Way of the Wolf

The Vampire Earth, Book 1

By: E. E. Knight

Narrated by: Christian Rummel, E. E. Knight (Introduction)

Louisiana, 2065. A lot has changed in the 43rd year of the Kurian Order. Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the bloodthirsty Reapers have come to Earth to establish a New Order built on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it is night, as sure as darkness, they will come.

On this pitiless world, the indomitable spirit of mankind still breathes in Lieutenant David Valentine. Brought into the Wolves - an elite guerilla force sworn to win back Earth - Valentine leads his first command in the Kurian Zone. Driven by the losses of his past and the hope of a future, Valentine is in it to win. No matter how long it takes. No matter what doom awaits him beyond his wildest nightmares.

Bonus Audio: Includes an exclusive introduction by author E.E. Knight.

©2003 Eric E. Frisch (P)2008 Audible, Inc.

Militant Incel Vibes and Military Pandering

the story leans too heavily on the pandering winks toward military service, or otherwise on esoteric knowledge of military culture that adds nothing to the story.

moreover, the story itself feels disjointed, taking well over half the book before the story progresses at a normal, linear pace. The random "present day" prologue jumping all the way back to David's childhood, before jumping several years, then weeks or months at a time during the first half of the book created a very poor experience for this listener. David never really dealt with the consequences of anything. The character feels apathetic and detached from what are meant to be major, traumatic experiences- he never reacts, and the next chapter jumps forward instead of addressing the fallout.

speaking of, and now addressing the more controversial part of my headline: the story maintains a theme of sexual violence against women, or at the very least, their sexual objectification/subjugation. and even still, David remains detached and apathetic to these issues. His mother is implied to have been sexually assaulted, a girl who he reconnects with for a couple pages gets beheaded and left nude, another girl is forced to sexually submit to an old toad and under duress has sex with David (the overly detailed sex scene being a strange tonal shift)- and yet David is basically never described as feeling anything about these events. The scenes feel gratuitous, and where the shoehorned "in-the-know" military references solely show off the author's knowledge, these events (amongst a few others) feel as though the author is lashing out at women in some capacity.

overall, the story feels amateurish and vaguely misogynistic, while also romanticizing and pandering to military life/types.

Not all is bad though. The premise is plenty interesting, the Witcher parallels are coy enough to pass, and some charafter interactions felt authentic, organic. But only some...

as per pandering: the references of books on army reading lists, references of certain sayings that hold specific meaning in military context, and the abritrary inclusion of officer schooling, in a post-societal-collapse world, for a ragtag half-baked militia. Oh, and probably the judo thing too.

Not bad at all.

After the first 15 minutes I was ready to stop listening, and select another book to listen to, because of the over dramatically delivered narration. However, I hung in there and the narrator improved from a 2 star, to a 4 star performance. This book technically is not about vampires or werewolves. It would be much more accurate to say it's about people with advanced senses (werewolves) and conquering aliens (life force sucking vampires) and it's the story of a young man who lost his parents to the aliens probably 40 years fter the aliens had invaded. This first book deals with how people have adapted to the alien invasion, and the relationships between those humans who oppose and support the aliens, and does not delve into the human interactions with, and between the aliens themselves, so only the top level basics are known about the aliens at this point.

I think that this is a good start to what could be a great series. I'm sure I'll get the next in the series sometime.

Join the resistance!

After a devastating invasion and the decimation of the population by alien-introduced deseases, most of Earth's population lives under the rule of the Kurians, who consider them cattle to be kept, managed and fed upon. Many humans under this system cooperate with their masters, seeking safety for themselves by betraying others. Most just try to keep their heads down and hope the 'reapers' don't come for them.

But a few are fighting back.

Not as cheesy as I had expected

Because this genre tends to be stereotyped and cheesy, I hadn't expected much - turns out I was pleasantly surprised.

I really like how this future was woven into our "real" existence - the story is linked to events that occurred milennia ago and is acceptably believable that events could occur this way.

Near the middle it got a tad bit "lecturey" on political subjects (war, racial politics, international politics, etc) but not nearly as bad as most apocalyptic stories which usually blame the apocalypse on [insert rival political party/government here]

For the most part, the story is told from the point of view of the main character (Valentine) but from time to time it seems to switch to an independent "narrator" who presents some history/explanation of the geography/politics/new world order... which is quite interesting, but it does change the tone of the story and eliminates some of the tension/suspense as to whether or not Valentine will make out okay.

There isn't a cliffhanger, but it's clear that this book is intended to be part of a longer series - one which I'll be reading because I want to find out how humans make out against the bad aliens!

The narration is very good.

Great!!!

This book does a great job introducing you to the World of Vampire Earth. It lays a solid foundation for the rest of the series. I have bought the first four books and will continue to buy the rest. E.E.Knight is a great author and Christian Rummel does a wonderful job narrating the stories.