ps was Gangrel a ghost author???


At this point the series has become really good.   December 26, 1999
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Clan Ventrue was nicely done, not as awesome as the Setites but great none the less. I do agree with one of the other readers, the clan need to display some awe and dominance of their will. I think the best thing about the book is displaying how much the clan Toreador complicates the unlife of the clan Ventrue.


At last back to the main story   September 23, 1999
 3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Tzimice and Toreador were good books. The departure from the main story in Gangrel and Setite lessened the series as a whole. However, Ventrue has restored my faith that perhaps this series will in fact be one of the great collections of vampire fiction. I hope Lasombra is as good as Ventrue


More an extended chapter than a book   May 29, 2000
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This book is more of a transitional interlude than a stand alone story. It shows results of things that happened in previous books and sets up things that will happen in later books. Specifically, it deals with the Camarilla trying to regroup and manage the refugee situation in Baltimore after the successful Sabbat seiges in Atlanta and D. C. They have a lot of meetings, discuss a lot of strategy, scheme and manipulate. It has a much more panoramic approach to its story than Fleming's other contribution to the series CLAN NOVEL: GANGREL. Although these proceedings are very well presented with a lot of fine, small details, it probably will not hold your interest well if you are not following the whole series.

Unless, that is, you are really interested in watching the Ventrue at work.

What saves the book and makes it more than a manditory exercise is Fleming's ability to develope his Ventrue characters and the intrigues involving them- much of it also involving the seductive Victoria Ash and Nosferatu who play all sides against each other. Although he's giving you the big picture of the Camarilla's situation, Fleming's lens is not so wide that the reader can't get involved in the dealings of two very important Ventrue. First there is the still all too human Camarilla star strategist, Jan Pieterzoon. (Jan's sire is Hardestadt, one of the Camarilla's legendary founders. He appears, too.) Then there is Garlotte, the smarmy Prince of Baltimore, a classic pompous Ventrue bully with a dysfunctional brood of childer apparently sired simply to feed his ego. And just so that virtuous Jan doesn't get to be too much of a white knight, Fleming does some horribly twisted things with the Ventue prey exclusion.

As in GANGREL, Fleming also doesn't shrink from showing the more harsh realities of vampiric existence- whether it's the issues raised by feeding or the cruelties involved in the inforcement of the Masquerade. Even though the book may not have much of a plot on its own, the subplots are dark gems and really flesh out the Ventrue and the special responsibities they feel they carry.