Customer Reviews

Dark Ages Tzimisce (DACN 13) (Vampire: The Dark Ages Clanbooks)

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I've been through two thirteen-volume vampire series from White Wolf, as well as a slew of shorter stories, and I think I may have finally reached the saturation point. The core problem is that long series are of unpredictable quality even when they are the work of one writer. With White Wolf, using a multitude of writers, the reason for a particular volume may be completely different. The narrative advances by fits and starts - sometimes the story is important, and sometimes it's the political record.

The Dark Ages series started out with the sack of Constantinople and, at first follows a group of vampires across Europe as some seek for a return to the dream that was Byzantium, and others struggle for simple survival. Gradually the story shifts to Paris and the Magdeburg as vampire princes seize the opportunity to become great rulers. And now we are come to what will come to be modern Romania, the ancestral home of the Tsimisce and what has cone before is overthrown.

Or, perhaps, come full circle. Prince Jurgen's off-hand gift of the Archbishop of Nod's sleeping body lures Myca Vykos, an elder Tsimisce into a quest that seems to interest Malachite of Constantinople as well. Malachite seeks the Dracon, one of the three founders of the vampire Dream. Are Nikita and the Dracon the same? Is anyone what they seem to be? Coming at the end this volume should bear some answers, but it raises as many questions as it solves.

Myrabda Kalis does a good job of recreating the culture of the Tzimisce - wizards of flesh - and making Myka Vykos and his friends strong, interesting characters. This is a truly Gothic novel and a real example of story telling. Unfortunately I was hoping for a bit more insight into the entire Vampire story and that is yet to come. Thirteen volumes before the Masquerade, and 13 after - but we have yet to see the birth of the Masquerade itself.