The Madness of Priests (Vampire: Victorian Age, Book 2)

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Summary: Blood sorcerers, wild chases, broken chains of love...
Review: Philippe Boulle did not let the fascination with Regina Blake, Victoria Ash, and the culture of Victoria times flounder.

Regina disappears with Victoria on her ever on-going quest to find out where her mother is, and if her mother still lives in the half-life of vampirism. Lord Blake, sober enough to realize that he has lost his daughter, and Malcolm, her fiancé search throughout London, but are always a behind the wily Victoria. Blake and Malcolm face death from creatures they do not understand. The caught a ghoul, the Ducheski's own group of demented servants who are allowed to kill, and to do whatever it takes to protect the Ducheski clan. Ghouls regenerate, and this leads to a climactic decision where Blake and Malcolm are concerned.

Did you know there are political levels in the vampire world, and woe unto the vampire that does not stay within the confines? Or, that it is a "mortal" sin for a vampire to kill another without permission? Oh, these factors come into play in magnificent ways.

In the meantime, Victoria takes Regina to France, where a strange world of the undead reveals that Emma Blake is a tool of the blood sorcerers. Here Regina meets the mad priest Anatole, and sees that both Victoria and Anatole are more interested in making Regina belong to them than in any way freeing her mother. Their escape from Anatole is difficult, and it is here that Regina faces Malcolm for the first time since her initiation.

Boulle's characters grow and evolve. I wondered what decision Regina would make, considered options, and was concerned for them as I read the book. What greater compliment can you give a writer than you care about his characters?

I can hardly wait for book three of this trilogy. This book is worth five stars to me.

Victoria Tarrani

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Summary: Cities of Vampires
Review: Regina Blake and her vampire mistress Victoria head for France to seek clues to the fate of Regina's mother, Emma. The latter has been embraced as part of a murky Tremere plot to bring down the Prince of London. Even as their quest evolves, events in London threaten to explode. Lord Blake, Emma's husband, and Malcolm Seward, Regina's fiancée tear through the dark side of the city seeking traces of their loved ones, but despite causing considerable turmoil seem condemned to be always one step behind.

Other players have entered the fray as well. Beckett, a scholarly vampire with a compulsive interest in vampiric history, and Hesha Ruhadze, a mysterious Settite with his own agenda, temporarily join forces to try to discover answers, or perhaps to carry out an act or revenge, or to enlighten a goddess. On the human side Othman al-Masri seeks out the Society of Leopold, heir to the Inquisition and hunters of vampires.

Regina seems to make waves wherever she goes in vampire society. Although nothing more tha Victoria's protégée, turmoil seems to follow her. In A Morbid Initiation she witnessed the poisoning of Mithras, ruler of the London vampires. Now the pattern continues, for while Victoria copes with the intricacies of vampire politics, Regina is less patient, whether she is dealing with Francois Villon, the Prince of Paris, or anatole, the mad vampire priest whose abbey is hidden behind the gates of a prison.

Phillippe Boulle continues to weave an intricate plot without ever revealing the real goal. There is something underlying all this moves and counter-moves, but it always seems to lie just beyond out grasp. Just as Lord Blake never seems able to catch up with his daughter. The Madness of Priests add detail and texture to the story, but keeps a tight hold on its secrets. Detail tends to be the devil in white Wolf publications, since much of what is in the books will feed back into the game world on which they are based.

This hunger for information can slow down the flow of action excessively, but Boulle manages to avoid this fault, dancing on the edge of overwriting, but never quite stepping over. Instead, the finely drawn descriptions of Victorian London and post-Napoleonic Paris increase the reader's enjoyment. Welcome to the Masquerade...