The Inside Scoop on Gaming

The back of Clan Novel: Ravnos declares, of the clan novels series from White Wolf, that "this series is a monumental, 13-novel exploration of the forbidden world of the Kindred." Having read Toreador, Tzimisce, Gangrel, Setite, Ventrue, Lasombra, and Assamite thus far, I don't know if I'd refer to it as a monumental exploration of the Kindred so much as a monumental "gee, we really, really like the Sabbat" statement by White Wolf. It didn't start on such a strong footing, either, with Clan Novel: Toreador leaving me feeling naughty in sections, and Eric Griffin's very enjoyable writing style hampered by the absurdity of the storyline he had to continue in Tzimisce.

Gherbod Fleming took the reins in his hand, however, and turned Gangrel into a sparkling display of how good V:tM can be, and followed it up with more excellent work in Ventrue and then an earth-shattering page-turner with Assamite (which I misspelled in the first paragraph of my review of it -- d'oh!). Richard Dansky gave us a sweet parting gift as he deposited Lasombra in the mind's eye of every action-movie fan before leaving White Wolf. But Kathleen Ryan took the crown thus far for Setite, which only managed to reverse a decade of flimsy stereotyping when it came to that clan with her very first novel.

Now she brings us Clan Novel: Ravnos, no mean feat when you consider that the clan in question was nearly destroyed in sourcebooks this past year and (or so rumor has it) difficulties finishing the novel led to a rearrangement of publishing schedules and the need for Eric Griffin to step in and provide an assist (if you'll notice, the stock number for Ravnos precedes that of Assamite, and was scheduled to be the 7th novel, not the 8th, according to the schedules in earlier books). I waited with baited breath for Ryan's next work, after Setite turned me into a rabid, frothing mouth and all, fan of her storytelling abilities. While Ravnos isn't perfect, it's damned good, and Kathleen Ryan by no means disappoints in the most recent of the clan novel series.

As with the other novels, I'll be addressing:

tone, or the general "feel" of the novel,
characterization, or the cast we see paraded before us,
plot, or the actual events of the novel, and
what this novel means for the rest of the series.

Tone

I've got to hand it to Kathleen Ryan (and Richard Dansky and Gherbod Fleming, but I've already gone there): she knows how not to insult your intelligence. Rather than the purple prose and florid, high-humidity romance of Toreador (no, I can't just leave it alone), Kathleen Ryan greets us with rich but interesting and intelligent descriptions at every turn. For example, when one of the characters is doing his best to move quickly down a busy city sidewalk, she describes the passersby by saying:

Women dressed for commerce called out to him shrilly. Men in shabby clothes cried scorn and hooted at him. Ahead of him, a group of young bucks in expensively ill-fitting costumes turned to check out the noise. They sported strips of bright cloth on their heads, necks, arms, or legs, and despite the flamboyant differences between each one, they were frighteningly similar to each other...carbon copies of themselves and of sword-rattling children Hesha had known in Africa, India and Europe. (p. 36)

I love the phrase "women dressed for commerce." Gherbod Fleming's gift for descriptive prose must come in a bottle, and Kathleen Ryan's had a sip or three; images can be summed up in an efficient sentence, like that above, or stretched out like that of the club kids on a New York City street -- either way, she easily puts that image inside the reader's mind.

More than sheer descriptive power, however, Ryan brings to her second novel the same talent with intense emotions: the sinister manipulations of Elizabeth or Khalil, the desperately sly maneuvering of Khalil and Ramona, the level-headedness of Hesha in the face of challenge. Ryan's characters feel right, most particularly when we see inside their heads and we find very grown-up ambitions and methods for achieving equally mature goals, side by side with the childish (or Beastly) impulses of greed and impatience which plague everyone, young and old, through sheer human nature. In short, Ryan writes a smart, scary and convincing storyline that I feel perfectly comfortable sitting back to enjoy, even if the desires, innocence and unmitigated evil of the subject matter makes some part of me squirm while I read.

