Don't waste your money on this garbage. Read the other Sonja Blue books.


WOD fans will pick this apart.   July 7, 1999
 4 out of 10 found this review helpful

Collins tried to blend an elsewhere established character into the brilliantly realized World of Darkness, and the effort fell flat. It would have been a similar endeavor for someone to write a novel about Batman throwing down with Brujah street toughs on the mean streets of Gotham, thus running afoul of the city's Prince. The story in A Dozen Black Roses was fairly contrived, and the characters lacked a certain panache. Perhaps the thing that annoyed me the most though was the way Collins went through the entire book without introducing Sonja Blue by name until the very end. She simply refers to Sonja as "the stranger". I felt that it was a pretty lame literary device.


Violence is pornographic in its excessiveness   April 7, 1999
 3 out of 10 found this review helpful

Don't get suckered in by the other glowing reviews. I loved Nancy A Collin's character Sonia Blue from the book Sunglasses After Dark and followed the character faithfully through the trilogy. The character was witty, fresh, and the combination of violence and humour was absolutely great. I did note that the third book in the trilogy was not as great and that trend seemed to have carried into this new latest Sonia Blue adventure. None of what I loved in the first two parts of the trilogy is here in this book. I have usually have no problem with violence in books or in other media. However, in this book in particular, it was gratuitous to say the least and pornographic in its excessiveness. While there's violence aplenty, including an arm chopping, machete wielding henchman, gone is the caustic, fresh wit of the Sonia Blue I loved. Instead, the attempts to be hip and speak in a street parlance seemed forced. Perhaps Sonia works best when she is playing off of a character like Palmer in " In the Blood" ( the second book in the trilogy), but in this latest endeavor, there is no such character for her to play off with. As a result, the book is decidedly flat, using violence to make up for a lack of wit and creativity. I spent good money on a bad book. Don't do the same.


Another GREAT book by Nancy Collins   January 23, 2000
 2 out of 4 found this review helpful

Great book, I rate it at the top of all the books written by Nancy Collins (with Sunglasses after dark and Angles on Fire). I enjoyed the story line revolving around the battle for "Dead Town" and the gang/vampire warfare. The construction of the characters was very well conceived and excitiong to read. Again, a great book....