Toreador (Clan Novel, No. 13) [Paperback]

John Van Fleet (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 262 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing; First Edition edition (January 14, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565048073
• ISBN-13: 978-1565048010
• ASIN: 1565048016
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #713,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Slow Start, but I think it gets better down the road., November 29, 1999

By 

Faebinder "malec" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Toreador (Clan Novel, No. 13) (Paperback)

Well, I am a bit disappointed on how the Clan Toreador just comes out as completely weak. I could have sworn that white wolf clan book claimed the clan to be potentially the most dangerous clan of them all. However and on the bright side, the series does start with a very interesting plot, the book does not completely focus on the clan Toreador. Probably because the author wishes to introduce the series. I have read till Setite before I wrote the reviews, I think the book is good over all.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overall, a good read., February 21, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Toreador (Clan Novel, No. 13) (Paperback)

It's a very interesting book. Some readers will be upset by depictions of graphic violence and the like, but that should be expected, a big part of Vampire is that their society is very violent and the Kindred risk death just by waking up every night. My biggest problem with it was the ungodly amout of typos and grammatical errors. At least one on most pages. Another slight problem is the unresolved plot threads. For "a series in which each book will stand alone, but tie into the larger story presented in all 13 novels," this left a LOT of loose ends that just wouldn't be acceptable in a stand-alone novel. So many, that my rating would be 2 stars, but I'm guessing that the plots will be resolved in future clan novels. One of the most interesting subplots in this novel involves the Toreador Primogen of Atlanta, Victoria Ash, inviting a Brujah Archon (who's black) and the Malkavian Prince of Atlanta to the same party. The catch is that the Prince was a confederate soldier in the Civil War. This could have led to some very interesting scenes, but, unfortunately, it is too underplayed.

13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars How easy is it to get 5 stars?, February 20, 1999

By 

Adam C. Schroeder (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Toreador (Clan Novel, No. 13) (Paperback)

I find it amazingly depressing how easy it is for a book on Amazon.Com to get five stars. All too often these reviews aren't even reviews of the book, but simply 'I read another book by this guy, and it was really good, so I'm looking forward to this one.' (Disagree? Read the first eighty or so reviews of A Path of Daggers by Robert Jordan.) In the previous review of this book, one for five stars, the person didn't even read the whole book. My goodness. There's a trustworthy source.

Clan Novel Toreador was no _To Kill a Mockingbird_. It was no _The Catcher in the Rye_. It was no _Catch 22_. It was no _The Grapes of Wrath_. Now these are all books I'd give five stars. Hopefully at least one of them on the previous list is one that you would too.

Similarly, Clan Novel Toreador is not _Interview With the Vampire_, _Jurassic Park_ or _The Firm_. All books I would give three or four stars.

I am a fan of the Vampire role playing game, but I still recognize trash when I see it. Now and again there is an excuse for trash. Pulp fantasy. Romance novels. Still, having an excuse for trash does not make it anything more. Sadly, not having an excuse for trash makes it something much less.

With depressingly shoddy writing, a laughable plot (complete with annoying subplots and obvious plot-twists) and characters deserving of hate, this book deserves one star. Especially loathesome are the writer's sad attempts at erotica. The only thing that got hard while I was reading this book was attempting to continue reading this piddling example of literature.

I give it two stars because it is what it is. Game fiction. There isn't much out there in the genre of fiction based on RPGs (or television shows, really) that rises above the bottom half of any scale. So I give this a two, signifying that it is unadulterated mediocrity, but that such tripe is readily acceptable in a genre that is, itself, utterly mundane.