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Dark Ages Clan Novels #13
Dark Ages: Tzimisce
The End of an Epic
It has all led to this. Myca Vykos, schemer of Clan Tzimisce, is thrust into the War of Princes as elders of his clan and the whole of the Cainite Heresy come calling. The Nosferatu Malachite, still seeking to restore Constantinople, is at Vykos's side, but can the fiend be trusted to restore the dream of a vampiric utopia? Or does Vykos have debts of his own to pay?
About the Author
Myranda Kalis is the author of the novel Dark Ages: Brujah and a large amount of material in the Dark Ages game line. Her fiction has also appeared in Demon: Lucifer's Shadow.
287 pages, Paperback
First published July 19, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 7, 2016
The end of an epic saga
The Vampire Dark Ages Clan Novel series started out with a bang: the sack of Constantinople and the start of Malachite the Nosferatu quest to find the Dracon and save the Dream.
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Then followed the stories of a group of vampires traveling across Europe escaping from Byzantium for survival.
Later the storyline shifts to Paris and becomes more political intrigue centered, with the fall of ancient Prince Alexander and his exile to Magdeburg.
Then the story moves to the east of Danube, with the expansion in what will come to be modern Romania of the mortal Teutonic and Black Cross vampire knightly orders, the ancestral home of the flesh-crafters Tzimisce and the savage horde of warlord Quarakh the untamed.
After a few novels of all-out vampire war we finally arrive at the end of the run.
Magdeburg's Ventrue Prince Jurgen gives the heretic Archbishop of Nod's sleeping body to Myca Vykos, a Tzimisce scholar starting a quest that interests Malachite, the Rock of Constantinople, tool. Malachite seeks the Dracon, one of the three founders of the vampire Dream with the late Michael and Antonius and he thinks Nikita and the Dracon are the same... with the help of necromancer Markus Musa Giovanni (a surprise comeback from previous novels) they are going to have the answer they seek... and much more.
Myranda Kalis does a good job of recreating the culture of the Tzimisce, ancestral and territorial voivods, flesh moulders and spirit wizards: just imagine Ann Rice vampires with much more disturbing sex,violence and body horror.
Myka Vykos and his koldun lover Ilias are both great interesting and well developed characters, and, if you know White Wolf World of Darkness RPG lore, you are going to enjoy this book for good.
Myca is just moving his first steps into the downfall to the monster he's going to be in future: Sasha Vykos, Angel of Caine and Sabbat Priscus... but that is another story.
The saga is finally over, and Malachite's quest too.
Better if he just left the Dream die...
It was a great ride and I enjoyed it for good. Far better than lots of more famous and overrated vampire series.
The Vampire Dark Ages Clan Novel series started out with a bang: the sack of Constantinople and the start of Malachite the Nosferatu quest to find the Dracon and save the Dream.
[image error]
Then followed the stories of a group of vampires traveling across Europe escaping from Byzantium for survival.
Later the storyline shifts to Paris and becomes more political intrigue centered, with the fall of ancient Prince Alexander and his exile to Magdeburg.
Then the story moves to the east of Danube, with the expansion in what will come to be modern Romania of the mortal Teutonic and Black Cross vampire knightly orders, the ancestral home of the flesh-crafters Tzimisce and the savage horde of warlord Quarakh the untamed.
After a few novels of all-out vampire war we finally arrive at the end of the run.
Magdeburg's Ventrue Prince Jurgen gives the heretic Archbishop of Nod's sleeping body to Myca Vykos, a Tzimisce scholar starting a quest that interests Malachite, the Rock of Constantinople, tool. Malachite seeks the Dracon, one of the three founders of the vampire Dream with the late Michael and Antonius and he thinks Nikita and the Dracon are the same... with the help of necromancer Markus Musa Giovanni (a surprise comeback from previous novels) they are going to have the answer they seek... and much more.
Myranda Kalis does a good job of recreating the culture of the Tzimisce, ancestral and territorial voivods, flesh moulders and spirit wizards: just imagine Ann Rice vampires with much more disturbing sex,violence and body horror.
Myka Vykos and his koldun lover Ilias are both great interesting and well developed characters, and, if you know White Wolf World of Darkness RPG lore, you are going to enjoy this book for good.
Myca is just moving his first steps into the downfall to the monster he's going to be in future: Sasha Vykos, Angel of Caine and Sabbat Priscus... but that is another story.
The saga is finally over, and Malachite's quest too.
