I just finished reading Shards and to tell the truth, I was rather disappointed.
The Idea behind it is really good, I think: Lucita, one of the coolest Characters in the Vampire-setting of White Wolf gets her own novel, or rather her own trilogy of novels.
The book started rather interesting, too: Several Sabbat Cardinals, among them one of my personal favorites, Sascha Vykos, appear in a great setting and decide the further cause of events to take place.
However, a good beginning doesn't male a good book. The plot of the whole book can be summoned up in a few words:
Lucita starts to question her wn existence and starts looking for a new sense after her sire died (which happened in Clan Novel: Assamite).
At the same time, a pack of Sabbat-Neonates try to catch her and slowly catch up.
Of course, everything ends in a big confrontation. There is some more plot after that confrontation, but I don't want to spoil more than necessary.
Let's start with Lucita's part: She spent nearly a century opposing her Sire. Now that he is dead, she is left without a real aim in her life or rather existence. After a while she decides to find out, how it is to live in the Camarilla. She meets with two Lasombra-Antitribue and watches their existence for a while. One of them is a "typical" Sozialite in London, the other poses as Archon, but does so only to indulge in brutal violence. Lucita fails to see any worth in joining them and finally meets with Fatima, her age old companion.
The scene when the two meet is one of the actual high-lights of the book. Both fail in accepting the other one's ways of thinking and when they finally part, both feel they have lost a dear friend.
Lucita's part of the book is nice, the episode with Fatima even good, but there is no real plot. Alright, one could argue, that Lucita's inner struggle is enough for one book and that the second plot-line has enough action, but I still feel unsatisfied.
Lucita herself just feels wrong. In a way, she doesn't have any flavor. Alright, she laments her situation and she uses Disciplines any Neonate could only dream about, but she doesn't have the edge she should. The Lucita from Shards lacks in cunning, in subtility and in resourcefulness.
The book also ignores the fact, that Lucita helped found the Camarilla or at least joined it at first in the course of the "Transilvanien Chronicles".
Her Persuers' Part: Well, this is where the actuall action takes place. People get killed, clues get gathered and backstabbing takes place.
The persuers consist of 5 Lasombra Neonates (alright, the clans of some are never mentioned, but there is no reason they shouldn't be), forced to work together in order to catch Lucita. For those of you who have seen Lucita in action, the very Idea of sending Neonates after her would make one wonder, what they have done so that their superiors seek their death, but for some reason or other, this is not the case. The millenia old Cardinals actually expect these childer to be successful.
I really liked the Idea of showing several Lasombra working together. I hoped for some insights into how different individual Lasombra could be while still being Lasombra. To my big disappointment, they weren't really Lasombra. Well, yes, they where of the right blood (or at least seemed to be), but they simply didn't match the basic requirements of a true Lasombra.
Niccolo especially was portrayed as lacking in any kind of subtility. He was as blunt as a brujah (if you won't mind). Roxana Simon Peter remind me a bit of Pat and Paterson. A big fat hispanic woman and her rather nerdy knows-it-all American boy-friend.
The thing about Lasombra I love most is their style and neither of them has any.
Stil they are efficient as hell. Mainly relying on physical traps, they manage among other things to slay an elder Lasombra prapared for a possible trap/assault.
Of course, they also have to be a worthy opposition for Lucita. Otherwise them even being sent on their mission would lack any sense in a book centering on Lucita.
In a way, they remind me of the X-men. I normally love the X-Man, but they kind of have the same weak points:
They are too stereotypical. Niccolo lacks in wits but has mechanical skill sufficient to build horrible traps. Simon Peter can be described as having Thaumaturgicak skill and being a know-it-all. Roxana doesn't even have any personality beyond her profound skill in manipulating shadows.
Pack Leader Andrew shows a little bit of personality, but not really enough to make up for his comrades.
I also dislike the way, they always keep one step behing Lucita. In whereever she goes, they always find the one crucial clue to follow her, often by sheer luck.
There are two more important persons in the story:
One of them is a human whom Lucita develops an interest in and whom she makes a ghoul later.
The other is a secretive cabal of Shadowmages, whe perform dark rituals opening gates to the abyss. The only thing we get to know about them is that they play a important part in the next (or possibly both next) novel(s). Oh, we also discover what their big aim is, but I wouln't tell you.
All together, the story lacks in serious plot. Lucita seeks a new purpose for her existence, a pack of neonates hunts her down, a mysterious cabal of sorcerers try to concure something terrible from the abyss and a young woman gets drawn into the affairs of vampires.
There are no unsuspected story-twists, one can generally guesss what will happen 20 pages before and the characters could be presented in a better way.
I'll read the next one, too, for sure, but I don't really expect it to become better.
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