to be in existence and how it was all an accident. Also, the Legend of the Twins is revealed through bits and pieces of the book. The Talamasca, which is mention in many of Anne Rice’s books, is first mentioned in The Queen of the Damned. The Talamasca is an ancient group of seers who has studied everything paranormal and supernatural, including vampires, for thousands of years.

The story of The Queen of the Damned is told through the eyes of Lestat, Pandora, Daniel, Khayman, Jesse, Maharet, and Marius. Lestat’s music has awakened Akasha, the mother of all vampires and the queen of the damned, after six thousand years. Every vampire’s blood is connected back to Akasha. If a person hurts the mother, every vampire in existence feels the same pain. Akasha has a plan to make the world perfect according to her vision.

AnneRice.com, Anne Rice’s website says about The Queen of the Damned, “Awake and angry, Akasha plans to save mankind from itself by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods.”

She kills any vampire that is against Lestat. After saving Lestat from his concert in San Francisco, Akasha makes him her prince. Since she was held captive by her king, Enkil, she believes that all men are at the root of the world’s vicious crimes. She has a plan to make the world a Garden of Eden with no hunger, war, or destruction. To achieve this, she plans to kill every man on earth except a select few to ensure that human kind survives. A band of vampires race to devise a plan to stop Akasha before her dream becomes a reality. While doing this, these vampires have to think of a way to destroy the mother without destroying themselves. Maharet begins to tell the vampires the history behind Akasha and how there may be a way to defeat Akasha and not destroy all the vampires around the world.

All of Anne Rice’s books have a success and has received good reviews. The Los Angeles Times says, “With The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice has created universes within universes, traveling back in the time as far as ancient, pre-pyramidic Egypt and journeying from the frozen mountain peaks of Nepal to the crowded, sweating streets of Southern Florida.”

The Queen of the Damned is a great book if readers can keep up with the storyline. Since the story is told through many eyes, it can become confusing at exactly whose point of view you are experiencing. Readers receive an in-depth look at the history of the vampires, how they came to be and what the first vampires hoped to accomplish with their new immortality. It will be interesting to see how the remaining vampires survive and live in the fourth book of The Vampire Chronicles: The Tale of the Body Thief.