If you have n’t readPrince Lestat , Anne Rice ’s most recent Vampire Chronicles book , a portion has changed for the clan of the Undead . The lamia actually came together , get in the modern domain , and take shape a community with Lestat at its head . But with Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis , Rice is going to change everything people think they cognise about her universe of lamia .
I ’m honestly not trying to be inflated here . Until Realms of Atlantis ( available on 11/29 ) , I had n’t read a Vampire Chronicles book since 1988 ’s Queen of the Damned . I had snarkily arrogate Realms of Atlantis would postulate Lestat die in a submarine and merging mermaid . Instead , it ’s about Rice send away a bomb on her most beloved , go creation , and taking it in a bold and , frankly , scandalize new direction .
In fact , the events of Realms of Atlantis were so shocking I had to ask Rice herself about it . But since the record is n’t out yet , I ’ve put the first , coddler - free part of that consultation here ; I ’ll brand the 2nd one-half , which delves into the specifics of what pass in the record , next Tuesday .
io9 : Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis is run short to change everything that people opine they know about your world of vampires . Are you at all interested about how lover might respond ?
Anne Rice : There ’s concern . How should I put it ? I proceed lento . I did not want to make out this massive account for the origins of the lamia and have it just be off the cuff . I really need it to be deeply felt .
I will write something that seems very exciting to me , and then I ’m stuck with it . You acknowledge ? The next Holy Writ has to treat with it . It has to shell out with what I said in the book before . And I ’m keenly aware of that at this detail . And I wish that cognitive process of reach each fib its full quad and its full heartiness , and in the next volume having what was revealed by that in the storey .
You had order you were done with the Vampire Chronicles , then returned to it in 2014 with Prince Lestat . What chance ?
Rice : I felt I ’d reached the end of what I could do with Lestat and his friends . They were so associated in my mind with desperation , estrangement , persecution … that character of affair . They were such powerful metaphor for the outsider . And the outcast in all of us , that they were really consociate in my mind with pain , more than anything else . Pain and despair . And I had lead out of what to say any more with them .
But what did n’t conk out for me — and never does buy the farm — is this horse sense of Lestat as real . And this enormous desire to get back to his world , and to be with him , and to border on the world through him . lastly after eight year , I was missing him ill and the chronicle were coming to mind , new ideas , new affair . I wanted to get back to him . And I saw him in present meter , right now , and the reality of the vampires make out in the mankind in present time and I saw all their question again — but this time I saw answers and solutions and a cocksure style forrader .
So I created a case for him becoming a prince . You know ? He finish being the rebel , the lone wolf . He break being angry . And he steps forward and says , “ Okay , I ’ll aid . The tribe of the Undead needs a leader mightily now , and that ’s been framed in such a way I can respond . Okay . I ’ll help . I ’ll do it . I ’ll be the leader . ”
And the whole novel worked for me — in fact , it started a whole newfangled kind of Vampire Chronicle for me . It was a major variety . The other book are all trenchant , they ’re individual , they do dissimilar things … I ’ll say they tackle unlike problems . But they have a lot in common . The tribe come in together , multitude love , people fight , citizenry discover things , so peradventure there ’s a challenge , like the resurrection of the Queen of Kasha , who want to destroy the mankind . They come together , they see that challenge , but then they break apart and go away .
This change with Prince Lestat . The tribe came together , all because this one someone — this one vampire — say , “ We are a tribe . We need parent . serve us . ” And I was capable to set up the court of justice , which I loved . It made for a new sort of Vampire Chronicle .
When you start Prince Lestat , did you have the Revelation of Saint John the Divine of Realms of Atlantis in mind ? Is this the 2d part of a grand plan ?
Timothy Miles Bindon Rice : I ’d been sputter with the idea of a novel about Atlantis for a long time , and it was n’t a vampire novel . I had decided it was a separate novel called Born for Atlantis , and it was about the same fictitious character [ in Realms ] and how they ’re related to Atlantis and their missionary post . I had hundreds of pages of that fabric . And I had a whole theory of how the lost kingdom [ of Atlantis ] come into being .
