The Wars of the Vampire Counts
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This book is a collection of the three books of the von Carstein Trilogy by Steven Savile which detail the rise of the Vampire Counts of Sylvania, their internal politics and their attempts to impose their will on the land of the Empire. The first book in the series is Inheritance and it is the tale of Vlad von Carstein from his marriage to Isabella von Drak to his death on the walls of Altdorf. The second book, Dominion, tells of the reign and defeat of Konrad von Carstein, the mad Blood Count of Sylvania. Retribution is the final book of the trilogy and it sees details the cunning of Mannfred von Carstein, last and greatest of the Vampire Counts.
The general events detailed throughout this book will be well known to anyone who is familiar to with the history of the Undead within the Warhammer World, as it has been presented in books such as Liber Necris and the various Warhammer Armies books. The story as written in these books does make a few minor and a couple of major changes to this established continuity but these can be forgiven for narrative and aesthetic reasons.
Steven Savile gets the dark tone of the story spot on and despite the length of the three books together, it remains a page-turner all the way through. The characterisation within the book is generally quite good with the author bringing Vlad, Isabella and Manfred to life almost exactly as I have always pictured them. The one place the characterization does fall down however is with Konrad who is something of a letdown and generally not how I would have imagined him, and in truth this does for me somewhat let the middle story down slightly.
Overall the Vampire Wars trilogy is an entertaining book that gives an interesting version of the Wars of the Vampire Counts even if it is not particularly true to the source material. This book is a definite must read for any Vampire Counts collectors out there.
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First class gothic horror/fantasy!!
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I want to start by saying that I have read some reviews of this Omnibus, which are quite absurd, stating how a poor work of fiction this is. What I would like to point people towards are the reviews for the individual novels (Inheritance, Dominion, Retribution) where you will see a TOTALLY different set of opinions, which are much more in line with my own - and really do reflect these books better! So please look those up too!
As you will know from the synopsis, this Omnibus collects the three books I mentioned above, which detail the rise (and fall) of three different Vampire Counts in the Warhammer Fantasy setting. Weaved in amongst their tales are a set of characters that play major parts in all three books, and which I would say are just as important (if not more) than the main characters themselves.
Steven Savile not only managed to capture the tone of the Warhammer vampires, but at the same time crafted a set of novels which can be easily given to someone with no knowledge of the setting and can enjoyed immensely. I know as I have recommended them to several people, who have come back and reported how engrossed they were!
This is down to Steven's ability to write strong characters, that you either care about or hate with a passion! His characters usually are not good or evil, but more shades of grey (similar to those you would find in almost any David Gemmell novel) and this can create conflicting emotions inside you as you read!
If you have any interest in fantasy, or gothic horror, then you really cannot go far wrong with this Omnibus (not to mention how much of a bargain this book really is).
Steven Savile is an author to watch out for sure!
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A massive, impregnable darkness
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Perhaps it is wrong to write a review when you haven't actually finished the book, but I'm in the middle of it (the middle of the middle book) now and I won't be reading any further.
Reasons:
The characters: Humans :
There are two fates the various human characters introduced encounter, without fault. You learn about them for a chapter or two, and then one of two things happen. While that may serve a purpose (show that in comparison to the immortal vampires, humans are mayflies), it also makes me not care about them.
Vampires: The Counts (at least two of them) are supposed to have a certain grace, a certain charm. The somewhat liked villain.
While this is suggested once or twice, it isn't enough, and they come across as rather bland and unsympathetic monsters.
The books are steeped in gore(oversteeped), and quite deft (if macabre) accounts of how necromancy works, but it somehow doesn't seem to create a proper atmosphere. In essence,world seems bloody, gory, dark- but uninteresting.
Still, two stars, if only for a certain baby scene.
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