Vampire Earth
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Vampire Earth is a series of science fiction/dark fantasy novels written by E. E. Knight, who also writes the Age of Fire series of novels.
In the Vampire Earth series, extra-terrestrials named Kurians take over the Earth in approx. 2022 CE and through the use of their Reapers (genetically engineered monsters resembling classic vampires) and a human spy network on an international scale to cement their rule. Humanity is reduced to a fraction of its former population, with only a small amount of that fraction resisting humanity's new masters.
Not every person is content with the rule of the Kurians and many small pockets of resistance have formed, the main pocket in North America being located in the Ozarks. The protagonist of the series is David Valentine, initially a young man with no combat experience. Valentine joins the Ozark Free Territory initially as a member of a labor battalion but soon distinguishes himself enough to merit promotion to the Wolves (an elite fighting force enhanced by the pacifist cousins to the Kurians, the Lifeweavers) and later a promotion to the Cats (an elite intelligence gathering force similarly enhanced to the Wolves but deployed behind enemy lines).
Contents |
[edit] Books in the series
There are five books in the Vampire Earth series of novels so far. Summaries are presented in chronological order.
[edit] Way Of The Wolf
This book begins with David's childhood and his first introduction to the Kurians and the Reapers, and continues to cover his experience in the Southern Command Ozark Free Territory labour battalion. This experience comes to a brutal climax as Harpies (flying creatures controlled by the Kurians) attack his posting and kill several people, including a close friend. Valentine tracks down the Harpies to their lair in an old boat and destroys it. This action earns him the promotion to the Wolves.
Working as a messenger he finds himself trapped behind enemy lines after visiting New Orleans. Disguising himself and an injured comrade he takes shelter with a family of Quislings, the Carlson's, and begins to fall in love with their daughter, Molly. A Kurian operative selects Molly for his own, and she subsequently kills the man and is captured and taken to The Zoo, a horrific place where many women labeled as criminals meet their end. David tracks down then rescues Molly Carlson from The Zoo, a center for Kurian operations in the heart of New Orleans. The book ends as David and Molly finally reach the Ozarks again.
[edit] Choice Of The Cat
David, now a Lieutenant in the Wolves, is left in charge of men in an ambush by Grog cavalry. A Cat named Alessa Duvalier helps David and his men retreat and he is subsequently faced with a court marshal when his commanding officer tries to obfuscate his own incompetence by sacrificing David's career. David is offered an alternative to the court marshal: A promotion to the Cats, which he accepts. He follows Duvalier to Ryu's hall, where he is again enhanced and he learns the training necessary to survive as a Cat.
Now trained, Valentine and Duvalier venture into the Kurian Zone in search of a group called the Twisted Cross. Shortly afterwards, Duvalier loses confidence in Valentine's decision making after he chooses to help a group of cattle ranchers fight off an invasion instead of acting like a Cat and retreating, and chooses to part ways with him. Valentine continues to search and meets Ahn Kha, who is injured. David helps heal these injures and Ahn Kha in turn reveals that he knows where the Twisted Cross can be found.
Together they journey to Ahn Kha's people. Ahn Kha and David begin a rebellion amongst the camp attached to the Twisted Cross' base and David himself launches an attack which cripples the entire operation, though he is subsequently captured. The book ends as Valentine is rescued by Duvalier and Ahn Kha just as he is about to be killed.
[edit] Tales Of The Thunderbolt
David Valentine is working undercover, deep in the Kurian Zone living as an officer in the Coastal Marines. Duvalier is supporting him and posing as his wife. Valentine's goal is to take a ship which can be sailed to the Caribbean, where Valentine is supposed to meet up with someone who has a weapon deadly to the Kurians.
Valentine convinces Lieutenant Post and a few other members of the Thunderbolt's crew to rebel along with Ahn Kha and his grogs, although it goes poorly when the captain of the ship learns of the planned mutiny before it is scheduled to occur: Valentine and his men take the weapons locker and engineering department but fail to convince the majority of the crew to rebel or take them by surprise. Valentine and his men are saved when Lieutenant Carrasca of Jamaica attacks and claims the Thunderbolt. After explaining his cause David is told that until Jamaica is free the Kurian controlling it.
