Category: (Book)
14 new, starting at $7.59
40 used, starting at $1.71
Trouble's brewing when Sonja Blue, vampire and vampire hunter, takes on the Kindred of the World of Darkness in a hair-raising, hell-raising carnage-filled crossover. Written as only Nancy Collins can, this novel promises to be a treat for World of Darkness aficionados and Collins fans alike.
Great Homage to YojimboReviewed by J. Whelchel, 2007-12-07
I loved the movie Yojimbo where Toshiro Mifune plays a nameless
ronan who takes on two rival clans. If you've never seen it, find a
copy & Watch it. It's brilliant.
I'm also a fan of the western adaptation, 'For a Few Dollars more'
with Clint Eastwood's famous portrayal of the nameless anti
hero.
Nancy Collins does the material justice by inserting Sonja Blue
into the role. I found it interesting that she doesn't name her
Character until near the end of the story and so keeps to the feel
of Akira Kurosawa classic.
For fans of 'Sun Glasses After Dark', Sonja feels a little
different here, but she was able to port her into the World of
Darkness pretty much intact. The "rules" of vampires work just a
tad bit different than in Mrs. Collins world of pretenders. If
you're a Vampire the Masquerade fan, you may feel a little slighted
as she doesn't completely immerse the story into that world. Still,
I think she got the feel right and it was interesting to read about
the Blood Wizards. The price of magic is particularly high if
becoming a mage means you have to join the Tremiere.
If you're not familiar with either the Masquerade gaming system or
the original Sonja Blue stories, I recommend starting with Sun
Glasses After Dark or some of the other Whitewolf material first to
get a better feel for the place you'll be visiting here. But be
sure to come back here at a later date.
Seeing Ms. Blue wield a switchblade with the same skill Toshiro
wields a katana is worth the effort.
Note on the ranking: I rank on an absolute scale. A Dozen Black
Roses is an excellent book, but not quite a the level of the best
of the best which should be reserved for only a few books. Maybe 1
every decade or so. Still if you like this genre, you'll like this
book.
She's Back!Reviewed by Rodney Powell, 2001-10-05
Sonya Blue, Nancy Collins's unforgettable vampire slaying heroine
returns in this very violent and gripping adventure.This time Sonya
who is only known as The Stranger enters the sinister
city of Deadtown.Deadtown is the bloody battleground of two
competing vampire lords, Sinjon who has ruled the city for almost
two centuries and Esher the utterly ruthless younger vampire who
wants the city for himself.They both traffic in drugs and use
psychotic gangbangers as their armies.Sonya befriends Cloudy, a
aging hippy and Ryan a young boy who's mother is controlled by
Esher. Sonya decides to detroy both vampires, who are called
Kindred in the novel.This short novel is filled with scenes of very
graphic violence and visceral action sequences.The characters like
the brave boy, Ryan are also very well drawn and the villians such
as Esher and his sadistic vampire henchwoman, Decima also are
memorable.My own complain of this book is that is really is a dark
fantasy remake of two films: Yojimbo and Clint Eastwood's spaghatti
western fistful of dollars.Once I knew the similarities between the
book and those movies I guessed what would happen next in the plot
and I was right all of the time.If u seen these movies you will
remember what does happen in the novel as well.But other than that
be prepared as Sonya Blue puts you under her spell as she puts the
vampires dead under for good!
Another GREAT book by Nancy CollinsReviewed by MDK67, 2000-01-23
Great book, I rate it at the top of all the books written by Nancy Collins (with Sunglasses after dark and Angles on Fire). I enjoyed the story line revolving around the battle for "Dead Town" and the gang/vampire warfare. The construction of the characters was very well conceived and excitiong to read. Again, a great book....
WOD fans will pick this apart.Reviewed by Anonymous, 1999-07-07
Collins tried to blend an elsewhere established character into the brilliantly realized World of Darkness, and the effort fell flat. It would have been a similar endeavor for someone to write a novel about Batman throwing down with Brujah street toughs on the mean streets of Gotham, thus running afoul of the city's Prince. The story in A Dozen Black Roses was fairly contrived, and the characters lacked a certain panache. Perhaps the thing that annoyed me the most though was the way Collins went through the entire book without introducing Sonja Blue by name until the very end. She simply refers to Sonja as "the stranger". I felt that it was a pretty lame literary device.
Violence is pornographic in its excessivenessReviewed by Anonymous, 1999-04-06
Don't get suckered in by the other glowing reviews. I loved Nancy A Collin's character Sonia Blue from the book Sunglasses After Dark and followed the character faithfully through the trilogy. The character was witty, fresh, and the combination of violence and humour was absolutely great. I did note that the third book in the trilogy was not as great and that trend seemed to have carried into this new latest Sonia Blue adventure. None of what I loved in the first two parts of the trilogy is here in this book. I have usually have no problem with violence in books or in other media. However, in this book in particular, it was gratuitous to say the least and pornographic in its excessiveness. While there's violence aplenty, including an arm chopping, machete wielding henchman, gone is the caustic, fresh wit of the Sonia Blue I loved. Instead, the attempts to be hip and speak in a street parlance seemed forced. Perhaps Sonia works best when she is playing off of a character like Palmer in " In the Blood" ( the second book in the trilogy), but in this latest endeavor, there is no such character for her to play off with. As a result, the book is decidedly flat, using violence to make up for a lack of wit and creativity. I spent good money on a bad book. Don't do the same.
