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The Fall of Atlanta is a large book, reminding me of my college literary texts, filled with short stories from people you’ll probably never want to have your eyes go over again. The clean, boxy book is something that could kill many spiders at once, or injure the toe if dropped. That is to say, its size is huge... Unlike my college texts, however, the Fall of Atlanta is going into circulation in my small coterie of friends (some are big horror fans, others big book fans).
I was put off trying to start the Clan Novel series in its thirteen volume form, several of the chapters occurred out of sequence putting making me hard pressed to deal with the schism. I’ve read some out-of-sequence novels, but those were required reads, and I don’t think that I could read Slaughter-House Five again (though I did manage to read it all in a day). Fall of Atlanta fixes the “time stamp” issue that I had trying to put events into order while reading, as it’s a strict chronological breakdown of the Clan Novel series (plus its anthology and some new material—including a small sampling from the Book of Nod).
One of the small problems I have with the book, is the plethora of character that come wheeling into view only to disappear for several chapters, then reoccur only for a few pages and off they go, hopefully to reappear in the next books. I had this problem with Turtledove’s World at War fantasy series, but I’m still intrigued by what may or may not occur in the later volumes. Things that occur in this novel I’m sure will be addressed in the other volumes, such as the kidnapping victim and the diablerie of the younger Settie.
The novel is about a Sabbat vampire attack and ruination of the Camarilla city of Atlanta, Georgia. The stage is set for more Sabbat-Camarilla conflict as the Sabbat soon turn their attentions to the other Camarilla cities along the American eastern seaboard. The fallout of the Sabbat attack makes up the rest of the novel, alongside an odd plot involving the Eye of Hazimel (taken from a Ravnos Methuselah).
The characterization ranges from empathic to overly dramatic, as numerous hands have crafted the final form of the novel, including some first-person narration being changed into the third-person to better fit with the rest of the book. The editors did a decent job, though I’m not the best judge of whether or not the original intent of those sections was maintained (or which sections those were, for that matter).
Overall, I am impressed more with the way this book is set up to ease the reader into the vampiric world that White Wolf’s game is set in. Some parts of the book are more geared for those just looking at a way of viewing the world of Vampire: the Masquerade, while others made me feel that work was done to set outside the boundaries set by the game’s rules.
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