Customer Reviews

The Road To Hell (pb) (The Horizon War , Vol 1)

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

 

 

I enjoyd reading this book. I strongly recommend to all people who likes the vampire or mage world. But if you want to read this trilogy, I suggest that you read first the Mascarade of the Red Death Trilogy first, of Robert Weinberger. Both trilogies are realted (not much).

I was completely in love with this book from page one to the end of it. I have been a fan of the white wolf role playing games for quite a while, and this book took the Mage and Vampire games and made them a reality for me! I loved it, and know that others, be they role players or even just sci-fi/fantasy fans will love it too.

Komaine

Despite myself, I enjoyed this book. Though not my normal read, I took a chance on the "Horizon War" trilogy because I had enjoyed Robert Weinberg's "Blood War" trilogy (why is everything in trilogies these days?). Ever since the mini series "Kindred, the Embraced" aired on TV (now available as a rental) I have hungered for a good vampire story. This book is full of the same betrayal (plots inside of plots) that we've come to expect from "World of Darkness" authors. Though admittedly comic bookish, Robert Weinberg, in my opinion, is the best that "White Wolf Publishing" has to offer. A definite read for roll players and fantasy readers alike. Move over Anne Rice...

I confess I was expecting more from the author of the "Read Death" trilogy. In that "Vampire" novel, one can see a dense storyline, many intertwined plots, different perspectives of the involved characters and a great deal of revising in order to clean it from childish passages, particularly an abusive displaying of powers to compensate lack of narrative. This is not the case with this "Mage" based romance.

The main idea is very good, it is clear the author did a lot of research not only in Vampire and Mage, but also Werewolf (Umbra, Wyrm and Incarnas come from Garou books), but the volume is written in an amateur style. Too many cliches, too much displaying of power (almost every chapter conveys a major paradox backlash-worth battle), plenty of shallow characters and childish paragraphs. A very good example is the passage in the end of the book when the villains are achieving their long sought goal of awakening the pattern-clone and one of them, by the way the most intriguing one (Velma Wade), stretches her arms and imitates a clock. A clock!!! Dear God, I almost closed the book to never opening it again.

I read the "Read Death", I loved the characters and I still got confused with the abusive quick pace of this narrative. There were too many plots to one book. They should be better explored in two volumes if necessary. Or better still, their combing should replace completely worthless bragging, such as the street fight involving Shadow of Dawn and some cowboy thugs, as well as the passage referring to the "kings of pain" or some likewise stupid name. The Men in Black were a sufficient threat, if well explored. Some revising would take away all this garbage and allow more space to intrigue, which is the main gear of the "World of Darkness".

I like the Mage game system, and it's always interesting to read stories using that style of magick. This story is a good adventure and it moves along well. But the writing style was amateurish, and even a little painful at times. It seemed that every time a new character was seen, he or she would be described like a list of features, starting with hair and build, finishing with clothes (descending from head to toe). This was slightly annoying, as it meant that every single time a new character came into the scene, all action stopped so the author could read off this checklist. There were other problems with the writing, too. I lost track of the times Seventeen (the main character, an amnesiac escaped technocracy test subject) "had no idea" about something or found himself using skills "he hadn't known he'd possessed."

But apart from that, the story was pretty good. I don't like a single thing about the character of Sam Haine, not even his name. But the Technocracy villains were very interesting characters, and their creations equally so. The author juggles quite a number of plotlines throughout this novel, which presumably will intertwine more fully in the next couple novels in the trilogy. As a result, there are a great many characters and factions to learn about. Most of them have well-defined and believable goals and personalities. A few of them are a little sketchy for now.

After reading this book, I look forward to finishing the trilogy.

I picked up this book out of curiousity, and turned out to be an outstanding book. This is the first Sci-Fi book and I am dying to know what happens. It is very hard for a book to grab my interest on the first page. I started out by saying, "I'll read a couple of pages to see what it is like" and ended up reading the entire book and now I am pursuing the series.

This book will hold your attention to a point, but it has a severe lack in originality in my opinion. That, and I think too much was happening in one book. Kinda cheesy, too. I think Mage or Vampire: The Masquerade fans would like it better. What I did like about it, though, was that it has alot of charecter.

When I first started this book, and realized it was part of a triolgy, I reluctantly put it down until I could get the next two volumes in the series. Imagine my surprise when I went back to read it a second time and found out it was actually number 4! Well, folks, what do you do then, you go find the first three, The Red Death Trilogy, and enjoy the history of the Kindred in the first book, then read all six for great vampire entertainment! Now, go out and get them!

Characters in this book first appeared in the Bloodwar: Masquerade of the Red Death Trilogy by this same author. It might be a good idea for you to pick up that trilogy. It's a good fast paced read filled with lots of action and intrigue based on Vampire the Masquerade and the World of Darness.

This was the first in what looks like a trilogy or something and at first it was a bit confusing because of the amount of characters introduced in a short time. The pace was fast, frenzied and it didn't let up throughout the whole book. There were alot of subplots throughout the whole book with every one of the "bad" guys betraying each other left and right. We got some vampires but the book mainly focused on mages. Hopefully the vamps will have more of the spotlight next volume. All in all though, this was a very good book and is very easily readable even for people who have never heard of the World of Darkness. For those who have this is a must buy. The only thing missing is a Garou or two.