[3rdFloor]

Oh Fien, please tell us if you hear anything back from Darlou! I'm very intrigued, puzzled, stumped, and downright curious about this whole thing.

As for a specific Sierra forum, may I suggest the excellent Gray Matter fan site Cort-X? Users over there also talk about Gabriel Knight quite often. Who knows?

[Fien]

Originally Posted by DeadWolf

Oh Fien, please tell us if you hear anything back from Darlou! I'm very intrigued, puzzled, stumped, and downright curious about this whole thing.

Of course I'll tell you all about it.

I still hope think it's original Sierra box art.

[WRMW]

I did my best to plod through "Schatten Blut" but I'm currently only half way done and due to the massive volume of reading ahead of me in my term, I doubt it will be finished for a while. I figured I could report on the similarities and differences on the plot as it is so far.

Unfortunately, the book isn't very good (Shocking?). Though it does have some curious similarities with Gabriel Knight, it has more in common with the popular tween series Twilight (that I have the misfortune of knowing quite well, as I used to work in a children's bookstore). It certainly isn't my type of book, though I'm sure there'll be a fan base of necrophiliac German women out there.

Faye McNamara is an (apparently) strong-willed independent freelance photo-journalist visiting her sister in London (not that you see a lot of that side). She starts being troubled by horrifying nightmares that mostly involve her sister being attacked by vampires. Strange things start happening, and her dreams start having impossible ramifications in the real world. Soon she realizes that her sister is being visited by a vampire and does her best to protect her, with the help of a old neighbour of theirs, who, of course, happens to have magical powers. By happenstance she meets a mysterious impossibly tall and handsome Darian Knight. By their third conversation she learns that he too is a vampire. Of course, after learning this, her response is to sleep with him. Oh and she falls in love with him immediately. Any moral objections aside, I would hope that any strong-willed independent woman would show a healthier amount of concern for her safety, and that of her sister and have a more realistic concept of love. But I guess he is hundreds (thousands?) of years old, incredibly gorgeous, tall, unnaturally strong, filthy rich, and has the lucky habit of only drinking blood from the blood bank that he owns. What woman could possibly resist?
Then her distant father, awkwardly an old friend of Darian Knight's, enters the picture to let her know that she comes from an ancient line of, wait for it, Schattenjaegers and she has incredible powers and may be the one who can fight the vampires (except the one good one in her bed).
Her father and Mr. Knight begin her Schattenjaeger training, so she can hunt down the evil vampire Lagat (with a name like that he was doomed from the start) and avenge her sister. She unfortunately spends most of her time complaining, sulking and attempting to seduce Darian and is her happiest when he treats her to a night of unlimited shopping in London.

That's about as far as I've gotten. As riveting as the story is, I'm not sure when I'll get to finish.

So any thoughts?

[AndreaDraco83]

The similarities are shocking, but the rest of the plot sounds pretty tacky to me, corny and rather lousy, just another Twilight-lookalike that is hoping to grab some of that success. The original was already abysmal, and I can only imagine how horrible the various rip-offs must be. But, in this case, with the word Schattenjager and all, I really have to assume that the author is familiar with Gabriel Knight. Very familiar... And, well, at least this familiarity testifies that her tastes are not all bad

[stepurhan]

Not to mention. woman destined to slay vampires falling for one. Do you think Joss Whedon might be interested?

[AndreaDraco83]

Originally Posted by stepurhan

Not to mention. woman destined to slay vampires falling for one. Do you think Joss Whedon might be interested?

D'oh! I forgot!

[3rdFloor]

This is getting worse and worse! Leave the Shadow Hunters alone, they belong to Jane Jensen!

[WRMW]

To be fair, Schattenjaeger is literally "Shadow hunter" and not itself particularly unique. Not to knock it (as I find it a cool term) but it is possible that the author could have independently "created" the term.

It's just the collection of Schattenjaeger, Knight and the book cover all together that raise suspicions.

[3rdFloor]

Originally Posted by WRMW

To be fair, Schattenjaeger is literally "Shadow hunter" and not itself particularly unique. Not to knock it (as I find it a cool term) but it is possible that the author could have independently "created" the term.

It's just the collection of Schattenjaeger, Knight and the book cover all together that raise suspicions.

If I'm not mistaken, Jane Jensen did invent the term "Schattenjäger" because it's not a real German word. And I agree; all these things put together is way too much for me to exclude downright property theft. I'm no lawyer, but the book author clearly borrowed far more than necessary. Of course, it's okay to be inspired by something, we all do every day. However, if you're going to put your name on the cover, then make sure this is your work, and not something you blatantly copied and pasted from someone else.

It seems to me that the author thought no one would remember The Beast Within. Obviously, he/she isn't a gamer or a member of this forum.