Rating: 
Summary: This Book Is Great
Review: I really enjoyed this book after reading the books in the series before it. After all the hack an dslash of the first books it was rather refreshing to have a character that relied more on misdirection than on Violence to get his way. The characters had great depth to them. I wish this author was going to do more of the clan books.
Rating:
Summary: Title
Review: I wasn't thrilled with the Gangrel and Tzimisce novels. It was mainly because it switched from character to character in a multiple narrative fashion. I enjoyed Setite more because it lacked this multiple narrative trend and wasn't as chopy as the others. In addition, because it was consistent within its focusing on certain characters, it had lots more character development, primarily Hesha and Elizabeth. The plot was rather interesting and due to certain conflicts, the location changes were a nice change. For those that LARP, the series is good if the knowledge of the application of abilities and disciplines is needed to be seen/learned. All in all, this was the best in the series so far.
Rating:
Summary: Title
Review: I wasn't thrilled with the Gangrel and Tzimisce novels. It was mainly because it switched from character to character in a multiple narrative fashion. I enjoyed Setite more because it lacked this multiple narrative trend and wasn't as chopy as the others. In addition, because it was consistent within its focusing on certain characters, it had lots more character development, primarily Hesha and Elizabeth. The plot was rather interesting and due to certain conflicts, the location changes were a nice change. For those that LARP, the series is good if the knowledge of the application of abilities and disciplines is needed to be seen/learned. All in all, this was the best in the series so far.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Bunch?
Review: I've read everything in this series so far (thru GIOVANNI) and this book is still in the running for the best in the series. Like Gherbod Fleming's GANGREL (the previous installment), it takes a break from the broad sweep of the series' plot to establish a strong main character focus. It's much more light-hearted than GANGREL, tho, and might be a welcome relief for those who found GANGREL too grim. It's still more serious than Kathleen Ryan's other book in the series (RAVNOS) and seems a little stronger for that reason. Here, the main characters are the Setite antiquarian Hesha and his mortal assistant, Liz- the first chance in the series to really see the action through a mortal's eyes.Despite the cliff-hanger ending, this book is strong enough to be read on its own. The search for the Eye of Hazimel is a good mystery and ends up in some pretty momentous developments for the CLAN NOVEL series. There is also a lot of fascinating interplay and intrigue between characters, compelling enough to hold your attention even if you don't know anything about what's happened in the other books. The story is told as a flashback and a small flaw is that to get everyone to where they need to be in the situation depicted at the start of the book, some alliances seem to shift very abruptly. It's not enough to detract from the overall story, however. The book also takes us all the way to Calcutta- pretty interesting in itself. Like GANGREL, the book also has a good focus on the title clan (something which was missing from TOREADOR which spent a lot of time using a Toreador-sponsored party to depict Camarilla Elysium politics and from TZIMISCE which was more about the Sabbat generally.) With all its intrigues, this story a good depiction of how the Setites conduct their business (the strongest lies subtly incorporate as much of the truth as possible) and use their powers. It's also a good depiction of a character following a Path of Enlightenment (who degenerates if he does something for purely selfless reasons). It's interesting that, although Hesha can't be called "good" in human terms, he doesn't seem to be exactly evil, either. I ended up both really liking him and wondering if I should.
Rating:
Summary: Best of the Bunch?
Review: I've read everything in this series so far (thru GIOVANNI) and this book is still in the running for the best in the series. Like Gherbod Fleming's GANGREL (the previous installment), it takes a break from the broad sweep of the series' plot to establish a strong main character focus. It's much more light-hearted than GANGREL, tho, and might be a welcome relief for those who found GANGREL too grim. It's still more serious than Kathleen Ryan's other book in the series (RAVNOS) and seems a little stronger for that reason. Here, the main characters are the Setite antiquarian Hesha and his mortal assistant, Liz- the first chance in the series to really see the action through a mortal's eyes. Despite the cliff-hanger ending, this book is strong enough to be read on its own. The search for the Eye of Hazimel is a good mystery and ends up in some pretty momentous developments for the CLAN NOVEL series. There is also a lot of fascinating interplay and intrigue between characters, compelling enough to hold your attention even if you don't know anything about what's happened in the other books. The story is told as a flashback and a small flaw is that to get everyone to where they need to be in the situation depicted at the start of the book, some alliances seem to shift very abruptly. It's not enough to detract from the overall story, however. The book also takes us all the way to Calcutta- pretty interesting in itself. Like GANGREL, the book also has a good focus on the title clan (something which was missing from TOREADOR which spent a lot of time using a Toreador-sponsored party to depict Camarilla Elysium politics and from TZIMISCE which was more about the Sabbat generally.) With all its intrigues, this story a good depiction of how the Setites conduct their business (the strongest lies subtly incorporate as much of the truth as possible) and use their powers. It's also a good depiction of a character following a Path of Enlightenment (who degenerates if he does something for purely selfless reasons). It's interesting that, although Hesha can't be called "good" in human terms, he doesn't seem to be exactly evil, either. I ended up both really liking him and wondering if I should.
