Just Finished Reading: Tale of the Thunderbolt by E E Knight

The Year is 2070. The alien Kurian Order has held power over most of the Earth for 48 years. Known in legend as Vampires these creatures feed off the life force of any sentient being in order to extend their own lives apparently indefinitely. But they are not without opposition. Patches of resistance are emerging. Armed with crude weapons and aided by Lifeweavers (sworn enemies of the Kurians) they are striking back at the aliens and their human collaborators. One such resistance fighter is David Valentine. Young, strong and talented he works behind enemy lines to undermine the Kurian domination. Hearing of a ‘super-weapon’ on the island of Haiti he is tasked with infiltrating an enemy gunboat, sailing to the island and recovering the weapon. But Valentine should know by now that no plan ever survives contact with the enemy. For the weapon is what he least expects it to be and the person holding it is the last creature on the Earth that Valentine can trust.

This was the third book in the Vampire Earth series which continues to entertain and thrill me. Valentine is a great hero having enough flaws and doubts to make him interesting and believable but retaining enough qualities to make the reader keep turning pages to see what he will do next. As I have come to expect from E E Knight this volume is tightly plotted, surprisingly adult in its content (and I don’t just mean sex) and brave enough to confidently challenge the reader’s expectations. I particularly liked the way that the rug was pulled out from under the main characters at the end leaving everything suitably up in the air for the next installment – which I almost went straight on to read in order to find out just what was going to happen! I’m so glad that I bought the original 3-4 of these books on impulse from Amazon. I’m really enjoying them and look forward to the next 5-6 I have so far acquired. Highly recommended for anyone who likes gripping adventure stories, combat SF, vampire fiction or just a damned good read.