Fall with Honor: A Novel of the Vampire Earth

by E.E. Knight

Book Overview

Freedom is on the march as the rebellion against the Kurian Occupation of E arth takes the offensive. David V alentine's company of former Quislings is ready to join forces with a guerrilla army, but... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451462386
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Ace
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.7" x 1.0" x 4.1"

Customer Reviews

Vampire Earth

If you like the Vampire Earth series or if you like E.E. Knight then you will enjoy this book

Home Run!

E.E. Knight continues to advance this series with great vigor and imagination! I am looking forward to the next installment! Way to go Mr. Knight!!!

Series Keeps Rolling

The quote at the beginning of the novel, which includes the title, sets the stage for the plot. It's taken from the Anabasis of Xenophon, which concerned an army finding itself alone in suddenly hostile territory,and conducting a fighting withdrawal against overwhelming odds. (Interestingly enough, this basic plot concept will also be used in Paul Kearney's upcoming epic fantasy, The Ten Thousand.) Both Kearney and Knight employ realistic military background in their stories, but within totally different frameworks, as Knight's work features a future alien-invaded Earth, not a fantasy world. This particular volume finds protagonist David Valentine leading one branch of an attempt by the human resistance movement to establish a freehold in the Appalachian Mountains. But there are traitors and double agents everywhere, and the alien Kurians are nothing if not clever and implacable adversaries. Valentine's superiors find themselves trapped in enemy land and trying to escape with their army intact to fight another day. Knight's strengths lie in his ability to create a military resistance that seems completely plausible because of the thought and detail used to describe it. He couples this with excellent characterization, and the result is that a reader not only believes that Earth could be like this if occupied by an alien species, but the reader pulls for the three-dimensional and very sympathetic humans who are trying to survive and overthrow the tyrannical new order. I will admit that the novel opens slowly, if one is expecting non-stop action, but Knight carefully constructs the military machine that is necessary to allow a cross-country journey and an attempt to finally go on the offensive against the alien nemesis. The pay-off is worth it, as the last 150 pages are quite suspenseful and harrowing, and portray Knight at his best. Vampire Earth reminds me of David Gerrold's War Against the Chtorr, but unlike that series, the reader is rewarded with a book of consistently high quality every year, not a never-ending wait. It deserves a wide readership.

More of a good thing leaves you wanting more of a good thing.

"Fall With Honor" the 7th book in the "Vampire Earth" series is more of a good thing. Vampire Earth is a diamond with many facets. Each story has highlighted one element of this dangerous dystopia. In "Fall With Honor" humans take center stage in an epic clash between Resistance and Quisling forces. Kurian collaborators have always been a dangerous enemy in the Vampire Earth. In past stories they have been shown to be morally bankrupt or just trying to survive but in this new tale we meet Quislings who have developed a complete culture around serving their Kurian Lords. Quislings have usually been much more black and white. Either they know what they are doing and are therefore evil or they are just trying to get by and survive in a world beyond their control in which they tend to be seen as more pathetic than anything else. Like the humans inside the matrix in "The Matrix" series of films by the very nature of their situation they are the enemy but it isn't entirely their fault. These Quislings in "Fall With Honor" are more misinformed, brainwashed, devoted and deadly than any that have come before. As outraged as their actions made me I couldn't help but feel a deep sympathy for humans so profoundly broken and bent to the Kurian will. This book sets up some very exciting possibilities for the future as well. If you are an E.E. Knight fan it is a must read.

Another Winner in My Book

So this is the 7th book in the series and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book contained just the right amount of action, drama, and even a bit of comedy. It also contains one of my favorite aspects of a book, realism. The one thing I think has always been great about the series is the realism. Yes, even with Vampiric Aliens, large monstrous alien beings, and amped up humans, it is still believable. That is something I think this book shows very much. Yes at one time David Valentine was a one man army, but he has aged, as most people do, if he were still the same man he was when he was younger I'm not sure I would believe it. He battles injuries as much as he does the enemy and to me that seems real. People get injured in war, and if it doesn't kill them, they often have deal with it the rest of their lives, that is reality, and I think that Fall With Honor captures that. I think that the action was plenty, because in my opinion a book of just pure action rarely does it for me, I need character growth, and drama, and Fall With Honor provides all that. In Fall With Honor, old friends return, new friends are made, and new enemies are met. Yes some chapters hit a little bit of trouble, but show me a book that doesn't. After reading the entire series, this volume continues on with what the others have built, and I for one can't wait to see what David Valentine does next. Congrats Mr. Knight, and happy writing.