Rating: 
Summary: Loved it!
Review: Kathleen Ryan is great. Setite was terrific, and this one is as well. Funny: "The man seemed honest, seemed friendly...he was dead, of course, so he was likely to be neither." The main character is a real jerk but I very much enjoyed his spirit and struggle to keep it real and be master of his own destiny, no matter how fruitless. I couldn't put this one down.
Rating:
Summary: Devious plot line, it will fascinate and hold your attention
Review: Seriously, I believe this series gets better and better. This book is marvelous compared to the previous ones. Tzimicie perhaps was the best I read so far but Setite won over it. I believe the story is probably a theme that explains the background of the eye, somewhat.
Rating:
Summary: Snakes and Vampires
Review: Setites are an unexpected complication in the world of the Masquerade. While most vampires are Cainites (the children or followers of Cain), Setites are the followers of Set. The premise is that any being that draws energy from both the world of darkness and the world of light must follow certain rules. So a Setite still drinks blood and must avoid exposure to sunlight, but you can't kill one with a stake the way you can kill a Cainite. There are other clans that claim this kind of origin (Gangrel and Ravnos), but Setites take the prize for eeriness.
Hesha Ruhadze is the perfect Setite - money, power, and a truly devious intelligence. He can be a perfect gentleman, lie with a straight face, and almost never makes a mistake. Behind the mask though is a creature whose thoughts wander far and wide from the mainstream vampire. On a perpetual quest for antiquities of his heritage his path crosses that of art preservationist Elizabeth Dimitrios. Hesha finds something of value deep within her and he draws her into his web. Even as his hunt for the eye of Hazimel intensifies.
Elizabeth becomes Hesha's curator and gradually comes to understand that for all that Hesha never seems evil, the world around him is a dangerous one. She will soon find herself traveling through the dark world, a privileged spectator in a deadly war for power.
Kathleen Ryan really breaks the clan novel mold with this book. We've had to wade through several volumes that are crowded with details and sometimes almost academic in style. Setite, however, even more so than Gangrel, is a character-based book with plenty of action and mystery. This is one of the best novels in the series, and can almost stand by itself. She has written another novel in the series (Ravnos) and I'm looking forward to it.
Rating:
Summary: by far the best, of the series yet
Review: The best Clan Novel so far! Read it in about 2 nights..
Rating:
Summary: The Man You Love To Hate
Review: The truth is, there are two basic kinds of books in the Clan Novel Series so far. 1) There are the books with a panoramic point of view that advance the larger story of the struggle between the Camarilla and the Sabbat, tie up necessary loose ends, further develop complex intrigues and so on. 2) There are the books which focus tightly on a character or small group of characters. You may not be able to move the pins on your battle map as much with Type 2 but they tend to be the better books in the series. They tend to stand alone better (because you don't have to be moving pins on a battle map to care what happens) and tend to have more of a sense of being about the title vampire clan. CLAN NOVEL RAVNOS is type two, as is Kathleen Ryan's other book in the series CLAN NOVEL SETITE. This makes them the strongest books in the series so far. (Gherbod Fleming's GANGREL and ASSAMITE are the other two.) Here, the hero is Khalil a charming jerk of a Ravnos who keeps outsmarting himself even as he is, yet again, declaring victory. His straight man in this farce is the commanding voice of the mysterious Ravnos elder which he hears in his head. (Rather sinister, too...but Khalil, of course, doesn't seem to notice that little problem.) Ramona from GANGREL and Liz from SETITE are teamed up with Khalil here. Ryan does an especially good job of adapting Fleming's Ramona. There doesn't seem to be any big advances of the series plot but there is some helpful development of the situation of the Ravnos clan as well as glimpses of the Nosferatu and the New York Sabbat. And then there's that Ravnos elder....
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