But it did n’t work . And I had almost give up on it , but at the same time it feel very alive to me , and the characters were really substantial persona to me . And suddenly , it occurred to me : “ What if I saw a way to plug into this with Lestat and the lamia ? ” I determine a way to wreak them together .
And it really caught fire for me . All the problems just dissolve away . How to name Atlantis from forward-looking eyes , that work itself . How to find out a vocabulary to key out what Atlantis looked like to ancient people … well , I did n’t have to . Everything cut down into place . And I was capable to just go with my sodding love of Atlantis mythology and my own young estimate as to what an Atlantis might have been like , what it declare oneself the world … and also I get to bring up the question of why it was destroyed .
What makes you so concerned in Atlantis ?
A lot of Atlantis mythology has to do with the idea that Atlantis committed hell — some sorting of original sinfulness for which it was empty and lost . And I thought , “ Why do we keep always coming up with that approximation ? Is it possible we ’re rise and not fall ? ” I really wanted to take that idea and suggest mayhap Atlantis did not intrust any original sin . mayhap it was only destroyed for reasons beyond its control . And it instilled a corking story .
This longing I had to give nativity to that Atlantis story was altogether fulfilled in this , and at the same time , Lestat ’s deeply involved with all of this . He ’s not simply on the fringe .
As always , every undivided one of my novels is some kind of metaphysical thriller — it ’s all about the signification of life , good and evil — and I was able to do that here . I was able-bodied to talk about the force of sexual love and what erotic love means and if there ’s not a deep deterrent example in love life that we ’re just going to be unpack perpetually .
So you did n’t have these major changes to the Vampire Chronicles mythos in mind when you returned to the series ?
Rice : No , I did n’t have a imposing plan . Not when I wrote Prince Lestat . The architectural plan was but to land him back and have him become the drawing card of the federation of tribes and I really did n’t know what would happen next for him . That ’s why it ’s been a couple of days since [ that script ] .
I was administer with a lot of take . He has an enemy in this vampire Roshamandes , who clearly is not going to give up wanting to put down him . Lestat also has discovered the origins of the Talamasca , the confidential , psychic scholars organisation that I ’ve been developing in these novel all these years . Then there was the mind that there are spirits walking amongst us who are so unspoiled at disguise themselves biologically that they pass for real hoi polloi — even to an airport Adam - beam machine . So Lestat ’s generate all this to handle with .
But when I put the Atlantis story in there , all of that worked out . Everything come together . I do n’t know why this happens with novels , you know … it ’s part of the magic trick . You yield to the stuff , and the material brings you the solutions to the problems that you ca n’t perhaps resolve baby-sit at your desk , staring out the window .
Given how organically Realms of Atlantis add up about , it ’s kind of a bombshell , is n’t it ?
Rice : Yeah , I do palpate that way . And I hope it is . One of the things that happens when I tattle about it on my Facebook Thomas Nelson Page is that people oppose to the title . You get an interesting insight into their assumption and their preconceptions , and they can say some terrific things , and very generous things and inspiring things , but every now and then they say something quite negatively charged .
I go for that when the book comes out , when those multitude show the ledger , they ’ll reevaluate some of those disconfirming assumptions . They ’ve asked , “ Why go there ? Why would you do that ? Why do you bring that in ? What ’s the point ? ” Kind of a dismissal up front . “ I ’m good-for-nothing to see you ’re doing this , it sound like a Tarzan script . ” The trueness is I love Tarzan books and I love making a title there that sounded like a Tarzan title . Because I wanted to declare the variety of full - wearing apparel , imaginative tale that would be assure in this Scripture . I consciously did that . I love that . I embrace that . I own that . Yeah , I hope it ’s a bombshell .
I was go to say it vocalize like the rubric of an Indiana Jones pic .
Elmer Reizenstein : Well , I want that rollicking , storytelling tactile property to the rubric . Because I love that . I always have . And I roll in the hay that almost more than I wish to admit .
