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Time of Judgment Trilogy #1
Gehena, la última noche (La hora del juicio - 1 - Vampiro)
Una carrera contra el armagedón
Durante milenios, los vampiros se han alimentado de los vivos y ocultado en las sombras de la sociedad mortal. Cuentan las leyendas que los no muertos descienden de Caín, el primer asesino bíblico, que contagió su maldición a través de la sangre. Esas mismas historias hablan también de un destino final; cuando Caín y sus chiquillos enloquecidos despierten y consuman a todos los no muertos. Los vampiros llaman a este día Gehena.
Para el vampiro Beckett, un investigador entre los no muertos, significa una última oportunidad para comprender los misterios de la maldición de Caín y dejar atrás sus propios pecados.
Durante milenios, los vampiros se han alimentado de los vivos y ocultado en las sombras de la sociedad mortal. Cuentan las leyendas que los no muertos descienden de Caín, el primer asesino bíblico, que contagió su maldición a través de la sangre. Esas mismas historias hablan también de un destino final; cuando Caín y sus chiquillos enloquecidos despierten y consuman a todos los no muertos. Los vampiros llaman a este día Gehena.
Para el vampiro Beckett, un investigador entre los no muertos, significa una última oportunidad para comprender los misterios de la maldición de Caín y dejar atrás sus propios pecados.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 14, 2004
5 people are currently reading
196 people want to read
About the author
Ari Marmell
101 books436 followersWhen Ari Marmell has free time left over between feeding cats and posting on social media, he writes a little bit. His work includes novels, short stories, role-playing games, and video games, all of which he enjoyed in lieu of school work when growing up. He’s the author of the Mick Oberon gangland/urban fantasy series, the Widdershins YA fantasy series, and many others, with publishers such as Del Rey, Titan Books, Pyr Books, Wizards of the Coast, and now Omnium Gatherum.
Ari currently resides in Austin, Texas. He lives in a clutter that has a moderate amount of apartment in it, along with George—his wife—and the aforementioned cats, who probably want something.
Ari currently resides in Austin, Texas. He lives in a clutter that has a moderate amount of apartment in it, along with George—his wife—and the aforementioned cats, who probably want something.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
July 22, 2007
I read this novel for two simple reasons: one, the writer is an acquaintance I met through my freelancing for roleplaying games; two, I have been playing Vampire: The Masquerade since 1992 and I wanted to know how it all ended.
The novel relates the story of the days leading to the Final Night for all vampires, the so-called Gehenna, where it is prophesized the original vampire, Caine (of Abel fame), and the Antediluvians (Caine's grandchildren, so to speak) will awaken and pass judgment upon all the vampires in the world. Peachy.
I don't know how much of the story was the author's idea, and how much was handed down from the game developers, but to the credit of both, I actually liked the novel. The writing was good enough for what it was telling (though there were too many parentheses throughout the novel), and the storytelling itself was engaging enough to keep going back to it and finish it in 3 days.
It was annoying, though, to realize that even at the end, they kept some things secret, and that the novel ends on the morning of the day of Gehenna; officially, you really don't know what will happen when the end comes, only what transpired up to it. I can deal with that as a gamer, but as a reader I expected more. But I guess that's the general problem with game-related fiction in general. All these things aside, like I said, I liked the book. I liked that no punches were pulled; that vampires died left and right; that the big names went down without gimmicks and once and for all; that when the shit hit the fan, it hit it good and spread everywhere. Most of all, I liked that, even when vampires are borderline on being blood-powered superheroes, the main character held on to the ethos of the Vampire line: it's all about personal horror and redemption; even a centuries-old, blood-sucking, bestial-featured, manipulating vampire could have a shred of humanity left in him to make him feel remorse for his actions, and hope to rise above his monstrous nature.
A very cool ending to Vampire: The Masquerade, and good enough to make me wonder, what's next?
The novel relates the story of the days leading to the Final Night for all vampires, the so-called Gehenna, where it is prophesized the original vampire, Caine (of Abel fame), and the Antediluvians (Caine's grandchildren, so to speak) will awaken and pass judgment upon all the vampires in the world. Peachy.
