Marija

The book continues the story of Jesus, detailing his life as an older man, mostly just before he accepts his role as the son of God and acquires disciples.
This would have been a really interesting book about the time period itself if it had not been told from Jesus's first person perspective.
The ending of the book was really rushed, a lot of significant events were told in a handful of pages.

Not much happens in this book. There are a few engaging moments, but not many. A lot of the story is simply just people walking from one town to another.
With how much research was put in for the book, the descriptions of places, lifestyles and people would have been done better.

Not as good as the first book, but still enjoyable.
Toby's character still would have benefited from having more of his story told.

This book is highly engrossing. The characters are unique, the plot engaging, and the words spun together flawlessly and effortlessly.
The first half of the book, detailing Toby's life is dark, depressing and morbid, yet very compelling.

Lackluster, hardly has a plot. Most of the book is Triana's thoughts about the deaths of her loved ones, which gets a bit boring after a while.
Stefan, although much more interesting than Triana, is still a rather dull character: moody, unpredictable, and without properly explained motivations. The book would have been better, if it concentrated more on expanding Stefan as a character.

Finally, the slaves are volunteers. There is some more variety compared to the rest of the books in the series.
This book introduces a lot of new characters, who feel plain. (However, even already established characters hardly have much in terms of personalities.)

A lot more of the same as the first two books.
At least the setting changes for the first half of the book, and some plot is seen in second half of the book.

A lot more of the same as in the first book, just with additional new main character.
One good thing about this book is that it has more variety and is not just spanking.

This book is not erotica, it is just pure pornography.
The very first chapters deals with the Prince raping Beauty while she is asleep and definitely in no condition to consent and that is not okay. BDSM is consensual; otherwise it is just rape.
The other Princes and Princesses are in no better condition.

A fun finale to the series, which still has the same short-comings as the previous book. The sense of mysteries and the past happenings are intriguing. While the plot of the first book is to be the strongest in terms of excitement, danger, and twists, the writing is a lot better in the 2nd book and this one. A lot of things that are brought to the front are easily forgotten a few pages later and never mentioned again.
A lot of interesting characters are relegated to the sidelines, like Elliot and Cleopatra, which is strange since these characters would be of interest to the plot at hand and one of the plot happenings.

Slow start, with a complicated plot and many characters to follow. It was intriguing enough in the beginning; the build-up to the ending was worth.
The alternating POVs of the various main characters made it lively and added a nice tension to the story.
Unfortunately, once the main plot had been resolved, the last third of the book became a rambling discourse of the meaning of life, souls, heaven and hell that felt quite unnecessary. The happy-for-now ending of the main couple was to be expected, but Sibyl's story petered out pretty listlessly.

The Mummy starts out full of suspense. The plot is intriguing.
The emotions related to and problems with immortality for the characters were well explored. However, most of the characters are very flat and one-dimensional. This is especially jarring, when through the whole book, only two characters seem to undergo some sort of changes. The most intriguing character only appears in the second half of the book.
However, by the end, the book becomes more stale and hardly anything happens.

For most of the book, hardly anything happens, and it all can be summed up with “they were preparing for the party.”
The characters have the same problem as in The Wolf Gift, that all Man Wolves are one and the same, other characters, too, are very one-dimensional, with hardly anything separating one from the other. Even when conflict arises in the latter half of the book, hardly any characters stand out, even the main characters.
Jim's storyline was interesting, as it helped shine some light on his character, however, it was too little, too late. Moreso, the main cast shown have been put in the spotlight instead of a secondary character.
There was a lot of potential to make this series stand out on its own. However, instead of going deeper into the world of the Wolves, a group of new characters that were never interesting was introduced. This group, also, is very shallowly connected to the plot and hardly serves a purpose.

Unfortunately, The Wolf Gift does not capture the magic of The Vampire Chronicles.
The characters are bland. Even Reuben, who is the main character, hardly has any characterization and personality. He is a really bland character with no real traits other than inexplicably having sex with women who are not his girlfriend and talking like an old philosophy professor. There are some hits of his interests, but they are hardly developed.
Most of the cast is simply defined by their jobs. Reuben's mother is a doctor, his brother is a priest, and aside from this, they hardly have any personality. The Man Wolves are even worse, they are all interchangeable and do not stand out from each other.

A nice compilation of the characters and terms of The Vampire Chronicles.
However, there are also a lot of errors and factually wrong information, that contradicts The Vampire Chronicles books.

In this book, Lestat is settling into his role. It's a difficult one for him because he's rebellious by nature. Still, he must do what is best for his Court, which means facing the vampires that threaten its stability. Some old and some new characters threaten this stability. Unfortunately, with threat with new characters goes nowhere and feels just like a useless plot device to get Lestat to New Orleans again. However, the storyline with Rhoshamandes is finally dealt with after two books (and most of the bad things that happen in this book could have been avoided if only Lestat listened to his court in Prince Lestat, but alas).
A lot of oldest characters feel brushed under a rug, just so some younger vampires could have a chance to appear. It is disappointing that by the end of the book most of the characters do not appear, and it is not shown to the reader where these characters live, with who they end up and so on.
However, it is nice to finally see Lestat come to terms with his morals and his position. Finally, after so many books he can just live having a family who cares about him, and most importantly, by having Louis by his side.
Contrary to many of Anne Rice's books in The Vampire Chronicles series, this book ends up on a very high note.

Was there really a need for introducing aliens in the books about vampires?
Once again there are lots of new characters. However, they suffer the same treatment as in the previous book. They hardly have any characterization and they just feel flat and one-faced. It does not feel like t hey had any built up and might as well have been not existent. Atlantis had so little to do with the story, and it would have interesting if this side of the story was expanded and done more coherently.
The only vampire who had some characterization was Lestat, while all the other vampires that used to be so compelling and charming in previous books became just background scenery in most scenes. There was a try to create so tension and drama with Armand's hostility towards the Replimiods. But the potential conflict just got nowhere, it was neither resolved nor acted upon.
As for Amel, he was more intriguing as a spirit summoned by Mekare and Maharet, than as a Replimiod. There was some mystery to him, which was shattered in this book.

Finally, the Vampire Chronicles are back to the origins with very similar feeling to the first three books.
All the old vampires have the reason to come back together, however they felt like a collection of faceless individuals to form the backdrop of the book and provide the necessary numbers in support of Lestat. When they are in the same room, they rarely interact with each other, as though the histories between them is inconsequential. The established characters are accounted for with only a brief remark. Most of the cast just felt underused.
Their role as supporting characters is overshadowed with the introduction of several new characters. Other ancient vampires are introduced, none of whom are interesting or different from the current caste. The addition of Rose and Viktor felt random and hardly needed, even more, what happened in the ending.
Rhoshamandes, as secondary antagonist, could have been developed more, more of his history, more of his motivations could have been shown (and not just chalked up to ‘the Voice made him do it'). For most of his appearances he goes on how much he hates Armand and how he wants to kill him. However, they are finally in the same room, Rhoshamandes seems to just forget all of his hatred (of course, at the moment there are more pressing matters, however even a small reaction to seeing Armand would have been interesting to see).
Also, for being the oldest vampire in the current era, and closes to what Akasha was like in The Queen of the Damned, Maharet does lose very easily to a far weaker vampire. The Voice's motivation for everything it does in the book is very cliché and it is forgiven very easily.
Lestat has lost some of that razzle dazzle over the years, he's become less interesting. He does not feel like the Brat Prince of past.

In Blood Canticle Lestat goes back and forth from sounding like a ranting raving teenager to the cultured and demanding Lestat that is known from Interview with the Vampire, to some crazy hormones-raging young adult. Lestat, who has always been enamored with new things, ignore all new technology by refusing to learn how to email. Lestat spends most of the book arguing with Julien's ghost for some reason that is never really explained, he just appears and he and Lestat melodramatically argue with each other in ridiculously overwrought language for pages on end.
Mona is either flitting with about everything that moves, or crying at the drop of a hat, baiting Lestat, and wearing odd slutty clothes that belonged to Quinn's Aunt Queen.
The first half of the book drags on endlessly, hardly making any progress forward with any semblance to plot. The plot contrivances used to get Mona, Quinn, and Lestat to where they will find the fate of the Taltos are numerous, unbelievable, and far too convenient. The whole mess with Taltos and the drug dealers is simply just funny.