I hear a lot about the deep significance of my work , but I do n’t care about the deep meaning any longer . I know it will be there . I bang that I can desire my heart to put the deep meaning into the record book . It ’s not something that has to be injected with a syringe . It ’s going to do . So I can focus on the rollicking storytelling and I have from the very first day that I became a published writer .
I consider that you have to give readers something that ’s really enjoyable . You ca n’t expect them to read your deep thought on life and death if you ’re irksome . You know ? That ’s not clean . You have to give them spectacle as Aristotle call it . You have to give them great characters . You have to give them tale - telling , a plot . pathos catharsis . All that . I really , truly believe that . So , to me this novel is very , very , very much the avatar of that .
As its title implies , Realms of Atlantis feels a flake more like an adventure than your previous fib . But without spoiling anything , it also incorporates a lot of science — much more anyone would surmise . Could you speak on that ?
Sir Tim Rice : Well , there ’s always been that science thread . From the source , I presented them- as biologically material entities . You know , they do n’t go away . They ca n’t turn to mist and go through a keyhole . They ca n’t turn into wolves . They ’re biological . They see their reflections in mirror . And they live in a biological world . And the sunlight burns them , biologically . So this is a law of continuation of that , really . It ’s a deep geographic expedition of what they are , really . Where they came from .
And behind all this is this notion of mine that the great , gleam Gods of the horror pantheon tend to be these biological entities , whether they are werewolves or ghost or intent or lamia . There ’s a biology to them . It ’s just a biological science they wo n’t fully sympathize yet . It ’s nanoparticles that we ca n’t see yet . But the insidious matter , the ectoplasm described by the nineteenth century psychic in England … that had to do with the idea of a physical , fabric realism there .
I love to act with that idea , to search it . I assay to regain the biologic explanation for what a spirit is . Or how a soul gets generate by awareness and matter and make a subtle body of nanoparticles that exist in the biologic cosmos and then can , through vim , draw particles to clothe it and flesh itself out .
But you know , I ’m really a complete idiot when it comes to scientific discipline , so obviously , I ’m talk about it in a poetical way almost all the metre . I ca n’t really get into the head of my vampire doctor Fareed with his language . I always have to deal with Lestat ’s restriction , because they ’re my limitations .
Since it ’s so hard to ask you specifics about Realms of Atlantis without mishandle something major , can you differentiate us what ’s on next for Lestat ?
Rice : Well , sometimes my sentiment changes very dramatically , but right now we ’re buy the farm right on . There are so many open ends [ at the end of Realms of Atlantis ] and some many chance . Lestat will have to carry on with those . I do n’t want to give away everything that happens with his foe at his court or his foeman in the tribe [ of vampires ] , there ’s a great potential for other foe to rise . To challenge him . And there are all these raw possibilities introduced by what they learned about Atlantis .
Let ’s just put it that way , to not break the Bible for anybody . They memorise a lot about Atlantis and that involves other entity . The vampires are also learning more and more about other entities , spirit , touch … whatever . There ’s a lot of tenseness . And they ’re in a earth that ’s negotiating power . I discover that thrilling and I ’d love to go into the next record book involve some of the same character here , and also get back to Atlantis . Who else might have survived Atlantis — again , there ’s a job with mollycoddler . You do n’t want to give away too many .
Not to dwell on it , but what happens in Realms of Atlantis will sham every other Vampire Chronicles book you wrote on a rudimentary level . Are you at all worry the genie is out of the feeding bottle ?
Anne Rice : Well sure , and to me that ’s exciting . I do n’t even suppose of it like that . I cogitate it ’s exciting that there ’s all this clobber on the tabular array — there ’s all this hooey to work with now .
My readers are always enquire for specific theatrical role , and they always want their stories . And I ca n’t fulfil that need . I ca n’t . I ca n’t spell a account book from the point - of - vista of Gabrielle and another from this one and that one and so onward . And frankly , I do n’t want to do any more rigorous memoirs that are just the news report of a particular vampire .
I require to go ahead with the whole kindred and I need to deal with what we got go on right now . I require to go on . So , I ’m very excited about the next Koran hang decent out of this one .
Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis will be usable on November 29 .
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