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aoc's review
3.0
Before I proceed any further I have to point out The Fall of Atlanta is the first volume of a quartet and it puts together releases that were [already] anthology novels that I sadly never read when they were originally published. To make things even more complicated, publisher decided to re-arrange stories from said novels in chronological order AND add new pieces of prologue material.
Right off the bat it has to be said that you don't really need to be familiar with World of Darkness at large to really understand or enjoy this one, but it certainly helps if you want to get some deeper meaning because all the works therein, and lots of important characters, are set during the canonical events of the setting. Pretty big events, mind you. I won't go into a primer for the material, but let's just say there are vampires out there, they're divided in different clans and they like to politic all the time for power and influence. Two major sects vampires divided themselves into are Camarilla and Sabbat – former learning from the past and deciding to enact the Masquerade aka law that enforces vampires have to stay hidden lest, despite their singular superiority, they be wiped out by humanity at large, and latter which wants vampires to claim their monstrous heritage and not kowtow before ignorant and inferior humans which are basically walking Happy Meals to them. Needles to say these two sides don't exactly see eye-to-eye.
With the basic premise out of the way, which the book itself does inform the reader about in the early pages albeit in a very flavorful tone, it doesn't take long to really spot the major problem of The Fall of Atlanta and that's the fact the entire collection is a fragmented mess and takes about a quarter or so for story proper to kick in. Prior to that you get what appear to be completely unrelated stories about characters you never again see or are unrelated to anything that follows... until you actually realize some of the players in Modern Nights, and by that I mean year 1999 book is set in and where things go down, played a part in all that prologue material. I suppose those were the added parts? Any other day I would welcome those, but the problem is you can really tell based on the pace that there are distinctly standout parts.
Before I forget and start another rambling paragraph I should, you know, actually tell you what the story is ABOUT. Already mentioned two factions are in a sort of cold war in North America more than anywhere else and all the buildup you get results in all that tension finally erupting into concrete conflict between Camarilla and Sabbat. If you looked at the title of the book you can tell where that is going. I do like how we get various POVs for the characters on both sides and even independents with their own take on things. There is also a certain mysterious artifact involved with its own mysterious story hook and I really liked how that was intervowen.
Speaking of characters and such there's a vast number of of them even if not necessarily all are directly involved or last to make a sufficient impact on the story. I liked how authors managed to throw couple of curve balls and do away with characters you'd expect to stick around for much longer or how they go from “this is my show” to just being seemingly a side character in other stories. I would point to pay attention to dates and time because when action heats up, and considering vampires can operate only at night, it can lead to some confusion reading how character X was doing something two pages ago and now you're reading about his head decapitated head being presented to a Tzimisce war leader, for example. It's a bit jarring and once again portrays they put together works from three different novels. If nothing else they really got a varied cast; various Toreador artists, surprisingly sane Malkavian General, adventurer archaeologist Setite whom we get to see in his younger days, even a Ravnos couple. So many characters in fact I'll forgive them way too much artistry faffing about due to Toreador (over)representation, but that's a pet peeve of mine.
With all that said I have yet to comment on the writing itself and that's because it never stood out for my in any significant way. Like I mentioned above it can get a bit overbearing, like the entire Elysium part when get lectured on certain art pieces for good half dozen pages, but this is usually balanced by brusque and concise style in general. Vampires tend to overindulge in their flowery eloquence, but considering it's all part of political backstabbing and judging the other guy it's made engaging. One oddity that stuck with me was the highly regular chapter length and some, like Anatole's mad/visionary/whatever ramblings which dragged on and on in what must have been a dare of some sort for the writer, I couldn't wait to get over with. It also works the other way when, for example, we get insight into a Tremere chantry and how such a place would work in modern day. These could be reversed for you, though.
No thumbs up for this one because it doesn't exactly read well due to fragmented nature, but also no thumbs down because I rather liked the final product. It provides a good night-to-night insight into World of Darkness from a vampire's perspective more so than it tackles some grand story. Worth a read, recommended if you're familiar with the game and want some fiction to go along with that.
Right off the bat it has to be said that you don't really need to be familiar with World of Darkness at large to really understand or enjoy this one, but it certainly helps if you want to get some deeper meaning because all the works therein, and lots of important characters, are set during the canonical events of the setting. Pretty big events, mind you. I won't go into a primer for the material, but let's just say there are vampires out there, they're divided in different clans and they like to politic all the time for power and influence. Two major sects vampires divided themselves into are Camarilla and Sabbat – former learning from the past and deciding to enact the Masquerade aka law that enforces vampires have to stay hidden lest, despite their singular superiority, they be wiped out by humanity at large, and latter which wants vampires to claim their monstrous heritage and not kowtow before ignorant and inferior humans which are basically walking Happy Meals to them. Needles to say these two sides don't exactly see eye-to-eye.
With the basic premise out of the way, which the book itself does inform the reader about in the early pages albeit in a very flavorful tone, it doesn't take long to really spot the major problem of The Fall of Atlanta and that's the fact the entire collection is a fragmented mess and takes about a quarter or so for story proper to kick in. Prior to that you get what appear to be completely unrelated stories about characters you never again see or are unrelated to anything that follows... until you actually realize some of the players in Modern Nights, and by that I mean year 1999 book is set in and where things go down, played a part in all that prologue material. I suppose those were the added parts? Any other day I would welcome those, but the problem is you can really tell based on the pace that there are distinctly standout parts.
Before I forget and start another rambling paragraph I should, you know, actually tell you what the story is ABOUT. Already mentioned two factions are in a sort of cold war in North America more than anywhere else and all the buildup you get results in all that tension finally erupting into concrete conflict between Camarilla and Sabbat. If you looked at the title of the book you can tell where that is going. I do like how we get various POVs for the characters on both sides and even independents with their own take on things. There is also a certain mysterious artifact involved with its own mysterious story hook and I really liked how that was intervowen.
Speaking of characters and such there's a vast number of of them even if not necessarily all are directly involved or last to make a sufficient impact on the story. I liked how authors managed to throw couple of curve balls and do away with characters you'd expect to stick around for much longer or how they go from “this is my show” to just being seemingly a side character in other stories. I would point to pay attention to dates and time because when action heats up, and considering vampires can operate only at night, it can lead to some confusion reading how character X was doing something two pages ago and now you're reading about his head decapitated head being presented to a Tzimisce war leader, for example. It's a bit jarring and once again portrays they put together works from three different novels. If nothing else they really got a varied cast; various Toreador artists, surprisingly sane Malkavian General, adventurer archaeologist Setite whom we get to see in his younger days, even a Ravnos couple. So many characters in fact I'll forgive them way too much artistry faffing about due to Toreador (over)representation, but that's a pet peeve of mine.
With all that said I have yet to comment on the writing itself and that's because it never stood out for my in any significant way. Like I mentioned above it can get a bit overbearing, like the entire Elysium part when get lectured on certain art pieces for good half dozen pages, but this is usually balanced by brusque and concise style in general. Vampires tend to overindulge in their flowery eloquence, but considering it's all part of political backstabbing and judging the other guy it's made engaging. One oddity that stuck with me was the highly regular chapter length and some, like Anatole's mad/visionary/whatever ramblings which dragged on and on in what must have been a dare of some sort for the writer, I couldn't wait to get over with. It also works the other way when, for example, we get insight into a Tremere chantry and how such a place would work in modern day. These could be reversed for you, though.
No thumbs up for this one because it doesn't exactly read well due to fragmented nature, but also no thumbs down because I rather liked the final product. It provides a good night-to-night insight into World of Darkness from a vampire's perspective more so than it tackles some grand story. Worth a read, recommended if you're familiar with the game and want some fiction to go along with that.
pocketvolcano's review
5.0
I originally collected and read the original single volumes in this collection and when the four anthology volumes came out I traded the singles in for the four. The first one flowed smoothly in chronological order and made for a better read. I love this set so much!
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