The release of Anne Rice’s latest entry in her Vampire Chronicles series (now in it’s 38th year) surprised me when I learned about it back in March, but I’m delighted that it finally arrived on Tuesday. It looks like it’s going to be a follow-up to The Queen of the Damned, in the sense that it’s going to be a “cast of thousands” story, rather than focusing on one or two vampires. I loved The Queen of the Damned, and was deeply disappointed when the books that followed it didn’t update me on all the vampires who were introduced in that seminal work. The series, for me, took a downward turn after that book, and I’m hoping Anne Rice gets back to her glory days with this one. I’m skeptical that this will actually be the case, but that’s okay. I’m loyal to Anne, for better or worse.