Author: E.E. Knight
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Roc
Release Date: July, 2009
E.E. Knights newest novel Winter Duty, the eighth installment of his Vampire Earth series, is another rousing success. The series depicts the continuing struggles between those humans who wish to remain free and the invading Kurian Empire who have successfully begun to enslave man. The Kurians through their genetically manipulated creatures, called Reapers, drain the very essence of life from their human cattle in order to sustain their own existence. In this chapter of his epic saga, Knight brilliantly continues world building on a monumental scale, while adding complexity to the personality of his multi-faceted main character, Major David Valentine. It is the year 2076 and Valentine is again caught in a life and death struggle to contain the Kurians from yet again partitioning more land and people from the protection of the United Free Republics. E.E. Knight quickly draws the reader back into his frightening world by opening the novel with a scene straight out of a grotesque nightmare. A hospital train is bivouacking in the Kentucky woods 55 years into the rule of the Kurian order. The trick is that the train itself is a hideous multi-fingered creature called a Leg-Worm, and just over the hill is a camp of headhunters who deal in human flesh. Valentine has to make one of those “best of the worst” choices he is faced with continuously in E.E. Knight’s vampire landscape. Valentine, the hardest man on earth, sheds a tear because of this all encompassing inhumanity and Knight lets us see into the soul of his hero. Who at his core, even with the innumerable violent acts he has committed, still has not lost his basic aspirations to do good in the service of his fellow man, leaving him no choice but to risk all to stop this group of “human rustlers”. As Dorothy said to Toto in the Wizard of Oz, “I don’t believe we are in Kansas anymore,” and although Knight would like us to believe we are in Kentucky, it is certainly no Kentucky I would like to visit except on the pages of his captivating novel.
Back at Southern Command, Valentine is relentlessly trying to convince the higher-ups that recent events in Kentucky were not a failure, no matter how he spins it, the fact that his battalion was devastated and forced to retreat across the Appalachians makes it impossible for him to garner their support for a new expeditionary force. Valentine takes a few days to recuperate and look up some old friends who played major roles in his recent past. E. E. Knight uses this part of his novel to reacquaint us with many of the preceding book’s most prominent characters and opens a window into what they are currently up to. For those, like myself, who have read the previous seven novels, this trip down memory lane is greatly appreciated. I enjoyed catching up with these characters as much as Valentine did. Finally, facing the reality that Southern Command does not intend to invest again in the Kentucky Civil War, Valentine gathers what volunteers he can, and along with his ubiquitous traveling companion, Allessa Duvalier, nicknamed Smoke, heads back into the shattered confederation of Kentuckian clans.
At this point the book becomes decidedly political in nature and seems to have a direct correlation to current events. Upon his return to Kentucky, Valentine finds that the clans have called for an assembly to decide whether to remain independent or join with the Kurians. The assembly, much like today’s political arena is made up of three distinct coalitions, “The Old Deal Caucus” those who favor capitulation with the Kurians, decidedly on the right and somewhat captivated with the religious extremism disseminated by this new world order. On the left, “The All-Ins” are those who favor remaining part of the United Free Republic and assiduously affirm equal rights for all free men. The third coalition, “the Militant Independents” is the swing vote and their decision would surely determine the destiny of Kentucky and perhaps the future of Southern Command itself. As in our recent presidential election, influencing the independent middle would go a long way in capturing the votes needed. Considering that all sides were aware of these facts, it is not surprising that fear and terrorism was used to try and influence this important decision. Just as it has occurred in contemporary times terrorism is a galvanizing force for reactions that are diametrically opposed to the desired goal. E.E. Knight clearly is a proponent of this school of thought.
In Winter Duty E. E. Knight reminds the reader how important it is to consider what is true news and what is pure propaganda. He clearly makes his case when he has Valentine say “An article saying it doesn’t make it true. Don’t read Kurian intellectual porn; it is all lies anyway.” Knight spends a great deal of time in this novel warning against reporters and their preconceived agendas. Knight’s character, Rollo A. Boelnitz, nicknamed, Pencil, joins Valentine’s group and claims to be a free lance reporter for the “Bulletin” a new publication based in the free territories. Pencil, who is not who he seems to be, is a prime example of a reporter who’s goal interferes with his ability to see the truth and report it fairly. Knight concludes that one of the most dangerous evils is when propaganda is dressed up to appear as so called, true news, and something that a society who wishes to remain free must diligently prohibit.
E.E. Knight is uncompromising in detail and continues to present the picture of a world that is both believable, as well as frighteningly plausible. He molds and develops characters that are sympathetic, layered, and mysteriously familiar. Valentine, the main protagonist is compelling on so many levels, and has grown steadily from novel to novel. Eight books in and I still want to spend precious time reading about his further adventures. For those who have traveled many grueling miles with E.E. Knight’s characters in his Vampire Earth epic, “and I am one”, I can only say – don’t stop now! For the casual reader who picks this one up without having read the other seven, I’m sure you will enjoy it as a standalone novel, but I am equally sure that once you read this one, you will want to read them all. So enjoy, as I have.