Valentine kills this Kurian and is allowed to meet with Papa Legba in Haiti, the one who claimed to have the information needed to kill the Kurians, though he turns out to be a Kurian himself. Papa Legba shows him Quickwood, which can kill a Kurian or their Reapers almost instantly. Valentine then begins to transport the Quickwood back to the Ozarks, and in doing so begins a rebellion which soon envelopes all of Haiti. The book concludes with an ambush in Texas which destroys much of the stock of Quickwood.
[edit] Valentine's Rising
The book begins with Valentine and his men learning of an invasion. Southern Command, once a bastion of freedom, has had it's military strength broken and much of it's territory overrun by a formidable army comprised of soldiers borrowed from various Kurian lords, all led by Consul Solon. David encounters General Martinez, a man who has kept his own men hiding in the mountains and rules them like a mob. Martinez orders Ahn Kha's remaining two grogs killed, which precipitates Valentine to draw his own firearm on Martinez. A Mexican standoff occurs which ends in Martinez being tried for a court marshal by Styachowski, an officer. In the end the court marshal dissolves as the armed men outside begin to mob the court. Valentine reaches an agreement with Martinez allowing himself, Styachowski, a team of Bears and roughly half of Martinez's regular forces to leave the camp.
David, his men alone and unable to escape Solon's long-reaching grasp, chooses instead to undertake a massive intelligence operation in which he and his force pose as a Quisling group sent to reinforce Solon's already impressive army. This leads to many tests of David's faith as he is forced to make horrific decisions and his men are forced to work under Brigadier General Xray Tango and work for the betterment of the Kurian Order. Soon, David proves himself to Solon and his men and David is granted access to arms and munitions.
The finale of the book comes as Valentine launches a crippling attack from within Fort Scott taking and holding the area around it and completely halting Solon's forces and their ability to move while broadcasting a message to the scattered remnants of Southern Command, informing them that the mobility of Solon's forces was crippled and urging them to rise up and fight, which they do. Thus begins a long last stand effort as Valentine and his forces (now dubbed the Razorbacks) hold the area and prevent Solon's forces from effectively countering the actions of Southern Command's forces elsewhere.
Valentine leads a team of Bears (including Styachowski, now dubbed "Wildcard") into the Kurian fortress to kill the Kurian lords within, which they are mostly successful at doing. The book ends as forces from Texas come to reinforce Valentine and break him and his men free of the trap they'd willingly allowed to set around them. When a bewildered Valentine asks why the Texans would journey from another fort they'd trapped in a siege to rescue him and his men, he is told: "That could wait. You couldn't. We remember the Alamo."
[edit] Valentine's Exile
Valentine's Exile begins with the Razorbacks as they continue to lay siege to the desperate remnants of Solon's forces. The Kurians shortly give up, though not before the Razorbacks are attacked and decimated by a siege-breaking push attempt which fails, leaving William Post seriously wounded.
Valentine is informed he has some time off and agrees to attempt to track down William Post's wife. He learns that some women were given tests while Solon's forces occupied the Ozarks, and that William's wife Gail was one of those who tested positive and was taken. While visiting Molly Carlson in an attempt to learn more about the tests, he is detained by Southern Command and informed he is being court-marshaled for the murder of Quisling prisoners.
While in detainment, Valentine learns that some Quislings are in the process of negotiating a truce, and that many of the more recent court-marshals have been a way of showing the Quislings that Southern Command doesn't encourage murder and looting. Valentine is also offered a deal which will see him in prison for several years in exchange for a confession of guilt. He learns that the deal is false and instead escapes with the help of some sympathetic guards.
Valentine, free of the prison (though knowing he will be judged guilty in absentia), decides to continue his search for Gail Post. This takes him to meet Eveready, who helps him with some supplies, and allows Valentine to eventually infiltrate the Kurian facility where Gail Post is being held. After spending weeks in the facility Valentine is able to escape with a pregnant Gail, though it requires Ahn Kha to draw off their pursuit.