I don't know how much of the story was the author's idea, and how much was handed down from the game developers, but to the credit of both, I actually liked the novel. The writing was good enough for what it was telling (though there were too many parentheses throughout the novel), and the storytelling itself was engaging enough to keep going back to it and finish it in 3 days.
It was annoying, though, to realize that even at the end, they kept some things secret, and that the novel ends on the morning of the day of Gehenna; officially, you really don't know what will happen when the end comes, only what transpired up to it. I can deal with that as a gamer, but as a reader I expected more. But I guess that's the general problem with game-related fiction in general. All these things aside, like I said, I liked the book. I liked that no punches were pulled; that vampires died left and right; that the big names went down without gimmicks and once and for all; that when the shit hit the fan, it hit it good and spread everywhere. Most of all, I liked that, even when vampires are borderline on being blood-powered superheroes, the main character held on to the ethos of the Vampire line: it's all about personal horror and redemption; even a centuries-old, blood-sucking, bestial-featured, manipulating vampire could have a shred of humanity left in him to make him feel remorse for his actions, and hope to rise above his monstrous nature.
A very cool ending to Vampire: The Masquerade, and good enough to make me wonder, what's next?
November 25, 2019
White Wolf had a winner here, the whole World of Darkness platform, those that go bump into the night are given new origins, divided into two factions Camarilla and Sabbath, these factions are made up of 13 clans (Ventrue, Toreador, Nosferatu and etcetera for the Camarilla, For the Sabbath we have Salubri, Lasombra, Tsimiczse and etcetera) each, so 26 clans in all, oh wait these were just the Vampires, the king of the undead, excludes the werewolfs, ghosts and mummies, they had so many(for me) stories to tell, so much lore and then just like the story, the whole company just vanished...........
A beautiful world to traipse around, not just your ordinary run of the mill vampires, we had vampires that dabble with magic(blood of course), techno savvy Vampires, Political ones, just like their prey the human race, each has their own legends, and so we talk about Gehenna, according to World of Darkness lore, this was the time the Antideluvians or the third generation(vampire strength, wisdom and etcetera decrease as the generations go by, so the antideluvians were the most powerful of these vampires except for Caine, the progenitor)would rise and feed off their progeny signaling the end, while a lot has been said and read, ordinary vampires(mostly newly embraced ones belong to the ninth or tenth generation, therefore too diluted or weak), no one has ever seen these third gen monsters, even the most long lived from both sides, as time goes by, the stories became legends, then myths until finally, they were just stories, the novel starts with Beckett (a Gangrel, or those akin to werewolves but only by attitude and some hairiness{??}), finally found all the necessary components to free a compatriot from his age old prison, thus the story goes.......we see the paranoia, dementia and finally the sheer brutality of a vampire unmasked, the story was as linear as possible, although the cast were the more known characters Theo Bell, Lucita, Beckett, Victoria and more........for a casual reader with no prior knowledge about this world, this novel would be truly confusing, to us who truly embraced the whole Darkness thing it was a story come true............except as we near the end of the tale.........things became like the Vampires themselves, unpredictable and unknowable..........
I have read this twice, the first time was in my 20+, this second reading was in my 40+ and still the end.........just confused me, was it all true or just like vampires themselves, simply my imagination gone wrong................
Maybe a third reading would be the charm, well I need to wait another two decades...........
A beautiful world to traipse around, not just your ordinary run of the mill vampires, we had vampires that dabble with magic(blood of course), techno savvy Vampires, Political ones, just like their prey the human race, each has their own legends, and so we talk about Gehenna, according to World of Darkness lore, this was the time the Antideluvians or the third generation(vampire strength, wisdom and etcetera decrease as the generations go by, so the antideluvians were the most powerful of these vampires except for Caine, the progenitor)would rise and feed off their progeny signaling the end, while a lot has been said and read, ordinary vampires(mostly newly embraced ones belong to the ninth or tenth generation, therefore too diluted or weak), no one has ever seen these third gen monsters, even the most long lived from both sides, as time goes by, the stories became legends, then myths until finally, they were just stories, the novel starts with Beckett (a Gangrel, or those akin to werewolves but only by attitude and some hairiness{??}), finally found all the necessary components to free a compatriot from his age old prison, thus the story goes.......we see the paranoia, dementia and finally the sheer brutality of a vampire unmasked, the story was as linear as possible, although the cast were the more known characters Theo Bell, Lucita, Beckett, Victoria and more........for a casual reader with no prior knowledge about this world, this novel would be truly confusing, to us who truly embraced the whole Darkness thing it was a story come true............except as we near the end of the tale.........things became like the Vampires themselves, unpredictable and unknowable..........
