Average Rating: 
Rating:  - This book makes for an excellent theological debate
I must confess that I hated this book the first time I read it but after reading the entire book a few more times, I grew to love it. I thought Anne's concept of the character Memnoch (aka Satan) was believable. Just like all human beings, he is flawed as is the almighty God who was portrayed as ruler who rules heaven with an iron fist. As I have read this book over and over, I have come to a conclusion that God isn't all that Christianity has made him to be and he is just as fallible as the Lucifer but this is just my humble opinion. I find this book exceptionally compelling is that it brings up the subject in subtle tones the relationship of God and Memnoch. I personally didn't find the scene of Lestat taking a drink of God's blood shocking as most people would. I thought it was just part of the storyline of the battle between God and Memnoch. Whether Anne Rice meant it to be shocking or not is difficult for me to say. Only Anne would know. In conclusion, Anne Rice has remained my favorite author to this very day. She has proven with this book her articulate writing abilities and obviously shows the readers the amount of research she put into her stories like "Memnoch the Devil".
Rating: - THE BEST WORK OF FICTION EVER DONE. PERIOD.
While there is a stunning amount of poor review for this book, I personally would consider this far beyond "Rice's Best Work"; This is the best piece of fiction created in this century! I believe that people of less than intellectual standards will find this more difficult than the other books of this series, which may explain some poor reviews. Hardcore devout Christians might also be offended by Rice's views of creation, Heaven and Hell, and an extremely different view of the Temptation of Christ-told from the devil's point of view. The thing I found most fasinating was the realism presented in the plot-Rice has done her Judeo-Christian homework for the foundation. Aside from that, a brilliant plot and well developed new characters Memnoch and Roger. The first time I read this book, I read start to finish-I literally could not put it down. If you love fiction, regardless of your opinion of vampires or even Rice, READ THIS BOOK!!
Rating:  - Different from the rest of the series
I just re-read the Vampire Chronicles series, and it really struck me how much this differs from the others. The standard formula is for the novel to be told in the first person by one of the vampires, who tells their story. Normally most of the story is in one historical period, and the attraction is Rice's ability to give an idea of how people lived in Byzantine Antioch, or Renaissance Venice, or pre-revolutionary France. You don't get that in this book. Or rather you do but you get the tale of Memnoch the Devil, and it's not set on earth, but in heaven. This makes it very different from the other stories, because there is no way that Memnoch is recognizable as a human being, and that is the other strength of Rice's books. She shows the vampires as real people, reacting to real situations. The basic story starts off with Lestat stalking a victim, who is particularly evil, so Lestat draws out the experience by stalking him over a long period, like a cat watching a mouse. He also stalks the victim's daughter, who is an evangelist. After killing the victim, he has a conversation with the victim's ghost, who asks him to look after the daughter. Lestat agrees, and then meets Memnoch, who is the Devil, and wants Lestat to work for him. First the Devil has to persuade Lestat how it is that he and God are not enemies, and to do this, he tells his story. Most of the book is Memnoch's story, and how and why he fell from heaven, and a lot of it is religious discussion. Essentially, it gives a complete theological underpinning for the Vampire chronicles - how the existence of God can be reconciled with the existence of vampires, and vice versa. Rice lays it out in full, and the problem is that there is nothing sensual about theology, and sensuality is one of the main attractions of Rice's books. Storywise, this book does advance the Lestat story, but I do not think that it is essential to read it, to get a full understanding of the Vampire Chronicles. However, it is important in terms of understanding the world that Rice is trying to create, and in terms of understanding Lestat's character development. But if it's sensuality that you're after, you won't find it here.
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