Blood Canticle did put the series to bed. Since you've obviously not read it, I won't say how, but I was personally satisfied with it, especially since I knew what was going on in her life at the time and who each of her characters represented.
Oh wait, I just re-read what you wrote, yes the novellas she threw in there WERE kind of stupid. I wish she'd have ended the series prior to that too. At the same time though, if she had have done that, the end of the series wouldn't have been as good as it was since Stan's death was the basis of the last book.
Anne never really "lost" god though. Memnoch the Devil was all about religion and while most fans think that's her worst book, I actually think it's one of her best. As such, I'm kinda giddy about the new one.
If you think about it, writing about religion makes sense. Her husband, who inspired her most successful work, is now dead, and no doubt she's wondering about where his soul is now and if hers is going to the same place. In a sense, he's still inspiring her. That's not ridiculous, it's romantic. :o)
Awww...do you HONESTLY want me to tell you?? :o/ It really is worth reading, I promise, but if you'd rather just know then I'll tell you.
The ending began with Blackwood Farm and was concluded in Blood Canticle. Let's just say she ended the vamp chronicles and the Mayfair books at the same time for very precise reasons. ;o)
(Although if you don't know a whole lot about her as a person, those reasons may not be apparent and the story/ending may not be as satifying as I found it. I'm sort of an Anne fangirl. :o/)
I had no idea Blood Canticle had even come out. The last thing I saw was Blackwood Farm. I saw a copy at a bookstore in BC, and read the overleaf. I got to the part about a country-western singer coming back from the dead, and promptly put it down.
Okay as far as I recall, there is NO country-western singers in Blackwood Farm or any of her books. The main character, Quinn, lives in the swamp and may play an instrument if I recall correctly, but that's only like, a paragraph. My memory's not the greatest at the moment and I'm leaving out a LOT of detail, but here's how it ended to the best of my recollection:
Blackwood Farm is the story of Quinn, a totally new non-vamp character (in the beginning at least) who has an imaginary friend named Goblin. Turns out Goblin's actually a nasty ghost/doppelganger who gets really pissed when Quinn falls in love with Mona Mayfair of the Mayfair Clan. Basically the whole book is Quinn telling Lestat about Goblin and learning about his (rich) father's shady past blah blah blah. Lestat is going to help Quinn get rid of goblin, shit happens, Goblin's erradicated, Lestat turns Quinn into a vamp.
This book was written prior to Stan Rice's death. Anne had mentioned tying the two series together before, so it was assumed this was almost the beginning of a newish series combining the Mayfairs and the vamps and the Talamasca.
Not sure if you've read the Mayfair series (I liked them better than the vamps, honestly), but Mona has fucked up witch DNA. Well, alll of the Mayfairs have "witch DNA", but Mona and Rowan Mayfair (who is based on Anne herself but that didn't become apparent until Blood Canticle) have the "double helix". This is significant because if they make babies with someone else who also has the DNA anomoly, they'll give birth to a Taltos. This happened to Rowan in the book Lasher and then happened to Mona in the book Taltos. (A Taltos is a human-like creature which was once a race of human, older than humans themselves, but were made extinct for a million reasons too long to post here.)
Giving birth to a Taltos is hard on the body, so Mona's now infertile and deathly ill (she gave birth as a really young teen, whereas Rowan was an adult). Almost like a super severe anemia combined with massive hormone problems. So, the Mayfairs, being rich mofos, open up this big hospital and with Mona being so sick, she practically lives there. I forget how she & Quinn met, but they fall in love blah blah blah.
Since Mona is this scientific/medical anomoly and near death, the Mayfairs are really protective of her. They don't want her having anything to do with Quinn, particularly since Rowan figures out that he's a vamp. This is how Rowan and Lestat meet (and keep in mind, Lestat is based on Stan). Lestat is staying at Blackwood Farm with Quinn and teaching him vamp ways, Rowan and one of the Talamasca guys comes to basically tell Quinn to piss off and Lestat & Rowan end up with this deep connection.
Long story short, Quinn kidnaps Mona and turns her into a vampire. The Mayfairs discover she's gone and head to Blackwood Farm to retrieve her. (You really should read these books, I'm leaving so much out.) Retrieving her doesn't work, Quinn & Mona take off to be together forever awww love blah blah blah.
Lestat & Rowan by this point have fallen deeply in love, but he's a vamp & she's a witch (dead/living). He offers her immortal life, to come live with him as a vampire. She considers this for like, 1/4 of the book. In fact a lot of the book (Blood Canticle) is about their deep "soul mate" connection, how their meeting and connections are fate, fantasies of living together forever etc.
Ultimately Rowan decides that she has too much work to do in medicine (she's a doctor btw) and too much to contribute to the world that she couldn't do if she were a vampire, but that "one day" when the time was right, she would find him and they would live forever together.
The entire thing is a thin metaphor for Anne's own mortality in the face of Stan's death. It's her "good bye and I'll see you soon" letter to him and if you read it with that in mind, the story is just absolutely beautiful. The first time I read Blood Canticle, I didn't know that Lestat was based on Stan so I didn't catch the undertones, but after I learned about the Stan connection, I read both books (Blackwood/Canticle) again and just bawled my face off at the end.
So that's like, the super ultra condensed Reader's Digest version. :o)
Oh wait, I just re-read what you wrote, yes the novellas she threw in there WERE kind of stupid. I wish she'd have ended the series prior to that too. At the same time though, if she had have done that, the end of the series wouldn't have been as good as it was since Stan's death was the basis of the last book.
Anne never really "lost" god though. Memnoch the Devil was all about religion and while most fans think that's her worst book, I actually think it's one of her best. As such, I'm kinda giddy about the new one.
If you think about it, writing about religion makes sense. Her husband, who inspired her most successful work, is now dead, and no doubt she's wondering about where his soul is now and if hers is going to the same place. In a sense, he's still inspiring her. That's not ridiculous, it's romantic. :o)
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How did it end?
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The ending began with Blackwood Farm and was concluded in Blood Canticle. Let's just say she ended the vamp chronicles and the Mayfair books at the same time for very precise reasons. ;o)
(Although if you don't know a whole lot about her as a person, those reasons may not be apparent and the story/ending may not be as satifying as I found it. I'm sort of an Anne fangirl. :o/)
Lemme know if you want me to go on. :o)
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I had no idea Blood Canticle had even come out. The last thing I saw was Blackwood Farm. I saw a copy at a bookstore in BC, and read the overleaf. I got to the part about a country-western singer coming back from the dead, and promptly put it down.
Reply
Blackwood Farm is the story of Quinn, a totally new non-vamp character (in the beginning at least) who has an imaginary friend named Goblin. Turns out Goblin's actually a nasty ghost/doppelganger who gets really pissed when Quinn falls in love with Mona Mayfair of the Mayfair Clan. Basically the whole book is Quinn telling Lestat about Goblin and learning about his (rich) father's shady past blah blah blah. Lestat is going to help Quinn get rid of goblin, shit happens, Goblin's erradicated, Lestat turns Quinn into a vamp.
This book was written prior to Stan Rice's death. Anne had mentioned tying the two series together before, so it was assumed this was almost the beginning of a newish series combining the Mayfairs and the vamps and the Talamasca.
Not sure if you've read the Mayfair series (I liked them better than the vamps, honestly), but Mona has fucked up witch DNA. Well, alll of the Mayfairs have "witch DNA", but Mona and Rowan Mayfair (who is based on Anne herself but that didn't become apparent until Blood Canticle) have the "double helix". This is significant because if they make babies with someone else who also has the DNA anomoly, they'll give birth to a Taltos. This happened to Rowan in the book Lasher and then happened to Mona in the book Taltos. (A Taltos is a human-like creature which was once a race of human, older than humans themselves, but were made extinct for a million reasons too long to post here.)
Giving birth to a Taltos is hard on the body, so Mona's now infertile and deathly ill (she gave birth as a really young teen, whereas Rowan was an adult). Almost like a super severe anemia combined with massive hormone problems. So, the Mayfairs, being rich mofos, open up this big hospital and with Mona being so sick, she practically lives there. I forget how she & Quinn met, but they fall in love blah blah blah.
Since Mona is this scientific/medical anomoly and near death, the Mayfairs are really protective of her. They don't want her having anything to do with Quinn, particularly since Rowan figures out that he's a vamp. This is how Rowan and Lestat meet (and keep in mind, Lestat is based on Stan). Lestat is staying at Blackwood Farm with Quinn and teaching him vamp ways, Rowan and one of the Talamasca guys comes to basically tell Quinn to piss off and Lestat & Rowan end up with this deep connection.
Long story short, Quinn kidnaps Mona and turns her into a vampire. The Mayfairs discover she's gone and head to Blackwood Farm to retrieve her. (You really should read these books, I'm leaving so much out.) Retrieving her doesn't work, Quinn & Mona take off to be together forever awww love blah blah blah.
Lestat & Rowan by this point have fallen deeply in love, but he's a vamp & she's a witch (dead/living). He offers her immortal life, to come live with him as a vampire. She considers this for like, 1/4 of the book. In fact a lot of the book (Blood Canticle) is about their deep "soul mate" connection, how their meeting and connections are fate, fantasies of living together forever etc.
Ultimately Rowan decides that she has too much work to do in medicine (she's a doctor btw) and too much to contribute to the world that she couldn't do if she were a vampire, but that "one day" when the time was right, she would find him and they would live forever together.
The entire thing is a thin metaphor for Anne's own mortality in the face of Stan's death. It's her "good bye and I'll see you soon" letter to him and if you read it with that in mind, the story is just absolutely beautiful. The first time I read Blood Canticle, I didn't know that Lestat was based on Stan so I didn't catch the undertones, but after I learned about the Stan connection, I read both books (Blackwood/Canticle) again and just bawled my face off at the end.
So that's like, the super ultra condensed Reader's Digest version. :o)
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