Just finished reading....

Just finished reading Valentine's Rising, the latest installment of a series I've been reading called the Vampire Earth series. It's a pretty grim series, and, title notwithstanding, isn't really about vampires in the normal sense. It's more of a classic science fiction tale of invaders from another planet taking over the earth and humanities resistance to them. In many ways, the series has more in common with Robert Heinlein the works of Heinlein than Anne Rice. One of those similarities is to be found in the prose: it's clipped and to the point. Each chapter begins with a history-book like description of the state of the territory in which our intrepid hero (David Valentine) finds himself. Even with the rather direct writing style, the text is still littered with literate referents. It seems that the genre of military fiction is one that likes to acknowledge its deep roots (makes sense given that most of recorded history consists of descriptions of some war or another, I suppose) and constant acknowledgement of battles that have come before, and the teachings of warriors of bygone errors is a norm for this type of book. This particular writer has a knack for weaving in those references with a stock set of characters that David Valentine has met during the series. From the priest who raised him after his parents were killed (oops, stock plot element there) to his alien blood brother (oops again), platforms are provided for linking plots of the books to the bigger picture issues of what it means to be a soldier, what it means to resist an unjust occupation, and the real cost on the human soul of being someone whose profession consists mainly of taking lives. My bottom line on this series is that I found it by chance (Amazon recommended it based on other books I'd bought with Vampiric themes) and I find myself buying the new releases as they come out because the story is engaging enough to keep me coming back for more.