Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis - Final Considerations (Spoilers)

• Let’s start with the bad things to get it out of the way
  

- I admit that I enjoyed this book far more than I enjoyed Prince Lestat, but the plot is considerably weaker. It’s not the worst VC book ever, not even top 3 worst, but the plot is very loose. The cause is, of course, the fucking aliens

- The aliens. Welp. They turn this book in a story weird as hell. I have no problems with sci-fi - I’m a passionate and dedicated Trekker, I have been so for years and I love to spend my time reading sci-fi shit - but… I don’t like my sci-fi with my vampires? Crossovers are delicate things, and this one didn’t work for me, at all - the alien’s tale is actually pretty interesting, but it just look out of the place in this book. The crossover with the witches was still worse, but this one is by no means a step fowards. It just seems like two stories - the aliens’ story and the vampires’ story - were smashed together for convenience, with little thought about how well this could work.

- I am no squeamish person. I have no problem with gore, violent imagery or fucked up shit in general, be it in movies and TV shows (I thank Hannibal for that) or be it in books. BUT!!! THAT!!! THING!!! WITH!!! DEREK’S!!! ARM!!!

- !!!

- Seriously why did I had to read that. Why. I wish I could forget, but. *sigh*

- The vamps sort of… did nothing in this book? I mean, Louis and Lestat got shit done (power couple, yay), but they’re pretty much were the only ones who did useful stuff?? Everyone else is only sort of there, without really doing something relevant for the plot and this was pretty annoying

- WHY EVERYTHING IS SCIENCE NOW. WHY. I really don’t mind if the answer for some vampire things is just MAGIC or shhh don’t question it. I don’t. I would actually prefer if it was this way. All this bullshit science talk explaining every last thing about vampires and how their bodies work is soooo frustrating.

- WHY there’s so many chapters with Rhoshamandes. WHY there’s so many chapters with the new aliens. I don’t want them. Stop giving me chapters about them. I don’t care about them.

- Really, just give me some chapters about the old gang, I’ll be so happy

• But not everything is bad stuff; let’s talk a little about the good things.
  

- The characterization of the old characters is good here, far better than it has been in the last three books. My main complaint about Prince Lestat was how flat the old characters were. Armand spent the entire book agreeing with every word Lestat said and I was soo mad about that. Most of time no one had good characterization in Prince Lestat and it was annoying as hell. But things got better in this book, and everyone is written a little better. It’s still no perfect characterization but hey, baby steps. At least Armand is a lot more angrier in this book and this makes me feel better.

- I already thought this in Prince Lestat, but let’s reinforce it: Gabrielle and Sevraine are dating. Gabrielle has a girlfriend. Nothing you can say can convince me otherwise. Nothing.

- Lestat and Louis’ relationship in this book was actually well written. It was startling sweet and full of affection, but it was mindful of their story together. It was really good, and I loved every line about them. At first I thought it was slightly OOC how quickly Louis agreed to be with Lestat again, but then I remembered that Prince Lestat ends with a chapter in Louis’ POV - a pretty good chapter actually, where he ponders about his life and his immortality, and how he’s finally ready to be himself, to allow himself to be something else than just an evil creature. It’s a beautiful chapter, and it ends with the words “Beloved maker, beloved Prince, I will be with you soon.”. Thinking about that, then, it becomes clear why he accepted so quickly; he had already taken this decision, months before Lestat even asked him to be with him.

- Still on the subject, I really liked how Louis was written in this book. Anne didn’t write him too well after IWTV, but I really enjoyed how he was written here.

- Unlike in Prince Lestat, I didn’t had to read the sentence “Uncle Lestan”, not even once. I’ll thank Anne Rice for that, if for nothing else. And I’ll also thank her for including very few appearances by Rose and Viktor, because I really don’t care for them.

- I’m also happy to see more confirmations that the newish vampires aren’t straight, I’m happy to see that she is keeping this tradition

~~

Hmm. That’s all I can think about right now. It was far from perfect, but it could also be worse? Enjoyable anyway, because I love to encounter all my fav bisexual vampires again, even if the text occasionally makes me want to pull my hair out.