I have read this twice, the first time was in my 20+, this second reading was in my 40+ and still the end.........just confused me, was it all true or just like vampires themselves, simply my imagination gone wrong................
Maybe a third reading would be the charm, well I need to wait another two decades...........
July 6, 2020
This wasn't a poorly written book, but I couldn't really enjoy it because it felt like it was the third or fourth in a series. (I think it must be written for people who play the tabletop RPG.) While enough context was given in the book itself that I was rarely actually confused by events, I did feel like I was missing a LOT by not going in knowing more about the characters and world. I'd played the computer game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines so I'd met two of the characters, but that didn't feel like nearly enough. This book has many characters and touches on a lot of lore.
For me, too much was left unclear unexplained or unfinished And aside from the fact that the ending was cliffhanger-ish, I also found it existentially disappointing.
For me, too much was left unclear unexplained or unfinished And aside from the fact that the ending was cliffhanger-ish, I also found it existentially disappointing.
June 16, 2025
This was a lot of fun, really enjoyed the novel start to finish. The author does a wonderful job characterising well-known and well-loved NPCs, particularly Beckett and Lucita, and I appreciated the way the narrative wove together neatly contemporary kindred and kine politics. Fast-paced, with plenty of action, adventure, humour, horror, charm, and existential dread, could not imagine a better written road trip through the kindred apocalypse. Strongly recommend this to any Beckett, Lucita or Anatole fan, or with a more than passing interest in what Gehenna might look like.
Will say as a warning: this novel really does nothing to explain background lore and terminology or introduce any of these characters to readers unfamiliar with the world. I strongly recommend only those already familiar with basic VtM lore and essential NPCs read it, since it is by no means the best starting place for someone new to VtM, but if you already have a working knowledge of the setting and who these characters are, it's a wonderful and engaging read.
Will say as a warning: this novel really does nothing to explain background lore and terminology or introduce any of these characters to readers unfamiliar with the world. I strongly recommend only those already familiar with basic VtM lore and essential NPCs read it, since it is by no means the best starting place for someone new to VtM, but if you already have a working knowledge of the setting and who these characters are, it's a wonderful and engaging read.
September 8, 2022
if you like vampire the masquerade this is a must read, even if it is now non canon. it's just so Much..... so much beckett and lucita content
October 27, 2020
This is quite entertaining, but not better than I would expect from an rpg tie-in novel. I'm not the biggest fan of Beckett as a character and there weren't many surprises in the plot, but it was a fun ride.
August 9, 2024
Full review here:
http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...
Probably the best of the trilogy. I recommend this and the second book to anyone who enjoyed the games, and even to those few who are willing to work with contectual clues to figure out what they've missed to get into a good world ender.
http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...
Probably the best of the trilogy. I recommend this and the second book to anyone who enjoyed the games, and even to those few who are willing to work with contectual clues to figure out what they've missed to get into a good world ender.
September 27, 2016
Read it as a supplement to the "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" videogame. It tied up some loose ends really well and while I'm not really a World of Darkness aficionado (yet), I'd easily recommend it to anyone looking for that post-Bloodlines V:TM fix.
Oh, and it's of a FAR better quality than most videogame/PnP tie-in novels out there.
Oh, and it's of a FAR better quality than most videogame/PnP tie-in novels out there.
February 9, 2020
This book gives different options for what Gehenna really means, each option being just as valid and as well thought out as the last. It is well written, well thought out, and worth your time.
April 24, 2009
a quick read and study. requires outside knowlege of the World of Darkness.
July 31, 2016
Review en progreso.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews