Valentine's Resolve

June 4, 2007
Knight flavors action with humor in this sixth Vampire Earth book (after 2006's Valentine's Exile
). Some 50 years after the 2022 takeover of Earth by the Kurian Order, crumbling pockets of resistance are being stabbed in the back by Quislings, humans who sympathize with the Kurians, as members of the resistance struggle to fight off the alien Grogs and the vampiric Kurian avatars known as Reapers. The only hope for the Southern Command is resistance hero David Stuart Valentine, who is persuaded to undertake a hazardous journey to Seattle and locate the mystical Lifeweavers, helpful aliens captured by the Kurian. Along the way Valentine's resolve and faith in the movement are tested after learning one guerrilla leader's disturbing plans for Kurian-held Seattle. Classic apocalyptic SF on a grand scale is always scary, but Knight makes it terrifically entertaining as well.

July 1, 2007
Valentines exile from his comrades has continued three years. The war against the vampiric Kurians having continued, too, he has been fighting it on his own. His old commander and teacher Duvalier brings him back into the fold with both threats and promises involving a certain part-reaper child. His old associates want Valentine to find out what happened to the Lifeweavers, the resistances alien allies, whose absence they think has something to do with the powerful lord of Seattle. On that mission, Valentine joins several other resistance movements, visits the half-reaper child, and sees yet more of the corruption that characterizes the Kurian-controlled world. Valentines ultimate task, set by Southern Command, is to infiltrate the resistance movement outside of Seattle that is led by the near-legendary Mr. Adler. Unfortunately for Valentine, Mr. Adlers organization uses some pretty nasty tactics, and its clear that the Kurians arent the only enemy out there. Knight has built an impressive postapocalyptic world, and Valentines struggles still make engaging reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)