Series of science fiction/dark fiction novels
Vampire Earth is a series of science fiction/dark fantasy novels by American writer E. E. Knight.
Plot.
The story begins in 2065 in a post-apocalyptic American setting. Forty-three years earlier, in 2022, an alien race known as the Kurians triggered a series of natural disasters (as well as artificial ones) that enabled them to gain control of the planet and subjugate humanity. A plague has reduced the world population to 25% of its pre-cataclysm level; nuclear explosions have created a mild form of nuclear winter, cooling the Earth, and smaller events everywhere have added to the chaos. In America, the New Madrid fault let go, destroying much of the Midwest. Major rivers such as the Mississippi have been unleashed.
Story.
In the year 2022 CE, a seemingly immortal extraterrestrial race called "Kurians" has wrested control of the Earth from its inhabitants. The Kurians derive their endless lifespans from draining the "aura" (life energy) of other life forms. To facilitate this addiction to life energy, the Kurians employ avatars known as "Reapers".
Following the Kurian takeover, many humans made the decision to serve the new overlords. These traitors, known as Quislings, are set up as members of the police and supervisory government for the Kurian Order. Nearly every other human who is not a Quisling is known as a Territorial, and is either a slave scratching out a living in various trades, or fighting with rebel organizations such as the Southern Command.
After a time, the Kurian Order reduced Earth to a technological and social Dark Age, with only the few remaining pre-2022 machines and transportation networks surviving, with most of these under Kurian control. As an incentive to good and loyal service to the Kurian Lords, Quislings are awarded bonds of various lengths of years (3, 5, 10), which protect the wearers from the Reapers. Even more sought after is the "Brass Ring". A Brass Ring ensures that one never has to fear being randomly taken by the Reapers at night, although it can be revoked and cannot be passed to one's children.
Pockets of resistance do exist, however. The main rebel group fighting the Order at the beginning of the series is known as Southern Command. A formal military (though classified by the Order as terrorists) is charged with the defense of the Ozark Free Territory; Southern Command would be doomed were it not for the Hunters.
Setting.
The Cave
Strategic Air Command's old headquarters at Offutt Air Force Base is the home of the Twisted Cross. Now some of the great hangars have been rebuilt and SAC's old catacombs reoccupied. A new general has come, with men in strange uniforms. A reverse swastika flag flies, its spider-like black-and-white design stark and forbidding against the blue of Omaha's skies.
Chicago
Chicago is a Kurian stronghold. Chicago is not only one of the most secure and best organized Kurian cities, it is also the most corrupt. It is the only Kurian Zone where one may buy a Brass Ring. Also, Chicago is one of the trading hubs of the Kurian empire where goods are traded for humans, which are the only commodity that the Kurians recognize.
New Columbia
The city of Little Rock never recovered from the nuclear blast inflicted on it in the death throes of the Old World. Though the fires went out and the radiation dispersed, the only life to return permanently was nonhuman. The new rulers have a grand vision of a rail, road, and river traffic hub built on the ruins of the old. The Rocks (Little Rock and North Little Rock) have been renamed New Columbia with the motto "Crossroads of the Future".
Omaha
The Old World transportation hub set in the wide, wooded valley of the Missouri is a sad shadow of its former self. Like its sister St. Louis farther down the wide Missouri River, Omaha is now the breeding ground for assorted Grogs and human scoundrels.
Character types.
Kurians.
The Kurians are a branch of an alien race known as the Lifeweavers. They naturally have very long lives of thousands of years and have learned to increase their lifespan indefinitely by absorbing vital aura from other living beings. This was discovered from the remnants of a civilization known as the Pre-Entities. After a civil war with the other Lifeweavers, the Kurians launched a large scale invasion of earth with an engineered virus known as "ravies" and triggering several natural disasters during a time of economic breakdown known as the New Depression. National governments quickly collapsed and the Kurians set up a new form of government, similar to feudalism, with Kurian lords controlling specific areas and maintaining their status quo through fear and intimidation. Though they have some interest in culture, their main goals are survival and power. Often they are compared to drug addicts, never looking much further than the next "fix" of vital aura from their human cattle. This of course belies their tenacity and power wielded through their Reapers.
Reapers
The Kurians created these vampiric monsters that stalk the night, selecting victims for their insatiable masters. Each Reaper is an extension of its master, and when it pierces the heart of a victim with its long, flexible tongue to drain the unfortunate's blood, its connection to the Kurian controller transfers the vital aura. The Reapers are nigh-unstoppable; not only garbed in bullet-resistant cloaks but also possessing superhuman speed, agility, strength and resilience. Their blood is a powerful coagulant when exposed to air, sealing wounds almost instantly, and the bones of a Reaper are hard enough to deflect most bullets. The most terrifying aspect of the Reaper, however, is its ability to stalk prey by sensing out "lifesign", the energy given off by a living being. The greater the emotional distress of the target, the easier it is for the Reapers to find them.
Lifeweavers.
The Kurians' cousin species, the Lifeweavers, are natural shapeshifters and masters of genetic manipulation of living beings. As they long ago lost the ability to engage in warfare, they developed a means of turning human beings into weapons.
Hunters.
The Hunters are divided into three castes: Wolf, Cat, and Bear. The Lifeweavers alter the bodies of the Hunters to grant them enhanced senses, reflexes and endurance.
Wolves.
