Marriage of Virtue and Viciousness (Vampire the Requiem #3)

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 exception of Velvet (and the ending with her WAS surprising!). Most of the characters float in and out of the story too quickly. It would have been better to really focus on a few in more detail.I think part of the problem with these novels is the entire setting of Vampire Requiem. It's a poor rehash of Vampire the Masquerade. It's too similar, keeping a few, but not enough, of the old things and adding things that just made it worse. There is no Sabbat, the vampire equivalent of a rabid pit bull that has broken his leash. They made it interesting. There was open war between them and the Camarilla. In Requiem, they are all part of one big masquerade, each competing orderly for power. The Carpathians are like a weaker version of the Anarchs of VtM. And the origins of the vampires makes them less interesting as with VtM. Being associated with the legend of Longinus (spelling?) makes the oldest of them less than 2000 years old. There are no methuselahs or antediluvians. There is no Cain legend. There are no "final nights," and it doesn't feel like Gehenna is right at the doorstep, all things with made VtM a better setting.This is an average vampire book. It's not a waste of time to read. There are just better WofD books out there to read, including the 3 that I mentioned in this review.

In here we see the workings of the Lancea Sanctum, and the development of Bishop Solomon Birch, the dangers he confront after falling one step closer 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 afect 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.

I was very happy that the book arrived in almost perfect condition in a very short amount of time. I am very excited to have my collection of the VtR novel completed and am looking forward to seeing how it ends. I recommend this series to anyone who are fans of the rpg and those who enjoy reading gripping stories filled with personal drama, humor, and horror all in one book.

Love it.

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 trying to survive the political games that help to pass the time. MARRIAGE had too much going on with too many people with varying amounts of centrality to the story. The night of indulgence did feel like a tease, being discussed throughout the book but then handled in a few paragraphs at the end. It read like an editor chopped out a chapter or two. Also, the setup for a sequel at the end was really blatant.In summary, I enjoyed reading A MARRIAGE OF VIRTUE AND VICIOUSNESS but found some flaws toward the end. It doesn't seem unreasonable to like a work but wish that it could be better. Also, if you like A MARRIAGE OF VIRTUE AND VICIOUSNESS you might also want to read the previous two novels A HUNGER LIKE FIRE and BLOOD IN, BLOOD OUT. There is also THREE SHADES OF NIGHT which has the same story from a Vampire, Werewolf, and Mage point of view. You can also get the roleplaying game VAMPIRE:THE REQUIEM and supplement CHICAGO which contains the same characters as the novels.

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.