Marriage of Virtue and Viciousness (Greg Stolze)

At least this book got back on track for the trilogy, this time the story focusing on Simon Birch and the Prince. It was better and I can hope that White Wolf will consider putting out more novels for the other game lines.

In here we see the workings of the Lancea Sanctum, and the development of Bishop Solomon Birch, the dangers que confront after falling one step clsoer to the vinculum to the Prince of Chicago... But what i found delicious is the descriptions and actions of Velvet, a younger Lancea Sanctum Daeva, how the blood lust and immortality after her, how it affect one of his victims and what means to their lives and to that of the vampires of Chicago the appearance of a lonely vampire huntress. Very human... and inhuman were it must.

This is author Greg Stolze's second and the actual third of the novel line for VAMPIRE:THE REQUIEM. VAMPIRE is White Wolf's successful role-playing game where the characters, of course, vampires. The novelization is set in Chicago where the vampire prince Maxwell has maintained peace by forbidding the creation or destruction of vampires. His fellow vampires are considering forcing his hand to allow a night of indulgence. Other threads in this story include a vampire hunter's attempt to save a man who has been bitten, bishop Solomon Birch's attempt to save his position, and a vampire murder investigation. While Greg Stolze is a good author and MARRIAGE OF VIRTUE AND VICIOUSNESS is a good story, I found it less compelling than the first. A HUNGER LIKE FIRE had a strongly focused narrative with interesting contrasts and parallels; there were 3 main characters (Bruise, Perspephone, and Solomon) at different stages in their unlife (brand new, inexperienced, and very experienced) all... Read more

This book is all foreplay. It spends entirely too much time leading up to the "Indulgence," a time when the prince of Chicago lifts his ban on killing other vampires and embracing. Reading this book is like watching CSPAN for vampires. It's all political intrigue and posturing, which is normal for a World of Darkness book and a Vampire book, but still... There's too much of it here without any action to balance it. There is simply VERY little action or substance to the novel. By substance, I mean, it's like a soap opera; not much happens. Even the few events that transpire at the end with Bishop Birch are not so surprising. I honestly found "Blood In, Blood Out" and "A Hunger Like Fire" to be far more interesting reads, and so was "Three Shades of Night," even though it was redundant in the retelling of the same story by three different parties. The characters are not developed enough, either. There are too many of them, with no concentration on any of them, with the except... Read more

Thank goodness for this book! This is a MUST for anyone who loved "Hunger" but had to drag their way through "Blood In, Blood Out." Referring to some of the events and characters in the first volume of the Requiem series, "Marriage" brings the reader out of the ghetto and back into Kindred society, which is becoming quite a dynamic animal indeed. I read the last 100 pages without putting it down, even making me late for work in the process. I can't wait for the next volume in the series. All fans of the series will not be dissappointed. This volume redeems Chicago's Kindred.