Characterization

Again we get to enjoy the sort of strong characterization that Ryan brought us in Setite, which is still ranked, to my mind, as the very best this series has had to offer thus far, for a sheer overall quality much aided by the creeping, persistent horror of the main character, Hesha Ruhadze. In Ravnos, though, there are a few qualities that are less than perfect about the characterization. These same qualities, however, sometimes add to the quality of the book. Like Ryan's characters, any dissection of them is going to be complex. So, I'll dig in and see what I can do -- writing this section took me far longer than I thought it would.

First, the main character, Khalil Ravana. Khalil is a relative neonate of the Ravnos clan, and a lucky survivor of the Week of Madness, as described in part in Setite and explored to greater depth in the sourcebook Time of Thin Blood (an effort which included Sarah Roark, another of my favorite writers with White Wolf). It would be unfair to describe Khalil as anything other than the back of the book does itself: a rogue. Khalil is handsome, sly, witty, silver-tongued and dangerous.

But, perhaps most of all, he's dangerous to himself. With an elder whispering in his ear all the time, he's struggling to maintain his facade of cool control while battling (sometimes literally) the demon that tells him what to do during nearly every waking moment. Here again, Ryan shines in showing us the very human foibles of a main character, the very human urge to be free and in control of one's own life, and the absolute terror that can be spawned from one highly intelligent and even more manipulative mind. Khalil is engaging and repulsive, a sort of JR Ewing of the World of Darkness -- who can't enjoy that?

The same sort of realism and intensity of portrayal is lent to the returning character of Elizabeth Demitros, who appeared in Setite as the new toy of Hesha, manipulator extraordinaire. Plagued by prophetic visions and Embraced by Hesha as a punishment, then saved at the last minute by Khalil, Elizabeth in this novel makes the steady transition from helpless mortal to a genuine sprout from the family vine, if you will. More quiet, more reserved, and far more successfully manipulative, while still able to feel and express some fear and vulnerability, Elizabeth doesn't get much in the way of lines, but she stands out as a character. Again, a highly enjoyable portrayal by Ryan.

And what novel of Ryan's would be complete without more of the captivating but thoroughly nasty Hesha, gentleman among predators? The same goes for Hesha, although we see him reduced to his weakest yet: he's three-dimensional and fascinating, very much himself despite the diversity of his circumstances over the course of the novel (to put it very mildly).

As for other strong characterizations, the bit players (one of whom, a fellow Ravnos, appears for precisely one scene spanning two pages at most), are equally interesting. I won't devote much time to them, however, except to say that Kathleen Ryan continues to deliver. I've never loved to hate a random Ventrue antitribu as much as the pauncy blueblood Ryan throws into a cast of Sabbat extras, proving Kathleen Ryan's mind must virtually swim with interesting personalities.

The problems arise in this novel's characterization when Ryan has to take the hand-off on previous stars. Specifically, I mean her portrayal of Ramona, star of Gherbod Fleming's delightful Clan Novel: Gangrel. Now, don't get me wrong -- Kathleen Ryan doesn't get Ramona wrong by any means. Instead, Ramona is simply...different. At the end of Gangrel, Ramona is scared but strengthened by her experiences and determined to get to the bottom of what she and her fellow Gangrel encountered. She's stronger, despite the tragedy of what's occurred.

By the time she shows back up, though, in Ravnos, she seems frailer, smaller, more vulnerable somehow. It's hard to explain -- and again I think it's merely the same thing that bothered me slightly about Fleming's portrayal of Lucita: speech patterns are slightly different, the character herself is somehow subtly changed between authors. This is perfectly natural and understandable; different writers view characters and express those views in different ways. By all means, this is a good thing.

Still, there's some measure of dissonance between the Ramona from her starring role and the Ramona who appears as a reluctant sidekick in Ravnos. Also, this could very legitimately be attributed to Ramona's lack of progress in tracking down and stopping Leopold, for instance, or the time she's had to think about the events she witnessed, perhaps. If these are the reasons, great -- I just wish I'd had that spelled out for me, to ramp me up to Ryan's portrayal from Fleming's, is all. Call it petty, but it's what I first think of when I think of Ramona's role in this novel.

