cover image Fall with Honor

Fall with Honor

E. E. Knight. Roc, $23.95 (327pp) ISBN 978-0-451-46210-7

It's 2075 and the fight to liberate Earth from the mysterious Kurians continues in the grim seventh Vampire Earth episode (after Valentine's Resolve). Freedom fighter David Stuart Valentine is determined to overthrow the Kurian Occupation with the help of Sergeant Major Patel, one of Valentine's former key associates, and a ragtag army of humans and alien Grogs. To establish a new ""freehold"" in the Appalachian Mountains, Valentine and company must fight blood-drinking Reapers, harpies, gargoyles and other evil minions of the invaders. Though there's a clear vision of the courageous resistance fighters, the Kurians are ciphers and too often offstage. Valentine does find time for romance with an old friend and makes a brief, touching visit to his secret charge, Blake, a child Reaper, but this action-heavy episode suffers from battle-fatigue and a mind-numbing grimness to this installment that's more about defeat than victory.