Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery
Paperback | Kindle
Compiled and written by Becket
Introduction by Anne Rice
Publisher: Anchor Books
Release Date: October 23, 2018

I have long been a fan of Anne Rice because of the way she blends the supernatural or preternatural with the sensual or suggestive. This sense of familiarity binds the characters together in such a way that we, as readers, are enabled to see the similarities in people and places rather than the differences. In Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles: An Alphabettery we get a full frontal view of this concept without reservation. Read on to find out more!

Taking a collection of books that has spanned decades and creating a source book for them is no easy task. But this is less of a glossary, as I was first expecting it to be, and more of a history book for fans of the series. In fact, as it progresses from start to finish, it works to enhance the reader’s knowledge base, reminding us of long-forgotten people and places.

From the earliest tales from Louis in Interview With The Vampire to the adventures of Lestat in the most recent editions of The Vampire Chronicles, there are events and peripheral entities that may not have resonated with readers, but still get the occasional mention. That is where this book comes in. As the name implies, it arranges characters, locations, and more in alphabetical order. I hate to admit it, but there were a few things in here that I had forgotten. But this series has been around for forty years, so I do not feel too ashamed of my knowledge gap.

With an immersive introduction by Anne Rice herself and loads of illustrations from Mark Edward Geyer, this is a great gift for the vampire or horror fan in your life. The holidays are just around the corner after all. Becket does an amazing job with the assembly and descriptions of all things Lestat and Co. I definitely recommend this and will be buying it for a couple of friends who hold the same level of appreciation for the series that I do.

An annotated cosmology of Anne Rice’s Vampiredom from A(kasha) to Z(enobia)–all fifteen books of the Vampire Chronicles detailed, by a longtime Anne Rice reader and scholar; the who, what, where, why, (and often) how of her beloved characters, mortal and ‘im’, brought together in a book for the first time. Illustrated by Mark Edward Geyer.

An Alphabettery of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles gathers together, from all fifteen of the books in the series, the facts, details, story lines, genealogies of her characters, vampiric subjects, geographical influences, and cultural and individual histories, all of which Rice painstakingly researched and invented during her 40-year career–to date–through which she has enchanted and transported us. Here are concise, detailed biographies of every character, no matter how central or minor to the cosmology.

Revealed are the intricacies and interconnectedness of characters and subjects throughout. We see how Akasha (Queen of Egypt and the first vampire) is connected to Mekare (the inheritor of the title of the Queen of the Damned), etc., and how these characters connect back to the darkest rebel outlaw of them all, Lestat de Lioncourt …

And we see, as well, the ways in which Rice’s vampires have evolved from warring civilizations to isolated covens to a unified race of blood drinkers led by their hero-wanderer and sole monarch, Prince Lestat.

For devoted and first-time Anne Rice readers alike, An Alphabettery of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles will be the holy grail of lore and revelation for those who have been, and continue to be, mesmerized by the worlds within worlds of these beloved tales of the undead.