Walk Among Us: Compiled Edition
Vampire: The Masquerade, Book #1
By Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw, Caitlin Starling
ISBN #9780062994059
Author’s Website: genevievegornichec(.)com, cassandrakhaw(.)net, caitlinstarling(.)com
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Omar
Summary
One of the most popular role-playing properties in the world gets new life with this trio of horror novellas set in Vampire: The Masquerade’s World of Darkness by three brilliant talents: Genevieve Gornichec, Cassandra Khaw, and Caitlin Starling
The subtle horror and infernal politics of the World of Darkness are shown in a new light in Vampire: The Masquerade: Walk Among Us, an audio-first collection of three novellas that show the terror, hunger, and power of the Kindred as you’ve never seen them before.
In Genevieve Gornichec’s A SHEEP AMONG WOLVES, depression and radicalization go hand-in-hand as a young woman finds companionship in the darkness…
In Cassandra Khaw’s FINE PRINT, an arrogant tech bro learns the importance of reading the fine print in the contract for immortality…
And in Caitlin Starling’s THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, ideals and ethics bump heads with appetite on a blood farm.
Three very different stories from three amazing, distinct voices, but all with one thing in common: the hunger never stops, and for someone to experience power, many others are going to have to feel pain.
Review
Walk Among Us, was a very fast paced and intriguing anthology of three stories set in the World of Darkness of Vampire the Masquerade. In this world, as its name mentions it, vampires or Kindred as they call themselves, live in the shadows of our world or among us without the humans knowing.
Age has power among the Kindred and knowing how to eat is the first lesson every kindred must learn. In this world, the vampires are divided between the Camarilla, who believe in the old ways and structure of powers such as Princes and royals, and the Anarchs, whom as their name say, believe the old members of their clan shouldn’t hold all the power and want to use modern technology. But one rule that they both follow is to uphold the Masquerade, which is to make humans believe that vampires do not exist.
The short stories of this anthology show the world of the kindred in different ways, learning about their existence and becoming a servant, becoming kindred themselves, and the schemes that exist among the vampires to gain power over others.
A SHEEP AMONG WOLVES, tells the story of a college student that has trouble adjusting to her new life and is suffering from a mental illness. But as she joins a group of lonely students she makes a friend, meets a strange man that she wants to please, and feels that a gorgeous woman wants to harm her. But beware who you trust and the order you follow.
In FINE PRINT, a man wants to be embraced, to become a kindred, and believes he is smarter than the kindred he is going to join. I really liked this one, it was my favorite story for the main reason of how much the main character missed because of his hubris, he believed he was smarter than the vampire that embraced him, and most of all he didn’t believe the warning he received from them. It was so fun when he truly believed he could see the sun again after the embrace.
Lastly in THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY, a kindred wants to continue their experiment with a farm to ethically harvest blood from humans while helping them, but others want a piece of the cake and will do anything to get it.
These stories paint different pictures of the world of the kindred and their machinations, but most of all it shows the reader how similar they are to their human counterparts, but deadly and vicious with the power they hold.If you are a fan of the Vampire the Masquerade RPG or their stories, then I recommend you Walk Among Us. In this anthology, the authors write stories set in the World of Darkness where once the sun goes down and night reigns, creatures come out to play and hunt.
