Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #774278 in Books
• Published on: 2000-07-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 283 pages

Customer Reviews

The Magical Mystery Tour
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.

One of the Worst Clan Novels
I was never a fan of the Tremere. All that blood magic and stuff; it just caught me as boring. Nevertheless, I have, in the past, enjoyed reading about the Tremere. The history of that clan, along with the unique discipline of Thaumaturgy (well, if you don't count Assamite Sorcery, Setite Sorcery, Koldunic Sorcery, or any of the other "magical" disciplines), usually made the Tremere (and the material they appeared in) at least worth a look. I was disappointed, then, after reading this book. To be blunt; it's not well written. Sometimes, when you're reading it, you'll wonder just what is going on, especially when one of the characters is engaging in an otherwise normal activity, then suddenly is transported to a place "in the ocean". I mean, it was distracting enough to want to just put the book down and quit reading it. Not only that, but none of the main concepts of the book were explained well enough. The book will give you a little bit of information, but then not expand on just what that information means. A good example of this would be when Aisling learned that Vitel knew a Tremere named Dorfman. What WAS the significance of this? Don't presume that we already know -- at least tell us; it really wouldn't take that much more work, after all.

These are a few more examples:

What exactly is "The Dragon's Graveyard"? And who or what is "The Dragon"? I read the Transylvania Chronicles and I heard that "The Dragon" was Salout, but he isn't in New York City, right? The main Anteduvilian that was in NYC was Tzimisce, so is "The Dragon's Graveyard" just where Tzimisce rests?

I know this was a main part of the book but I still can't understand -- what is "the well"? Is it just something in the Tremere blood that allows them to use "magic" disciplines? Is it something that allows them to retreat inward and escape from the outer world? And, for God's sake, WHO are the Children? Souls of those that were killed? But why would they be inside of Aisling's well? Didn't make sense to me.

Another thing; was Maeve actually Aisling's mortal child, or just a metaphor for Aisling's "new life"? Because that's the only thing I could come up with after reading how Eva was "comsumed utterly" by the light -- whatever that light was.

Why did the Tremere all think that Aaron was a hero for allowing Foley to be killed? And why did Anwar (the Assamite who did the deed) keep refering to him as "Aaron-light bringer"?

Also, I would like to point out a typo. On page 258, it says, "Jacqueline let Sturbridge's hand drop." By this point, Jacqueline was ALREADY DEAD, and not only that, it was Eva and Sturbridge who were having a conversation; Jacqueline was not even in the conversation. The book was also never kind enough to tell us exactly WHY Jacqueline died, or who was responsible for the deed (after all, Kindred are immortal; if they die it's probably because they were murdered).

Lastly, what was the point of the stories that Talbott kept telling? They DID NOT have ANY relevance to the story at all! I didn't even know who the main character in those stories was, much less what they were supposed to be telling.

Overall, you will read this book only if you have to. It IS part of the series, therefore you may have to read it to understand a little bit more. In other words, to get you ready for book 13. Nonetheless, you will not enjoy reading it; and when you are done you will probably not know any more than you did before you started reading it; so there's really no reason to even spend six dollars on this.

Maybe he wanted to write about Mage instead?
I play Mage. To me, the first 2/3s were okay, mostly- not the eastiest, fastest reading but okay. But what's up with the last part? Did they tell the writer he was running out of pages and had to cram? So then couldn't he take out some of that Irish background stuff in the early part and make room so the ending could hang better? I worry that people who don't know Mage will never understand the very end. I'm not sure it belonged (even though it was a cool idea) since this book is supposed to be for Vampire. Also none of the vamps in this book drank blood or acted much like vampyrs- more like mages. That's OK with me but people who wanted to read about vampyrs (not mages) might be very disappointed. Also, I only read this one clan novel and I thought parts (Nicolai) were confusing me because I didn't read the other books. But now I read it doesn't continue the other books that much so I guess those parts were just confusing. Too bad! When the chantry was doing the spell casting and similar I thought this book was really interesting.