Dark Prophecy

Trilogy of the Blood Curse #3

by Gherbod Fleming

The World of Darkness is the setting for all of the games in the Storyteller series, and for several fiction books. Game books listed with this icon belong to specific game lines, but together contain information that applies to the entire World of Darkness.The Trilogy of the Blood Curse reaches its awesome conclusion with this final volume, Dark Prophecy, based on the popular roleplaying game Vampire: The Masquerade. This novel is also the conclusion of the six-book crossover of The Grails Covenant and The Trilogy of the Blood Curse.

Genres: Vampires, World Of Darkness, Horror, Fantasy, Fiction, Urban Fantasy

312 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 1998

Reviews

[Gianfranco Mancini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Owain sighed. Peace. Isolation. That was all he wanted. To nurse his hatreds in private for a decade or two. Instead, he returned home to find his haven violated, his servants mutilated and murdered, and then to be, himself, beaten to a bloody pulp.

Montrovant the Dark One, the main character from the connected Grail Covenant trilogy set in the Dark Ages, rises at last from his centuries long torpor, trapped by ancient Kli Kodesh, and his craving for the Holy Cup sets him against Owain Evans, nominally Camarilla Ventrue elder of Atlanta and reluctant spy for the Sabbat.

Montrovant. Owain tried to remember if he knew the name, but over the years he had forgotten more than most mortals would ever know in a lifetime.
Still, the name tugged at his memory. Montrovant.
Owain thought back to his days in France, to the time he had spent toying with the Knights Templar...

But Owain's quest for isolation and peace, after a long un-life of despicable deeds, sets in motion events unexpected and deadly for the whole Cainite breed, already winnowed by the Blood Curse scourging them.

"I see your wounded side," said Kli Kodesh. "But what of your crown of thorns?"
Owain could barely hear over the din of the
storm, and before the last word had crossed the buffeting winds, Kli Kodesh struck. He moved with speed than even Owain could comprehend.
A blow to the head staggered Owain, but before he could react, Kli Kodesh was gone.

And when the Kinslayer meets the Beast and the Betrayer of the Blood, Gehenna the Final Night falls on the World of Darkness at last... or not?

Blood. He raised a hand to his forehead and quickly jerked away a pricked finger. Checking more carefully, he realized that the stinging at his temple was not from
Kli Kodesh's blow itself, but from a wreath of thorns that the ancient one had slammed onto Owain's head.

An excellent conclusion to both the Grail Covenant/Blood Curse trilogies, Kli Kodesh and Owain are just two of the greatest vampires characters ever, and I just loved all the twists and how the many storylines got their resolution with an ending that just left me wanting to read again the Clan Novel series, set after this one and previously enjoyed 18 years ago when I used to be a Storyteller of the Vampire the Masquerade RPG, or look for the Clan Novel Saga volumes retelling that epic storyline in chronological order.
The Grail Covenant trilogy was just as not good as the Blood Curse one, sadly you need to read it to fully enjoy the ride and its amazing conclusion.

A must read for fans of White Wolf's World of Darkness.

[Deaf · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering the hate this series gets by the end of this book I'll call it slightly above average. This is more realistically a 3.5 but a 3 is far too low imo. For RPG fiction by this, the end of The Trilogy of the Blood Curse, all the seemingly meaningless tangents, details, and dream/time skips make sense, almost enough to read them again to catch everything, though likely at skim speed. If you've read the rest of the Vampire the Masquerade novels, you know what to expect. It's also worth noting that some characters here play a role in previous books and those that came after. So, in reality, the clan novels are just one piece of what's a giant story in actuality.

[Krzysztof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zakończenie trylogii jest dość zaskakujące, ale czytając miałem wrażenie, że na siłę rozciągnięte tak by móc wypełnić trzecią część podczas gdy spokojnie można by to było zamknąć w 1/3 objętości tej części. Generalnie można przeczytać całą trylogię, ale jakoś nie powala specjalnie na kolana.

[Matt D · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could have been much better. I felt, overall, rather let down by this book. Sure, it wrapped up the story threads from the last two... But it could easily have been done in the second novel. This book felt almost entirely unnecessary. It seemed like it was stretching to fill pages, since a Trilogy of the Blood Curse needs a thirf book. But most of it was redundant interactions, quotes of prophecy, scenes of travel, and some general nonsense thrown in for good measure.

The "reveal" takes up the last third of the book. It was, to me, exceptionally anticlimatic. Those last hundred pages were more-or-less a chore to trudge through.

Added to this is the fact that its interwoven with the Grails Covenant trilogy, which I have yet to read. There are parts referenced in here that I assume take place in that trilogy, but left me generally clueless since I haven't read the other books.

If you've read the other two books and want to see the conclusion to the trilogy, you can pretty much skip to the end unless you want to read The Wacky Travels of Owain Evans.

[Nuno · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't feel this one was as good as the previous book in the trilogy, but I still enjoyed it much better than the Grail's Covenant trilogy which I read before.
The story of the Blood Curse comes to a close here, and I can't say I expected it to turn out the way it did. Of course, once you're done reading more questions come about than the answers obtained. But was that really unexpected...?

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tepid writing dragged a weak plotline with unremarkable characters to an anticlimactic finish.