安妮·赖斯，吸血鬼之母，抑或是一个笔名，一个古老幽暗世界的面具。赖斯以18世纪末的新奥尔良的时空背景为叙事原点，上下挪移，横越法国大革命时期的混乱秩序、中世纪的阴沉动荡、罗马时代的狂欢飨宴，直逼古埃及王朝的残酷壮丽全景，纺织出一幅纵横历史，上至远古，下至20世纪末的群魔绣帷，承载了超自然国度的奢靡、绝望与狂欢。

作者最为著名的作品即为吸血鬼编年史系列，包括夜访吸血鬼 Interview with the Vampire （1976）、 吸血鬼莱斯特 The Vampire Lestat （1987）、吸血鬼女王 The Queen of the Damned (1989)、肉体窃贼The Tale of the Body Thief (1992）、恶魔迈诺克 Memnoch the Devil （1995） 、潘朵拉Pandora （1998）、吸血鬼阿曼德 he Vampire Armand（1998）、吸血鬼维多利奥 Vittorio the Vampire （1999）、梅瑞克 Merrick （2000）、血和黄金 Blood and Gold（2001）、黑木庄园 Blackwood Farm （2002）血颂 Blood Canticle （2003）。

In 1976, a uniquely seductive world of vampires was unveiled in the now-classic Interview with the Vampire . . . in 1985, a wild and voluptous voice spoke to us, telling the story of The Vampire Lestat.  In The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice continues her extraordinary "Vampire Chronicles" in a feat of mesmeric storytelling, a chillingly hypnotic entertainment in which the oldest and most powerful forces of the night are unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

Three brilliantly colored narrative threads intertwine as the story unfolds:

- The rock star known as Vampire Lestat, worshipped by millions of spellbound fans, prepares for a concert in San Francisco.  Among the audience--pilgrims in a blind swoon of adoration--are hundreds of vampires, creatures who see Lestat as a "greedy fiend risking the secret prosperity of all his kind just to be loved and seen by mortals," fiends themselves who hate Lestat's power and who are determined to destroy him . . .

- The sleep of certain men and women--vampires and mortals scattered around the world--is haunted by a vivid, mysterious dream: of twins with fiery red hair and piercing green eyes who suffer an unspeakable tragedy.  It is a dream that slowly, tauntingly reveals its meaning to the dreamers as they make their way toward each other--some to be destroyed on the journey, some to face an even more terrifying fate at journey's end . . .

- Akasha--Queen of the Damned, mother of all vampires, rises after a 6,000 year sleep and puts into motion a heinous plan to "save" mankind from itself and make "all myths of the world real" by elevating herself and her chosen son/lover to the level of the gods: "I am the fulfillment and I shall from this moment be the cause" . . .

These narrative threads wind sinuously across a vast, richly detailed tapestry of the violent, sensual world of vampirism, taking us back 6,000 years to its beginnings.  As the stories of the "first brood" of blood drinkers are revealed, we are swept across the ages, from Egypt to South America to the Himalayas to all the shrouded corners of the globe where vampires have left their mark. Vampires are created--mortals succumbing to the sensation of "being enptied, of being devoured, of being nothing." Vampires are destroyed.  Dark rituals are performed--the rituals of ancient creatures prowling the modern world.  And, finally, we are brought to a moment in the twentieth century when, in an astonishing climax, the fate of the living dead--and perhaps of the living, all the living--will be decided.

From the Hardcover edition.