Customer Reviews

Ventrue: Clan Novel (Vampire: The Masquerade)

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

 

 

I've read all the books in the series before this and this is the best one yet. At first I thought the series was going to be a waste, but this book gives it a chance. The Ventrue were done good and the Brujah were done better. Read this book.

Most people would consider Ventrue wimps as far as fighting goes. They would be wrong. Dominate,Fortitude,and Presence these three Disciplines(of Ventrue) could be used quite devastating in a fight. Someone should of told Gherbod that. Other than the Ventrue's apparent wimpiness I whould have to say this was the best book so far and my hopes for this series have returned. This book is what I expected from Gherbod(after reading the blood curse).

ps was Gangrel a ghost author???

Clan Ventrue was nicely done, not as awesome as the Setites but great none the less. I do agree with one of the other readers, the clan need to display some awe and dominance of their will. I think the best thing about the book is displaying how much the clan Toreador complicates the unlife of the clan Ventrue.

Tzimice and Toreador were good books. The departure from the main story in Gangrel and Setite lessened the series as a whole. However, Ventrue has restored my faith that perhaps this series will in fact be one of the great collections of vampire fiction. I hope Lasombra is as good as Ventrue

The Ventrue are the politicians of the Camarilla. They can be glib, polite, and socially conscious, by never forget that down deep it is power, and the glory that attends it that draws them to the flame. Many have a considerable talent for this and have become the primogens and princes of vampire establishments. They are not, characteristically, experimenters or iconoclasts. They are committed to the laws of the Camarilla and the increase of their personal power. They are stodgy - so much so that even Fleming, who is a traditionally oriented writer, can't resist some humor at their expense.

Jan Pieterzoon is the novel's central character, come to Baltimore to help the Camarilla reeling form the attack of the Sabbat in Atlanta find a functional defense before US vampires fall into complete lawlessness. Powerful in his own right and scion of the Ventrue justicar Pieterzoon is best at keeping the panic within limits and keeping the Camarilla from dissolving.

He is balanced by Victoria Ash, Toreador, who will continue to play a major part in these novels. She is a vampire who uses her own seductiveness to control at a subtler level than Pieterzoon, who is a 'bottom line' sort of vampire. And lurking in the background is Colchester, a Nosferatu, and the character who persistently steal the show. Flemings characters are usually strong, and Clan Venture is no exception.

This is not a heavily plotted book. The focus is on the Camarilla's efforts to regroup after the Sabbat uprising and is more of a panarama of tidbits that move the larger picture along. Most of the action serves for character development and the setting of the themes to come, but there is nothing like a Camarilla turn around, and a great deal of breast beating by the losing side.

This book is more of a transitional interlude than a stand alone story. It shows results of things that happened in previous books and sets up things that will happen in later books. Specifically, it deals with the Camarilla trying to regroup and manage the refugee situation in Baltimore after the successful Sabbat seiges in Atlanta and D. C. They have a lot of meetings, discuss a lot of strategy, scheme and manipulate. It has a much more panoramic approach to its story than Fleming's other contribution to the series CLAN NOVEL: GANGREL. Although these proceedings are very well presented with a lot of fine, small details, it probably will not hold your interest well if you are not following the whole series.

Unless, that is, you are really interested in watching the Ventrue at work.

What saves the book and makes it more than a manditory exercise is Fleming's ability to develope his Ventrue characters and the intrigues involving them- much of it also involving the seductive Victoria Ash and Nosferatu who play all sides against each other. Although he's giving you the big picture of the Camarilla's situation, Fleming's lens is not so wide that the reader can't get involved in the dealings of two very important Ventrue. First there is the still all too human Camarilla star strategist, Jan Pieterzoon. (Jan's sire is Hardestadt, one of the Camarilla's legendary founders. He appears, too.) Then there is Garlotte, the smarmy Prince of Baltimore, a classic pompous Ventrue bully with a dysfunctional brood of childer apparently sired simply to feed his ego. And just so that virtuous Jan doesn't get to be too much of a white knight, Fleming does some horribly twisted things with the Ventue prey exclusion.

As in GANGREL, Fleming also doesn't shrink from showing the more harsh realities of vampiric existence- whether it's the issues raised by feeding or the cruelties involved in the inforcement of the Masquerade. Even though the book may not have much of a plot on its own, the subplots are dark gems and really flesh out the Ventrue and the special responsibities they feel they carry.

This book is the fifth installment in a 13-book series based on the White Wolf "Vampire: The Masquerade" gaming system. As such it has no proper ending or beginning; in spite of that rather large flaw, and the fact that it is rare for a book based on a gaming system to stand on its own well, I find this book to have been quite well-written, the characterizations good, the plot excellent if you like intrigue and scheming (if you don't, this is definitely NOT the series for you) and the actual wordsmithing to be better than most for a mass-market paperback, more than passably competent. Either the series is getting better as it goes along, or I'm gradually being drawn into the ongoing plot as it finally begins to show signs of ripening; a plot that will take thirteen books to come to fruition by nature must move slowly, but in any case I've found the fourth and fifth books of the series to be far better and more interesting than any of the first three. I'm still not entirely sure about the series; I think that a thirteen-book series may be a bit over-ambitious for the concept (I understand that the reason for the number is that that's how many different clans there are, and it was desired to feature one clan in each novel, but I still am unconvinced that there's really enough plot here for that many books) but I'm not willing to write the series off as a failed experiment yet. I'll finish it out before passing judgement.

If you like vampire stories, read this series. It's full of all the plotting and intrigue you would expect from characters who live forever. I mean, what else do they have to do. The whole series is full of unexpected plot twists.

This was one of the better of the clan novels.. Although not my favorite (Lasombra), it held up very well and gave more details about the strategy of the ongoing war efforts. Reads very fast.

I think the book is disapointing compare to the rest of the chronical. They should have been more fantastique thant that. All too stereotype for the poor Ventrue. Pathetic that they stay so dumb in the book than in the RP game.