This book was did its job in telling the history of the World of darkness. Yet it seemed to me that most of this material was just a recap and mild expasion of what had aready been said in the othe WoD books. Look if you are new at WoD then you may get more kicks out of this book then I did.

What a vile little book. Do NOT buy

"Earth Strikes Back" is a colection of short horror fiction stories that vary widely in quality. My favorite is "I Remember Me," a chilling tale that envisions the end of the world in the form of a disease that slowly robs every human being of his or her memory. This is a good read for those who like horror fiction.

"Dhampire: Stillborn" is the first in what will (unfortunately) be a series of graphic novels. In "Stillborn" we watch a Dhampire (half human, half vampire) explore his past and evolve into a full vampire. Vampirism is a subject with tremendous literary opportunities that the vampire-story, as a genre, has utterly failed to explore. "Stillborn" is a perfect example of why. Characters with potential are reduced to archetypes with the whirl-wind plot, and bland dialog. Perhaps the author thinks that the reader would not be willing to put in the time to get to know the characters, so she jumps directly to what the target audience expects: depressed, pitiful characters empowered and glamourized by extraordinary violence. The graphic novel appears to be targeted toward emotionally disturbed teenagers. For them, vampirism represents power and superiority. Pitiful social maladjustment is transformed, in the fantasy of the novel, into Evil. Perhaps, within a few years, authors will begin exploring the lives of the consumers of fiction like this, rather than producing more of it. The novel's only redeeming quality is its beautiful artwork, especially of the Dhampire's mother