Just Finished Reading: Way of the Wolf by E E Knight

The Year is 2065. Forty years after the Kurian Invasion the human survivors and their descendents live in fear of the night. For the night is when the Reavers come to drain them of their blood and their life force. Some do their best to hide, some co-operate in the hope of a longer life and some, like David Valentine, chose to fight back.

Leaving his adopted family as a teenager he is inducted into the growing guerrilla army. Showing an aptitude for hit and run tactics David joins the elite Wolves where he learns the history of the invasion and of the Kurians true nature – they are creatures from legend who visited Earth millennia ago. Called by many names over the centuries and worshiped by some we know them today as Vampires. David must conquer his fears and control his hatred of mankind’s immortal enemies if he hopes to survive his first encounters with them.

Although intrigued by the idea of 'Alien Vampires from the Future' (as I described it to a friend of mine) I was more than a little apprehensive about this book. It was by an author I had never heard of and yet I had bought the first four books in the series on impulse. Luckily I was not disappointed! E E Knight turned out to be a solid and exciting storyteller. The world shattered by alien invasion was a realistic one and the various characters behaviours felt reasonable considering that they often had to grow up in a reality very different from ours. The main character David was particularly well drawn as were the many secondary players. The situations, whilst fantastical in nature, suspended disbelief every step of the way. At no point did I think anything about it was ridiculous or unbelievable – but maybe that’s just me!

This was a real page turner and a valuable addition to vampire literature. The sixth book in the series has just been published in hardback and I shall look forward to reading the rest of them. Recommended.