Blood In, Blood Out (Vampire) [ペーパーバック]

This book was just awful, before you read this review you should know I didn't finish it, I couldn't take it. Very pretentious dialogue, little action and a character with way too much angst for him to be believable, especially in the World Of Darkness. After finishing the precursor `A Hunger Like Fire' and loving it, I quickly ordered the next one in the series. I noted it was by a different author, but I assumed the quality would be much the same. I was wrong.

First there is the main character, he is unquestionably black (and don't get me wrong, that's not the issue at all). The story is mostly told from his point of view (unlike the first, which switched between characters in the chapters, this one mostly stays with one, switching only once and a while) which disappointed me, but I figured maybe it would turn out alright. Again, wrong. It's not the fact that a lot of racial profiling is done in the book, though the racism did make me a little uncomfortable. But that was the characters viewpoint, and I was cool with it. It's not even the fact that the main characters name is Deuce (Really? Deuce? Awful name.) I think I couldn't identify or even feel sorry for this guy because everything was so cut-and-dry `this is your hero and everyone else is evil'. And I know from lots of WOD experience that there is never any such thing as a good guy. After a while, I just realized that this guy was pretty much a more gangsta version of Blade, without the daywalker stuff and without the sidekicks.

Some plot points to follow, no big spoilers-

In the beginning, Deuce starts out with a hot girlfriend, human of course, and he likes her too much to blood bond her or tell her his `dark secret'. Stereotypical vampire dilemma you see in so many lesser vampire novels (coughTwilightseriescough), so it immediately turned me off. He's also on the outs with the Carthians, the group he helped further the cause of (more angst for joo!). But the worst insult came with Persephone, who in the last book was portrayed as callus and haughty but really clever, naive to the vampire world but still a tough cookie. Here she seems like a shallow, paper-thin character who was only inserted back into the book to thicken the plot. Simon Birch is nothing but a scheming, angry old vampire now, when before he was a complex layering of loyalty, power, faith and greed.

Mostly I'm angry because I wanted to return to the story to read more about my favorite characters, Persephone, Bruise and Scratch. I was again disappointed, I'm halfway through and still no Bruise or Scratch is even mentioned. Deuce is not nearly complicated enough to fit in with the earlier characters in the series. I guess my bottom line is if you have to write a book revolving around the plot of one guy, don't make it a sequel and just ram your guy into the other characters lives, make it a stand alone book.

I'm a big fan of the new World of Darkness, and after reading the far-superior "A Hunger Like Fire," this was a real let-down: a vampire story about a gangsta, "proper thug" vampire and his struggle against the Kindred power structure.

Black nationalist criminal organizations such as the Black Guerilla Family are portrayed in a sympathetic light: their methods are condemned, but not their motives.

There is lots of strong sentiment about being a part of one's community and not abandoning one's "people," in the racialist sense. The characters drop plenty of references to Huey P. Newton (Black Panthers founder), Tupac Shakur, Elijah Muhammed, Eldridge Cleaver, and other black nationalist heroes.I could never imagine this novel getting published if it had white characters espousing the same sentiment.

Along with plenty of profanity and fairly stomach-churning sex scenes,there's three or four uses of the term "cracker" as a racial epithet in this novel; apparently racial slurs are alright with the publisher as long as they're used against white folks.

Skip this volume in the "Vampire: The Requiem" novel series and head right on into the third volume, "The Marriage of Virtue and Viciousness" instead.

First of all, it's not as good as the first Requiem novel, "A Hunger Like Fire." I simply didn't find myself enjoying it quite as much. Maybe being a white suburbanite I had difficulty relating to the "blackness" of the main character. It's odd how it can be easier to identify with a monster (the vampire) than someone of another color or creed. Anyway, I just didn't feel like the pacing or the flow was as smooth or enjoyable.

That all being said, it was an excellent Requiem novel. It was great to see the Carthians something like the Congress or Parliment; sometimes unified in purpose, sometimes squabling like deadly children over who's sandbox is bigger. The love/sex scenes were fantastic; they weren't terribly erotic but they really bring home the absence of real love for those suffering the vampiric condition. It also does an excellent job of showing the necessity of politics and contacts.

Perhaps most importantly, I just want to turn the next page to see what happened next. A good book always leaves you wishing there was more to read; this does it.