Valentine's Resolve is the sixth novel in author E.E. Knight's excellent series called Vampire Earth. This series follows the exploits of a soldier named David Valentine as he and the rest of the human survivors struggle for survival in a world that has been taken over by an alien race that can be likened to mythical vampires. Even this far along in the series, the storytelling is as strong as ever and I'm still a big fan.

The last book in this series, Valentine's Exile, ended up a pretty big downer. It left me a little concerned over the direction that the author was taking the series, and I wasn't sure what his intentions were with the main character of David Valentine. In the early novels, Valentine's main struggles were against the vampire-like invaders called Kurians and their henchman called Reapers. In the last few books it was other humans that caused the most trouble for Valentine - even people who were supposed to be on his side.

This book delves further into the different factions of humans like those who have chosen to side with the aliens and those who still uphold the resistance movement. The main plot involves Valentine working his way up to Seattle to confront a very powerful Kurian.  Along the way he finds a human military group who is performing atrocities nearly as bad, if not worse, than what the Kurians are doing to the humans. When Valentine tries to stand up to them, he finds himself in a lot of trouble.

Once again, David Valentine goes through absolute hell in this novel. Things keep getting worse for him as he goes from prisoner to captive to prisoner again throughout the series. It's like no matter where he goes, there is somebody around who wants him dead. His own fame from earlier victories doesn't help his chances for hiding out, either. Frankly, I'm getting a little tired of reading about him being drug through the mud once again, but this book has a lot more redemption for him than the previous volume. Things might actually be looking up for him and the resistance, though there are currently two more books after this one, so the story has plenty of room to grow.

In this book you can expect more of the same level of action and intrigue as Valentine struggles every day in the war-torn land that used to be known as the United States. E.E. Knight's writing is as solid as ever and there's even a few subtle jolts of humor that were very welcome. The author has a degree in history and political science and he obviously lets his education influence some of his writing.

I was a little let down by the last Vampire Earth book, Valentine's Exile, but I thought Valentine's Resolve more than made up for the last one. Fans of the series will surely eat this one up.

Recommended: Yes