Summary
Anne Rice wrote 38 books over the course of her decades-long career.
Two of her most prominent series are the interconnected
The Vampire Chronicles
and
Lives of the Mayfair Witches
.
The books can be read in different orders depending on release date and story chronology.
Over the course of her 45-year career, novelist Anne Rice penned a multitude of books including a variety of series and standalone titles. She is probably best known for writing the Vampire Chronicles series, which has been adapted to the screen in various formats including the movies Interview with the Vampire and Queen of the Damned. AMC’s Interview with the Vampire show is the latest incarnation of the property, part of a line of adaptations that has drawn prominent stars over the years including Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Christian Slater, Antonio Banderas, Aaliyah, and Ben Daniels.
Rice’s other novels are also gaining more notoriety in the wake of the success of AMC’s Interview with the Vampire. The show spawned an interconnected franchise known as Anne Rice’s Immortal Universe that also includes Mayfair Witches, which is a spinoff starring Alexandra Daddario, Tongayi Chirisa, Jack Huston, and Harry Hamlin, in addition to an upcoming Talamasca spinoff. However, over the course of penning 37 novels and one nonfiction book, she also spread her wings by exploring other genres, including biblical fiction and erotica. Before her death in 2021, she also briefly dabbled with co-writing novels alongside her son Christopher.
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Every Anne Rice Book In Publication Order
Anne Rice Wrote 38 Books
Interview with the Vampire (1976) The Feast of All Saints (1979) Cry to Heaven (1982) The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983) as A. N. Roquelaure Beauty’s Punishment (1984) as A. N. Roquelaure The Vampire Lestat (1985) Beauty’s Release (1985) as A. N. Roquelaure Exit to Eden (1985) as Anne Rampling Belinda (1986) as Anne Rampling The Queen of the Damned (1988) The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989) The Witching Hour (1990) The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) Lasher (1993) Taltos (1994) Memnoch the Devil (1995) Servant of the Bones (1996) Violin (1997) Pandora (1998) The Vampire Armand (1998) Vittorio the Vampire (1999) Merrick (2000) Blood and Gold (2001) Blackwood Farm (2002) Blood Canticle (2003) Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005) Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (2008) Called Out of Darkness: A Spiritual Confession (2008) Angel Time (2009) Of Love and Evil (2010) The Wolf Gift (2012) The Wolves of Midwinter (2013) Prince Lestat (2014) Beauty’s Kingdom (2015) as A. N. Roquelaure Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016) Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra (2017) with Christopher Rice Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018) Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris (2022) with Christopher Rice
The Vampire Chronicles Books In Order (Release & Chronological)
Anne Rice Wrote 13 Vampire Chronicles Books
Many of Anne Rice’s most popular novels were part of the series Vampire Chronicles. This only became more true after the production of the Interview with the Vampire movie, which was the eleventh highest-grossing movie of 1994 and was eventually nominated for two Oscars. In addition to featuring some of her most iconic characters and storylines, the Chronicles novels dominated her bibliography as Rice delivered installments in the series from the beginning of her career until just three years before her death.
The Vampire Chronicles Books In Release Order
The Vampire Chronicles is Anne Rice’s most ambitious series. While there were nine years separating the first two installments, during which time the author largely focused on erotic fiction, she returned to the universe at full steam, releasing novels at a relatively steady clip between 1985 and 2003 before another hiatus of more than a decade. Overall, there were 13 books in the primary Vampire Chronicles series, which can be seen in release order below:
Interview with the Vampire (1976) The Vampire Lestat (1985) The Queen of the Damned (1988) The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) Memnoch the Devil (1995) The Vampire Armand (1998) Merrick (2000) Blood and Gold (2001) Blackwood Farm (2002) Blood Canticle (2003) Prince Lestat (2014) Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016) Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018)
The Vampire Chronicles Books In Chronological Order
The Vampire Chronicles books can sometimes contain multiple or overlapping timelines, as indicated by the fact that in Interview with the Vampire, the titular interview takes place in the modern day while the story Louis tells about his life and undeath spans centuries. While a full timeline of each scene in the series would be more complicated, the novels otherwise all follow roughly one after the other, even when they focus on the exploits of characters who weren’t the leads of the previous installments. Thus, the release order is still likely the best option, as detailed below:
Interview with the Vampire (1976) The Vampire Lestat (1985) The Queen of the Damned (1988) The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) Memnoch the Devil (1995) The Vampire Armand (1998) Merrick (2000) Blood and Gold (2001) Blackwood Farm (2002) Blood Canticle (2003) Prince Lestat (2014) Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016) Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018)
Lives Of The Mayfair Witches Books In Order (Release & Chronological)
Anne Rice Wrote 3 Lives Of The Mayfair Witches Books
One of the other most important series that Anne Rice ever wrote was Lives of the Mayfair Witches, which kicked off in 1990. The series, which frequently intermingled with The Vampire Chronicles, followed a family of witches who are connected to the spirit Lasher. Although only three books were published in the series, several characters and elements would appear in later Rice novels.
