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Vampire: The Masquerade: Clan Novel #7
Clan Novel: Assamite
Honor Among Thieves.
Fatima has watched as her former lover Lucita has carried out a number of high-profile assassinations, claiming to be the premier assassin among the Kindred. Not to be out-done, Fatima sets her sights even higher. Her dread gaze falls upon a Cardinal of the Sabbat, Moncada -- Lucita's sire.
One Million Words of Terror
It began with Clan Novel: Toreador.This book, Clan Novel: Assamite, is the eighth of a 13-book series concerning the Kindred the hugest event ever in the World of Darkness.From small details to grand spectacles, this epic series of over one million words reveals the secrets of this hidden world through the eyes of individuals on both sides of a great conflict. The continued existence of all Kindred, from the youngest neonate to the eldest Methuselah, hangs in the balance.
Fatima has watched as her former lover Lucita has carried out a number of high-profile assassinations, claiming to be the premier assassin among the Kindred. Not to be out-done, Fatima sets her sights even higher. Her dread gaze falls upon a Cardinal of the Sabbat, Moncada -- Lucita's sire.
One Million Words of Terror
It began with Clan Novel: Toreador.This book, Clan Novel: Assamite, is the eighth of a 13-book series concerning the Kindred the hugest event ever in the World of Darkness.From small details to grand spectacles, this epic series of over one million words reveals the secrets of this hidden world through the eyes of individuals on both sides of a great conflict. The continued existence of all Kindred, from the youngest neonate to the eldest Methuselah, hangs in the balance.
288 pages, Paperback
First published December 6, 1999
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
February 7, 2024
CLAN NOVEL: ASSAMITE by Gherbod Fleming is book seven of the Clan Novel series. Set in the World of Darkness, more specifically the Vampire: The Masquerade setting, it follows the thirteen clans as they deal with a Sabbat Crusade across the United States’ East Coast while Gehenna (the vampire apocalypse) looms in the background.
I very much enjoyed Gherbod Fleming’s previous entries in the series with Clan Novel: Gangrel and Clan Novel: Ventrue. In a very real way, I feel like he was the author trying hardest to tie together all of the various disparate plot threads while others were more interested in their own private storylines. No shade on the genuinely talented authors who wrote said plotlines like Kathleen Ryan.
The premise for Assamite is that Fatima al-Faqadi is assigned the task of assassinating Sabbat Cardinal Moncada, sire of Lucita. This doesn’t bother Fatima, no matter how formidable Moncada is personally, so much as the fact that she’s aware as soon as she kills him then she will be assigned to kill Lucita. Which is a problem because in the grand tradition of female vampires in literature, Fatima is a lesbian vampire and Lucita’s sometimes lover. Note: Fatima is possibly bi but if there’s ever been a male vampire she’s been attracted to we’ve never seen it (unlike Lucita).
Fatima’s got bigger problems than the fact she’s meant to kill an immensely powerful Lasombra elder, though. Hard as that may be to believe. This is set during the in-universe retool of the Assamites from being a bunch of blood-drinking fanatical Muslim assassins (*sarcasm* can’t imagine why that wouldn’t be considered embarrassing *sarcasm*), to being a much more rounded clan that just so happens to include a bunch of generically religious fanatical assassins. Some worship Allah, others worship Haqim the Antediluvian (i.e. an ancient evil blood god). As anyone with an even cursory knowledge of Islam might guess, this is a no-no and Haqim’s disciple, Ur-Shulgi, is quite clear there’s no room for human faiths in the Assamites.
The religious conflict is both the book’s biggest strength and biggest weakness. The original Assamite write-up was mostly ripped off from the book that inspired Assassins Creed and were “problematic” in that the primarily brown people clan was a bunch of brainwashed cannibal terrorists. The other two non-European clans introduced weren’t great either. Later edition’s transformation of the Assamites to Banu Haqim did a pretty good job of redeeming their concept but this book was written when the developers were still trying to figure their way out of the hole they’d dug. That doesn’t mean the conflict between faith and secular loyalty isn’t interesting and kept me invested throughout the book. No, it did. It is a very well-written book with a lot of interesting concepts.
The problem is, well, Fatima is a frigging nut. Likable as Fatima may be, reverent to her faith, and torn between love of God versus love of Lucita versus love of clan, well, she is part of an evil murder cult. An evil murder cult she was entirely fine with until it made her stop paying lip service to her religion. It’s hard to take her struggle between her religion and Haqim seriously when the latter is something she’s clearly not seen a problem with serving beforehand. Switch around the names and make it a conflict between a man unable to choose between Jesus, his lover, or Dracula and you’d have someone that most texts would rightly call out as missing the point of all three.
I’m not exactly a fan of Lucita’s portrayal either. The rebellious princess of the Lasombra acts like a spoiled brat throughout the novel. She frequently calls Fatima foul words, walks right into a trap of her sire, and abuses the brainwashed slaves of Moncada. There’s even a point when she kills a male prostitute and displays it in Moncada’s villa to annoy him. It’s hard to see what Fatima sees in Lucita or vice versa.
In conclusion, Clan Novel: Assamite is a pretty enjoyable book. It has action, drama, religious struggle, and internal conflict. However, Fatima is a character that it is hard to take the internal struggle between as she’s apparently unable to note the difference between serving God versus serving a deranged ancient Enochian vampire. Now in real life, there’s plenty of religious people who can’t tell the difference between their religion’s professed ideals and the exact opposite of their teachings but it doesn’t make a great protagonist.
I very much enjoyed Gherbod Fleming’s previous entries in the series with Clan Novel: Gangrel and Clan Novel: Ventrue. In a very real way, I feel like he was the author trying hardest to tie together all of the various disparate plot threads while others were more interested in their own private storylines. No shade on the genuinely talented authors who wrote said plotlines like Kathleen Ryan.
The premise for Assamite is that Fatima al-Faqadi is assigned the task of assassinating Sabbat Cardinal Moncada, sire of Lucita. This doesn’t bother Fatima, no matter how formidable Moncada is personally, so much as the fact that she’s aware as soon as she kills him then she will be assigned to kill Lucita. Which is a problem because in the grand tradition of female vampires in literature, Fatima is a lesbian vampire and Lucita’s sometimes lover. Note: Fatima is possibly bi but if there’s ever been a male vampire she’s been attracted to we’ve never seen it (unlike Lucita).
Fatima’s got bigger problems than the fact she’s meant to kill an immensely powerful Lasombra elder, though. Hard as that may be to believe. This is set during the in-universe retool of the Assamites from being a bunch of blood-drinking fanatical Muslim assassins (*sarcasm* can’t imagine why that wouldn’t be considered embarrassing *sarcasm*), to being a much more rounded clan that just so happens to include a bunch of generically religious fanatical assassins. Some worship Allah, others worship Haqim the Antediluvian (i.e. an ancient evil blood god). As anyone with an even cursory knowledge of Islam might guess, this is a no-no and Haqim’s disciple, Ur-Shulgi, is quite clear there’s no room for human faiths in the Assamites.
The religious conflict is both the book’s biggest strength and biggest weakness. The original Assamite write-up was mostly ripped off from the book that inspired Assassins Creed and were “problematic” in that the primarily brown people clan was a bunch of brainwashed cannibal terrorists. The other two non-European clans introduced weren’t great either. Later edition’s transformation of the Assamites to Banu Haqim did a pretty good job of redeeming their concept but this book was written when the developers were still trying to figure their way out of the hole they’d dug. That doesn’t mean the conflict between faith and secular loyalty isn’t interesting and kept me invested throughout the book. No, it did. It is a very well-written book with a lot of interesting concepts.
The problem is, well, Fatima is a frigging nut. Likable as Fatima may be, reverent to her faith, and torn between love of God versus love of Lucita versus love of clan, well, she is part of an evil murder cult. An evil murder cult she was entirely fine with until it made her stop paying lip service to her religion. It’s hard to take her struggle between her religion and Haqim seriously when the latter is something she’s clearly not seen a problem with serving beforehand. Switch around the names and make it a conflict between a man unable to choose between Jesus, his lover, or Dracula and you’d have someone that most texts would rightly call out as missing the point of all three.
I’m not exactly a fan of Lucita’s portrayal either. The rebellious princess of the Lasombra acts like a spoiled brat throughout the novel. She frequently calls Fatima foul words, walks right into a trap of her sire, and abuses the brainwashed slaves of Moncada. There’s even a point when she kills a male prostitute and displays it in Moncada’s villa to annoy him. It’s hard to see what Fatima sees in Lucita or vice versa.
In conclusion, Clan Novel: Assamite is a pretty enjoyable book. It has action, drama, religious struggle, and internal conflict. However, Fatima is a character that it is hard to take the internal struggle between as she’s apparently unable to note the difference between serving God versus serving a deranged ancient Enochian vampire. Now in real life, there’s plenty of religious people who can’t tell the difference between their religion’s professed ideals and the exact opposite of their teachings but it doesn’t make a great protagonist.
December 20, 2018
I am blogging the reviews to this whole series.
It starts here: http://pseudopod.org/2018/10/25/the-c...
And for this book:
http://pseudopod.org/2018/12/20/the-c...