Otherwise, Ramona continues to be an interesting character, and carries with her the same sort of basic motives and personality: she wants to be able to go back to something resembling a normal life, but she realizes this isn't possible, or won't be until the Eye is stopped or destroyed. It's this inability to have the old days back, and her thoughts of Zhavon, from Gangrel, that make her continue to be a character with whom we can identify so readily, on some level.

Other strong facets of this novel's characterizations which are worth mentioning include the Nosferatu, to whom we've seen reference upon reference in the "file copies" littering the previous novels. They make me look forward to Clan Novel: Nosferatu, another surprise for someone who generally thinks the sewer rats are an uninteresting and over-self-inflated lot, the way the books present them. Also, we get a lovely touch of how the cycles of an elder vampire never really end, in the cameo appearance of Hesha's obviously bright, capable and wanting-to-please new limo driver, a fun reminder of what Elizabeth was like at the beginning of Setite.

Here's the most important thing I notice in the characterizations, however: a continuation of the parent-child type struggles we all face to some degree or another, blown up larger-than-life and superimposed onto vampiric existence, which are played out most strongly in Lasombra and Assamite. In Ravnos, however, this dimension of the relationship between vampires and one another or their mortal playthings and enemies, and otherwise all around, is expanded upon. It's hard to describe how this aspect of the characters and their interactions plays out fully, because so many types of tension between characters, with which I think many if not most people can identify, are shown.

Khalil and Ramona's interactions illustrate the tensions and loyalties of boss and employee. Khalil and his master typify parents and, shall we say, "problem children," and as I said in Assamite's review, this is something with which I'm intimately familiar. Elizabeth typifies the conflict between one's roots and where one finds one's self in life. And to no small degree, Khalil embodies the tension between attractive man and would-be monster, a degree of sexual tension on which Vampire has long played and which Ryan exploits without making it feel like the tawdry dallyings of Leopold in Toreador. Khalil is someone you know you wouldn't be able to resist, even when you knew you should. Leopold comes across as having been the sort of kid who got caught stealing his dad's Penthouse.

It's these tensions, with which I think most of us can identify, that make the characterizations hit home. As I said, Ryan continues what Dansky and Fleming started, which is taking those commonplace tensions and magnifying them under the lens of the vampire fantasy.

The Plot

So what happens? Well, I was pleased to see the storyline return to what's been at its root all along, the Eye of Hazimel. We do get to see where the Eye's been lately, and we even get to see it change hands, with some unpleasant effects. Leopold pops back up (it must be nice just to snap out of torpor like that, mustn't it?), and there's even a mention of what's going on between the Camarilla and the Sabbat. Mostly, though, this is a novel about Khalil's experience as a Ravnos, and it's nice to see another novel that actually deals with the clan it's supposed to be about (why yes, Tzimisce does still nag at me, in that regard, as does Ventrue). It covers a lot of other ground, as well -- but perhaps this is natural, given the newfound rarity of the clan. It also nicely handles the rapid decline in the Ravnos population, played out for Khalil, who thinks the week in which so many Ravnos up and disappeared might be over.

Overall, the events of the novel don't necessarily make a neat package of cause and effect -- but neither does Khalil. Conflicted as he is, it's natural for his actions to seem desperate and random sometimes, and that's how it is. The frenetic tone of his endeavors infects the novel, making it seem a little confusing and odd sometimes, but that's how I think it should be. Kathleen Ryan manages to hold the story together very neatly while transmitting the schizophrenia Khalil's experiencing due to the variety of factors at play in his life.

What Does it Mean?

I was very pleased to see the unbelievably brief mention of a Camarilla resurgance in the books. Finally, a firm confirmation that the Camarilla is putting up a fight, even in places the Sabbat has already "won." Despite being a Camarilla fan myself, and despite the various arguments put forth recently on the Vampire-L list, V:tM's list hosted by Wizards of the Coast which explain why the Sabbat should or should not be "winning," most of which seem to be based more on which side the author likes than anything else (my own arguments included, I will happily admit), it's good to see, no matter how distant and fuzzy a glimpse it might be, signs of a return to some sort of balance.

It's been said on the same list, by folks who should know, that we will in fact see some signs of a shift in the overall storyline of V:tM, specifically with regards to the absurd Sabbat victories over the Camarilla which the clan novels describe. All I can say for the rest of the series is, well, White Wolf had better make it snappy. There are only five novels left, although four of them are about Camarilla clans, so hey, maybe there's hope for us Camarilla fans after all. I mean, I never even bought Guide to the Sabbat.

As for this novel's impact on the rest of the series, in terms of quality, that's a harder one to call for certain. Justin Achilli is writing Clan Novel: Giovanni, which I look forward to. Achilli has done quite a bit for the Vampire line since taking the helm as main developer, and I was impressed with his work on Clanbook: Giovanni and Clanbook: Cappodocian (the latter being for Vampire: the Dark Ages, of course). I'm not sure who other authors are, except to say that the next novel, Clan Novel: Malkavian, is from Stewart Wieck, author of the much-maligned (mainly by me) Clan Novel: Toreador. The previews of it, in the backs of Assamite and Ravnos, look...well, interesting. So far, surprising me, Wieck hasn't been touting descriptions of what, for lack of a better word, Vampire-L and Malkavian Madness nList readers and contributors label "fishmalks," the absurdly silly and utterly disposable Malkavian characters that litter the World of Darkness like so many fast food take-out bags. I'm hoping it's good.

Of course, it was originally supposed to be released in November, and my local bookstore said they still don't have a firm release date on it. So, it's not like he hasn't had time.

Dare I hope that the proverbial bar -- raised so wonderfully high by Fleming, Ryan and Dansky -- will remain where it is?

We'll see.

In Conclusion

When I was done with this novel, I thought:

Well, I definitely dig Kathleen Ryan.
It was different from Setite, though. Not sure just what I think yet.
Oh, who am I kidding? I loved it. Khalil is a babe, and I hate myself for admitting it.

