Queen of the Damned (edit title)

Drifter edited the characters of Queen of the Damned 1 day ago.

• Removed the description of Pandora: A Roman Vampire, Child of Millenia. Distinguished by her rippling brown hair.
• marked the description of Pandora as not a spoiler
• Removed the description of Marius de Romanus: The Keeper of the Queen and King. A Child of Millenia. Deemed as the father figure of the vampires, wise and would not let his anger muddle with his logic.
• marked the description of Marius de Romanus as not a spoiler

Drifter edited the characters of Queen of the Damned 1 day ago.

• Changed the section title: Cast of Characters/Important People
• Added the description of Marius de Romanus: The Keeper of the Queen and King. A Child of Millenia. Deemed as the father figure of the vampires, wise and would not let his anger muddle with his logic.
• marked the description of Marius de Romanus as not a spoiler
• Added the description of Pandora: A Roman Vampire, Child of Millenia. Distinguished by her rippling brown hair.
• marked the description of Pandora as not a spoiler

Timothy Gray approved Jen’s request to change the contributors of Queen of the Damned Monday, October 19 2009.

• Edited a contributor: Anne(Author)Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne RICE: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: ANNE Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne RICE: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary Author)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)

Jen edited the contributors of Queen of the Damned Monday, October 19 2009.

• Edited a contributor: Anne(Author)Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne RICE: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: ANNE Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne RICE: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary Author)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Removed a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)

Jen edited the table of contents of Queen of the Damned Monday, October 19 2009.

• Proem

  Part I: The Road to the Vampire Lestat
  1. The Legend of the Twins
  2. The Short Happy Life of Baby Jenks and the Fang Gang
  3. The Goddess Pandora
  4. The Story of Daniel, the Devil´s Minion, or the Boy from Interview with the Vampire
  5. Khayman, My Khayman
  6. The Story of Jesse, the Great Family, and the Talamasca

  Part II: All Hallow´s Eve

  Part III: As it was in the Beginning, is now, and ever shall be ...
  1. Lestat: In the Arms of the Goddess
  2. Marius: Coming together
  3. Lestat: The Queen of Heaven
  4. The Story of the Twins, Part I
  5. Lestat: This Is My Body; This Is My Blood
  6. The Story of the Twins, Part II
  7. Lestat: The Kingdom of Heaven
  8. The Story of the Twins; Conclusion

  Part IV: The Queen of the Damned

  Part V: ... World without end, Amen

Shelfari edited the contributors of Queen of the Damned Thursday, October 1 2009.

• Added a contributor: Anne(Author) Rice: (Primary None)
• Added a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Added a contributor: Anne RICE: (Primary None)
• Added a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Added a contributor: ANNE Rice: (Primary None)
• Added a contributor: Anne Rice: (Primary None)
• Added a contributor: Anne RICE: (Primary None)

Timothy Gray approved Patricia T’s request to combine 56 books, including Queen of the Damned, Friday, September 25 2009.

Patricia T submitted a request to combine 59 books, including Queen of the Damned, Thursday, September 24 2009.

Shelfari edited the summary of Queen of the Damned Friday, September 11 2009.

• At the beginning of the story, Lestat grows depressed and becomes remorseful because of his vampiric nature. Although he tries to limit his victims to murderers, serial killers and other criminals, he nonetheless caves into temptation once in a while and kills an "innocent""innocent" or someone who he feels does not necessarily deserve to die. Lestat also suffers from constant nightmares concerning his late "daughter,""daughter," Claudia, for whose death he blames himself.

  The "coven""coven" of vampires formed at the end of The Queen of the Damned has long since broken up, and Lestat has become extremely lonely. Among his only remaining friends is the mortal head of the Talamasca Caste, David Talbot, who is seventy-four years old. Although Lestat has repeatedly offered David the Dark Gift, David has always refused to become a vampire and keep Lestat company through eternity. Lonely and depressed, Lestat goes to the Gobi desert at dawn in a half-hearted suicide attempt. When he does not die, he goes to David's home in England to heal.

  A mysterious figure, Raglan James - the eponymous "Body Thief""Body Thief" of the story - approaches Lestat with what seems to be a cure for his ennui and depression. James sends Lestat several messages hinting that he has the ability to switch bodies. Eventually, he proposes to Lestat that the two of them trade bodies for a day. Against the advice of other vampires and David Talbot, Lestat jumps at the opportunity. Unfortunately, James has no intention of ever switching back, and Lestat is forced to scheme to regain his body.
  Lestat nearly dies after becoming human again - his new body is wracked by pneumonia, which he ignores during a tour of Washington D.C. in the middle of winter. He is saved by the care of a nun named Gretchen. He enjoys a short love affair with Gretchen before she returns to South America, where she works in a convent, and Lestat sets out in search of his body.

  Lestat seeks help from other vampires but is completely ostracized by them. Marius is extremely angry at him for leaving such a powerful body to a thief and refuses to help him. Likewise Louis turns him away when he asks Louis to make his new body into a vampire, arguing that Lestat ought to be happy to be human again and also calls him out on his previous writings, accusing him of altering his actual past in favor of one that portrays him heroically. Lestat's only ally is David Talbot.

