Book Review: The Way of the Wolf by E.E. Knight - Book 1 of The Vampire Earth series.
Way of the Wolf by E.E. Knight
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
First of all, let me start out by saying that it took me a good four months to read this book. Not because it was boring or lacked intrigue, simply because I read it while I got my infusions and occasionally when I took a hot bubble bath to relax. With that pretext out of the way, let me get to the review.
Mr. Knight seems to be highly influenced by a recent sci-fi television series. I refer to Stargate SG-1. The first few chapters were almost an identical set-up to the way the Stargate 'universe' is set up with the Asgard, Goa'ould, etc. This did not detract from my enjoyment of the book in the least. In fact, it gave me a reference point from which to understand what he was describing. So, either he or I like that show far too much to be able to draw so much from it. Probably me... I am an uber-geek when it comes to sci-fi.
The story spun out well, with plenty of backstory where it was needed, and I felt an almost instant liking of the main character, David Valentine. The ending was a surprise to me, as I was almost certain that for the books to continue the girl would have to die, but she did not - at least in this book. I was very appreciative of the glossary at the end, because it did take about 2/3 of the book to figure out exactly who/what the Quislings were. That leads me to wonder if perhaps it couldn't have been a bit clearer in the books for the descriptions of much of what was in the glossary. Nevertheless, it is there, and if you choose to read this book, I suggest starting with the glossary at the end.
About the only real negative I found in the book was not even Mr. Knight's fault: poor editing. For a novel that size (380 pages) I would not expect to find a half dozen or more typos and/or word omissions. That looks poorly on ROC Publishing, but again, not up to Mr. Knight to catch.
All-in-all, I expected to like this book from the beginning, that's why I went ahead and bought the first three in the series at BAM last year, and I was not disappointed. I look forward to starting Vol. 2: Choice of the Cat tomorrow!
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