Book Review: A Morbid Initiation by by Philippe Boulle
VICTORIAN AGE: VAMPIRE: A MORBID INITIATION is one of the many World of Darkness books released by White Wolf in the Nineties that has since been re-released by Crossroad Press. For those unfamiliar with the World of Darkness, it is a dark reflection of our reality where hidden supernaturals quietly manipulate events from behind the scenes. Vampire: The Masquerade was easily the most popular of the tabletop games and swiftly developed a massive collection of characters as well as variants set in various time periods as well as locations.
Victorian Age: Vampire is rather self-explanatory as it is a variant of Vampire: The Masquerade set in the Victorian Age of England. This is perfect for V:TM because that is the era and location where the vampire craze began. Dracula, The Vampyre, Carmilla, and did I mention Dracula? It's the perfect bridge between the old era and the modern industrialized world that seems perfect for something ancient to emerge to prey on.
The premise for A MORBID INITIATION is that it does away with a lot of the broader mythology of V:TM and returns to the basics of vampire fiction. The protagonist, Regina Blake, is a young woman who finds herself stalked by the beautiful and alluring Victoria Ash. She is ignorant of most of the things in the tabletop game and that makes this the perfect sort of character to introduce casual readers to the word.
Regina is a woman of mixed Slavic and English descent who, nevertheless, is still a member of the aristocracy. Her mother has suffered a mysterious and wasting illness that has killed her after a terrible scandal threatened their position in society. Suspicious that her Slavic family members are involved in her mother's death, Regina turned to the beautiful Victoria Ash in hopes of finding answers. Which, given the title of the book, involves vampires.
This is a good book to read during Pride month as Regina and Victoria have a dangerous romance that causes the former immense strife. Not only is it the Victorian Era but Regina is in love with her soldier fiancé, Malcolm Seward. The predatory edge of Victoria Ash as an elder vampire, a fact not kept from the reader, also adds an interesting angle to it. Victoria doesn't want to kill Regina but transforming her is something that could equally destroy her.
This is a really good pastiche of the Gothic style and the characters pop off the page. It doesn't overly rely on the tabletop RPG's mythology even if it is absolutely set in the World of Darkness. I think this is not only something that will appeal to fans of the tabletop games but also those who are completely new to it. It will appeal to vampire and Gothic fiction fans in general.
In conclusion, Victorian Age: Vampire: A Morbid Initiation is a great novel. The characters are likable, the story solid, and the atmosphere excellent. I don’t know how accurate it is to the historical Victorian Age but it is dark, sexy, and well-written.
