Valentine's Exile by E.E. Knight and X-Factor: The Many Lives of Madrox
Valentine's Exile is the latest(paperback) book in E.E. Knight's Vampire Earth series. Since I haven't posted on this series in a while, and most on the f-list who might be interested in this have friended me since then:
(as always, I'm somewhat simplifying things to avoid endless exposition)
Vampire Earth is set in the near future-the first book is set in 2065-when a race called the Kurians have taken over. While not actually vampires, the Kurians-a telepathic race that feeds on lifeforce-are a race that travels from world to world through gates, taking over world and, when they've drained them dry, moving on to another. Not believing in taking the difficult way and risking walking into a line of super-lasers, they've set up gates that they use to travel between worlds, spawning the vampire myths. (Yes, I do suspect E.E. Knight is a Stargate fan, but I don't really care.) Forty years later, a near decimated humanity exists in three parts: the people who just hope they don't get eaten(but know they or their kids will soon) the quislings, who serve the Kurians-often in the form of other people on metaphorical platters-and, of course, the rebels.
David Valentine is a young man who was raised and educated by a priest who joins the rebel army. There, he learns of and comes to the attention of the "brothers" of the Kurians-the Lifeweavers. Genetically identical, the Lifeweavers and the Kurians differ in their beliefs about vampirism and whether or not wiping out entire races is a good idea. Under the guidance of the lifeweavers, some humans becomes, for lack of a better brief explanation, totems to be humanity's supersoldiers, taking on attributes of their animal totems. Valentine started a wolf(warrior) but later became a Cat(spy) making him an extra supersoldier. Fortunately, he's not written as a near god, but rather, as a very determined man who's good at what he does,
A part of me is always surprised that I like this series as much as I do. First of all: vampires. I view vampires as a sadly necessary evil to urban fantasy. While I can like vampire characters, I don't care for vampires as a whole, at least partly because the market is over saturated by them, and partly because I don't find them remotely sexy and that's supposed to be the appeal. Buffy and Angel, thankfully, had enough other stuff going for them and usually portrayed vampires as being evil and not overly sympathetic(except for a few characters) that I didn't mind, and the two vampire manga series-Canon and Vampire Knight-while series I like, I never would have touched if I didn't already like other books by the mangakas. Here, however, it barely even qualifies as vampire myth, and the vampiric elements are portrayed as horrible and monstrous...there's absolutely no romanticization to it at all. Secondly, the series has a very military approach to it. Now, I like war stories, and if the army/military plays an important role, I want it to feel right, but if it's a focus, I'm usually bored. Here, however, the story is told from the point of view of the very structured rebel army, by an army man, and I love it. Why? I don't know. Probably because David Valentine is an intelligent, creative man who is very, very good at what he does.
Valentine's Exile takes up after Valentine's Rising, where Valentine returned from abroad to find that things had changed, and not for the better. He was forced to lead an uprising to unseat a higher ranking official. In Exile, a wounded friend asks Valentine to find out what happened to his missing wife. In his investigation, Valentine learns that not only have many women gone missing, but that he may have a child with a past love, and he learns that the younger sister of said love was recently brutally raped and murdered, giving him a second quest. His investigation is cut short, however, when the official he went against before has charges brought up against him and Valentine finds himself undergoing a mock trial where he's offered up as a sacrificial lamb as an example for potential allies. not overly pleased with this, his friends Ahn-Kha and Alessa Duvalier break him out and the three set off to fulfill Valentine's promise to his friend, Post, and learn some rather shocking things(that I shall not spoil)
Of interest here is that we start to see(though it has been hinted at before) what the war is doing to Alessa, Valentine's fellow Cat, former guide and mentor and odd sister figure-the two make me think of a slightly messed up Zoe and Mal from Firefly at times. An attractive woman, Alessa has spent long periods undercover as a whore and as mistress to, frankly, disgusting men as a spy. This (and an illness) seems to have driven her somewhat insane, to the point where she can't seem to separate doing her duties or fighting without having to sell herself in one way or another. It also seems to be making her personality and behavior more an more catlike.
Also, I really, really like the covers to the series. A) They're pretty. B) Valentine is consistently better and better armed on them...almost to the teeth on the cover of Exile.
The series website if anyone wants better and more in depth descriptions and plot.
I have also read the third X-Factor trade, The Many Lives of Madrox.
I have a confession to make. I like Jamie Madrox. I don't mind reading about him, or having him as a main character. I do not, however, find him overly compelling, or find myself very interested in a narrative that's driven by him. While this was the case with the other trades, he was in close and regular contact with the rest of the cast. Here, he was separated, and while the story was good, I kept putting it down. My main reasons (aside from Peter David and the detective noir approach) for getting the series were (in order) Monet, Siryn and Rictor, Guido and Wolfsbane are about on a level with Jamie for me(I like, a nice bonus if I'm interested anyway, but...) Layla I kinda forget about unless she shows up, and then I am very amused by her.
I did, however, love Monet's deciding to make sure she punished the proper Madrox for the sleeping around bit(best part of the whole book.) I'm not sure about what she did in the end. On the one hand, I can follow her reasoning. On the other hand, it's the same reasoning that resulted in 2 of her friends being crucified, along with several other mutants, and most of them dying.