Year of the Scarab, Book 1: Herald of the Storm [Paperback]

Andrew Bates (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 14, 2001

science fiction, fantasy

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: White Wolf Publishing (May 14, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565048571
• ISBN-13: 978-1565048577
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #978,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hunter's Rock - A Fine Effort by a New Author, June 24, 2001

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Year of the Scarab, Book 1: Herald of the Storm (Paperback)

This is the first volume outside of the Predator & Prey introductory series that deals with hunters, humans who have pierced the shroud of darkness around the Masquerade and are actively seeking to do away with creepy guys. I have honestly been less than enthusiastic about the P&P tales, but "Heralds of the Storm" turned out to be a very pleasant surprise.

Thea Ghandour is a member of the Van Helsing Brigade, a clan of monster hunters that works in and around Chicago. Her compatriots, Romeo, Parker, Jake, Dean, Carl, and Lilly, are young men and women with a strong sense of cause. Each has developed special talents that help in their battles and have kept them alive so far. They do not lack for courage, but frequently hide their fears behind anger and bickering.

The book opens with an attack on a vampire's lair near Chicago. Even as they infiltrate the site, they realize something isn't quite right. It goes too easily. Most of the guards are gone or are quickly handled. The guard watching the security is dead. After killing the Vampire with minimal injury, the entire lair is destroyed by explosives as they leave. Thea and the others suspect that someone was there before them, and that they are being set up.

When Thea gets a brief, anonymous phone call her fears are confirmed. But the gang has no clue on how to proceed. Before they can do much research, several brigade members are attacked and killed by zombies. Thea arrives in time to prevent things from being even worse and finds herself being helped by a stranger, who identifies himself as Maxwell Carpenter and pulls Thea and her unconscious friends from the building. Then he erases her memories and disappears.

Thea awakes in a hospital. When Romeo tells her she was pulled from the building by a super zombie who can pass for human she remembers what happened. Frantic research reveals that Carpenter was a 1920s gangster and was definitely dead. Many more phone calls and arguments later they finally meet with Carpenter. He asks them to help him get into the Temple of Akhenaton in downtown Chicago and gives them some time to consider their answer.

Carpenter has his own agenda, the complete destruction of the Sforza clan that caused his death years earlier. Thea and the Brigade find this out and are torn over whether they should cooperate with Carpenter or kill him for the monster he is. What they decide, and the horrific results of that decision fill the remainder of this volume and the next two novels of this promising and exciting trilogy.

This may be Andrew Bates first novel, but he shows considerable skill and talent. His characters have none of the stick figure quality which often troubles World of Darkness novels. Bates has a good sense of timing and a fine eye for detail as well. My only gripe is that the novel's designer decided to sacrifice page numbers for decoration. As a reviewer, I found this quite irritating. Otherwise this series looks like a winner from the folks at White Wolf.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great White Wolf Book - Seriously, June 18, 2001

By 

M. Muller (Chicago, il United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Year of the Scarab, Book 1: Herald of the Storm (Paperback)

I read this book with a bit of trepidation because of the cheesy cover and the very cheated feeling I had after finishing the clan novel series. However, unlike almost all WW books, this book was written by someone who is a little more upbeat and can keep the pace of the book moving by not getting bogged down in this angst-ridden tone that other books of the genre seem to have.

I wasn't expecting the Vampire Hunter angle, but it really worked here. The plot had a few snags, but overall it moved really quickly and had enough action and realistic character development (something almost absent from V:tM books) to keep me interested. Plus, I live in Chicago and the author actually seemed to know a bit about the city (rather than having the just-read-the-Guide-to-Chicago feel of the clan novel series)

Overall, I would recommend this book highly to action, horror, vampire and V:tM fans alike.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Beginning, January 14, 2002

By 

Paul McNally (Amherst, NH United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Year of the Scarab, Book 1: Herald of the Storm (Paperback)

I picked up this book as an impulse buy, so I wasn't expecting much from it. I had never read a World Of Darkness novel and I had no idea who, or what, Hunters were. This book knocked my socks off.

My only complaint is that I wish the back cover had been a little LESS descriptive. Knowing that the trilogy serves to introduce the M-words to the World Of Darkness universe dulled a bit of the impact the ending would have held.