Customer Reviews

Clan Novel: Ravnos (Vampire: The Masquerade)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although I liked this book just as much as the other books in the series, I had a problem liking the main character Khalid. He was crass, hopelessly cruel and an opportunist to the most horrific degree. I found myself reading the book hoping he was destroyed at the end. Although he wasn't, I did enjoy the interaction between he and Ramona. The thought that a Gangrel and a Ravnos getting along as well as they did for so long, was astounding to say the least. All in all, I thought the book did portray the Ravnos clan quite correctly and did offer a preview to the Nosferatu book that I really enjoyed. I look forward to seeing what exactly will happen to these Cainites in the future. All I can say is, read the book, take Khalid in stride and keep the overall plot to the series in mind and you'll be dying to find out what happens next.

I don't know how to describe this novel, but I never thought Ravnos were too much to handle till I read this. But seriously, this novel produces a player that was hidden in the game although was involved in the previous novels. And I have to admit I really liked the Ravnos main character Khalid. It's funny considering the arabic translation of his name means "Eternal" or someone who is living forever. The book is highly recommended.

This book is so far possibly the best of the clan novels. With this book you get some clarification on the fate of clan Ravnos. This book also clears up a lot of the loose storylines intruduced in the other clan novels, while leaving us guessing just what is going to come of the major storylines in the next clan novel. Fans of the clan novel series will enjoy this book immensely and should eagerly anticipate the release of clan novel: malkavian.

The truth is, there are two basic kinds of books in the Clan Novel Series so far.

1) There are the books with a panoramic point of view that advance the larger story of the struggle between the Camarilla and the Sabbat, tie up necessary loose ends, further develop complex intrigues and so on.

2) There are the books which focus tightly on a character or small group of characters.

You may not be able to move the pins on your battle map as much with Type 2 but they tend to be the better books in the series. They tend to stand alone better (because you don't have to be moving pins on a battle map to care what happens) and tend to have more of a sense of being about the title vampire clan.

CLAN NOVEL RAVNOS is type two, as is Kathleen Ryan's other book in the series CLAN NOVEL SETITE. This makes them the strongest books in the series so far. (Gherbod Fleming's GANGREL and ASSAMITE are the other two.) Here, the hero is Khalil a charming jerk of a Ravnos who keeps outsmarting himself even as he is, yet again, declaring victory. His straight man in this farce is the commanding voice of the mysterious Ravnos elder which he hears in his head. (Rather sinister, too...but Khalil, of course, doesn't seem to notice that little problem.) Ramona from GANGREL and Liz from SETITE are teamed up with Khalil here. Ryan does an especially good job of adapting Fleming's Ramona. There doesn't seem to be any big advances of the series plot but there is some helpful development of the situation of the Ravnos clan as well as glimpses of the Nosferatu and the New York Sabbat.

And then there's that Ravnos elder....

Though not as compelling as Kathleen Ryan's prior book (Setite), the author continues to remain the powerhouse writer in this, otherwise disappointing, series.

Once again, Ryan's characters are believable, likable (even the villains) and cunningly REAL. She makes the World of Darkness TRULY come alive despite the poor backdrop she was given by the other books in the series which rarely rise to the heights of mediocrity.

Kudos to Kathleen Ryan for another example of White Wolf authors that actually know what a 'Story-teller' does.

This book is on a par with Clan Novels Setite and Assamite, both of which I considered to be better than most of the series. I'm still not overly impressed with the series, though; for one thing, a series that is intentionally 13 books long with a primary subplot that takes all 13 books to conclude is of necessity slow-moving; it's beginning to feel interminable. For another thing, very few of these books have any characters that can be considered sympathetic characters; I suppose Elizabeth & Ramona, in this book (Elizabeth a carryover from Setite, Ramona a carryover from Gangrel) are somewhat sympathetic, but they're fairly wimpy, minor characters. I can't bring myself to care one way or the other about any of the MAJOR characters in any of these books, with the possible exception of Fatima from Assamite. For the most part, I couldn't care less which nasty character does what to which other nasty charater.

I'm stubborn; having started the series, I'll finish it, but I'll be VERY glad when I do.

the book picks up where the Setite novel ended.
All together an interesting look at how the Ravanos clan do things.
lots of familiar faces if you've read the previous installments.
might be a bit hard to follow if you have no idea what came before but well written and enjoyable to read.

This series is setup in a very interesting way. The books were written by different authors. They tell the story of the same chain of events from the perspective of different groups of vampires (a different group for each book).

Kathleen Ryan is great. Setite was terrific, and this one is as well. Funny: "The man seemed honest, seemed friendly...he was dead, of course, so he was likely to be neither." The main character is a real jerk but I very much enjoyed his spirit and struggle to keep it real and be master of his own destiny, no matter how fruitless. I couldn't put this one down.