The child is delivered, and everyone is horrified to discover that Gail has given birth to a Reaper. The book ends as Valentine wonders if the newborn creature has a soul, or if it's already a mindless killing machine.
[edit] Cast of Characters
- David Stuart Valentine, also known by the nickname Ghost is the main character and all the stories are told from his point of view.
When David was eleven years old he witnessed the aftermath of a Quisling attack on his home. All his family was killed in the attack, leaving him the only survivor of the massacre. Father Max, a Catholic priest and his father's old friend, took him in and raised him. David is brought up in Father Max's library, where books work to fill the void left in his life. David learns later that his father, Lee Valentine, was a soldier in Southern Command.
Valentine possesses a sixth sense which is sometimes referred to as the "Valentingle", first as a joke and later taken seriously. This sense allows him to feel the presence of Reapers being controlled by Kurians.
Valentine also has a daughter with First Leftenant Malia Carrasca in Jamaica.
- Ahn-Kha, also sometimes referred to as Old Horse, is a Golden One who looks like a seven foot cross between a shorthaired bear and an ape with pointed, expressive ears. He is one of David Valentine's most constant companions.
Ahn-Kha was born on Earth, forty-one years ago before the beginning of Choice of the Cat, one of the first of his clan to be brought to this world after his people had settled. The Golden One clans and the Gray Ones' tribes were brought to this world to do the dying while winning the victory for the Kur.
Although many people who encounter Ahn Kha dismiss his intelligence due to his resemblance to the Gray Ones, his own species of Grog is generally as intelligent (if not more so) than humans. Ahn Kha is a great source of wisdom, something David relies on almost as much as he relies on Ahn Kha's strength.
- Alessa Duvalier aka Smoke
At age 16 Alessa ran away from the Great Plains Gulag after burning a police van and then killing two policemen, after one of them attempted to rape her. Taking all their possessions she could carry, she then escaped by crawling through a swamp and heading for the mountains. She is taken in by the Duvalier family. When a raid on Leavenworth is planned, she is recruited as a scout. She becomes friends with a Cat named Rourke and later becomes his disciple.
Eight years later, she meets David Valentine at the battle of Little Timber Hill where she helps him and his men escape their besieged position. After David's decision to resign from the Wolves, Alessa recruits him to be a Cat.
David Valentine first met Eveready in the Yazoo Mississippi, where Eveready was responsible for training Valentine and several other Wolves in how to hunt and kill Reapers. He later appears in Valentine's Exile as a recluse, hunting Reapers and other Kurian operatives along a specific stretch of land he calls home. He gives Valentine and Duvalier the equipment necessary to help track down William Post's wife.
Eveready's name comes from the battery company by the same name. He uses the batteries as a calling card for the Kurians so that they know which kills are his.
- Narcisse aka Sissy
Narcisse is a woman David encounters in the Caribbean, and is disfigured: two fleshy stumps are all she has left of her legs, and one arm ends in a knob at her wrist. She got these injuries from trying to run away. She helps David escape and he takes her with him piggyback style.
Narcisse claims to practice voodoo, but it's more like hoodoo, with her herbs doing 'magic'.
- Will Post
needs expansion
- Arsie or RC
Arsie or RC, supposedly named after the old Royal Crown cola truck she was found in as a baby, is a Blue Dome girl. The character Arsie or RC is notable because she was named for Merile (aka RC) of the Vampire Earth forum. She won a contest to have a character named for her.
[edit] Places
- The Cave
Strategic Air Command's old headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base are the home of the Twisted Cross. Now some of the great hangars have been rebuilt, SAC's old underground catacombs reoccupied. A new general has come, with men in strange uniforms; the swastika flag flies, its spiderish black-and-white design stark and forbidding against the blue of Omaha's skies.
- Chicago
Chicago is the new Las Vegas on Vampire Earth.
