*OP As One Dead (Vampire - the Masquerade) [Paperback]

Nancy Kilpatrick (Author), Don Bassingthwaite (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (December 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156504875X
• ISBN-13: 978-1565048751
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,085,173 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Shakespeare Themes and Vampires, May 6, 2004

By 

Joshua Koppel (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: *OP As One Dead (Vampire - the Masquerade) (Paperback)

I just read a book and was very surprised at how good it was. The book is AS ONE DEAD by Don Bassingthwaite and Nancy Kilpatrick. Nancy should not be a stranger to most. The book is set in the world of White Wolf's Vampire: The Masquerade and the title comes from Shakespeare's ROMEO AND JULIET. As the title might suggest, there is a love story and plenty of tragedy. This isn't bad news sort of tragedy, this is bad things happening to characters that I found I actually cared about. Not many books have managed to pull off tragedy for me (ROMEO AND JULIET did not), but this one surprisingly did.

What's it about? Well... Toronto is under the control of the Sabbat clan. They defeated the Camarilla and took over. The remaining Camarilla have been confined to an eight-block area called The Box. They are not allowed out and the Sabbat are not allowed in. Enter Biana who enters the box claiming that the outside Camarilla want to rejoin those in The Box. Can she convince them? What are her motives?

The plot was more complex and better laid out than in many books I have read recently. Take a look at it, you just might be as surprised as I was.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Vampire Novel With Romeo and Juliet Theme, August 6, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: *OP As One Dead (Vampire - the Masquerade) (Paperback)

"As One Dead", named for the line in "Romeo and Juliet": "As one dead in the bottom of a tomb", is based on the role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade. Like the Shakespearean play the title of this book is cited from, there is a forbidden love that blossoms against the Gothic Toronto setting. The Juliet character is an 11th-century vampire named Bianka, born into darkness by two different makers, one is Toreador and the other Brujah. She's come to Toronto with her pet raven (Ravena)--to the Box, to be more exact, a small section in the city where a stubborn group of Camarilla are confined by the Sabbat, a ruthless bunch of bloodsuckers. Bianka's purpose is to help free the imprisoned Kindred from the Sabbat's hold, but her mission is conflicted when she falls for the enemy (Lot).

While having some knowledge about The Masquerade storytelling game is useful, it's not really necessary. There are some terms that may be confusing, but a lot of it is self-explanatory, and most people shouldn't have any trouble reading this book. It happens to be one of my all-time favorite vampire novels, and I highly recommend it to anyone who's interested in vampire fiction. Pretty much anything published by White Wolf is worth checking out as well.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not good, September 22, 2007

By 

Anthony Contento "tonycontento" (Ames, IA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: *OP As One Dead (Vampire - the Masquerade) (Paperback)

I realize that this is a World of Darkness novel, but it seems like the author is not trying to write anything that rises above that. "As One Dead" is full of unexplained jargon (which I was familiar with, but the average reader might not be), cardboard characterization (of both people and setting), stagnant dialogue and a carbon copy plot. I'm not a hater of the WoD setting, and I have read some great novels set in White Wolf Games' world that were spectacular ("The Masquerade of Red Death" series is fantastic). I just get the feeling that the author(s) were people who just wanted to write a book for gamers, were very green in their writing, and were above editorial suggestions.

This wasn't Bassingthwaite's first novel, he's written a number of books before this one. So, it suggests to me that he "phoned this book in." Kilpatrick had published vampire fiction for a year or so before this book was published, so she might be where the "green" comes in.

Both of the writers are still writing, so they must have gotten better.

This book is terrible.