The Wounded King Vampire: Victorian Age, Book 3 Horror Book Review

The third volume in this series resumes the story of vampires Regina Blake and Victoria Ash as the scene shifts from Paris to Vienna.  In that city is the secret master chantry of the Tremere, the blood wizards of the Masquerade.  It is into Vienna that Anton Wellig has brought Regina’s mother, Emma, to enlist the support of his peers in an ornate plot aimed at ending the unlife of Mithras, the demon prince of London.  Welligs initial attempts on Mithras failed, but damaged the master vampire in such a way that the turmoil in his mind is reflected in the city’s streets.


Lord Blake, Emma’s husband before her own change, also comes to Vienna to try to release his wife.  But he is not as cautious as he should have been in choosing his friends, and the attempted rescue triggers another round of disastrous consequences.  Beckett manages to rescue Emma from immediate danger, but there are countless other bumps in the road as the various players are drawn back to England for the final phases of this long drama.


Phillipe Boulle again manages to avoid the trap many Masquerade authors fall into - that of getting so mired in the details and politics of Vampire life that their tales read more like museum exhibits than they do vampire fiction.  While this volume bogs down a bit as Boulle fleshes it out with some collateral stories, it never drags to the point that the reader’s attention wanders.  And for the most part, his sub-stories flesh out his characters or expand on current events.


The primary focus of the story is the people who move through it.  In particular Regina Blake, who comes to age as a vampire.  She presents the aspect of a woman who is made with now warning or willingness, goes through the crises of the changing experience and, eventually makes her peace with her new ‘life.’  For all the glamour that vampires have, Boulle effectively cuts through the pretty picture and opens many of the interior moments of a vampire’s life.  Even while presenting an absorbing tale of the battle for power among some of the darkest segments of the world of night.