And what more could I really ask? A complex novel that requires careful attention and rewards you with yummy details and psychological subtleties befitting the second novel by the woman who brought us a completely new understanding of Setites with her first.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Clan Novel: Ravnos
Author: Kathleen Ryan Category: Novel Company/Publisher: White Wolf Games Studio Line: Vampire: the Masquerade Cost: $5.99US Page count: 265 SKU: WW11106 Playtest Review by Michael G. Williams on 04/05/00. Genre tags: Fantasy Modern_day Horror Comedy Espionage Conspiracy Vampire Gothic Diceless	The back of Clan Novel: Ravnos declares, of the clan novels series from White Wolf, that "this series is a monumental, 13-novel exploration of the forbidden world of the Kindred." Having read Toreador, Tzimisce, Gangrel, Setite, Ventrue, Lasombra, and Assamite thus far, I don't know if I'd refer to it as a monumental exploration of the Kindred so much as a monumental "gee, we really, really like the Sabbat" statement by White Wolf. It didn't start on such a strong footing, either, with Clan Novel: Toreador leaving me feeling naughty in sections, and Eric Griffin's very enjoyable writing style hampered by the absurdity of the storyline he had to continue in Tzimisce. Gherbod Fleming took the reins in his hand, however, and turned Gangrel into a sparkling display of how good V:tM can be, and followed it up with more excellent work in Ventrue and then an earth-shattering page-turner with Assamite (which I misspelled in the first paragraph of my review of it -- d'oh!). Richard Dansky gave us a sweet parting gift as he deposited Lasombra in the mind's eye of every action-movie fan before leaving White Wolf. But Kathleen Ryan took the crown thus far for Setite, which only managed to reverse a decade of flimsy stereotyping when it came to that clan with her very first novel. Now she brings us Clan Novel: Ravnos, no mean feat when you consider that the clan in question was nearly destroyed in sourcebooks this past year and (or so rumor has it) difficulties finishing the novel led to a rearrangement of publishing schedules and the need for Eric Griffin to step in and provide an assist (if you'll notice, the stock number for Ravnos precedes that of Assamite, and was scheduled to be the 7th novel, not the 8th, according to the schedules in earlier books). I waited with baited breath for Ryan's next work, after Setite turned me into a rabid, frothing mouth and all, fan of her storytelling abilities. While Ravnos isn't perfect, it's damned good, and Kathleen Ryan by no means disappoints in the most recent of the clan novel series. As with the other novels, I'll be addressing: tone, or the general "feel" of the novel, characterization, or the cast we see paraded before us, plot, or the actual events of the novel, and what this novel means for the rest of the series. Tone I've got to hand it to Kathleen Ryan (and Richard Dansky and Gherbod Fleming, but I've already gone there): she knows how not to insult your intelligence. Rather than the purple prose and florid, high-humidity romance of Toreador (no, I can't just leave it alone), Kathleen Ryan greets us with rich but interesting and intelligent descriptions at every turn. For example, when one of the characters is doing his best to move quickly down a busy city sidewalk, she describes the passersby by saying: Women dressed for commerce called out to him shrilly. Men in shabby clothes cried scorn and hooted at him. Ahead of him, a group of young bucks in expensively ill-fitting costumes turned to check out the noise. They sported strips of bright cloth on their heads, necks, arms, or legs, and despite the flamboyant differences between each one, they were frighteningly similar to each other...carbon copies of themselves and of sword-rattling children Hesha had known in Africa, India and Europe. (p. 36) I love the phrase "women dressed for commerce." Gherbod Fleming's gift for descriptive prose must come in a bottle, and Kathleen Ryan's had a sip or three; images can be summed up in an efficient sentence, like that above, or stretched out like that of the club kids on a New York City street -- either way, she easily puts that image inside the reader's mind. More than sheer descriptive power, however, Ryan brings to her second novel the same talent with intense emotions: the sinister manipulations of Elizabeth or Khalil, the desperately sly maneuvering of Khalil and Ramona, the level-headedness of Hesha in the face of challenge. Ryan's characters feel right, most particularly when we see inside their heads and we find very grown-up ambitions and methods for achieving equally mature goals, side by side with the childish (or Beastly) impulses of greed and impatience which plague everyone, young and old, through sheer human nature. In short, Ryan writes a smart, scary and convincing storyline that I feel perfectly comfortable sitting back to enjoy, even if the desires, innocence and unmitigated evil of the subject matter makes some part of me squirm while I read. Characterization Again we get to enjoy the sort of strong characterization that Ryan brought us in Setite, which is still ranked, to my mind, as the very best this series has had to offer thus far, for a sheer overall quality much aided by the creeping, persistent horror of the main character, Hesha Ruhadze. In Ravnos, though, there are a few qualities that are less than perfect about the characterization. These same qualities, however, sometimes add to the quality of the book. Like Ryan's characters, any dissection of them is going to be complex. So, I'll dig in and see what I can do -- writing this section took me far longer than I thought it would. First, the main character, Khalil Ravana. Khalil is a relative neonate