LOVE it!! Yojimbo is one of my favorite movies, and this is a wonderful vampire take on the story. ( )

A Dozen Black Roses takes place in part of a large U.S. city called Deadtown. The citizens of Deadtown are made up of drug addicts, alcoholics, gang members and vampires. There are two vampires that are fighting for control of Deadtown. One is Lord Esher who was good friends with a certain horror author from the 1800’s. The other is Lord Sinjon who founded Deadtown and is a much older vampire then Esher.

Everyone in Deadtown lives in fear of Esher and Sinjon but things change when Living vampire and monster hunter Sonja Blue comes to town to put an end to both vampires. Sonja soon discovers that destroying the vampires may not be as easy as she thinks when she meets a boy named Ryan whose mother is being brainwashed into marrying Lord Esher. Sonja promises to save Ryan’s mother but Esher practices black magic and has power that may be to much for Sonja to handle.

A Dozen Black Roses is a bloody good time. There are some great characters in this book, including an alcoholic priest with a troubled past and an aging hippie that doesn’t take crap from anyone. I really enjoyed the backstory on Esher and Sinjon. Both vampires even when they were human only cared about having power over others but their personalities are very different. Also the way they gained their power is different as well as how they conduct themselves. Esher has plans on expanding outside of Deadtown and through black magic has a more loyal following then Sinjon. Sinjon on the other hand is satisfied being the drug lord over Deadtown and still dresses and acts as he did in the 1700′s. Nancy Collin’s vampires have very unique peronalities but all have the same motivations which to me makes them more interesting.

My favorite part of the book was how Eddie and Sonja became surrogate parents for Ryan. These two characters don’t have any experience with children but when Eddie finds Ryan eating out of a dumpster he does what he feels he has to do by taking Ryan in. Sonja on the other hand makes the promise to get Ryan’s mother back and shows a different side to herself when Ryan shows his feelings for her.

I also enjoyed the action scenes in this book. One scene I didn’t see coming was when the townspeople have decided they’ve had enough of hiding in fear and go through “changes” as they decide to rid Deadtown of lowlifes. Another good one was when two gang members are forced to fight to the death naked, while suspended in a cage above an audience of bloodthirsty vampires. This scene will hurt to read if you are a guy. I also liked the suspense that buils towards the end as Sonja prepares to take on Esher. A Dozen Black Roses is definitly worth your time. ( )

A really really dark fantasy about Deadtown and how Sonja takes out all the baddies. Really dark, no I am not kidding. ( )

Nancy Collins was already an author of Vampire fiction before writeing this story for White Wolf. Her Charactor, Sonja Blue, already had a set of rules she played by, and Nancy did a fairly good job merging the two worlds in this book. It was written for White Wolf's World of Darkness game, Vampire the Masquerade.

I put the rest of Nancy Collins Sonja Blue books on my tbr list after this one. If they hold up as well as this one with out the constrictures of the VtM rules I think they will be very enjoyable. ( )

After reading the Sonja Blue books, this was a huge disappointment. I feel the author stripped all the originality from her world and her characters in order for it to fit into a role-playing game system (World of Darkness). ( )