The vampire world is in crisis – their kind have been proliferating out of control and, thanks to technologies undreamed of in previous centuries, they can communicate as never before. Roused from their earth-bound slumber, ancient ones are in thrall to the Voice: which commands that they burn fledgling vampires in cities from Paris to Mumbai, Hong Kong to Kyoto and San Francisco. Immolations, huge massacres, have commenced all over the world. Who – or what – is the Voice? What does it desire, and why? There is only one vampire, only one blood drinker, truly known to the entire world of the Undead. Will the dazzling hero-wanderer, the dangerous rebel-outlaw Lestat heed the call to unite the Children of Darkness as they face this new twilight? Anne Rice’s epic, luxuriant, fiercely ambitious new novel brings together all the worlds and beings of the legendary Vampire Chronicles, from present-day New York and Ancient Egypt to fourth-century Carthage and Renaissance Venice; from Louis de Pointe du Lac; Armand the eternally young; Mekare and Maharet; to Pandora and Flavius; David Talbot, vampire and ultimate fixer from the Secret Talamasca; and Marius, the true child of the Millennia. It also introduces many other seductive supernatural creatures, and heralds significant new blood.


吸血鬼世界正面臨空前危機，他們的數量不停增加，即將失控。而拜科技所賜，吸血鬼彼此之間的溝通效率之高，是幾世紀前所無法想像的。深埋在地底的古老吸血鬼自沉睡中甦醒，臣服於一道聲音，它下令獵殺所有新生的吸血鬼。巴黎、孟買、香港、京都、舊金山等各大城市陷入一片混亂，焚燒屠殺吸血鬼的事件在各處蔓延，這道聲音的真面目為何？目的為何？原因為何？笑飲鮮血的吸血鬼黎斯特，在吸血鬼世界中眾所皆知；他是令人讚嘆的流浪英雄，也是危險叛逆的亡命之徒。但黎斯特是否能查覺這股號召黑暗之子的力量，帶領他們迎接新曙光的到來呢？安・萊絲在新作中，透過壯麗場景與刺激情節，交錯帶出她知名著作《吸血鬼紀事》系列中多位角色與故事內容，書中時空背景橫跨今日的紐約、遠古埃及、四世紀的迦太基古城和文藝復興時期的威尼斯。各重要角色一一出現，包括吸血鬼路易斯、青春不老的阿曼德、雙胞胎吸血鬼瑪卡芮與瑪哈芮、潘朵拉、佛拉蜜絲、既是吸血鬼也是神秘組織泰拉瑪斯卡的領導人大衛・泰柏特，和真正的千禧之子——馬瑞斯。書中不僅引介了許多魅惑的超自然生物，更預告了重要新角色即將登場。