Dark Ages: Lasombra

Dark Ages Clan Novels #5

by David Niall Wilson

The situation in Constantinople has degenerated into sheer chaos, as vampires of every stripe prey on the ruined metropolis. Lucita, the young envoy of Clan Lasombra, is caught in the middle and cut off from her elders in Europe. Alone, she faces the impossible task of making the city her own, lest she become another victim in the War of Princes.

Genres: World Of Darkness, Fantasy, Vampires, Horror, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Dark Fantasy

269 pages, Paperback

First published April 14, 2003

About the author

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David Niall Wilson has been writing and publishing horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction since the mid-eighties. An ordained minister, once President of the Horror Writer 's Association and multiple recipient of the Bram Stoker Award. He lives outside Hertford, NC with the love of his life, Patricia Lee Macomber, His children Zane and Katie, occasionally their older siblings, Stephanie, who is in college, and Bill and Zach who are in the Navy, and an ever-changing assortment of pets.

David is CEO and founder of Crossroad Press, a cutting edge digital publishing company specializing in electronic novels, collections, and nonfiction, as well as unabridged audiobooks and print titles.

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Dark Ages: Lasombra" is the fifth book in the series of White Wolf (Old) World of Darkness clan novels set in the Dark Ages.
Masters of shadows and scheming, in medieval times the Lasombra vampires were deeply involved with the Roman Catholic Church and the nobility and were able to utilize them to their own endings.

The situation in Constantinople has degenerated into chaos.
Following the sacking of Constantinople and the fall of Michael the Patriarch, voices spread about Caine walking in the night among the camps surrounding the city; the Chosen of Calomena, a blood cult of fanatics who wishes for the destruction of his kind, have rised their head again and started killing other vampires; things are getting worse and Byzantium is on the brink of more wars at the hands of the Latins and Bulgars; last but not least, various factions of the Lasombra clan are maneuvering from the shadows for the leadership of New Rome.
Lucita of Aragon, an agent of Cardinal Moncada in the city of Constantinople, and one of the iconic characters of the Vampire the Masquerade\Dark Ages RPG setting, is drawn to the power vacuum in Constantinople, caught in the middle and cut off from her elders in Europe.

Already introduced into the second book of the Dark Ages novels, Lucita is still far away from the 800 years old kick-ass warrior of the modern Vampire the Masquerade books.
She decides the Bishop Alfonzo, agent of venetian Lasombra, is the vampire best suited to her own plans and works to bring him to power.

This will put her at odds with Gabriella from Genoa, another contestant, and threatens her relationship with Moncada.

Intrigue is a classic tool of the clan better known as The Keepers, so political machinations
are the main theme of the book: if you are looking for an excellent depiction of political battles among the undead this is really the book for you.
The good is that there is a lot of action too and some amazing scenes like the blood feast in Alfonzo's villa and the tragic unexpected doom of the poor Matteo at the end are really unforgettable.
A very good novel, and reading again about Lucita and Anatole after 15 years (a life ago I loved being a VtM RPG Storyteller *SIGH*)was like meeting again two old friends.

[Marcin Wronikowski · Rating 2 out of 5]

The title of this book should be "Dark Ages: Exposition", because that's what most of its page count contains. It's supposed to be about members of the Lasombra clan, but there's barely anything about the lead characters that introduces the reader to this vampire clan or its powers, customs, machinations etc. 30% of the book is dedicated to bishop Alfonzo's grand banquet, which only manages to show how the most powerful Lasombra in Constantinople is an inept monster surrounded by even more inept monsters. The next 30% of the page count covers the investigation into a break-in the happened during the banquet, and you'd think that Alfonzo would be the main instigator. But no, it's another, completely unrelated Lasombra and a Malkavian who do most of the legwork. Time and time again Alfonzo is being surprised by the others' findings. The remaining part of the book is about yet another Lasombra who has zero connection to the plot of the attack on Alfonzo but she's making a power play in Constantinople, all of which consists of infiltrating a tavern owned by Alfonzo. Malachite the Nosferatu from the first book makes an appearance and at the very least he's stopped moping but his appearance is so pointless that you could remove him from the novel and nothing would be lost. Other characters from previous books are mentioned, too, but it's only to make is seem like the novels are connected into an overarching narrative.

