Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Clan Novel: Ravnos by Kathleen Ryan ISBN: 1-56504-808-3 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: February, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.55 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Best of the Bunch?
Comment: I've read everything in this series so far (thru GIOVANNI) and this book is still in the running for the best in the series. Like Gherbod Fleming's GANGREL (the previous installment), it takes a break from the broad sweep of the series' plot to establish a strong main character focus. It's much more light-hearted than GANGREL, tho, and might be a welcome relief for those who found GANGREL too grim. It's still more serious than Kathleen Ryan's other book in the series (RAVNOS) and seems a little stronger for that reason. Here, the main characters are the Setite antiquarian Hesha and his mortal assistant, Liz- the first chance in the series to really see the action through a mortal's eyes.
Despite the cliff-hanger ending, this book is strong enough to be read on its own. The search for the Eye of Hazimel is a good mystery and ends up in some pretty momentous developments for the CLAN NOVEL series. There is also a lot of fascinating interplay and intrigue between characters, compelling enough to hold your attention even if you don't know anything about what's happened in the other books. The story is told as a flashback and a small flaw is that to get everyone to where they need to be in the situation depicted at the start of the book, some alliances seem to shift very abruptly. It's not enough to detract from the overall story, however. The book also takes us all the way to Calcutta- pretty interesting in itself.
Like GANGREL, the book also has a good focus on the title clan (something which was missing from TOREADOR which spent a lot of time using a Toreador-sponsored party to depict Camarilla Elysium politics and from TZIMISCE which was more about the Sabbat generally.) With all its intrigues, this story a good depiction of how the Setites conduct their business (the strongest lies subtly incorporate as much of the truth as possible) and use their powers. It's also a good depiction of a character following a Path of Enlightenment (who degenerates if he does something for purely selfless reasons). It's interesting that, although Hesha can't be called "good" in human terms, he doesn't seem to be exactly evil, either. I ended up both really liking him and wondering if I should.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Man You Love To Hate
Comment: The truth is, there are two basic kinds of books in the Clan Novel Series so far.
1) There are the books with a panoramic point of view that advance the larger story of the struggle between the Camarilla and the Sabbat, tie up necessary loose ends, further develop complex intrigues and so on.
2) There are the books which focus tightly on a character or small group of characters.
You may not be able to move the pins on your battle map as much with Type 2 but they tend to be the better books in the series. They tend to stand alone better (because you don't have to be moving pins on a battle map to care what happens) and tend to have more of a sense of being about the title vampire clan.
CLAN NOVEL RAVNOS is type two, as is Kathleen Ryan's other book in the series CLAN NOVEL SETITE. This makes them the strongest books in the series so far. (Gherbod Fleming's GANGREL and ASSAMITE are the other two.) Here, the hero is Khalil a charming jerk of a Ravnos who keeps outsmarting himself even as he is, yet again, declaring victory. His straight man in this farce is the commanding voice of the mysterious Ravnos elder which he hears in his head. (Rather sinister, too...but Khalil, of course, doesn't seem to notice that little problem.) Ramona from GANGREL and Liz from SETITE are teamed up with Khalil here. Ryan does an especially good job of adapting Fleming's Ramona. There doesn't seem to be any big advances of the series plot but there is some helpful development of the situation of the Ravnos clan as well as glimpses of the Nosferatu and the New York Sabbat.
And then there's that Ravnos elder....
Rating: 5
Summary: Perfect
Comment: Heasha is the perfect Setite. Kathleen Ryan's stories in the Mage books were great. This is a step up for her. Expertly written. Engrossing.
 |
Title: Clan Novel: Giovanni by Justin Achilli ISBN: 1565048261 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: Brujah by Gerbod Fleming, Gherbod Fleming ISBN: 1565048253 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: Clan Novel: Tremere by Eric Griffin ISBN: 156504827X Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: October, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: Clan Novel: Tzimisce by Eric Griffin ISBN: 1565048024 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
 |
Title: Clan Novel: Malkavian by Stewart Wieck ISBN: 1565048199 Publisher: White Wolf Publishing Inc. Pub. Date: April, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