- The Citadelle
Set in walls a hundred feet high and thirty feet thick at their base, gunports like shaded black eyes look out on the north coast of Haiti. This castle-like fortress, faintly resembling a giant ship, is the home to the Kurian known as Papa Legba. While here, David Valentine climbs down a well to find he has gone through a gate in the middle of the well, and is looking back at Papa Legba from Kur.
- The Consular's Place
Consular Solon is having a palace built on the north bank of the Arkansas. After Valentine's Rising, the Consular's Palace is taken and occupied by David Valentine and his 'regiment'.
- New Columbia
The city of Little Rock never recovered from the nuclear blast inflicted on it in the death throes of the Old World. Though the fires went out and the radiation dispersed, the only life to return permanently was nonhuman. The new rulers have a grand vision of a rail, road, and river traffic hub built on the ruins of the old. The Rocks have been renamed New Columbia with the motto "Crossroads of the Future".
- Omaha
The Old World transportation hub set in the wide, wooded valley of the Missouri is a sad shadow of its former self. Like its sister St. Louis, farther down the wide Missouri,Omaha is now the breeding ground for assorted Grogs and human scoundrels.
- The Ozark Mountains
The Free Territory had its genesis here, among the river-cut limestone, caves, sinks, and thick forests of America's oldest mountains. During his years of Cathood in the Kurian Zone, Valentine had formed a theory that the Ozarks were a useful bogeyman for the brutal regimes of the Kur. Death and deprivation could always be blamed on "terrorists" in the Ozarks, or the other enclaves scattered around what had been North America.
- The Residence
In New Columbia, formerly the city of Little Rock, stands the bone white, eleven story, Kurian Tower. It sticks there like a knife in the heart of the Free Territory. This is the home of the Kurian Lord of the area. Armored cars are parked before it, covering the cleared streets outside the beginnings of a wall.
- Ryu's Hall
At the headwaters of the Buffalo River,there is a place that is home to a cluster of Lifeweavers. Perched halfway up Mount Judea in the Ozark Mountains, a stoutly built A-frame lodge stands in a thick grove of mountain pine. It dwarfs any other building in the area. Southern Command calls this place Buffalo River Lodge, the Cats of Southern Command call this place home. This is where David Valentine is invoked by Ryu and is transformed by Lifeweaver techno-magic into a Cat.
- The Zoo
[edit] Glossary
Aspirants: Teenagers,often sons and daughters of those in a particular caste,who travel with the Hunters and perform assorted camp functions.
Bears:Hunters and the most fearsome of the Lifeweaver's human weapons; warriors who go into a battle-fury resembling that of the berserks of old.The Bears are proud to take on anything the Kurians can design.
Bearfire:The fire for 'Chasing the Red'.
Bolo:The knife that General Hamm issued to the soldiers, similar to the parang (knife) a Wolf uses.
Castes:There are three known Hunter groups or castes, they are the Bears, Cats, and Wolves. There has been mention of other people the Lifeweavers have invoked, but at this time no other caste has been named.
Cats:Trained by the Lifeweavers, these Hunters act as spies, saboteurs, and assassins in the Kurian Zone. Some work in disguises;others work openly.
Chasing the Red: A ritual Bears take part in to get them ready for battle.
Claws: A type of gauntlet that Cats use. Claws are a pair of metal hands held to the palms by thick leather straps.They arc out like a second skeletal system from there,ending in sharp talons that cap the fingers.You can clmb a tree with them and they do gruesome in a fight if you use them right.They come in a blade and a talon version.
Crocodile,The:It's a Grog thing, out of St. Louis.From a distance it's all bumpy and green,and the tug tower sticks up like an eye.It shoots a shell called a 'railcar',because it was what they sounded like when they roared overhead.But,they struck like meteorites,causing the ground to writhe and shake in an explosive earthquake.
Dau'wa:"Forward-thinkers";the minority of Lifeweavers(mostly concentrated on the planet Kur),who used vital aura to become immortal,i.e.,vampires.
