Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four (v. 12, Pt. 3 & 4) [Paperback]

Hideyuki Kikuchi (Author), Yoshitaka Amano (Author)

Book Description

Series: Vampire Hunter D | Publication Date: April 7, 2009

Baron Byron Balazs nears the end of his arduous journey; his bodyguard - the enigmatic and deadly Vampire Hunter D - has delivered him to his faraway home in Krauhausen. Having survived the near-epic journey, and many attempts on his life - ordered by his father, the dread Vampire Noble Lord Vlad - the baron thinks he is ready for his final battle, whatever the cost. But Lord Vlad is not so easily vanquished, as he unleashes yet another host of nefarious killers on his son, not least of whom is a mad doctor enlisted to perform sinister experiments on the young baron's mother years before! With their battle raging across the landscape of Krauhausen, Balazs turns to D for aid once again. As the longest Vampire Hunter D mega-novel to date races to a heart-stopping conclusion, can D, and their mysterious ally, the noblewoman Miska, stop Vlad's reign of terror once and for all?

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Dark Horse Books/Digital Manga Publishing (April 7, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595821317
• ISBN-13: 978-1595821317
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #359,879 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of characters and confusing fight scenes, September 15, 2009

By 

Karissa Eckert "Devourer of all books fantasy" (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four (v. 12, Pt. 3 & 4) (Paperback)

This is the twelfth book in the Vampire Hunter D series and the second book in the epic story "Pale Fallen Angel". It wraps up the story of Pale Fallen Angel nicely. Although I had some issues with the writing style and following the plot.

In this book D continues to lead Miska and the Baron to the Baron's home town. The Baron is on a mission to kill his father and Miska needs to pick up something that her grandfather left to her.

I didn't enjoy the second part of this story as much as the first. There are a lot of extra characters thrown in here; including many doppelgangers of characters already present in the story. As is often the case with Kikuchi's writing it gets hard to tell who is talking sometimes and who is doing what (especially with the doppelgangers thrown in). The fight scenes can be pretty confusing. The plot itself is also a little crazy and switches viewpoints a lot. In general this book was a bit of a struggle for me to get through. I am not sure why; I usually enjoy these books quite a bit.

There were some positive things about this book too. The world is crazy and inventive as always. D continues to manifest new and interesting powers that give insight into his origin. The Baron is a great character and gives D a run for his money power wise. D continues to alternate between coldness and glimpses of feeling for the tumbling brother and sister.

This was an okay book. More so than in previous books; I thought the writing style/plot were a bit choppy and hard to follow. I also think that these continuous adventures of D's are getting a bit tired for me. D never makes a lot of progress as a character and I am unsure of what the series as a whole is building towards. Will I continue to read the series? I am not sure right now.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The ending kept rearing its head and backing away..., July 11, 2009

By 

H. Hershley (Hawaii, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four (v. 12, Pt. 3 & 4) (Paperback)

Part One, containing books 1 and 2, was a very well done story - a journey of a Noble (here, vampires of course) to slay his father, taking on a contract with D to help him arrive safely into his father's lands. We see various degrees of human nature and how two vampires deal with traveling with humans without succumbing to the need to feed. It was fairly interesting because for the first time in the series we got some true insight into how D thought and felt about various things, and how his time with Baron Balazs changed him from stoic and cold to understanding as he learned Balazs' "secret".

This book was fairly well done when it came to Kikuchi's usual handling of human and Noble natures, of continuing that conflict between the two groups and watching Miska even bloom in that arena. We get to see the baron's cruel father, his water-bound mother, and the various characters of the town. The descriptions of areas are fascinating, and despite my dislike of the very dubious description of the Big Bang Machine, the usual mix of mysterious origins and attempts to vaguely explain both scientific and mystical concepts were well done, still keeping with the idea that this takes place so far into the future that there is no need to go into any real detail on such things.

However... while the book captivated me, I kept getting the feeling that each encounter with Vlad should have been the end fight. Only most of them weren't, they just happened and then stopped for various means. The first encounter of Vlad and the baron made sense to end in such a way - would be silly for the objective to be completed so soon, or for the baron to fail so miserably early on. But as the third book ended and the fourth began, I was starting to wonder if the author had this wonderful fight planned out and then realized he couldn't end on that note because he didn't tie up enough loose ends properly - to do them well after the baron achieved his goal (or failed and D achieve it) would have seemed pointless. It made the final standoff a bit less climatic and somewhat uninteresting.

Vlad himself was a very static character - typical vampiric noble with little personality. You find out why he has it out for his son, partly through his deceased yet still hanging on ghost of a wife, but you don't feel like at any point he truly hates the baron - it all seems more like a petty dislike, emotionally detached from Vlad at all times. However, Lady Cordelia was well done and was by far a more interesting character, I almost wish there was more of her.

Kikuchi does great again with vampiric lore discussing the Guide and Shangrila. However, getting rid of that angle seemed a bit haphazardly done. Working in how Lagoon fit into the plot and how the baron came to have his amazing abilities was however applied even-handedly.

My greatest gripe though is the end. I felt the end was poorly executed and rather unfair to the characters involved, even though it did finally show how Taki fit in. Perhaps there is a symbolism in there that I missed, I'm willing to concede that.

TL:DR version - good book that will keep you reading, but too many "final encounter" moments that didn't occur, dulling the real final encounter. And the ending just didn't feel it fit properly in context to the book in my opinion. Those two factors alone dropped this to a three-star rating when the last book was five-stars to me.

5.0 out of 5 stars vampire hunter 12 parts 3 and 4, July 14, 2010

By 

Joanne M. Knoche (LEBANON, PA, US) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vampire Hunter D Volume 12: Pale Fallen Angel Parts Three and Four (v. 12, Pt. 3 & 4) (Paperback)

the book was great and could not keep the book down until i finished it, for vampire hunter d fans a must read.