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Wow, what a book. Not a single word of prose is wasted, and there's a lot of it too. Wonderfully written. As with a lots of things in life, novels are about the journey and not the destination. Not that the ending is bad, per se. However there were a number of plot inconsistencies (not plot holes!) in the supposed conspiracies and mystery investigations along the way that I kept wondering why they were never mentioned or pointed out. For example, the main characters get kidnapped and held prisoners for a large amount of the book's story by a specific vampire, des Esseintes, who according to the main character's accomplice, Lady Hespeth, was mentioned by the vampire kidnappers (a certain Lodovico) of the main character's daughter. The vampire simply denies having talked to the kidnappers for many centuries. Why was his name mentioned then? The main character does not press on this.

Later, it's revealed that Lady Hespeth's story about her son also being kidnapped was false, because she's actually a vampire hunter (that was also proved a ruse later on) without children. The main character simply accepts this and does not question how or why Hespeth knew the name of des Esseintes if there was never any kidnapper of her own kid. Clearly Hespeth led the main character to des Esseintes. But this is simply accepted.

This is not the only inconsistency of the book's plot, just the most annoying one I noticed.

Despite that, I sincerely enjoyed reading this. Knowing that nothing human can be perfect, I give this ten out of ten not because it's perfect, but because it's masterly executed.

Wow, what a book. Not a single word of prose is wasted, and there's a lot of it too. Wonderfully written. As with a lots of things in life, novels are about the journey and not the destination. Not that the ending is bad, per se. However there were a number of plot inconsistencies (not plot holes!) in the supposed conspiracies and mystery investigations along the way that I kept wondering why they were never mentioned or pointed out. For example, the main characters get kidnapped and held prisoners for a large amount of the book's story by a specific vampire, des Esseintes, who according to the main character's accomplice, Lady Hespeth, was mentioned by the vampire kidnappers (a certain Lodovico) of the main character's daughter. The vampire simply denies having talked to the kidnappers for many centuries. Why was his name mentioned then? The main character does not press on this.

Later, it's revealed that Lady Hespeth's story about her son also being kidnapped was false, because she's actually a vampire hunter (that was also proved a ruse later on) without children. The main character simply accepts this and does not question how or why Hespeth knew the name of des Esseintes if there was never any kidnapper of her own kid. Clearly Hespeth led the main character to des Esseintes. But this is simply accepted.

This is not the only inconsistency of the book's plot, just the most annoying one I noticed.

Despite that, I sincerely enjoyed reading this. Knowing that nothing human can be perfect, I give this ten out of ten not because it's perfect, but because it's masterly executed.