Product Description

The Vampire Armand finished with a tantalising moment - the Vampire Lestat rising from the dead in present-day New Orleans to walk again among Anne Rice's unforgettable undead. Now Lestat lives again but in a twilight world of music and memory. In this volume it is his mesmerizing friend and coeval Louis de Pointe du Lac (originating in 18th century France and Interview with the Vampire) who is tortured by the memory of the child vampire, Claudia, whom he loved and lost. With the help of David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the secret Talamasca organisation, Louis calls on the help of Merrick, young and gorgeous mixed-race by-blow of the rich New Orleans Mayfair clan. To save Louis' sanity, Merrick must use her black witchcraft to call up the ghost of Claudia - however dangerous this may be. There are other Mayfair spirits who will not lie still, and her search takes her close to the edge, through blood and terror, ritual and violence. Sweeping from New Orleans to the Brazilian jungle and the island of Haiti, this is vampire literature at its most tantalising, sexy and irresistible.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27311 in Books
• Published on: 2001-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 480 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
With the splendid Merrick, Rice is firing on all cylinders, and this latest volume in the best-selling Vampire Chronicles has all the elements that we expect from her: richly evocative use of locales; flesh-creeping horror (the squeamish should steer clear); rich, operatic characterisation and (most of all) that strange, overwrought prose style which is hers alone. The Vampire Armand ended with Lestat being revived in modern-day New Orleans. But the central character in this new volume is Lestat's friend Louis de Pointe du Lac (who first appeared in the 18th-century France of Interview with the Vampire ), another one of Rice's tortured vampires. Louis is dealing with the memory of the dead child vampire Claudia, to whom he was devoted. But when the Machiavellian organiser David Talbot joins Louis in appealing to the beautiful Merrick (mixed-race daughter of a New Orleans Mayfair clan) to invoke the ghost of Claudia, Merrick's very individual brand of black magic becomes the one thing that can save Louis' sanity. This tampering results in other malign spirits being released, and soon Rice's narrative is knee-deep in bloody mayhem and voodoo.

The novel has the feel of a massive, sprawling canvas, teeming with colour and invention, the locales move from her beloved New Orleans to a colourfully realised Brazilian jungle, and set against this are the larger-than-life characters Rice excels in. Merrick takes a little while to establish herself but when she assumes centre stage, the reader will find the wait well worthwhile. The big set pieces are as gripping as ever (in the usual sanguinary fashion):

Suddenly she lunged at the altar, never letting go of her bottle, and, grabbing the green jade perforator in her left hand, she slashed a long cut into her right arm. I gasped. What could I do to stop her, I thought, what could I do that wouldn't enrage her? The blood streamed down her arm and she bowed her head, lifted it, drank the rum and sprayed the offering on the patient saints once again. I could see the blood flowing down her hand, over her knuckles. The wound was superficial but the amount of blood was awful. Again she lifted the knife...

From the Publisher
The Vampire Armand finished with a tantalising moment - the Vampire Lestat rising from the dead in present-day New Orleans to walk again among Anne Rice’s unforgettable undead. Now Lestat lives again but in a twilight world of music and memory.

In this volume it is his mesmerizing friend and coeval Louis de Pointe du Lac (originating in 18th century France and Interview with the Vampire) who is tortured by the memory of the child vampire, Claudia, whom he loved and lost. Louis calls on the help of Merrick, young, beautiful mistress of the dark arts. To save Louis’ sanity, Merrick must use her black witchcraft to invoke Claudia’s ghost – but there are other Mayfair spirits who will not lie still, and her search takes her through blood and terror, ritual and violence.

About the Author
Born in New Orleans in 1941, the second daughter of an Irish Catholic family, Anne Rice is the author of the phenomenally successful Vampire Chronicles beginning with Interview with the Vampire. She has also written twenty-one other novels, including three books in the Mayfair Witches sequence. After many years in San Francisco, she now lives in her native New Orleans with her husband, the poet and university professor Stan Rice and their son.

Customer Reviews

Excellent again!
This book was a breath of fresh air for the chronicles. Memnoch was, for me, a complete disappointment. Although i thoroughly enjoyed Pandora snd The Vampire Armand, they were not new, we already had a brief knowledge of their stories. So this story was a real come back for Ms Rice in my opinion.
The only disappointment i had, was that it was implied that Louis would be the central character. This is not the case. This is Merrick's story, she merely becomes involved in the chronicles because of Louis and their stoies become intertwined towards the end of the novel.
In this book Ms Rice has been very clever in introducing the Mayfair clan to us but telling us she shall not go into details about their story as it is a different story. Some clever self advertising as i immediatley wanted to read the stories of the Mayfair Witches after this.
A must for any fan of the chronicles!