of the Ravnos clan, and a lucky survivor of the Week of Madness, as described in part in Setite and explored to greater depth in the sourcebook Time of Thin Blood (an effort which included Sarah Roark, another of my favorite writers with White Wolf). It would be unfair to describe Khalil as anything other than the back of the book does itself: a rogue. Khalil is handsome, sly, witty, silver-tongued and dangerous. But, perhaps most of all, he's dangerous to himself. With an elder whispering in his ear all the time, he's struggling to maintain his facade of cool control while battling (sometimes literally) the demon that tells him what to do during nearly every waking moment. Here again, Ryan shines in showing us the very human foibles of a main character, the very human urge to be free and in control of one's own life, and the absolute terror that can be spawned from one highly intelligent and even more manipulative mind. Khalil is engaging and repulsive, a sort of JR Ewing of the World of Darkness -- who can't enjoy that? The same sort of realism and intensity of portrayal is lent to the returning character of Elizabeth Demitros, who appeared in Setite as the new toy of Hesha, manipulator extraordinaire. Plagued by prophetic visions and Embraced by Hesha as a punishment, then saved at the last minute by Khalil, Elizabeth in this novel makes the steady transition from helpless mortal to a genuine sprout from the family vine, if you will. More quiet, more reserved, and far more successfully manipulative, while still able to feel and express some fear and vulnerability, Elizabeth doesn't get much in the way of lines, but she stands out as a character. Again, a highly enjoyable portrayal by Ryan. And what novel of Ryan's would be complete without more of the captivating but thoroughly nasty Hesha, gentleman among predators? The same goes for Hesha, although we see him reduced to his weakest yet: he's three-dimensional and fascinating, very much himself despite the diversity of his circumstances over the course of the novel (to put it very mildly). As for other strong characterizations, the bit players (one of whom, a fellow Ravnos, appears for precisely one scene spanning two pages at most), are equally interesting. I won't devote much time to them, however, except to say that Kathleen Ryan continues to deliver. I've never loved to hate a random Ventrue antitribu as much as the pauncy blueblood Ryan throws into a cast of Sabbat extras, proving Kathleen Ryan's mind must virtually swim with interesting personalities. The problems arise in this novel's characterization when Ryan has to take the hand-off on previous stars. Specifically, I mean her portrayal of Ramona, star of Gherbod Fleming's delightful Clan Novel: Gangrel. Now, don't get me wrong -- Kathleen Ryan doesn't get Ramona wrong by any means. Instead, Ramona is simply...different. At the end of Gangrel, Ramona is scared but strengthened by her experiences and determined to get to the bottom of what she and her fellow Gangrel encountered. She's stronger, despite the tragedy of what's occurred. By the time she shows back up, though, in Ravnos, she seems frailer, smaller, more vulnerable somehow. It's hard to explain -- and again I think it's merely the same thing that bothered me slightly about Fleming's portrayal of Lucita: speech patterns are slightly different, the character herself is somehow subtly changed between authors. This is perfectly natural and understandable; different writers view characters and express those views in different ways. By all means, this is a good thing. Still, there's some measure of dissonance between the Ramona from her starring role and the Ramona who appears as a reluctant sidekick in Ravnos. Also, this could very legitimately be attributed to Ramona's lack of progress in tracking down and stopping Leopold, for instance, or the time she's had to think about the events she witnessed, perhaps. If these are the reasons, great -- I just wish I'd had that spelled out for me, to ramp me up to Ryan's portrayal from Fleming's, is all. Call it petty, but it's what I first think of when I think of Ramona's role in this novel. Otherwise, Ramona continues to be an interesting character, and carries with her the same sort of basic motives and personality: she wants to be able to go back to something resembling a normal life, but she realizes this isn't possible, or won't be until the Eye is stopped or destroyed. It's this inability to have the old days back, and her thoughts of Zhavon, from Gangrel, that make her continue to be a character with whom we can identify so readily, on some level. Other strong facets of this novel's characterizations which are worth mentioning include the Nosferatu, to whom we've seen reference upon reference in the "file copies" littering the previous novels. They make me look forward to Clan Novel: Nosferatu, another surprise for someone who generally thinks the sewer rats are an uninteresting and over-self-inflated lot, the way the books present them. Also, we get a lovely touch of how the cycles of an elder vampire never really end, in the cameo appearance of Hesha's obviously bright, capable and wanting-to-please new limo driver, a fun reminder of what Elizabeth was like at the beginning of Setite. Here's the most important thing I notice in the characterizations, however: a continuation of the parent-child type struggles we all face to some degree or another, blown up larger-than-life and superimposed onto vampiric existence, which are played out most strongly in Lasombra and Assamite. In Ravnos, however, this dimension of the relationship between vampires and one another or their mortal playthings and enemies, and otherwise all around, is expanded upon. It's hard to describe how this aspect of the characters and their