It starts here: http://pseudopod.org/2018/10/25/the-c...
And for this book:
http://pseudopod.org/2018/12/20/the-c...
November 27, 2014
For Twilight-fans: There are real vampires in the book. Imagine the main trio and parents gone in Twilight, and you are left with the insane girl and her killing machine of a boyfriend, the one with the electra complex and her child/boyfriend, they kill their way to the bad guys, drink from mortals, and deal with the council or what later, while they still love each other, but would suck each other dry if they are given a reason. Like it? Read the clan novels, and other decent vampire stories.
For V:tM players: You know what this books is about, it's not the first in the series, you know all the timeline, canon characters, how the war went, etc. This book is not about the timeline and the big picture of the war, not about Caramarilla machinations, this is about characters, mainly the struggle of Fatima, but we see some interesting Moncada-Lucita (and Fatima-Lucita) scenes as well. If you prefer WoDnD (where you go and kill all the things), skip this one. If you create characters to have some drama and can talk in-game for hours, read it! If you want to know more about clan assamite, read the clan book.
For anyone else: Good starter World of Darkness novel if you like girly books more than action but still want your fair share of combat, blood and deep thoughts. There are vampires, they are in war, they have feelings, they have problems, and if you like the book, you can later play games in their world. How cool is that? (Read the Brujah trilogy as well!)
For V:tM players: You know what this books is about, it's not the first in the series, you know all the timeline, canon characters, how the war went, etc. This book is not about the timeline and the big picture of the war, not about Caramarilla machinations, this is about characters, mainly the struggle of Fatima, but we see some interesting Moncada-Lucita (and Fatima-Lucita) scenes as well. If you prefer WoDnD (where you go and kill all the things), skip this one. If you create characters to have some drama and can talk in-game for hours, read it! If you want to know more about clan assamite, read the clan book.
For anyone else: Good starter World of Darkness novel if you like girly books more than action but still want your fair share of combat, blood and deep thoughts. There are vampires, they are in war, they have feelings, they have problems, and if you like the book, you can later play games in their world. How cool is that? (Read the Brujah trilogy as well!)
July 7, 2018
Full review here:
http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...
The sheer audacity of taking out a longtime antagonist in the setting in such a spectacular way lends it an extra bit of momentum.
http://jamesgenrebooks.blogspot.com/2...
The sheer audacity of taking out a longtime antagonist in the setting in such a spectacular way lends it an extra bit of momentum.
November 17, 2019
El clan assamita es de los que me resulta más interesante, en esta novela me gustó como se ve el punto de vista de sus integrantes, siendo uno de los clanes neutrales a la guerra entre la Camarilla y el Sabath.
October 3, 2020
Vampire assassins
What more could you really want? Seriously though, the story is interesting. The characters are interesting. It holds a lot more weight than the previous book. It's also a quick and engaging read.
What more could you really want? Seriously though, the story is interesting. The characters are interesting. It holds a lot more weight than the previous book. It's also a quick and engaging read.
April 9, 2014
Reseña completa en mi blog:
http://drdeadwish.blogspot.com.ar/201...
Revelaciones, preparativos, idecisiones, un renovador cambio de escenario (Madrid)... y assamitas. Una novela con una buena base para ser una de las más interesantes de la saga sea tan mediocre. Aunque tenía capítulos cortos, me dormía en la mayoría. Comienza bien, el principio es atrapante, pero termina siendo poco emocionante, cuando debería ser lo contrario. Una de las peores novelas de la serie hasta donde leí.
http://drdeadwish.blogspot.com.ar/201...
Revelaciones, preparativos, idecisiones, un renovador cambio de escenario (Madrid)... y assamitas. Una novela con una buena base para ser una de las más interesantes de la saga sea tan mediocre. Aunque tenía capítulos cortos, me dormía en la mayoría. Comienza bien, el principio es atrapante, pero termina siendo poco emocionante, cuando debería ser lo contrario. Una de las peores novelas de la serie hasta donde leí.
February 8, 2012
Just an okay read for me. I got bored at some parts though the story picked up a bit later on. Interesting to learn about Assamites, but would have been better if I was more familiar with the mythos of Vampire: the Masquerade.
February 14, 2011
This is a fantastic series if you are a fan or player of the Vampire the Masquerade Table Top game. I gave it a 3 because I don't recomend this series to those who are not.
February 22, 2019
My second favorite clan doesn't disappoint
May 23, 2014
It felt disconnected from the other books, and the excitement really didn't pick up until the last handful of pages...
March 2, 2014
Even in a world inhabited by monsters, the Assamite Clan are a scary prospect.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews