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Classic World of Darkness Fiction
Breathe Deeply
In the air, the scent of glory...
When his sept is slowly decimated by a mysterious epidemic known only as the "Snow Plague", Peter Ward, Glass Walker Garou from Toronto, embarks on a desperate search for the cure. His quest takes him into the lush and dangerous forests of the Amazon. Caught between the devious plot of Pentex and the mistrust of Amazonian Garou, his only hope is to find a single flower, both the carrier and the cure for the devastating plague.
It is a race against time as Pentex, the creator of the plague, hunts for Peter and his fellow Garou.
When his sept is slowly decimated by a mysterious epidemic known only as the "Snow Plague", Peter Ward, Glass Walker Garou from Toronto, embarks on a desperate search for the cure. His quest takes him into the lush and dangerous forests of the Amazon. Caught between the devious plot of Pentex and the mistrust of Amazonian Garou, his only hope is to find a single flower, both the carrier and the cure for the devastating plague.
It is a race against time as Pentex, the creator of the plague, hunts for Peter and his fellow Garou.
293 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1995
2 people are currently reading
105 people want to read
About the author
Don Bassingthwaite
34 books51 followersDon lives with his partner in Toronto, surrounded by gadgets, spice jars, and too many books.
No, I don’t normally refer to myself in the third person. That’s the official author bio from the back of my most recent books. You want some other trivia?
I’m a fan of the serial comma.
I’m a huge fan of breakfast cereal.
I own one (and only one) stuffed animal — a Highland cow from Edinburgh named “Ewan MooGregor.”
I love Edinburgh and London — other large cities visited in the UK include Bath and Plymouth. I’ve also been to Cheddar where I ate a really good cheese sandwich.
I like cheese, especially hard and blue cheeses (Mmmm. Stilton.).
I look terrible in hats with the exception (for unknown reasons) of a few ball caps of particular colour and design.
I look good in rugby shirts, but don’t really own any as I neither play rugby nor follow the sport enough to feel honest buying the shirt of any particular team.
I don’t play or follow soccer either, but that didn’t stop me from choosing a “shirt team” in the last World Cup, wearing their shirt, and cheering for them in pubs. Go Netherlands!
To quote Paul S. Kemp, “Mmm. Beer.”
I have seriously considered buying a kilt. Update March 2008: The kilt has been bought!
Kilt, cow, and fondness for Edinburgh aside, I’m not Scottish.
More to come, I’m sure!
No, I don’t normally refer to myself in the third person. That’s the official author bio from the back of my most recent books. You want some other trivia?
I’m a fan of the serial comma.
I’m a huge fan of breakfast cereal.
I own one (and only one) stuffed animal — a Highland cow from Edinburgh named “Ewan MooGregor.”
I love Edinburgh and London — other large cities visited in the UK include Bath and Plymouth. I’ve also been to Cheddar where I ate a really good cheese sandwich.
I like cheese, especially hard and blue cheeses (Mmmm. Stilton.).
I look terrible in hats with the exception (for unknown reasons) of a few ball caps of particular colour and design.
I look good in rugby shirts, but don’t really own any as I neither play rugby nor follow the sport enough to feel honest buying the shirt of any particular team.
I don’t play or follow soccer either, but that didn’t stop me from choosing a “shirt team” in the last World Cup, wearing their shirt, and cheering for them in pubs. Go Netherlands!
To quote Paul S. Kemp, “Mmm. Beer.”
I have seriously considered buying a kilt. Update March 2008: The kilt has been bought!
Kilt, cow, and fondness for Edinburgh aside, I’m not Scottish.
More to come, I’m sure!
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 14, 2017
My first foray into any kind of World of Darkness fiction, and it wasn't bad. I chose this book specifically because it's a Werewolf book, werewolves being a huge interest of mine, and because I'd long heard rumors that one of the characters was gay.
I already have some familiarity with the classic World of Darkness universe, being a fan of the "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" video game, but I didn't know a whole lot about the Werewolf universe, and this was a good introduction. An impressive thing about the book is how it imparts all of the information about the werewolves and their outlying universe without feeling too expositional or info-dumpy. Plus, what exposition was there was interesting and well-imparted, so I enjoyed it.
While I didn't think that the plot itself was necessarily anything special, being a quest story about getting the cure to a mysterious disease, the stuff surrounding it intrigued me, that being the culture of the werewolves, the individual tribes, the characters and their interactions, and the overall feel of the universe. One of the things that really attracts me to the WoD universe lies right there in its title. It taps into the same dark, paranoid society as something like the X-Files, with a world full of mystery and unknowable secrets hiding just below the veneer of our so-called normal world. There's a dash of H.P. Lovecraft there too, with the knowledge of such dark and eldritch things being so all-encompassing and unfathomable that it can drive men to madness.
Don Bassingthwaite uses this theme well, even though most of the book takes place among characters who live within said secret society and are familiar with its ins and outs. It really captures that mid-90s sense of urban decay, malaise, and mistrust that really appeals to me. And the way that he contrasts the modernity of Peter (the Glass Walker main character) with the mysterious tribalism and arcane magicks of the rainforest was really well done. I also found that the book really came alive when indulging in the more fantastical elements of the universe, such as the scenes where Peter steps into the Umbra to speak with the spirits of technology, who are personified as humanoid creatures, or the scenes where the Garou interact with the Mokole tribe. It has a surreal, earthy mood to it all that I loved.
Aside from all of that, the characters are mostly well-drawn, though in the case of Steps-Lightly and Thunder Tiger, the oft-rumored gay couple I've heard so much about, could've used a little more nuance and development. I know they aren't the main characters, but a major subplot of the novel is about dealing with the ramifications of their relationship, being that Garou pairings are looked down upon in their society. Bassingthwaite briefly raises some interesting questions about traditionalism and blind adherence to sacred edicts, but these are mostly glossed over, and the handling of the homosexual aspects of the couple, while progressive, kind of feels a little awkward. There's literally a "I've got gay friends" moment when Steps-Lightly confronts Peter about his sexuality. But hey, it was 1995, the fact that the author deigned to include a positive gay couple at all is pretty cool, though it ended up not being the most interesting aspect of the book.
What was interesting, aside from the previously mentioned universe, was how Bassingthwaite depicted the internal power struggles of the different Garou tribes. Everyone is incredibly flawed, none more so than Peter himself, and the author mines a lot of compelling drama out of this theme of selfishness vs. altruism, of going with the tribe or going with yourself, and while at first I found Peter a little insufferable, I found myself fascinated with him, and not only him, but the various ways that the many tribes interacted with each other, the ridiculous power pulling that occurs, even amongst people who are meant to work together. This is best illustrated with Brennan, a huge, bearish Fianna who initially clashes with Peter, but he also touches upon it throughout the novel, like when the characters meet the Mokole, whom they've always been on shaky terms with.
I really enjoyed this book, even though it wasn't perfect. The supporting characters were pretty broadly drawn, and most of the bad guys were generic at best and comically exaggerated at worst. However, it definitely piqued my interest in the universe of the Garou, and I plan to pick up more WoD novels set within the Werewolf universe.
I already have some familiarity with the classic World of Darkness universe, being a fan of the "Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines" video game, but I didn't know a whole lot about the Werewolf universe, and this was a good introduction. An impressive thing about the book is how it imparts all of the information about the werewolves and their outlying universe without feeling too expositional or info-dumpy. Plus, what exposition was there was interesting and well-imparted, so I enjoyed it.
