Dark Ages: Assamite is the second release in the new thirteen-book series of novels from White Wolf which, according to the back cover ad copy, is chronicling "a vast conflict among the vampires of the Middle East" during the War of Princes, which occurs during the 13th Century. Considering that my entire knowledge of the Dark Ages setting for Vampire could fit into a thimble and have room left over, I was prepared to be confused and bored by this novel. Instead, I found it an entertaining, self-contained read that will have a place in my collection for some time to come.
As you can guess by the book's title, the vampires focused on in this book are of the Assamite Clan, A.K.A. the Children of Haqim. While several members of this clan make an appearance in this book, a trio of them shares the spotlight in this tale. Amala and Sihr Haddad are two Assamites who have been sent to deal with a member of the Knights Templar, whose actions and beliefs may lead to terrible danger to the Assamites and the mortals they live among. Along the way they encounter a third member of their clan, Fajr, who gets swept up into his clanmates' assignment.
Their target, Sir Hugh, is a vampiric member of the Knights Templar who truly has faith in Christ (not to be confused with True Faith, as two sections of the book show vividly), and has recognized the fact that many of those involved in the Fourth Crusade see it as nothing more than an opportunity to plunder and exercise their most vile desires upon their fellow man. Unfortunately, shortly after Sir Hugh is introduced in the book he falls prey to a powerful vampire with her own agenda, along with access to a power far beyond what a vampire's Disciplines provide. She corrupts him, and as the story progresses the results of that corruption become more and more vivid. By the time the book is over the reader is left to wonder whether Hugh would have devolved into what he is by the story's end even if he had not been exposed to the corruptive influence that was used upon him.
While the novel is named Dark Ages: Assamite, Sir Hugh of the Ventrue Clan is as much of a dominant character in this story as the Assamite Amala. The book devotes a fair deal of space to both following Hugh's attempts to gather power and to giving us a look inside his thoughts. I found this to be an excellent choice on the part of the author, but I also know that it meant that Fajr and Sihr Haddad received less coverage in the book, both of whom are interesting characters in their own right. Those who are hard-core Assamite fans may feel a tinge of disappointment at this.
I must say that this is the first book I've read where the character interaction has been of far more interest to me than the plot, and I mean that as a compliment. In most novels that I read the dialogue between characters either is very boring or reads as though the author had gotten the Big Book of Stereotypes out and used it as a reference while writing dialogue. Stefan Petrucha really shines in this book, by having created three-dimensional characters whose dialogue seems natural and fluid and who possess personalities that seem quite real.
I've commented before that it seems like most of the authors who work for White Wolf see vampires as Angsty/Self-Pitying/Whiny entities, and that any personality beyond that they may possess seems tacked on by the writer as an afterthought. In this book Petrucha has given each of the characters a real, human personality onto which the vampiric Beast has been grafted. The vampires in this story act and talk as real people would, with their own opinions, thoughts, and abilities; there is one exception to this, but as the character is supposed to be insane it makes sense for her to act the way she does. The inhuman nature of vampires does show up on several occasions in the book (indeed, being integral to the plot toward the end of the book), but at no point is it shown that by indulging in their cravings or surrendering to the Beast that no repercussions will result. Nor does the author use a vampire's inhuman nature as an excuse to write about rape/mutilation/child abuse or any other vulgar thing as though it were okay simply because the perpetrator of the crime was a vampire. I found that fact to be VERY refreshing after some of the vampire stories I have read in recent times.
One nice thing which I believe should be credited to Philippe Boulle (the editor of the series) is that the book begins with a one-page summary of what has come before in the previous novel. I admit I've only read a few of the volumes from the various series of novels that White Wolf has published, but to my knowledge this is the first WW novel that had a page devoted to filling in readers on what happened in previous books. This was a nice touch, especially in this day and age of RPG publishers and their "you must buy every book we publish to have any idea of what is going on in the series" mentality, and it's something I'd like to see in the future in White Wolf novels.
I have one or two complaints about the novel, but they're very minor ones. The first problem I'm certain was out of the author's hands, as there were many vampires mentioned in passing or appearing only for a few paragraphs who seem to play no real role in the story. I presume this is because those characters will appear again (and have larger roles) in later novels, and they wanted to set the groundwork for their future appearances. It's really not a bad thing, but it got confusing trying to keep track of all the vampires mentioned.
The book does have the problem of sometimes not making it clear who's a vampire, who's a ghoul, and who's a normal human. There were many occasions where I felt certain I knew which of the three a character belonged to, only for something to happen to the character or the character took some sort of action which forced me to revise my thinking on it. This may just be because I'm used to the modern-day Vampire stories from White Wolf, where everybody is clearly identified as what they are, but I think even those who are familiar with the Dark Ages series may be confused by this as well.
Also, there's three bits that require suspension of disbelief. Two of these incidents are just simply coincidences (the first involving the initial meeting of Fajr and Amala and Sihr Haddad, the second I really don't want to go into detail on, as some might feel it a spoiler to the story); they're relatively minor bits, but given the level of realism the rest of the book contains they do stand out a bit. The third thing involves a slain Kindred, and the way his body stays intact after his death. To his credit, the author does try to explain this, saying the slain Kindred was young enough that his body did not decompose to dust after death. I'd be willing to buy that, but given the descriptions in the book I understood the vampire in question to be at least several decades old. Given that (in the World of Darkness, at least) the body of a dead vampire instantly ages for all the years of "unlife" it existed in, I'm pretty certain his corpse would have been noticibly different to his underlings when they discovered it, what with several decades of rot suddenly upon it. As it is, they have no idea of what has befallen their master until they touch him, whereupon a sequence occurs not unlike the laser net segment of the Resident Evil movie.
Rounding out the book is a preview of the next Dark Ages novel, which spotlights the Cappadocians. I'm of mixed feeling on how that'll be after reading this review, given that it appears two of the characters in it seem rather too humorous for a World of Darkness story, reminding me of Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
In the end I throughly recommend Dark Ages: Assamite, both to fans of the medieval setting of Vampire, and to those who have limited themselves to the modern-day era of the World of Darkness. It's certainly worthy of both your time and money, and is self-contained so that you don't have to worry about buying the other twelve books n the series.
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