The Blackwood Farm is a very atmospheric, the descriptions of New Orleans with swamps and the Manor are beautiful.
The pace of the book is quite disjoined and slow in the first half and picks up after Rebecca's ghost appears. Unfortunately, it feels like her storyline leads nowhere and there is no pay off. Petronia and her companions are intriguing, however there could have been more scenes with and about them. Their pasts are described very briefly.
Quinn is presented as an amazing person who everybody loves for some inexplicable reason (and those who do not, are treated as horrible people with no redeeming qualities). Also, Quinn's powers as a vampire seem cheap, why does he get all the powers of ancient vampires while being just a new fledgling (especially as it took even Lestat centuries and Akasha's blood to get those same powers).
And then there is Mona. She is even worse as a character than in the Mayfair Witches Series. Once again, her character can be described just as annoying and hardly anything more. There was no need to bring her over and even worse what happened with her at the very end of the book. That was definitely not needed.
Merrick feels like such a wasted character.
Lestat is a framing device, just standing there, listening, and inexplicably fawning over Quinn. He is not acting like himself or contributing anything, and it feels like he is there only to lure in readers. This book would have fared better without him.
Any connections with the rest of the Vampire Chronicles are negligible and Blackwood Farm should have been written as a standalone.

Blood & Gold tells the story of Marius. His story was explored in The Vampire Lestat, The Queen of the Damned and The Vampire Armand, thus most of this book just retells what is already known with little new bits added to the mix.
The history again is the main draw in this instalment, the rise and fall of great civilizations as well as their cultures and art are shown through the eyes of the more intellectual and learned of Rice's vampires.
Marius is one of the oldest vampires; however instead of wise Marius comes off as very pretentious and self-righteous. He is always in the right about everything and everyone else is in the wrong. Marius says he likes to be a teacher to all the vampires he has with him; however, he comes off as more of the authority, who wants his pupils' absolute obedience. Any vampire who argued with Marius gets a completely disproportionate response from him: Pandora, Mael, when Armand defied him (and a great deal of Marius's distrust of Armand seems to stem as much from his unwillingness to follow exactly the path Marius laid down as anything else), any vampire he has been with.
Marius still does not know what he wants: he wants Pandora but he wants her gone when she is with him; he ‘loves' Bianca but doesn't want to turn her until it becomes convenient for him; he falls in love with Armand but when Armand stops being ‘perfect' in Marius's eyes, he just leaves Armand to fend for himself. It is the actions (or the lack of actions) after Armand is taken from him, that makes it clear that Marius loves to run away from his problems and cannot deal with flaws in other vampires.
The women, as seems to be a theme, have the potential to be strong and interesting – Eudoxia, Pandora, Bianca, Zenobia – but whenever they develop to a point where they are not in Marius's shadow, they leave him and are hardly mentioned outside of Marius's company.

Almost nothing actually happens in the book‘s present timeline. The only significant thing happens at the very end of the book. Most the story is Merrick's backstory, however, it feels flat and boring.
The premise of this book held so much potential, but absolutely none of it is realized. It is emphasized repeatedly how powerful Merrick is; however, she never really does anything much more than reading minds (a trick which even the weakest vampires could achieve with the Mind Gift). Moreover, while Merrick is related to the Mayfairs, she makes it a point not to involve herself with them, so much that is feels like there was no point in even making her a Mayfair.
The scenes with Claudia feel like an afterthought. It does not feel like Louis got any closure in this regard.

Finally, this book offers the history of Taltos. The world-building narration of the Taltos' history is intriguing and exciting, however it still is not quite the richness of the witches history from The Witching Hour.
The problems with Mona's character continue from the second book. It just becomes more ludicrous, obnoxious, and unbelievable. Even worse is Morrigan. Why is she so unconditionally accepted by everyone after what happened with Lasher and Emaleth in the second book? Rowan's character is completely useless throughout the book. There is one shining moment for her, but just that.

This book is long and drawn out. The entire book is just two very long retellings of the story told in the first book with a couple of blanks filled in. It is almost like re-reading the first book and is quite tedious at times. The development of Lasher could have been done effectively by just adding another chapter or two to the already long first book.
The character of Emaleth felt completely underused. Mona is just an annoying character.
The only good thing to come out of this book is more time and story with Julian Mayfair, arguably the most intriguing character in the series.

This book tells a fascinating tale of one family of witches. It is a spellbinding, engrossing, well-written tale with complex and mysterious characters. There are plenty of compelling twists and turns to keep the plot interesting.
The lives of all Mayfair Witches are enthralling and their history was the most interesting part of the book.
However, the second half of the book, nearing the end, could have been condensed a little bit.