Failed to cast a spell on me.
I find this book to be a massive improvement on the turgid prose of its predecessors, The Vampire Armand and that attempted re-write of Dante's superior work, Memnoch the Devil. However, this book is by no means anywhere on a par with the first three novels in a previously compelling series.

Although Rice's prose has improved a little, the characterisation of Louis and Lestat is totally unforgivable. Louis, that dark, sensual vampire of "Interview With the Vampire" is terribly twisted now. His reasoning-- can there be redemption for a killer-- is discarded because he wants, like any teenager, 'to belong'. Ahh.

And Merrick, well, she drinks rum. And she's spiritually talented. She's clever and loved instantly by *every* character and despite the nasty trick she performs on Louis, is forgiven, because she's so lovable. That's characterisation so shallow that you can see the words on the other side of the page. Or, for the unitiated, it's what many writers call a 'Mary-Sue', a beautiful, amazing person based on the author with no faults whatsoever.

So, are there any strengths?

Well, yes, sort of. What I will say for this book is that, as someone who loves the sheer *feel* of New Orleans-- that mixture of heat and the occult and offbeat history-- it is beautifully portrayed in this book. For that reason alone, it merits the two stars.

I'm also annoyed at those who proclaim that if we don't like these drastic changes, we can lump it. What a silly suggestion-- the people who loved those first books and rushed out to buy them made Rice's career. I think we are right to expect a good adventure, or none at all. Because these new titles are a serious burden to Rice's credibility as a good author-- it is particuarly damaging to the classic "Interview With the Vampire."

In sum, if you don't care for canon, and like your characters changing out of all recognition, go ahead and buy it. If you don't care about the characters anyway, and want some beautiful descriptions of Louisiana, then, yes, buy it, because that is the strength of the novel. If, however, you're expecting a good read on the par with her earlier works, steer clear. You'll only feel cheated at the end.

Go and re-read Interview, or, spend your money on a groundbreaking new author, not a deteriorating one.

Witchy woman
Anne Rice tries to meld her two most popular series in "Merrick," where the Mayfair Witches and the seductive vampires collide. Unfortunately, with a limp title character and a meandering, weird plot, "Merrick" is most noteworthy for its unrealized potential and what it could have been, if Rice had cultivated it.

David Talbot encounters his protege/semi-lover Merrick Mayfair, an octaroon witch who now works for the Talamasca. He has an odd request for her: Louis de Point du Lac, a tormented vampire, wants to call up the spirit of the child vampire Claudia, so he can be reassured of her fate. And he needs Merrick's help to do so, since she has the ability to call up and control the dead with her voodoo magic.

David reflects on his first encounters with Merrick, her trips into the jungle in search of mystery artifacts, and the malevolent spirit of her dead sister Honey in the Sunshine. Now those artifacts may help her raise up Claudia's spirit, and might give Honey's spirit a way back into the world as well. But when Claudia is brought forth to speak with Louis, what she has to say may destroy him...

"Merrick" was advertised as the spot where the Mayfair and Vampire Chronicles converged, but that's kind of misleading. Except for some mentions of Julian Mayfair, there's only a vague connection with the "white Mayfairs." It's mostly vampires and more vampires, with only the Talamasca (a sort of supernatural FBI) as a connecting point.

As always, Rice's writing is lush and brimming over with steamy New Orleans atmosphere. But she could use some editing. There are constant references to Merrick getting snockered on rum, her breasts, her clothes, David lusting after her, Louis burbling about how he loves her, and so on. And Rice seems to lose her way in the final chapters, as if she wasn't entirely sure how to wrap up what she had started.

The biggest flaw of the book is Merrick herself. She's certainly an intriguing character, a beautiful witch who wants to be a vampire, and isn't afraid to bend the men (and vampires) around her fingers to get what she wants. But she doesn't seem to have any flaws, motives, or recognizable emotions. We get no insights at all to what she's thinking. Louis is a rather ineffectual presence, and David is basically there to lust after Merrick. But Lestat's brief appearance toward the end sets the pages on fire.

While "Merrick" is overflowing with promise, hardly any of that promise is actually used. Beautifully written but poorly characterized, "Merrick" tries to cast a spell but doesn't succeed.