  Drawing from the Talamasca's resources on the supernatural, Talbot reveals that James was a gifted psychic who once joined the order, but was kicked out for constant theft. He is a kleptomaniac who enjoys stealing for the thrill of it — it is revealed that every single thing he owns, from his house to his body, was stolen or schemed for. However, he also has major psychological problems, and his life is a series of cycles — he gets rich by theft, then often ends up in prison. Dying of cancer several years before, James tricked the inmate of a mental institution into switching bodies with him, allowing him a type of immortality.

  It is James' lack of imagination and petty thievery that allow Talbot and Lestat to track him down. Despite his newfound wealth and powerful new body, James continues to steal jewelry from people. He also makes a conspicuous show of his wealth, boarding the RMS Queen Elizabeth 2, and draining victims of their blood along the ship's path. The pattern allows his pursuers to easily find him.
  On the cruise ship, Lestat manages to regain his body with David's help, but the sun is rising as he performs the switch and he must immediately flee to a safe place in which to spend the day. When he awakes in the evening he finds that both James and Talbot have disappeared.

  Lestat finds David in Florida and is surprised to find that his friend, despite his earlier protestations, now wants to become a vampire. However, while taking his blood, Lestat discovers a final trick — when forced out of Lestat's body, James took over Talbot's body instead of returning to his own. Lestat angrily attacks James, crushing his skull. The blow proves fatal - the injury damages James' brain and prevents him from leaving the dying body or trying to switch bodies before his current one dies.

  At this point, Tale of the Body Thief reaches a false ending. Raglan James is dead. David has begun to enjoy life in his new, young body. Lestat returns to New Orleans, reunites with Louis, and begins to renovate his old house in the French Quarter. Above all, Lestat claims that he has finally come to accept his vampiric nature. However, Lestat then warns readers not to continue if they are happy with this ending.

  Lestat then resumes the narrative, claiming that he has regained his "evil""evil" nature, and decides to make Talbot into a vampire against his wishes, and despite the role Talbot played in saving his life when everyone else abandoned him. After having immortality forced upon him, David again disappears. Lestat looks for him for a while, but upon having no luck he gives up and returns to New Orleans — where to his surprise he finds that David has already contacted Louis.

  Now that Louis and David - who both have valid reasons to dislike Lestat - have spoken with each other, they no longer feel dependent on Lestat or his friendship. While David claims that he's no longer angry with Lestat, he effectively usurps Lestat's position of leadership - he makes plans to visit Rio de Janeiro with Louis, but pointedly ignores Lestat's protests. Lestat then realizes that, despite all that happened, he is still alone, has failed to regain his "humanity,""humanity," and that he has thrown away his only chance to make amends for his past misdeeds.

  source: Wikipedia

Shelfari edited the description of Queen of the Damned Friday, July 31 2009.

• In 1976, a uniquely seductive world of vampires was unveiled in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire . . . in 1985, a wild and voluptous voice spoke to us, telling the story of The Vampire Lestat .  In The Queen of the Damned , Anne Rice continues her extraordinary "Vampire Chronicles" in a feat of mesmeric storytelling, a chillingly hypnotic entertainment in which the oldest and most powerful forces of the night are unleashed on an unsuspecting world. Three brilliantly colored narrative threads intertwine as the story unfolds: - The rock star known as Vampire Lestat, worshipped by millions of spellbound fans, prepares for a concert in San Francisco.  Among the audience--pilgrims in a blind swoon of adoration--are hundreds of vampires, creatures who see Lestat as a "greedy fiend risking the secret prosperity of all his kind just to be loved and seen by mortals," fiends themselves who hate Lestat's power and who are determined to destroy him . . . - The sleep of certain men and women--vampires and mortals scattered around the world--is haunted by a vivid, mysterious dream: of twins with fiery red hair and piercing green eyes who suffer an unspeakable tragedy.  It is a dream that slowly, tauntingly reveals its meaning to the dreamers as they make their way toward each other--some to be destroyed on the journey, some to face an even more terrifying fate at journey's end . . . - Akasha--Queen of the Damned, mother of all vampires, rises after a 6,000 year sleep and puts into motion a heinous plan to "save" mankind from itself and make "all myths of the world real" by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods: "I am the fulfillment and I shall from this moment be the cause" . . . These narrative threads wind sinuously across a vast, richly detailed tapestry of the violent, sensual world of vampirism, taking us back 6,000 years to its beginnings.  As the stories of the "first brood" of blood drinkers are revealed, we are swept across the ages, from Egypt to South America to the Himalayas to all the shrouded corners of the globe where vampires have left their mark. Vampires are created--mortals succumbing to the sensation of "being enptied, of being devoured, of being nothing." Vampires are destroyed.  Dark rituals are performed--the rituals of ancient creatures prowling the modern world.  And, finally, we are brought to a moment in the twentieth century when, in an astonishing climax, the fate of the living dead--and perhaps of the living, all the living--will be decided. From the Hardcover edition.