vampire clan novel series completed

Hurray – after 2 years of reading, I finally managed to finish the 13 books of the Vampire the Masquerade Clan Novel series (VtM is a roleplay game). The problem was not the reading though, but getting my hands on all of the books. They are not sold anymore (although not being that old really, published 1999-2001 as far as I know), so you have to buy them secondhand on ebay or amazon, which can be quite a story really … I payed around 5 euros for most of the books, but for some rare copies (such as Malkavian or Brujah) I had to pay around 20.
Well, here’s a short review …

Content:
The 13 books cover around half a year of story, from very different angles and perspectives. The tale is rather epic, all in all, but many characters are just youngsters, having small problems in their small world. Then again, very old vampires get depicted in other parts of the story … a great and interesting mixture really.

Style:
Oh well, written by a lot of different authors, in very different styles. I didn’t like the 12th novel, Tremere, a lot, but I loved all novels written by Gherbod Fleming and some other authors (favourite books being Gangrel, Setite, Malkavian and Nosferatu).
Each book covers the story from ~ May 1999 till November 1999; each book tells parts of the “whole” story, but also sets a focus on a substory which sometimes contributes to the main plot, sometimes not. Around 30 of the main characters can be found in most of the books. Although the story is not really moving chronologically throughout the series (each book starting and ending at around the same time – give or take a month), the novels should be read in the right order, because the first stories cover main events and leave greater gaps, the following ones fill those gaps, put more sense and background to the whole story, and focus more and more on the ending of the series.
I can’t tell you if this novel series is good for people not playing the roleplaying game Vampire the Masquerade … I have the impression that everything is explained properly, and that you can get into it pretty easily even if you’re not familiar with the game. Especially if you’re interested in vampires, I guess.
For people familiar with the genre, I can highly recommend it. Smart plot, very creative and detailed characters, very … umm … well, you get a very close “feeling” to those characters (even if they’re some hundred or thousand years of age), great ideas… and the different books are written differently, for example the Brujah book is rather straightforward, chronological, direct (as the Brujah, the vampire clan of rockers, gangs, and tough guys), whereas for instance the novel Malkavian (the “crazy” vampires) is a mad labyrinth of plot, with a lot of jumps in the story, some lose ends, and many many riddles …

Rating:
1-2, depending on the book.