While I didn't think that the plot itself was necessarily anything special, being a quest story about getting the cure to a mysterious disease, the stuff surrounding it intrigued me, that being the culture of the werewolves, the individual tribes, the characters and their interactions, and the overall feel of the universe. One of the things that really attracts me to the WoD universe lies right there in its title. It taps into the same dark, paranoid society as something like the X-Files, with a world full of mystery and unknowable secrets hiding just below the veneer of our so-called normal world. There's a dash of H.P. Lovecraft there too, with the knowledge of such dark and eldritch things being so all-encompassing and unfathomable that it can drive men to madness.
Don Bassingthwaite uses this theme well, even though most of the book takes place among characters who live within said secret society and are familiar with its ins and outs. It really captures that mid-90s sense of urban decay, malaise, and mistrust that really appeals to me. And the way that he contrasts the modernity of Peter (the Glass Walker main character) with the mysterious tribalism and arcane magicks of the rainforest was really well done. I also found that the book really came alive when indulging in the more fantastical elements of the universe, such as the scenes where Peter steps into the Umbra to speak with the spirits of technology, who are personified as humanoid creatures, or the scenes where the Garou interact with the Mokole tribe. It has a surreal, earthy mood to it all that I loved.
Aside from all of that, the characters are mostly well-drawn, though in the case of Steps-Lightly and Thunder Tiger, the oft-rumored gay couple I've heard so much about, could've used a little more nuance and development. I know they aren't the main characters, but a major subplot of the novel is about dealing with the ramifications of their relationship, being that Garou pairings are looked down upon in their society. Bassingthwaite briefly raises some interesting questions about traditionalism and blind adherence to sacred edicts, but these are mostly glossed over, and the handling of the homosexual aspects of the couple, while progressive, kind of feels a little awkward. There's literally a "I've got gay friends" moment when Steps-Lightly confronts Peter about his sexuality. But hey, it was 1995, the fact that the author deigned to include a positive gay couple at all is pretty cool, though it ended up not being the most interesting aspect of the book.
What was interesting, aside from the previously mentioned universe, was how Bassingthwaite depicted the internal power struggles of the different Garou tribes. Everyone is incredibly flawed, none more so than Peter himself, and the author mines a lot of compelling drama out of this theme of selfishness vs. altruism, of going with the tribe or going with yourself, and while at first I found Peter a little insufferable, I found myself fascinated with him, and not only him, but the various ways that the many tribes interacted with each other, the ridiculous power pulling that occurs, even amongst people who are meant to work together. This is best illustrated with Brennan, a huge, bearish Fianna who initially clashes with Peter, but he also touches upon it throughout the novel, like when the characters meet the Mokole, whom they've always been on shaky terms with.
I really enjoyed this book, even though it wasn't perfect. The supporting characters were pretty broadly drawn, and most of the bad guys were generic at best and comically exaggerated at worst. However, it definitely piqued my interest in the universe of the Garou, and I plan to pick up more WoD novels set within the Werewolf universe.
June 20, 2022
Really enjoyed the beginning and middle part, say 3.5-4 stars. The end was rather average, about 2.5 stars. Fun to see some of the names I recognise from the CCG from over 20 years ago appear in a novel format. I wish I knew about this book earlier. Most engaging parts of the book involved interpersonal and/or tribal politics. I never knew Shadow Lords were so universally despised amongst the other tribes. Also didn't know Thunder Tiger was a gay-gay, but whatever.
Overall, a fun read.
Overall, a fun read.
August 21, 2024
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book; not perfect, and, in some ways quite 90s, but captures some of the essence of Werewolf The Apocalypse and gave me an interesting idea for a session.
June 20, 2012
It was pretty good for a White Wolf novel. I believe they did best with their earlier writing, when the novels were stand alone. The ending seemed to wrap up far too quickly, and far too conveniently. There was an abrupt, inexplicable change in personality of one character that seemed to happen without any true reason, and it made the entire series of interactions between that character and the main protagonist seem somewhat cheap. Other than that, though, it was a fairly solid book in the Werewolf: the Apocalypse genre.
September 4, 2012
First read this in 1997(ish) - Hands down, one of my favorite novels as a kid.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews