Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles An Alphabettery

Book excerpt: 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.