The most numerous of the Hunters, David Valentine initially belongs to this caste. Wolves are long-range patrollers, able to run almost tirelessly for hours on end, and possessing the ability to "harden" their senses to the sensory ability akin to a wolf. Wolves engage in guerrilla warfare against the Kurian Order; killing Reapers to weaken the Kurians, smuggling out humans, destroying resources of the Order, and fighting in rapid hit-and-run engagements with the Grog and human soldiers of the Order.
Bears.
These are the near-unstoppable shock troops of the Human resistance. When modified by a Lifeweaver to become a Bear, a human soldier becomes "a walking tank", fighting like a berserker of old and possessing tremendous strength and power. Bear physical capabilities are actually on par with the Reapers themselves, able to fight and even kill Reapers in single combat. They also possess an incredible faculty for healing, to the point of regenerating nerve damage and internal organs that have been lost. Lost &amp; Found, a Bear introduced in "Valentine's Rising", actually revives from beyond clinical and physical death. Bears induce a trance-like state called "going Red", which seems to induce the berserker rage for which the Bears are famous.
Hunters are not limited to one caste. There are mentions of a few who have obtained all three types of alteration. Valentine's own trainer (after becoming a Wolf) was a Cat, but mentions how he was "a Wolf before [Valentine was] born". Many Cats actually start out as Wolves, much like Valentine. Valentine eventually becomes part of all three castes.
Characters.
David Stuart Valentine
Also known by the nickname "Ghost", Valentine is the main character and all the stories are told from his point of view.
When Valentine was eleven years old, he witnessed the aftermath of a Quisling attack on his home. All his family was killed in the attack, leaving him the only survivor of the massacre. Father Max, a Catholic priest and his father's old friend, took him in and raised him. Valentine is brought up in Father Max's library, where books work to fill the void left in his life. David learns later that his father, Lee Valentine, was a soldier in Southern Command.
Valentine possesses a sixth sense that is sometimes referred to as the "Valentingle", first as a joke and later taken seriously. This sense allows him to feel the presence of Reapers being controlled by Kurians.
Valentine suspects that the changes in Hunters created by the Lifeweavers may be hereditary.
Valentine starts off as a Wolf, but due to some events that are hinted to be caused by Alessa "Smoke" Duvalier becomes a Cat and finally becomes a Bear after an ill-fated meeting with a Lifeweaver in Pacific Command.
Valentine also has a daughter with First Lieutenant Malia Carrasca in Jamaica and is raising the Reaper who was born from Gail Post as his son whom he calls Blake.
Malia Carrasca
Carrasca is the acting captain of the gunboat "Thunderbolt". She lives in Jamaica and meet Valentine when he comes to the island on his way to Hispaniola, searching for an unknown weapon against Kur (later revealed as "Quickwood"). Valentine arrives on the "Thunderbolt" and convinces Carrasca's grandfather Commodore Jensen to let him use the powerful ship (one of the strongest still in existence) in his search. In exchange, the ship becomes the property of the Jamaican resistance, and Carrasca becomes the new commander of the "Thunderbolt." Over the course of their adventure, Valentine and Carrasca fall in love. When Valentine gets back to the Ozarks, Ahn-Kha gives him a note from Carrasca, telling him he will be a father soon. Valentine looks forward to the day he can go to see his daughter. Valentine returns to North America being unable to find a home in Jamaica.
Ahn-Kha
Ahn-Kha is a Golden One who looks like a seven-foot cross between a short-haired bear and an ape with pointed, expressive ears. He is one of Valentine's most constant companions. Valentine and Ahn-Kha consider each other brothers and would die for each other.
Ahn-Kha was born on Earth, 41 years before the beginning of "Choice of the Cat", one of the first of his clan to be brought to this world after his people had settled. The Golden One clans and the Gray Ones' tribes were brought to this world to do the dying while winning the victory for the Kur.
Although many people who encounter Ahn-Kha dismiss his intelligence due to his resemblance to the Gray Ones, his own species of Grog is generally as intelligent (if not more so) than humans. Ahn-Kha is a great source of wisdom, something Valentine relies on almost as much as he relies on Ahn-Kha's strength.
Valentine and Ahn-Kha are separated at the end of "Valentine's Exile", Ahn-Kha drawing off pursuit to allow Valentine and the others in their group, which included Smoke and Gail Post, to escape. Valentine believes Ahn-Kha to be dead after several years without news. Valentine later hears rumours of a Golden One leading a rebellion in Appalachia and swears to investigate the rumours hoping to find his missing "brother".
Alessa Duvalier aka Smoke
At age 16, Duvalier ran away from the Great Plains Gulag after burning a police van and then killing two policemen, after one of them attempted to rape her. Taking all their possessions she could carry, she then escaped by crawling through a swamp and heading for the mountains. She is taken in by the Duvalier family. When a raid on Leavenworth is planned, she is recruited as a scout. She becomes friends with a Cat named Rourke and later becomes his disciple.
Eight years later, she meets Valentine at the battle of Little Timber Hill where she helps him and his men escape their besieged position. After David's decision to resign from the Wolves, Duvalier recruits him to be a Cat.
Duvalier is one of the most fervent believers in the Lifeweavers, believing them to be almost godlike. She is often shown to be in awe of them, and it would seem willing to do anything for them. Although in later works she is shown to have the overall cause as foremost in mind, Duvalier is a highly divided character who is led by both extreme passion and extreme