This is an oddity for White Wolf's usual publishing line; not because the company is
any kind of stranger to vampire fiction, but because this work by Nancy A. Collins does not follow its celebrated canon on the nocturnal predators, but instead follows its own path.
Darkest Hearts is part of a series that feature successful installments such as
Sunglasses after Dark; it follows the adventures and exploits of Sonja Blue, a vampire who hunters other vampires in the modern world.
The book can be divided into two parts; in the first, Ms Blue meets a human mortal who seems to be genuinely attracted to her without knowing her true identity. We take a ride with her as she tries to reconcile her conflicts on whether such a relationship is even possible at all, especially since the Other in her (a demon-like being that manifests as a voice in her head, and occasionally tries to take charge of her body and actions) has plans and demands of its own.
In the second part, Sonja meets another human mortal; a vampire hunter himself, who puzzles and worries her in his obsessive search for the evil that took his life away, killed his father when he was only a boy and stole his mother away.
Now... there are a lot of good things about the book. It is fast-paced, and the description meaty certainly fits it - there are things happening constantly, involving several supernatural creatures in a world just a footstep apart from the normal one. Sonja's own mounted desperation at finding happiness in such a world is shown as well as told, which can help entice readers into her universe.
On the other hand, not everything makes sense. The doomed love affair with a mortal Sonja appears to consider the most she has felt in her (un)life is never developed enough for the reader to know exactly WHY it was so special; we are told there were several meetings over a few weeks between them, but we are only shown a hurried conversation or two that just do not show any particular fire.
The novel also seems to be somehow... rushed. Too much is happening in too short a time; sometimes, it goes through the motions and gives us two or three pages filled with action in which Sonja stomps on a vampire (there never seems to be any doubt about who will prevail), which is then followed by a page of brooding about the vampiric condition. Then a while later, it happens again.
Still, the work is original, from benevolent zombie-making allies to demons all too eager to strike a bargain with hapless mortals (never, ever ask one a question!), and Sonja Blue herself is a believable character under the circumstances, trying to find some degree of happiness in a world that has gone haywire and continually spins out of control.
I give this novel six out of ten.
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