Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Ballantine Books (1995), Mass Market Paperback, 640 pages
Description
Fantasy. Fiction. Literature. HTML:"SEDUCTIVE MAGIC...SPELLBINDING...Rice stages her scenes in a wide variety of times and locales, tapping deeply into the richest veins of mythology and history." �??San Francisco Chronicle "STEAMY...FAST-PACED AND HUGELY ENGROSSING...Rice's title character�??a seductive, evil, highly sexual and ultimately tragic creature�??is fascinating." �??The Miami Herald "BEHIND ALL THE VELVET DRAPES AND GOSSAMER WINDING SHEETS, THIS IS AN OLD-FASHIONED FAMILY SAGA....Rice's descriptive writing is so opulent it almost begs to be read by candlelight." �??The Washington Post Book World "RICE SEES THINGS ON A GRAND SCALE...There is a wide-screen historical sweep to the tale as it moves from one generation of witches to the other." �??The Boston Globe "EROTIC...EERIE...HORRIFYING...A tight tale of the occult in present-day New Orleans...Anne Rice is a spellbinding novelist.... LASHER quenches." �??Denver Post A MAIN SELECTION OF T… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member leore_joanne
This book was weaker than its predecessor (The Witching Hour), and was a bit of a dissapointment. It continues the story line and explains what happens to Lasher and to the Mayfair family, and also explaind what Lasher actually IS. So I DO recommend it for whomever read and fell in the spell of the
I liked this book much more when I first read it, but now, on a second reading, it doesn't live up to my expectations. Somehow, it does not have the magic and the feel of the first book. Also, all that weird incestuous sex, is starting to get a bit disturbing.
Another annoying point is, that Lasher has lost all his mysteriousness and became quite awful, while I liked his character a lot in the previous book, even when he was mean, I begun to hate him in this.
Rowan becomes a weak character as well, and Michael fares no better. The only two who bloom, are two new characters - thirteen year old Mona Mayfair, and Ancient Evelyn.
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first book, because it answers a lot of questions. I liked this book much more when I first read it, but now, on a second reading, it doesn't live up to my expectations. Somehow, it does not have the magic and the feel of the first book. Also, all that weird incestuous sex, is starting to get a bit disturbing.
Another annoying point is, that Lasher has lost all his mysteriousness and became quite awful, while I liked his character a lot in the previous book, even when he was mean, I begun to hate him in this.
Rowan becomes a weak character as well, and Michael fares no better. The only two who bloom, are two new characters - thirteen year old Mona Mayfair, and Ancient Evelyn.
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LibraryThing member johnmischief
Whilst i agree that this isn't as good as The Witching Hour, i would also have to say it is a lot better than some of the reviews below would have you believe.
In essence Lasher is the second half of the same story begun in the previous book and completes the story arc well (there is Taltos to
Where it falls down however is in repeating Mayfair history told already in the first book. Also it lacks some of the passion.
However we get to delve deeper into Julien's history and discover more on Lasher's origins.
Overall an excellent book which you must read if you enjoyed the first.
In essence Lasher is the second half of the same story begun in the previous book and completes the story arc well (there is Taltos to
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complete the trilogy but Lasher is the true ending to this particular story).Where it falls down however is in repeating Mayfair history told already in the first book. Also it lacks some of the passion.
However we get to delve deeper into Julien's history and discover more on Lasher's origins.
Overall an excellent book which you must read if you enjoyed the first.
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LibraryThing member sdtaylor555
A bit disappointing after the masterpiece that was the Witching Hour, but pretty good really. I did enjoy it.
LibraryThing member corgidog2
Anne Rice writes about the New Orleans witches as if she knows them personnaly. I guess she does, actually, having written so many books about them.
LibraryThing member Tasker
Long, long book at only 577 pages had to force myself to finish
LibraryThing member thioviolight
It took a while to really sink into the book, but when I did, I pretty much enjoyed it. While it's not quite as good as The Witching Hour, it was far from bad, for me.
LibraryThing member EmScape
Though not as compelling as it’s prequel, Lasher is an entertaining read. Again shifting back and forth from past to present, Lasher tells his own story, Julian tells his, and we meet the enchanting present-day Mona. While in “The Witching Hour” the method of telling about past events was
What this volume does have over it’s predecessor is a much more satisfying ending, one I really didn’t see coming, considering the existence of a sequel.
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unique, the historical documents of the Talamasca, in “Lasher” we are told about the past in narrative fashion from the ghost of Julien, as well as Lasher himself. It’s a perfectly acceptable convention, but not quite as unique. It was good to get more back-story, although Julien’s is more fill-in-the-blank as we know most of that from the first book. What this volume does have over it’s predecessor is a much more satisfying ending, one I really didn’t see coming, considering the existence of a sequel.
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LibraryThing member Natalie220
This is NOT a Vampire story it is a continuance of The Witching Hour. Although it is not as good as the first Mayfair family book, it is interesting. It introduces a lot of new interesting Mayfair characters and you get to know Lasher and Julien on a deeper level. The only thing I didn't like was
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so much talk of thirteen year old's having sex or being sexually abused by their family members. Other than that the book is a must, if you want to find out what happens to Lasher and the Mayfair Family. Show Less
LibraryThing member vampyredhead
The 2nd book in the lives of the Mayfair witches. This isn't a good as the first, but still worth reading. It's scary and sensual.
LibraryThing member aketzle
Honestly got bored with this. Loved her vamp series, but not as into this one. I was 35 pages from the end & didn't care enough to finish it. Too much other more interesting stuff to read. Like Sex at Dawn, which I'm reading now & am totally enthralled by.
LibraryThing member AliceAnna
Much more enjoyable than The Witching Hour. It really moved fast except for Lasher's story toward the end of the book. It took me days to wade through that part and brought the narrative to a screeching halt. She should have interspersed his story a little at a time rather than stopping the story
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and switching gears so abruptly. Show Less
LibraryThing member meggiemoo0
Since I was a big fan of The Witching Hour, I picked up the sequel thinking it would continue the provocative story. In a way, it did, but it also (as Anne Rice often does) goes back in time. I wasn't really convinced by how far back she went, into the memories of the early Lasher being a taltos in
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the 13th century. The history Julien told was boring compared to the Mayfair File from the first book. The book overall didn't have the same feeling as the first, probably because it wasn't focused on Rowan. I didn't like Mona very much, so seeing things with a focus on her was not as exciting. But, the ending was so conclusive I wass surprised and satisfied. It was worth it to finish the book all the way through for it. I also liked the incorporation of the creepy poem. The secret behing the Talamasca was fascinating as well, with such a gothic overtone that is usually in Anne Rice's vampire novels. Show Less
LibraryThing member jenladuca
The Mayfair Witches is by far my favorite Anne Rice series! Lasher, book #2 in this series is really, really good. I zipped right through it and spent several sleepless nights reading cause I just had to find out how it ended. The ONLY reason I didn't give it 5 stars was because nothing, in my
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eyes, can compare to Mrs. Rices's, The Witching Hour and I must leave that one at the top :) Show Less
LibraryThing member sweetzombieducky
I knoew I was done with this book in the first few chapters following the Mona/Michael thing. It wasn't that it was shocking, it's just that Mona is such an unlikable character. I was disgusted with Michael when he went back for seconds, not so much because she was a child but because I was
Rice does get brownie points for the grotesque scenes of Rowan's captivity however.
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wondering how he could be sexually attracted to something so irritating. Rowan's reaction was a gem, too.Rice does get brownie points for the grotesque scenes of Rowan's captivity however.
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LibraryThing member Carl_Alves
If you stripped down this novel and eliminated all of the extraneous parts to it (which means you would probably have to cut it in half), Lasher is a pretty good novel. The novel, about a demonic creature who haunts the females of the Mayfair witches in an attempt to have an offspring with them,
The problem is that the novel is horribly overwritten with rambling narratives about the history of the Mayfairs and the Donnelaith clan from Scotland. There is so much material that doesn’t belong in this novel. It’s hard to even boil down what the actual story is at times. This is what has plagued Anne Rice’s writing since about her fifth novel. It seems as if she gets paid by the word at times. It’s still a solid novel that I would recommend if you like Rice’s work.
Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
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now has a child with Rowan Mayfair, the matriarch of the Mayfair witches. This follows The Witching Hour in a long-winded saga that seems like it will never end.The problem is that the novel is horribly overwritten with rambling narratives about the history of the Mayfairs and the Donnelaith clan from Scotland. There is so much material that doesn’t belong in this novel. It’s hard to even boil down what the actual story is at times. This is what has plagued Anne Rice’s writing since about her fifth novel. It seems as if she gets paid by the word at times. It’s still a solid novel that I would recommend if you like Rice’s work.
Carl Alves – author of Blood Street
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LibraryThing member justagirlwithabook
I really enjoyed The Witching Hour and meant to pick this one up and keep going with the series, but I got about halfway through and got distracted by other things and other books (per usual). I will pick this one back up at some point though because I'd like to see how this story ends.
LibraryThing member wb4ever1
In my ongoing effort to get back into Anne Rice, I sat down and read LASHER, the second book in her Mayfair Witches trilogy, and another tome which has sat on my shelf more than a few years. Rice might be an acquired taste – for very good reasons – but I greatly admire her abilities as a story
To start off, at just over 600 pages, LASHER, is shorter than the over long THE WITCHING HOUR by a third, and that is a plus. This book centers on the missing Rowan Mayfair, her new husband Michael Curry, and the creature named Lasher, a demon bound to the wealthy Mayfair family of New Orleans for generations, ever since Scotland in the time of Queen Mary. The major portions of this book elaborates upon what we learned in THE WITCHING HOUR, mostly through Rice’s patented set piece where one character sits and listens to another tell a long tale, filled with much detail in the first person POV. Through multiple chapters, the spirit of Uncle Julian, the one male witch in the Mayfair line, tells Michael a story that stretches from ante bellum New Orleans to the 20th Century, which illuminates the family’s dark relationship with Lasher, even as it travels over ground already covered. Then Lasher himself, now flesh and blood again, tells his story, and we learn something of his true origin and nature, that he is a member of an ancient race called the Taltos that inhabited Scotland before the arrival of Christianity. Among their attributes is that they are born fully formed, with an overwhelming desire to mate, but that can only successfully happen with those of a certain genetic type, hence the long history of incest in the Mayfair line. This is where Rice’s talent really shines in her ability to recreate history in absorbing detail, especially in Lasher’s account of a Scotland in the time of Elisabeth the 1st and Mary Queen of Scots, and a country and culture torn apart by a civil war between Protestants and Catholics. The novel’s plot revolves around three entities – the Mayfair family, the Talemasca, and Lasher himself – and what their true motives might be. The novel introduces some new characters, such as Mona Mayfair, a precocious 13 year old designated as the new “witch,” and Ancient Evelyn, another one of the endless elderly Mayfairs who have seen much and knows more.
But the thing about LASHER that most reviewers mention, and what most readers had a problem with, is its sexual content, more to the point, its casual use of rape and underage sex. The worst case of this is when Mona has sex with Michael, who is described as being in his 40’s. It does not matter that he is not in his right mind, and that the girl is attempting to seduce him; this pushes a button with many people, and I don’t begrudge anyone their outrage. Even if, like me, you are willing roll with it for the sake of the story, this passage stops the book cold. As some others have noted, only an author as successful as Rice could have gotten by with this in the 90’s, and I don’t know if it would fly today. She does like her erotica; the inhuman Lasher is often described in words one would use for a lover. I think Rice is deliberately trying to shock people, but more than that, to make the reader feel as if the they have entered a world where the forbidden is commonplace, where the bonds of conventional morality do not hold, especially behind closed doors and in the dark of night, and in this, I think she succeeds.
The climax of LASHER does bring more of a sense of resolution than most second books in a trilogy; a plot thread that I thought would be left dangling for the next book appears to have been neatly snipped off. Yet there is a third book in the trilogy of the Mayfair Witches, titled TALTOS, and I do look forward to reading it just to see how Anne Rice wraps her saga of incest, rape, and ancient super humans. I’m predicting two characters will sit around while one tells the other a long story.
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teller and a creator of compelling characters, mainly on the strength of her VAMPIRE CHRONICLES. Having read the first book in the trilogy, THE WITCHING HOUR, and not liking it quite as much as her vampire epics, I picked up LASHER with lower expectations. And I can honestly say that I was not disappointed.To start off, at just over 600 pages, LASHER, is shorter than the over long THE WITCHING HOUR by a third, and that is a plus. This book centers on the missing Rowan Mayfair, her new husband Michael Curry, and the creature named Lasher, a demon bound to the wealthy Mayfair family of New Orleans for generations, ever since Scotland in the time of Queen Mary. The major portions of this book elaborates upon what we learned in THE WITCHING HOUR, mostly through Rice’s patented set piece where one character sits and listens to another tell a long tale, filled with much detail in the first person POV. Through multiple chapters, the spirit of Uncle Julian, the one male witch in the Mayfair line, tells Michael a story that stretches from ante bellum New Orleans to the 20th Century, which illuminates the family’s dark relationship with Lasher, even as it travels over ground already covered. Then Lasher himself, now flesh and blood again, tells his story, and we learn something of his true origin and nature, that he is a member of an ancient race called the Taltos that inhabited Scotland before the arrival of Christianity. Among their attributes is that they are born fully formed, with an overwhelming desire to mate, but that can only successfully happen with those of a certain genetic type, hence the long history of incest in the Mayfair line. This is where Rice’s talent really shines in her ability to recreate history in absorbing detail, especially in Lasher’s account of a Scotland in the time of Elisabeth the 1st and Mary Queen of Scots, and a country and culture torn apart by a civil war between Protestants and Catholics. The novel’s plot revolves around three entities – the Mayfair family, the Talemasca, and Lasher himself – and what their true motives might be. The novel introduces some new characters, such as Mona Mayfair, a precocious 13 year old designated as the new “witch,” and Ancient Evelyn, another one of the endless elderly Mayfairs who have seen much and knows more.