On the whole, between the constant exposition, the lack of any focused plot, weak characterisation, the spelling errors, the author forgetting that he's writing a book about vampires and not regular humans, I can't really recommend this book to anyone. It's by no means the worst book I've read in my life, but it's so pointless that I feel I wasted my time reading it. It says a lot about this novel that the most exciting thing happening is a vampire seducing another vampire's ghoul.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels unfinished, in some respects. I suspect this is because it is the fifth book in a series with rather more than five volumes, and it is the only book in the series I have read. I started it because I liked his writing in the Grail's Covenant series, more than for any other reason. Unfortunately, I suspect I would dislike the writing in other books of this Dark Ages Clan Novel series, given the fact each book is written by someone different, and the first book's author is an author whose writing I haven't enjoyed in the past.

David Niall Wilson is great at some atmospheric writing and character building. The complexity of some relationships in this novel, the weight of factions, and likely the requirement to tie it closely to other books written by other people, seem to have made it a bit less cohesive a story than it could have been. Some of the character development narrative became clunky and unnecessarily expository. It feels a little like a later draft, but not fully polished, still in need of some work.

I enjoyed it, and felt a touch disappointed it was over. It makes me want to read more -- but more of the story as it would be written by this author, not by some other as part of a marketing series of books where the focus of each is on a different character attached to a different faction.

I think my next David Niall Wilson book will not be about someone else's product line.

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not into Masquerade novels and have only read one other, but this one checked a few boxes for me. I am somewhat curious about the Lasombra, historical settings are rather more my thing than modern nights, and finally the big one: it takes place shortly after the sacking of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade. Of particular interest to me, I was curious to see how the city was portrayed, even in a fictional way during this time.

While not really being great on any of these fronts, the book was OK, and was not badly written. The political machinations were somewhat interesting, though nowhere near as convoluted and Byzantine as I would have really expected. Possibly some earlier book in the series would have been a better option for that... but at the end of the day, I was not expecting very much from this book, and the secret to not being disappointed is low expectations.

I may try and pick up another in this series, or the more modern instalment of the Lasombra which deals with the same main character eight centuries later... Or I may not. This is definitely one of those books where the enjoyment of the reader very much depends on what they were looking for when they picked it up.

[E J · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Forgettable, unsatisfying read. Lucita, as the signature character of clan Lasombra, certainly didn't feel like one. She should've been given 20 or so pages of background and history - something to give us insight into who she is. Instead, she felt like a pawn, less than Matteo. As such, she shouldn't be someone worthy of being on the cover.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better than regular clan novel

The original clan novel didn't really and much to the storyline that it was in. This one really starts showing why the Lasombra are known as power brokers.

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dark quasi historical tale of vampire politics and machinations.

[Kevin Low · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story was a solid four stars but dropped a star for poor editing, rarely come across so many spelling, grammar and editing mistakes in a published novel.

[Justin MacCormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those in the know, the Dark Ages Vampire novels were set in an era considerably different from their modern iteration. This book, based around the Lasombra, was fairly unique as the clan was markably different in the Dark Ages, being far more political and integrated into society. In an era which was dominated by the church and the crown, the Lasombra represented the church to the Ventrue's crown.
I'm a dab hand at horror myself, having made a series of horror novels (the first, "Return to 'Return to Oz'" is a bestseller, check it out) so I was keen to see this side of the Lasombra clan as something truly horrific. In this book, that was not quite the case. Instead, I was very pleasantly surprised to find one of the most intricate, realistic and fascinating looks into a political landscape. Often in Vampire: the Masquerade, the political machinations take a backstage to creepy powers and rampaging elders, and we forget just how calculating the characters can be. This book works as a wonderful example of just how scary it can be to be part of another's schemes.
I'd recommend anyone who wants to play Vampire: The Masquerade pick up a copy of this to see just how to use politics in your game.

[Bertalan Kiss]

Language: hungarian