Helpful Score: 2
Best Anne Rice book since Ramses the Damned in my opinion.
Helpful Score: 1
I liked this book and found it to be a nice change from Rice's vampires. We first see a murder in the modern world and then are taken through a series of flashbacks as the modern day events unfold. I found Azriel's origin in ancient Babylon the most interesting part of the book because you get more of a sense of history and culture of the ancient world.
Helpful Score: 1
Amazon.com
Her first book since Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel--pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
Her first book since Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel--pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
Helpful Score: 1
I am a fan of Ann Rice's works. This is a good, neat 1 book story. So if you don't have the stamina to read an on-going series and still want her style, this book is the one for you.
Helpful Score: 1
A "SLEEPER", My name is "AZRIEL". They call me the Servant of the Bones, but I became a rebel ghost, a bitter and impudent genii.....from BABYLON to PRESENT DAY NEW YORK, its a compelling story drama. A must read.
Helpful Score: 1
Great read!! Anne Rice is the ultimate.
Helpful Score: 1
Her first book since Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel--pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
Helpful Score: 1
Another epic read. It's amazing just how much Rice can cram into 387 pages.
Helpful Score: 1
Not one of her vampire novels. Original, kept me interested.
Helpful Score: 1
Loved it Anne Rice at the top of her game.
Helpful Score: 1
Anne Rice's character Azriel of Babylon, circa 600 BC, is one of her more fascinating characters.
Helpful Score: 1
Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel--pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
Helpful Score: 1
servent will delight the star of the show is azriel of wonderous babylon, circa 600 b.c. a wrathful angel, a demon bent on revenge,[Rice] dosn't let go until we're rapturous,on our knees,begging for more."
Ann Rice has a new hero -- the powerful, witty, smiling Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is a ghost, demon, angel -- in love with the good, in thrall to evil. He pours out his heart to us, telling his astonishing story when he finds himself--in present-day New York City--a dazed witness to the murder of a young girl and inexplicably obesessed by the desire to avenge her. Azriel takes us back to his mortal youth in the magnificent city of Babylon, where he is plucked from death by evil priests and sorceresses and transformed into a genii commanded to do their bidding. Challenging these forces of destruction, Azriel embarks on his perilous journey through time--from Babylon's hanging gardens to the Europe of the Black Death to Manhattan in the 1900's. And as his quest approaches its climactic horror, he dares to use and risk his supernatural powers in the hope of forestalling a world-threatening conspiracy, and redeeming, at last, what was denied him so long ago: his own eternal human soul.
Great book! Wow, what a great ride. The characters, story line and rich details knock this one right out of the park. Keep yourself in the know, read her books about vampires!
Very Good! Very Ann Rice! Kept me interested & glued to the pages from the get go! Definately a must read!
I am not into the vampire stories, this book was given to me by a friend to read and I am glad I decided to really read it. This is still one of my favorite books. I have read it twice now. I would love to see it made into a motion picture.
Anne Rice's books are full of the struggle between good and evil and this book is no exception. Meticulously detailed, this sometimes gruesome tale (gruesome in the description of how the main character became the servant of the bones)is full of Kabbalistic-tinged lore brought into modern times by the calling up of the servant of the bones from his journey through time. I always feel a little ambivalent while reading Rice's books, teetering between liking them and hating them, and I think that's the essence of a good horror story. A great read.
FROM THE PUBLISHER
In a new and major novel, the creator of fantastic universes o vampires and witches takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's Temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones.
He is ghost, genii, demon, angelpure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to Europe of the Black Death and on to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
In a new and major novel, the creator of fantastic universes o vampires and witches takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's Temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones.
He is ghost, genii, demon, angelpure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to Europe of the Black Death and on to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
Amazon.com
Her first book since Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel--pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
Her first book since Memnoch the Devil, Anne Rice takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah, and the destruction of Solomon's temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genji, demon, angel--pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to the Europe of the Black Death and to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins and the dark forces that have sought to condemn him to a life of evil and destruction.
I almost didn't finish reading this book... the first 100 pages were very tedious and boring me to tears. However, I wanted to read at least 1/4 of the way through (about 100 pages) before making a decision whether to put this book aside since I've read a number of good books that also started off slow. In this case, I'm glad I continued reading as things got more interesting right around the 100th page, when Azriel was made into the Servant of the Bones.
I didn't particularly care for the style in which the story was told, with Azriel telling his story to Jonathan, in the style of Interview with the Vampire. The story wouldn't worked just as well without Jonathan's character.
