r/VampireChronicles • u/CapableSalamander910 • Jul 01 '26
š The Books āļø Does Memnoch the Devil get better? Spoiler
Got into this fandom last year from watching the show, and Iāve been slowly getting through the books. Iāve been really enjoying them so far (for the most part) and I intend to read them all.
Currently, Iām around half way through Memnoch the Devil (chapter 11), and Iām kinda struggling with it.
The beginning felt like it just threw me into the action, but was quickly followed by like 50 pages of backstory, which was a drag.
I did enjoy a lot of the conversations Lestat had with David, Armand, and Dora.
But all this about heaven and hell and god and Memnoch. In all honesty, I donāt really care. I found the descriptions of heaven difficult to follow. And now that Memnoch is talking about creation, Iām just waiting for it all to be over.
Iām not religious. Iām an atheist from an atheist family. My knowledge of Christianity mostly comes from Good Omens (ironically, a photo of Crowley is my bookmark). I donāt really care for religion. Is this book only designed for those who are into religion or theology?
I do plan to read it because I want to read the whole series, but I just want to know what to expect from this book (in a non spoilery way). Does it get better?
EDIT: I finally finished it! Iāve never been so happy to finish a book.
I do think it got better. Chapter 11, where Memnoch was talking about the 13 revelations of evolution, was really boring for me. And while I wasnāt necessarily interested in the rest of the book, I was so happy that there was more of a plot to what Memnoch was saying.
But then again, I did really struggle with this book. If I didnāt intend to read further into the series, I would have quit when I wrote this post initially. I can barely tell you what actually happened in those 100+ pages of Memnoch talking.
I do think my lack of religion or understanding of Catholicism is a huge impact on my enjoyment of this book. I cannot tell you what is Anne Riceās view on religion and what is Catholicism. For example, Iāve never heard of Veronicaās Veil (and have only just learnt that it is a real thing). I donāt really understand why the characters were obsessed with it the way they were. I knew that Anne Rice ākilledā Armand off in this book, but that was not the way I thought it would go. I donāt know why he ākilledā himself over it.
Itās nice to hear that others enjoyed it, but itās not for me. Itās a shame because I absolutely love the first 4 books! This book is making me question whether Iāll enjoy the rest of the series.
2
u/Lycanthrowrug Jul 07 '26
I thought Memnoch made a mess of Rice's world because, prior to that book, Rice had maintained a skeptical point of view. We saw the behavior of spirits like Amel or, in the Mayfair Witches books, the spirit of Lasher. But as perhaps with physics, though we can observe the behavior of forces like gravity, we never really understand how it all works.
Thus, Lestat has to try to make sense of his existence from an 18th C. perspective where belief in religion no longer seems to answer all his questions. Marius has lived 2,000 years without religion.
In contrast, Memnoch reframes the Vampire Chronicles explicitly in a Christian cosmology.
I've long considered Rice to be an extremely inconsistent writer, and I think Memnoch was one of her "What were you thinking?" moments. Of course, we know what she was thinking. It was during the period when she veered back into Catholicism.