Just Finished Reading: Choice of the Cat by E. E. Knight

The Year is 2067. It is now 45 years since the Kurian invasion of Earth. Lieutenant David Valentine is steadily making a name for himself as an officer in the army of the Ozark Free Territory but that all comes to a sudden end when he is left in charge of a hill fort under attack. Leaving against orders he manages to save only remnants of his command against overwhelming odds. Threatened with Court Martial he resigns his commission and joins the covert surveillance organisation known as the Cats. Infiltrating the Kurian Zone with the help of the enigmatic Smoke he discovers that the alien Kurians have developed a new weapon. Breeding half alien - half human hybrids they have produced soldiers with the strengths of both and the weaknesses of neither. The force is still assembling and Valentine determines to stop them before they become fully effective both to save his people and his reputation.

This was the second in Knight's Vampire Earth series (the first being Way of the Wolf) and continues the adventures of David Valentine as he begins to fight an alien invasion that happened years before he was born. This is very solid writing indeed with good characterisation and a wholly believable world in which they live out their lives. Told with measured assurance this is honestly a cracking adventure series full of tension, action and fear. Although we are two books in we have yet to ‘meet’ a single Kurian who are secretive in the extreme. I do hope that when it eventually happens I won’t be disappointed but from the quality of the writing so far I don’t think that I will. These books are a nice addition to vampire fiction (as well as to the Combat SF genre) and I can recommend them to anyone who loves to lose themselves in a great adventure novel. Whilst not exactly high literature or a life changing experience this series is proving to be highly entertaining. I’m looking forward to the next book – and the one after that.