Azriel recalls to Jonathan his experiences serving various Masters as the Servant of the Bones, starting with his youth growing up in Babylon, circa 600 B.C.E., and ending in present-day New York, where he uses his supernatural powers to uncover a world-threating conspiracy by a magnanimous cult leader. And in the process, truly transforms himself from the demon he believed he once was, to a true Angel of God.
I didn't particularly care for the style in which the story was told, with Azriel telling his story to Jonathan, in the style of Interview with the Vampire. The story wouldn't worked just as well without Jonathan's character.
Azriel recalls to Jonathan his experiences serving various Masters as the Servant of the Bones, starting with his youth growing up in Babylon, circa 600 B.C.E., and ending in present-day New York, where he uses his supernatural powers to uncover a world-threating conspiracy by a magnanimous cult leader. And in the process, truly transforms himself from the demon he believed he once was, to a true Angel of God.
Wow, excellent book! Love the strange story and how it all weaves together to make everything happen. This is a great read with rich characters that you will feel for and wonder about long after reading.
Not really sure how this book left me feeling. I didn't love nor hate this book. I guess I could say its a good escape for the next few hundred pages.
a ghost,demon,angel.
From Publishers Weekly
Neither a vampire nor a witch nor a mummy, but a genie provides the focus of Rice's latest (after Memnoch the Devil). The queen of high-decadent gothic deviates from her formula of interlacing spirituality and carnality here: only in the novel's latter pages do lusty sensuousness and brisk pacing leaven a series of cerebral metaphysical struggles. This unusual approach arises from the central dilemma of the story. "Servant of the Bones" Azriel is a "genii" who, until his emergence in 1995 New York, is only a shell filled with spirit, not a corporeal presence ripe for Rice's usual dark eroticism. In the novel's first half, Azriel tells his tale: born a Hebrew in Babylon at the time of Cyrus, he is sacrificed in order to free his people, his body boiled down to golden bones. He then is cursed by a necromancer to be bound to the bones. Over the millennia, he is a spirit at the beck and call of a series of "Masters" who possess his casket. When Azriel calls himself into human form in the present day, he encounters plastic, airplanes--and the Temple of the Mind, a cult of computer-created creed that threatens to kill two-thirds of the earth's population. Azriel's emergence as a sensual being and the suspense generated by the Temple's Last Days project will help readers to forget the book's initial 300 pages, in which they must track Azriel from swirling particles to thickening flesh. Yet Rice's impeccable research into science, history and Jewish scholarship will probably leave readers impressed and entertained.
Neither a vampire nor a witch nor a mummy, but a genie provides the focus of Rice's latest (after Memnoch the Devil). The queen of high-decadent gothic deviates from her formula of interlacing spirituality and carnality here: only in the novel's latter pages do lusty sensuousness and brisk pacing leaven a series of cerebral metaphysical struggles. This unusual approach arises from the central dilemma of the story. "Servant of the Bones" Azriel is a "genii" who, until his emergence in 1995 New York, is only a shell filled with spirit, not a corporeal presence ripe for Rice's usual dark eroticism. In the novel's first half, Azriel tells his tale: born a Hebrew in Babylon at the time of Cyrus, he is sacrificed in order to free his people, his body boiled down to golden bones. He then is cursed by a necromancer to be bound to the bones. Over the millennia, he is a spirit at the beck and call of a series of "Masters" who possess his casket. When Azriel calls himself into human form in the present day, he encounters plastic, airplanes--and the Temple of the Mind, a cult of computer-created creed that threatens to kill two-thirds of the earth's population. Azriel's emergence as a sensual being and the suspense generated by the Temple's Last Days project will help readers to forget the book's initial 300 pages, in which they must track Azriel from swirling particles to thickening flesh. Yet Rice's impeccable research into science, history and Jewish scholarship will probably leave readers impressed and entertained.
Azriel is ghost, demon, angel-in love with the good, in thrall to the evil-and he pours out his heart to us telling an astonishing story.
Great book
i couldn't put this one down! Amazing how it just grabs you and won't let good, good plot, story...
Azriel's story-ghost/demon/angel
An average Rice book. I read it so long ago I can't really remember it. I remember enjoying it while I read it but can't remember it too much so must not have been too outstanding. I am a huge Anne Rice fan so its weird how little I remember of this book.
This is the book that I have, but it is NOT hardback.