interactions plays out fully, because so many types of tension between characters, with which I think many if not most people can identify, are shown. Khalil and Ramona's interactions illustrate the tensions and loyalties of boss and employee. Khalil and his master typify parents and, shall we say, "problem children," and as I said in Assamite's review, this is something with which I'm intimately familiar. Elizabeth typifies the conflict between one's roots and where one finds one's self in life. And to no small degree, Khalil embodies the tension between attractive man and would-be monster, a degree of sexual tension on which Vampire has long played and which Ryan exploits without making it feel like the tawdry dallyings of Leopold in Toreador. Khalil is someone you know you wouldn't be able to resist, even when you knew you should. Leopold comes across as having been the sort of kid who got caught stealing his dad's Penthouse. It's these tensions, with which I think most of us can identify, that make the characterizations hit home. As I said, Ryan continues what Dansky and Fleming started, which is taking those commonplace tensions and magnifying them under the lens of the vampire fantasy. The Plot So what happens? Well, I was pleased to see the storyline return to what's been at its root all along, the Eye of Hazimel. We do get to see where the Eye's been lately, and we even get to see it change hands, with some unpleasant effects. Leopold pops back up (it must be nice just to snap out of torpor like that, mustn't it?), and there's even a mention of what's going on between the Camarilla and the Sabbat. Mostly, though, this is a novel about Khalil's experience as a Ravnos, and it's nice to see another novel that actually deals with the clan it's supposed to be about (why yes, Tzimisce does still nag at me, in that regard, as does Ventrue). It covers a lot of other ground, as well -- but perhaps this is natural, given the newfound rarity of the clan. It also nicely handles the rapid decline in the Ravnos population, played out for Khalil, who thinks the week in which so many Ravnos up and disappeared might be over. Overall, the events of the novel don't necessarily make a neat package of cause and effect -- but neither does Khalil. Conflicted as he is, it's natural for his actions to seem desperate and random sometimes, and that's how it is. The frenetic tone of his endeavors infects the novel, making it seem a little confusing and odd sometimes, but that's how I think it should be. Kathleen Ryan manages to hold the story together very neatly while transmitting the schizophrenia Khalil's experiencing due to the variety of factors at play in his life. What Does it Mean? I was very pleased to see the unbelievably brief mention of a Camarilla resurgance in the books. Finally, a firm confirmation that the Camarilla is putting up a fight, even in places the Sabbat has already "won." Despite being a Camarilla fan myself, and despite the various arguments put forth recently on the Vampire-L list, V:tM's list hosted by Wizards of the Coast which explain why the Sabbat should or should not be "winning," most of which seem to be based more on which side the author likes than anything else (my own arguments included, I will happily admit), it's good to see, no matter how distant and fuzzy a glimpse it might be, signs of a return to some sort of balance. It's been said on the same list, by folks who should know, that we will in fact see some signs of a shift in the overall storyline of V:tM, specifically with regards to the absurd Sabbat victories over the Camarilla which the clan novels describe. All I can say for the rest of the series is, well, White Wolf had better make it snappy. There are only five novels left, although four of them are about Camarilla clans, so hey, maybe there's hope for us Camarilla fans after all. I mean, I never even bought Guide to the Sabbat. As for this novel's impact on the rest of the series, in terms of quality, that's a harder one to call for certain. Justin Achilli is writing Clan Novel: Giovanni, which I look forward to. Achilli has done quite a bit for the Vampire line since taking the helm as main developer, and I was impressed with his work on Clanbook: Giovanni and Clanbook: Cappodocian (the latter being for Vampire: the Dark Ages, of course). I'm not sure who other authors are, except to say that the next novel, Clan Novel: Malkavian, is from Stewart Wieck, author of the much-maligned (mainly by me) Clan Novel: Toreador. The previews of it, in the backs of Assamite and Ravnos, look...well, interesting. So far, surprising me, Wieck hasn't been touting descriptions of what, for lack of a better word, Vampire-L and Malkavian Madness nList readers and contributors label "fishmalks," the absurdly silly and utterly disposable Malkavian characters that litter the World of Darkness like so many fast food take-out bags. I'm hoping it's good. Of course, it was originally supposed to be released in November, and my local bookstore said they still don't have a firm release date on it. So, it's not like he hasn't had time. Dare I hope that the proverbial bar -- raised so wonderfully high by Fleming, Ryan and Dansky -- will remain where it is? We'll see. In Conclusion When I was done with this novel, I thought: Well, I definitely dig Kathleen Ryan. It was different from Setite, though. Not sure just what I think yet. Oh, who am I kidding? I loved it. Khalil is a babe, and I hate myself for admitting it. And what more could I really ask? A complex novel that requires careful attention and rewards you with yummy details and psychological subtleties befitting the second novel by the woman who brought us a completely new understanding of Setites with her first. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)