Anne Rice Announces Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis Coming in November
On the off chance that you’re an Anne Rice fan and don’t follow her Facebook page, the author announced today that she has a new novel on the way, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis, arriving November 29th from Knopf. It’s her 36th book and the 12th in Rice’s “The Vampire Chronicles” series.
Regarding the setting, Rice wrote: “I’ve been obsessed with it for years. Years. Have a huge library on Atlantis in fiction, in channeling, in history, in mythology…the whole thing. This was one of my greatest personal adventures, this novel.” In another post she added, “I want you to know this novel does indeed offer a full blown vision of Atlantis, as well as being a full dress Lestat and the vampires novel. It turned out for me to be a marriage of themes that could have been made in heaven.“
The cover was exclusively revealed on EW along with an excerpt, a portion of which you can read below. Be sure to hit the link for the rest, and then visit Amazon to pre-order your copy now.
Synopsis:
From Anne Rice, conjurer of the beloved best sellers Interview with the Vampire and Prince Lestat, an ambitious and exhilarating new novel of utopian vision and power, uniting the ancient worlds and the legends of The Vampire Chronicles.
“In my dreams, I saw a city fall into the sea. I heard the cries of thousands. I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven. And all the world was shaken…” –Anne Rice, Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis
At the novel’s center: the vampire Lestat de Lioncourt, hero, leader, inspirer, irresistible force, irrepressible spirit, battling (and ultimately reconciling with) a strange otherworldly form that has somehow taken possession of Lestat’s undead body and soul. This ancient and mysterious power and unearthly spirit of vampire lore has all the force, history, and insidious reach of the unknowable Universe.
It is through this spirit, previously considered benign for thousands of vampire years and throughout The Vampire Chronicles, that we come to be told the hypnotic tale of a great sea power of ancient times; a mysterious heaven on earth situated on a boundless continent–and of how and why, and in what manner and with what far-reaching purpose, this force came to build and rule the great legendary empire of centuries ago that thrived in the Atlantic Ocean.
And as we learn of the mighty, far-reaching powers and perfections of this lost kingdom of Atalantaya, the lost realms of Atlantis, we come to understand its secrets and how and why the vampire Lestat, indeed all the vampires, must reckon so many millennia later with the terrifying force of this ageless, all-powerful Atalantaya spirit.
Excerpt:
Proem
In my dreams, I saw a city fall into the sea. I heard the cries of thousands. It was a chorus as mighty as the wind and the waves, all those voices of the dying. I saw flames that outshone the lamps of heaven. And all the world was shaken.
I woke, in the dark, unable to leave the coffin in the vault in which I slept for fear that the setting sun would burn the young ones.
I held the root now of the great vampire vine on which I was once only another exotic blossom. And if I were cut, or bruised or burned, all the other vampires on the vine would know the pain.
Would the root itself suffer? The root thinks and feels and speaks when he wants to speak. And the root has always suffered. Only gradually had I come to realize it — how profound was the suffering of the root.
Without moving my lips, I asked him: “Amel, what was that city? Where did the dream come from?”
He gave me no answer. But I knew he was there. I could feel the warm pressure on the back of my neck that always meant he was there. He had not gone off along the many branches of the great vine to dream with another.
I saw the dying city again. I could have sworn I heard his voice crying out as the city was broken open.
“Amel, what does this mean? What is this city?”
We would lie together in the dark for an hour like this. Only then would it be safe for me to throw back the coffin lid and walk out of the crypt to see a sky beyond the windows full of safe and tiny stars. I have never taken much comfort from the stars, even though I’ve called us the children of the moon and the stars.
We are the vampires of the world, and I’ve called us many such names.
Categorized:News