But the thing about LASHER that most reviewers mention, and what most readers had a problem with, is its sexual content, more to the point, its casual use of rape and underage sex. The worst case of this is when Mona has sex with Michael, who is described as being in his 40’s. It does not matter that he is not in his right mind, and that the girl is attempting to seduce him; this pushes a button with many people, and I don’t begrudge anyone their outrage. Even if, like me, you are willing roll with it for the sake of the story, this passage stops the book cold. As some others have noted, only an author as successful as Rice could have gotten by with this in the 90’s, and I don’t know if it would fly today. She does like her erotica; the inhuman Lasher is often described in words one would use for a lover. I think Rice is deliberately trying to shock people, but more than that, to make the reader feel as if the they have entered a world where the forbidden is commonplace, where the bonds of conventional morality do not hold, especially behind closed doors and in the dark of night, and in this, I think she succeeds.
The climax of LASHER does bring more of a sense of resolution than most second books in a trilogy; a plot thread that I thought would be left dangling for the next book appears to have been neatly snipped off. Yet there is a third book in the trilogy of the Mayfair Witches, titled TALTOS, and I do look forward to reading it just to see how Anne Rice wraps her saga of incest, rape, and ancient super humans. I’m predicting two characters will sit around while one tells the other a long story.
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LibraryThing member Equestrienne
My overall opinion of the Mayfair witch trilogy is that "Witching Hour" is the best, and it is a minor downhill ride from there. I did enjoy this book, particularly Julien's tale that fills in the missing links from the first novel.
I liked the character of Lasher better in the first novel, when he
I know some people would be deeply disturbed by the incest and sexually active thirteen year old girl in this book, but I don't let that stuff bug me when I read a work of literature.
I liked the character of Lasher better in the first novel, when he
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was just a ghost on steroids. I find the whole concept of the Taltos to be intriguing in "Lasher" but it wears thin by the end of "Taltos".I know some people would be deeply disturbed by the incest and sexually active thirteen year old girl in this book, but I don't let that stuff bug me when I read a work of literature.
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LibraryThing member KRaySaulis
LONG AND BORING. On average Anne Rice's books take me about a week to read. I have been working on for what? Four months now? I just couldn't bring myself to pick it up. When I did I spent the whole time struggling through page after page, waiting for the end of each chapter. The stories told
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within the story were incredibly lengthy, drawn out, ridiculous. I found myself going against my usual instincts and actually skimming the overly descriptive, ridiculously details sections of the book, and still following the predictable story line without a struggle. TOO MUCH. There is just too much in this book. Too many story lines. Too much incest. Too many paragraphs that simply seemed to restate the paragraph before it. Too much. I remain an Anne Rice fan, however this is not her best work. In fact, this is pretty much the worst Anne Rice book I have ever read. I will likely read "Taltos", simply because I can't read only a portion of a series... but I am not looking forward to it. After "The Witching Hour" I was hoping beyond hope that since so much history was laid out in that book, maybe this book would have the action and excitement I was looking for. Yet, just like "The Witching Hour" it was simply more history... and more history... And finally I close this book... and move on to something I hope will prove to be more interesting! Show Less
LibraryThing member ursula
I liked this one better than The Witching Hour. More intrigue with some of the better characters in the series -- particularly Julien.
LibraryThing member quickmind
This book is not for the faint of heart. There is so much questionable content in this book, mostly consisting of incest, rape, and pedophilia. The ending of the last book left a bad taste in my mouth and I wasn't sure if I was going to continue the series, even though I had a copy of this book and
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its sequel. But I decided to continue the series and use this as an entry in Reddit's r/fantasy book bingo for the Sequel card. Even though the first book was very messed up, Anne Rice wrote with such a richness of detail and worldbuilding, that I was drawn into the world and retained a lot of memories of the book and characters so even though I read this one a year later, I still knew all of the details. But so much of the content is revolting. I question the people who wrote blurbs for these books describing them as "steamy" or "sexy" because most of the sex involves incest, rape, or pedophilia. So, why did I read this? I wanted to see if there was an explanation for why these behaviors were normalized for these characters, and there was. Sort of. The magical being Lasher was subtly manipulating this family for countless generations to create right circumstances for his physical rebirth. I choose to believe that the characters were acted upon by forces they don't understand or even acknowledge to behave the way they did. And in that regard, I wanted to see where the story went. I was much happier with the ending of this book, but I'm still only rating it 2 stars because there was so much gross and wrong content to get through. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1993
Physical description
640 p.; 6.83 inches
ISBN
0345397819 / 9780345397812
Local notes
Lives of the Mayfair Witches 2