In a feat of virtuoso storytelling, Anne Rice unleashes Akasha, the queen of the damned, who has risen from a six-thousand-year sleep to let loose the powers of the night. Akasha has a marvelously devious plan to save mankind and destroy the vampire Lestat--in this extraordinarily sensual novel of the complex, erotic, electrifying world of the undead. Praise for The Queen of the Damned Mesmerizing . . . a wonderful web of dark-side mythology.--San Francisco Chronicle With The Queen of the Damned, Anne Rice has created universes within universes, traveling back in time as far as ancient, pre-pyramidic Egypt and journeying from the frozen mountain peaks of Nepal to the crowded, sweating streets of southern Florida.--Los Angeles Times Imaginative . . . intelligently written . . . This is popular fiction of the highest order.--USA Today A tour de force.--The Boston Globe