Merrick (Vampire/Witches Chronicles)
by Anne Rice
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Book Summary Information
Author: Anne RiceEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-10-02
ISBN: 0345422406
Number of pages: 400
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Book Reviews of Merrick (Vampire/Witches Chronicles)
Book Review: The Talamasca declares war on vampires
Summary: 5 Stars
This novel in the series called The Vampire Chronicles is very surprising in many ways. Anne Rice starts merging her witch line with the Mayfairs and her vampire line with Lestat and Louis, and some others. But this merging is marginal as for the Mayfair line since it concerns a "colored" witch, or a witch from the "colored" line of the Mayfair family, that is to say the descendants of the white Mayfairs in the black population of their slaves and servants. But this line of "colored" witches introduces us to new witchcraft and first of all Vodun, which some of us call voodoo. The approach shows how the Christian dressing of this religion that has its roots in Africa, is systematic and extensive. But this vodun religion is based on some age-old, ancient practices: animal sacrifices, the use of blood, charms, and of course the belief that spirits exist and that, when we die, we either go into the light, that is paradise, or we err and roam in some dark in-between space and we can haunt the world of the living. There is no concept of hell or satan in this religion. The book though goes even further because it takes us to Guatemala where Merrick looks for and finds some more than ancient spirits and magical artifacts, particularly a mask that will enable her to achieve the objective that Anne Rice gives her in this book. She accepts to bring back the spirit of Claudia, a child vampire from the very first volumes of these Vampire Chronicles, because Louis wants to know how she is faring in her death. She was made a vampire as a child, she tried to destroy Lestat, escaped with Louis to Europe and Paris, and she was executed by other vampires in Paris by exposure to the sun, because she had destroyed her maker, which is an unacceptable crime for vampires. Merrick does the magic and then we can see the reactions of the various vampires in this group (they are four altogether). This will start a war between vampires and the Talamasca, a secret society studying paranormal phenomena and beings. This book is very interesting because of this blending procedure: blending of two novel lines, blending of at least two religions and two or three witchcrafts, blending of plot lines and diverging developments. A must in the field of fantastique literature.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
Summary of Merrick (Vampire/Witches Chronicles)
In this mesmerizing new novel, Anne Rice demonstrates once again her gift for spellbinding storytelling and the creation of myth and magic, as she weaves together two of her most compelling worlds? those of the Vampire Chronicles and the Mayfair witches.Just when you thought it was safe for a bloodsucker to go out in the dark in New Orleans, along comes Merrick Mayfair, a sultry, hard-drinking octoroon beauty whose voodoo can turn the toughest vampire into a marionette dancing to her merry, scary tune. In Merrick, Anne Rice brings back three of her most wildly popular characters--the vampires Lestat and Louis and the dead vampire child Claudia--and introduces them to the world of her Mayfair Witches book series.
It is Louis who brings about the collision of the fang and voodoo universes. Louis made Claudia a vampire in Rice's classic Interview with the Vampire, in which she was destroyed, and now he's obsessed with raising her ghost to make amends and seek guidance from the beyond. (Claudia physically resembles Rice's young daughter who died of a blood-related illness. Rice nearly died of a diabetic coma in 1998, and writing Merrick turned her excruciating recovery into an exhilarating burst of creativity).
Vampire David Talbot lobbies Merrick to call Claudia's spirit and slake Louis's guilt, but Talbot winds up in the grip of an obsession with the witch. You see, Talbot, unlike most vampires, lived 70 years as a human, so his sexual response to humans is still as strong as his blood thirst. Merrick can cast spells to make men crave her, and Talbot is tormented. After she reads his palm, he muses, "I wanted to take her in my arms, not to feed from her, no, not harm her, only kiss her, only sink my fangs a very little, only taste her blood and her secrets, but this was dreadful and I wouldn't let it go on."
The secrets of Merrick are dark and sensuous, but the book is a romp animated by Rice's feeling of coming back to life through the magic of a literary outpouring. The narrative flashes back to the past, to an Indiana Jones-ish adventure in a Guatemalan cave, and to scenes from many other Rice novels. It may be helpful to read Merrick with the Rice-approved guidebooks The Vampire Companion and The Witches' Companion at hand.
After many books, Rice's grand Vampire Chronicles tale was in peril of getting long in the tooth. Merrick Mayfair's magic represents an infusion of fresh blood. --Tim Appelo
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