The Lives of the Mayfair Witches Books In Release Order
The Lives of the Mayfair Witches trilogy was published in reasonably quick succession between 1990 and 1994. In fact, of the Rice series that included more than two novels, Mayfair Witches had the shortest span between its beginning and its end. Below, see their exact titles and release dates:
The Witching Hour (1990) Lasher (1993) Taltos (1994)
The Lives of the Mayfair Witches Books In Chronological Order
Because of how tightly the release dates and storylines are connected, the Lives of the Mayfair Witches books have a reasonably strict chronology. Thus, they should be read in release order, which is as follows:
The Witching Hour (1990) Lasher (1993) Taltos (1994)
Should You Read The Vampire Chronicles Before Lives Of The Mayfair Witches?
The Two Anne Rice Series Are Deeply Interconnected
Because of the ways that the stories are interconnected, the reading order for Rice’s two most prominent series can be complicated. The first six Vampire Chronicles books and the original Mayfair Witches trilogy function reasonably well separately and can be read without knowledge of the other series. However, all nine novels should be read before opening Merrick, Blackwood Farm, or Blood Canticle, which all feature crossovers between the two series.
Otherwise, reading the series in publication order is probably the best option, so readers can follow along with Rice herself as she develops the world surrounding the characters. Certain elements including the Talamasca and characters like Aaron Lightner cross over even sooner than Merrick. The release date reading order option is detailed below:
Interview with the Vampire (1976) The Vampire Lestat (1985) The Queen of the Damned (1988) The Witching Hour (1990) The Tale of the Body Thief (1992) Lasher (1993) Taltos (1994) Memnoch the Devil (1995) The Vampire Armand (1998) Merrick (2000) Blood and Gold (2001) Blackwood Farm (2002) Blood Canticle (2003) Prince Lestat (2014) Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis (2016) Blood Communion: A Tale of Prince Lestat (2018)
Every Other Anne Rice Book Series In Order
Anne Rice Wrote 6 Additional Book Series
The Sleeping Beauty Quartet
The Sleeping Beauty Quartet, which Anne Rice wrote under the pseudonym A. N. Roquelaure, is a series of erotic novels. Loosely inspired by the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty, the series contains elements of BDSM, fetishism, and role-playing as well as various expressions of sexuality. The four-part series, which is not directly connected to any other Rice works, should be read in release order, which is as follows:
The Claiming of Sleeping Beauty (1983) Beauty’s Punishment (1984) Beauty’s Release (1985) Beauty’s Kingdom (2015)
Ramses the Damned
Ramses the Damned marked Anne Rice’s first foray into a series following a type of classic monster other than vampires. After publishing the original book in the series in 1989, Rice made good on her promise of a sequel decades later with two novels co-written with her son Christopher, the latter of which was released just months after her death. Because the sequels explore the mythology of the original novel, they should be read in release order, which is as follows:
The Mummy, or Ramses the Damned (1989) Ramses the Damned: The Passion of Cleopatra (2017) Ramses the Damned: The Reign of Osiris (2022)
New Tales of the Vampires
New Tales of the Vampires is a series of Vampire Chronicles spinoff novels that bookended the sixth installment, The Vampire Armand. Both told the stories of vampires who were not primary characters in the novels. However, there is some intersection between the series, including the title character of Pandora being featured in Prince Lestat. See their release order below:
Pandora (1998) Vittorio the Vampire (1999)
While
Vittorio the Vampire
is largely a standalone, it would help if a chronological readthrough of the
Vampire Chronicles
novels included
Pandora
before
The Vampire Armand
.
Christ the Lord
The Christ the Lord novels are biblical fiction where Rice depicts brief periods in the life of Jesus Christ. The first book follows him from age 7 to 8 while the second takes place during the winter before his baptism. Though they were originally meant to be a four-part series, the below duology is all that was ever published:
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt (2005) Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana (2008)
Songs of the Seraphim
Songs of the Seraphim is a duology that follows assassin Toby O’Dare. The novels contain elements of time travel and while they feature Christian themes, they are unrelated to the Christ the Lord books. See the release order for the two Seraphim books below:
Angel Time (2009) Of Love and Evil (2010)
The Wolf Gift Chronicles
The final series ever written by Anne Rice began in 2012, just nine years before her death. Centered on a werewolf in Northern California, the duology was originally meant to be a single self-contained narrative before the author saw fit to continue the story the following year. See the details of both installments in the series below:
The Wolf Gift (2012) The Wolves of Midwinter (2013)