Better if he just left the Dream die...
It was a great ride and I enjoyed it for good. Far better than lots of more famous and overrated vampire series.
November 15, 2011
This wasn't the most exciting conclusion to the Dark Ages novel series. The vast majority of the book played out as a love affair between Myca Vykos and his Koldun lover Illias (Or some such name). It was most certainly building toward a climax, but it took far, far too long to get there and by the time it was reached I had lost all interest in the book. It's a shame that the series ended with a proverbial whimper instead of a bang.
November 25, 2025
This book should be titled 'Travel Arrangements & Gay Intercourse (With Fangs)' because that's all the bulk of the novel is comprised of. Expect long, at times tedious and exhausting, descriptions of Myca Vykos and his lover Ilias traveling around Europe to solve a mystery that any fan of Vampire who has read the previous novel of Clan Ventrue has already long solved, interrupted by long and saccharine scenes of erotica between Myca and Ilias, broken by a stop-off in Sredetz for a pagan festival that makes a really good case as to why Christianity is a good thing for Europe.
There are shining spots of success such as the scene with Rosamund of Islington presenting herself before an angry voivode, and a brief defensive scene with a Tzimisce warlord under attack by the Tremere, but then these little brief spots are over and it's back on the road with Myca and Ilias for more of the same. It reminded me of that Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode: we're traveling, full penetration, back to traveling, more full penetration, traveling, penetration, traveling, and this goes on until the novel just sort of ends.
Myca and Ilias are not especially likeable characters, which, that would be okay, but they're not doing anything particularly of consequence. Ironically this sort of suits their unlifestyle. You get the impression that they're just hedonists surrounded by more politically relevant vampires that are actually getting things done. Myca just fields the occasional act of diplomacy for his sire while shacking up with his boyfriend. Ilias has a couple mildly interesting scenes using his koldun magic, but the rest of the time he's mostly just a naked, smarmy gooner.
But where Dark Ages: Tzimisce ultimately fails is in not portraying any really intriguing politics. Have Myca and Ilias be layabouts, sure, but draw them into games of consequence with some stakes and throw some challenges their way beyond what boat they're going to use or how they're going to manage their sleeping arrangements. The whole thing with Nikita is already obvious for anybody who's been paying attention, that mystery isn't enough, and the climax of the novel ends up being (surprise!) more full penetration.
It took me two attempts to actually finish the book from beginning to end because I was really bored. I say all of this as an author, with all sensitivity to the pains Myranda Kalis no doubt took writing, as any author does. It still remains that, for me, of the Dark Ages Vampire novels, this is by far the weakest.
There are shining spots of success such as the scene with Rosamund of Islington presenting herself before an angry voivode, and a brief defensive scene with a Tzimisce warlord under attack by the Tremere, but then these little brief spots are over and it's back on the road with Myca and Ilias for more of the same. It reminded me of that Always Sunny in Philadelphia episode: we're traveling, full penetration, back to traveling, more full penetration, traveling, penetration, traveling, and this goes on until the novel just sort of ends.
Myca and Ilias are not especially likeable characters, which, that would be okay, but they're not doing anything particularly of consequence. Ironically this sort of suits their unlifestyle. You get the impression that they're just hedonists surrounded by more politically relevant vampires that are actually getting things done. Myca just fields the occasional act of diplomacy for his sire while shacking up with his boyfriend. Ilias has a couple mildly interesting scenes using his koldun magic, but the rest of the time he's mostly just a naked, smarmy gooner.
But where Dark Ages: Tzimisce ultimately fails is in not portraying any really intriguing politics. Have Myca and Ilias be layabouts, sure, but draw them into games of consequence with some stakes and throw some challenges their way beyond what boat they're going to use or how they're going to manage their sleeping arrangements. The whole thing with Nikita is already obvious for anybody who's been paying attention, that mystery isn't enough, and the climax of the novel ends up being (surprise!) more full penetration.
It took me two attempts to actually finish the book from beginning to end because I was really bored. I say all of this as an author, with all sensitivity to the pains Myranda Kalis no doubt took writing, as any author does. It still remains that, for me, of the Dark Ages Vampire novels, this is by far the weakest.
January 18, 2021
Properly creepy
There is some great creepiness here and it does a great job closing out the Dark Ages storyline. One of the strongest things though is the characters.
There is some great creepiness here and it does a great job closing out the Dark Ages storyline. One of the strongest things though is the characters.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews