Taltos by Anne Rice

I finally finished re-reading The Mayfair Witches Trilogy. I feel as if I put off this last book because there was nothing drawing me to it. I didn't remember what happened, and was pretty sure that nothing jaw-dropping was within its pages. I was right.

This trilogy definitely fades as the books go on in excitement and depth of character. I feel as if the characters you meet in the first two books, who are so vivid, dim considerably in Taltos, and while the mythology of the series is fully flushed out, it's missing the combination of history and character development that shapes the other two books.

Everyone is second-guessing themselves in Taltos or simply out of their mind. Frankly, it's annoying. These are all characters who have seen so much, who know so much of the story, who are able to make definitive decisions and take immediate action - what's happened to them? Maybe Rice shouldn't have wrapped up so much of her story, maybe she should have left more pieces open-ended. I certainly feel she should have left more conflict than we ended up getting.

There's not much to say for this book. Most of the plot points to share would create spoilers for the story. All I can say is that everyone gets what's coming to them and all the fear we're left with from The Witching Hour and Lasher is heavily tempered by the end of Taltos so that you don't really care what's next for the characters you've followed through the series. It's still an amazingly intricate story that's worth reading, but maybe don't feel guilty if you pass on the third installment.