Dau'weem:"Backwards-thinkers";the majority of Lifeweavers,who eschewed use of vital aura to become immortal.
Glow bulb:A tiny,pyramid-shaped crystal that gives off a light that will last for weeks if you leave it in the sun to charge for an afternoon.
Golden Ones:A Grog variant,more verbal and organized than the more common Gray Ones.Fawn-colored fur on their shoulders blends to white on their bellies.
Gray Ones:The most common kind of Grog,an apish humanoid with thick plates of gray skin.Marginally intelligent,though quick to adapt to human tools and weapons.
Grogs:Any of the multitude of creations the Kurians have designed or enhanced to help subjugate man. The term Grog is in general use for introduced lifeforms,but properly belongs just to humanoid variants.Grogs come in many shapes and sizes;some are intelligent enough to use weapons.
Gros-bon-ange:The spirit that enters the body at conception.It animates you.
Harpies:These are an ugly,snaggletoothed,bowlegged,and leathery winged version of a Grog.They were given the name Harpies because they resemble the ancient Greek mythological creature.
Hunters:Human beings who have been enhanced by the Lifeweavers to cope with the spawn of Kur.
Interworld Tree:An ancient network of portals between the stars,the doors of which allow instantaneous transportation across the light-years.
Kur:One of the nine planets of the Interworld Tree.A great storehouse of touchstones was found here;it was a center of Lifeweaver science and learning.Later it became a renegade world when the Kurian Lifeweavers began to use vital aura to extend their lives,touching off a civil war that has spilled over to Earth.
Kurians:Lifeweavers from the planet Kur who learned how to indefinitely lengthen their lives by absorbing vital aura. They are the true vampires of the New Order.
Kurian Zone or KZ:The area one or more Kurian Lords control.
Legworms:A type of Grog like a giant centipede,usually around thirty feet in length,with a probing maw ringed with catfish whiskers.They slink along with each individual limb moving faster than the eye can follow.The brain of a legworm is buried in the middle of its body.Legworms can be ridden by Gray Ones.
Lifesign:Energy given off by any living thing in proportion to its size and sentience.The Reapers use it,in addition to their normal senses,to track their human prey.
Lifeweavers:The ancient race who discovered the old Pre-Entity Gates between the Nine Worlds.Lifeweavers can appear in almost any shape or form.But, in the presence of humans they usually look like a very beautiful human.
Man:One definition of man:a biped who is ungrateful.
Once-ler,The:A character from a book by Dr. Seuss.The Once-ler is the name The Kurians have given to Papa Legba.
Parang:The type of knife the Wolves use for general purposes and for beheading reapers. Smoke described David Valentine's parang as a cotton chopper.It's similar to a short machete or a bolo.
Pre-Entities:The Old Ones,a vampiric race that died out long before man walked the Earth.From their knowledge,the Kur learned how to become vampires by living off of vital aura.
Q-file:A file Southern Command keeps on each of its soldiers and staff.
Quickwood:A type of tree that looks similar to a Pine,but with needles like thorns.There is a variant that grows into thorny hedges.Quickwood has chemicals in it, in the sap and pockets in the thorns,to be precise,that act as a catalyst. It is most effective if the wood is still living or recently cut,the results are nothing short of spectacular.But even wood that is older,as long as it has some residue that gets brought into contact with the Reaper's 'blood',will prove lethal.
Quislings:Humans who assist the Kurians in running the New Order.Most Quislings serve out of fear,but some have been misled by the Universal Church into thinking that life under the New Order is better than the life we had before the Kurians.
Ratbits:Genetic creations found on The Ranch.The Ranch was once a Kurian experiment station,now in ruins. The Ratbits are like a cross between a jackrabbit and rat the size of a raccoon.But they are intelligent,and thought to have been created for their auras.The Ratbits are what is left of Batch Fiveteen.
Ravies:A virus the Kurians distributed to break up the social order of man,allowing them to take over more easily.
Reapers:The Praetorian Guard of the New Order,they are in fact avatars animated by by their Master Vampire.They permit the reclusive Kurians to interact with humans and others,and more importantly,absorb the vital aura through a psychic connection with the avatar without physical risk.They are pale-skinned,yellow-eyed,black-fanged,have hinged jaws like a snake and a foot long barbed tongue which they use to puncture their victims with,usually in the neck. Reapers live off the blood of the victim,while the aura sustains the Master Kurian.Also known colloquially as Capos,Governors,Hissers,Hoods,Rigs,Skulls,Scowls,Tongue-Tong,Creeps,Hooded Ones,Whisperers,and Vampires. Reapers are instruments that are built to last.Cable-like muscles are fixed to a skeleton as light as ceramic and as strong as high-tensile steel.They're strong enough to take a car apart without tools,and can run faster than a horse from dusk 'til dawn. Nothing that isn't engine-powered moves as fast as a Reaper. They wear heavy robes and cowls of bullet-absorbing material.Daylight is not deadly to either them or the Kurians,though it interferes with the link between puppet and master, and obscures lifesign,the ethereal emanations created by vital aura that the avatars use to home in on prey.So the Reapers restrict their dark purposes to the sunless hours.
Sharkfin,The:A World War II submarine that Boul has as a secret weapon. He uses it to sneak attack the Thunderbolt.Captain Saunders later uses it to try and take back his ship.It is destroyed when the Thunderbolt rams it,snapping it in two.
Soviet PPD-40:A type of Russian sub-machinegun.Tank Bourne sent a Soviet PPD-40 to David Valentine.
Thunderbolt,The:She didn't live up to her name. She was just a swaybacked old icebreaker,new coat of paint and polished fittings or no.Her 230-foot length has a high prow,a deep well deck,and her castle amidships.Just below the bridge in the bow was the five-inch gun,her main armament.On the other side of the castle,a twenty-millimeter Oerlikon looked like an avant-garde sculpture under its protective cover.Her four 7.62-millimeter machine guns lay ready to be placed in the mounts on either side of the ship,more or less at the corners of the upper deck of the square main cabin.
Touchstones:Cryptically carven stones,usually triangular,which pass their knowledge to one who touches them in a flash. This instantaneous download,to use a late twentieth century term,is enough to overthrow almost all human minds and even the Lifeweaver's formidable intellect.Touchstones can hold anything from knowledge to memories. It has been mentioned that touchstones might have minds encased in them.
A touchstone could be compared to a holocron in the Star Wars Expanded universe.
A touchstone might also be compared to the Repository of the Ancients in the Stargate universe.
Universal Church,The:
A Kurian run religion that indoctrinates its followers with this message:"Our planet was dying.War.Overpopulation.Pollution. Disease out of control.Mother Earth had a cancer called the human race.The Kurians came in and restored the balance,brought order to the chaos.Kur did for us what we couldn't do for ourselves.Over half the population now has proper food,shelter and health care ;everyone in care has access to the doctor.
Valentingle:David Valentine's ability to sense Reapers.It works only if the Reapers are active,but if they're asleep... nothing.Ryu said that in ages past,a great many modifications were tried on humans.Some the Lifeweavers shouldn't have. Vestiges of those live on.It could be that.Or David might be a genetic wildcard,a leap in natural selection brought on by the new stresses on the human species.
The valentingle could be compared to Spiderman's spider sense, one of his spider-like powers.
Vital Aura:An energy field created by a living creature.Aura is a lot of things: thought, emotion, sensitivities, fear.
Voudou: It's a bit of everything,even the Pope did it - he just didn't know he was.People think voudou is all fear and hate,but there is love and healing in it.There is a bad side - like anything,it can be used to destroy.Those who work their magic with both hands can cause such sadness.They create zombies by taking the gros-bon-ange out of the body,leaving the poor person standing there,with no chance to even run.
Wolves:The most numerous caste of the Hunters. Their patrols watch the no-man's-land between the Kurian Zone and the Free Territories,and they also act as guerilla fighters,couriers,and scouts.
