I brought this book expecting it to advanced the story line of the whole series, which is the Camarilla vs the Sabbat. I brought this book expecting to read about the Tremere "holding the front line against the Sabbat". I was even hoping for some new insights into the Tremere magic of blood thamaturgy.

Sadly, the main plot was side lined for several other plots in this novel. These plots involve character backgrounds, power struggles, murders, dreams, and giantic magical plots.

On the surface these seem promising, but the author, Eric Griffin, can't deliver. He seemed to purposely muster his full resources to make these storylines as tedious and unreadable as possible. The best way to describe this is that the author used a 1000 words where 100 would have done AND he attempted at several points to match the mind numbing end scene of 2001 (Mr Astronaut flies through wierd colors for 20 minutes).

Avoid this book. Avoid Eric Griffin.


The Magical Mystery Tour   July 29, 2000
 5 out of 5 found this review helpful

This story is basically a murder mystery which, as it unfolds, provides a detailed look inside a Tremere chantry- the relationships between residents, their magical procedures, their politics etc. It's a pretty self-contained story with a strong focus on an interesting character- besieged New York chantry regent Aisling Sturbridge. Indeed, when it attempts to advance the CLAN NOVEL series plot, it tends toward arcane incidents which only raise more questions. Knowledge of the rest of the series doesn't seem as necessary to appreciate this book as knowledge of the VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE RPG setting (Tremere antitribu, the difference between Tremere vampires and True Mages etc.).

Unfortunately, Griffin's other contribution to the series, the more episodic TZIMISCE, better showed his strengths- imaginative individual scenes, telling detail. That's here, too but with all the intrigue, arcane practices, surreal visions and sudden surprise twists, I found the overall plot difficult to follow- especially toward the end where tremendous complexities were resolved very quickly. I wasn't sure at first what happened in the end and motives are still unclear. Some crucial things seemed only to receive perfunctory explanation without enough preparatory development. Adding to the confusion are distracting editorial problems like failing to identify the speakers often enough during important dialog.

Despite this, Griffin presents magical practices well and mostly avoids that subject's pitfalls. He provides enough necessary technical detail without bogging down in exotic minutia. In the process, he creates atmosphere, reveals character and maintains consistent logic throughout for how his magic functions. It's also faithful to the way the Tremere and their organization are presented in VtM. People who enjoy that will find much to enjoy here. You may not be entirely satisfied with where it ends up but at least it takes you on the scenic route with an engaging guide.


Nonexistent plot   August 23, 2000
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

Clan Novel: Tremere had no plot; it was simply a collection of scenes from previous stories as observed from the Tremere perspective, with several vignettes of Tremere chantry life added for flavor. At the end, the author contrives to explain the murky plot in a dialogue between the main characters, but the proffered explanation is weak.

After losing interest in the book, I only continued to see if any new elements would be added to the story, having read the previous 11 novels. I finished the book with the feeling that my time had been completely wasted.


The worst book I've ever read!   October 27, 2000
 5 out of 6 found this review helpful

I wish you could enter 0 stars! This book was terrible! It has nothing to do with vampires, blood drinking, intrigue...! The best chapter in the book you already got to read in a previous book. The vampires in this book acted nothing like vampires (they cried like babies because they hated all the deceit surrounding them?). If it were not for the cover I would't even believe it was the same series. I spent my time reading the ten previous books and am terribly disappointed. "Malkavian" was bad, but compared to this book it should be an american classic! I have not yet read the last book, I hope Fleming doesn't let me down. I hope this helps someone. Don't even read this one, you don't have to.


Not as impressive.   August 18, 2000
 4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Honestly, I would equivilance this book to the Clan Novel Toreodor. The bad side of it includes that the story is too vague to be truly enjoyed. Everything is in a dream state description. And most of all, I did not find any section of it pulling me to read it like some of the other Clan Novels. An example I would give is the beginning of it where Sturbridge is involved in a big ritual. How she got up there, the powers she used, the little component details were all lacking. The whole thing had little background and a lot of dream description. On the good side of the story, it did explain the Giovanni death. The author was really good about showing damn disciplined is the Tremere clan.

Not the best of the clan novels, that's for sure.