No, not that kind of vampire.
That's closer, but not quite.
There we go. I'm a fan of vampires, the rip your throat out, drink you to the marrow, black eyes, pearly white skin with grayish tint, see humans as nothing more than cattle vampires.
Way of the Wolf by E.E. Knight is the first book in his series, The Vampire Earth. In it, none of the vampires I showed above exist at all. Kinda sad really, I pick up this book, the cover has a picture of a guy with a 9mm posed in front of red light district, with what looks like a shotgun tube on his back...I think, hey, this is gonna be good.
I was right, of course, hence it being on the list, but not for any of the reasons I though. Personally, at first glance, what I thought I picked up was a futuristic kind of Van Helsing, running around killing vamps in the underbelly of the world. Not a bad idea overall, but so not what I got.
No, in this book, vampires are aliens, Kurians to be precise, which basically means that they're Star-Spawn (Lovecraft reference, woo!) who have discovered that they can live eternally by sucking the life from a human being and can change their form to meet their needs. The easiest way to do so is to kill them, and their personal favorite way to do that is to employ "Reapers", Dementor like creatures that are super fast, super strong, and nigh indestructible.
Where as the Kurians are comparable to Incubi and Cthulu, wrapped into one, the reapers are the nightmarish Nosferatu, a demon with a hunger unsatiable, out for one thing and one thing alone, a full belly of blood. However, the reapers can be controlled. The shape shifting aliens also have the ability to telepathically turn a reaper into their avatar, to suck both the blood and life away from their victims. On the upside for them, it makes them harder, but when the link is severed, the reapers revert to an animalistic state of the monstrous ferocity.
The book opens on the 43rd year of the Kurian Rule (2065 CE/AD). David Valentine is a young soldier in a battalion of Wolves, genetically altered humans who have hightened senses (hearing, smell), increased stamina, and increased strength. The Wolves are one of three special groups of human at the disposal of Southern Command, one of the remaining strongholds of freedom in the Kurian inhabited planet.
His battalion is escorting refugees to safety, when they are attacked by reapers. A short battle occurs, in which we're shown how hard it is to kill a reaper, and just how strong these monsters are. This serves as the prologue for the book, showing the David we'll see in the following chapters coming experiences as a Wolf in a quick chapter.
The rest of the book tells of his journey to become that man, and then begin his step even further, as he invades Kurian Occupied Chicago to save a friend. It's a compelling story, but it's only the first part of the epic series. The rest of the series sees even more for the young soldier. It's still ongoing (I'm actually a few books behind), but it's worth checking out if you love Sci Fi and Fantasy melded into one. Also, it's pretty amazing the references in the series, ranging from Dracula, to various mythologies, to Shamanism/Druidism, and the Nazis (there's a lot of those actually).
-Sara
p.s. In how many other blogs does someone get to rag on Twilight, talk about Cthulu, and bring up genetically enhanced superheroes? Not many, I'm sure.
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