If you've read the rest of the series you can almost start to see all of the subtle little plot hooks fall into place. Valentine is gaining command experience. His Rommel like running in this book may seem a little anti-climactic, but the ingenious nature of this entire story line is that the hero has to give up a lot of his humanity to truly defeat his enemy. He feels guilty about what he's done, like any old soldier he starting to see the faces of his victims as well as his peers in each and every struggle. In true survivalist fashion, the hero must tighten his belt, obtain raw, nearly inhuman reserves of intellect, cunning and rage and overcome an enemy that's grown conceited it's so good at success.

Simply fantastic book and series, I hope to hear more from him soon.

It's sad to me when the best part of a book is when old characters that you knew put in a cameo appearance. Fall with Honor was a let down to me because Val seems to just going through the motions. There is an interesting mission and there could be interesting characters, but the writing feels like Knight has gotten bored with writing about this subject and doesn't really give it his best.

Book 7 and Val is taking part in an effort to start another area of human control in a Kurian zone. He's worn down, tired, broken to a greater or lesser degree, but for some reason none of that really matters because he is still Val. The folks who surround him seem to be just different iterations of many similar characters that we fought, served with and hated before. It's frustrating because there is so much more to be told about this series.

What really bothers me is that with a little more work and design there is a lot of very interesting things that could be happening. The potential is really great in that Knight has left enough loose ends out there for some great stuff to come of it. I just wish that he would get as deeply involved as it felt like he was in the past.

Fall with Honor As always, I am so impressed with the research required to do the Vampire Earth books. The geography is outstanding for places that usually only locals would know. The story lines are riveting and so believable. You feel like you know the main characters from his very first book.

This is still a perfectly enjoyable book and I had fun although I will admit certain cracks are starting to show.

The characterization is fine and David Valentine has not changed a bit he still kicks butt and he is still fighting a desperate battle against insurmountable odds these are the good parts. I also like that he actually acquires scares over the course of his long struggle to many times these types of main characters never get a scratch; it just goes to show you that war is hell.

The parts that dragged for me and took the punch out of what was an otherwise great book are

1. the interaction between Valentine and the White Fangs this ability that Valentine has to be a master negotiator all the time in all situations is wearing a little thin for me.

2. Also the interaction between Valentine and the half grog son he adopted named Blake once was fine but twice is frustrating. I bought to read about Valentine the killer of Kur vampire lords not to hear another installment in the life of Valentine the affectionate father figure. If Knight is setting this up so that in a few books Blake's blood will be the start of some kind of biological weapon like in "V" I'm going to stop reading the series now.
3. The characters that screwed Valentine over two installments ago get by with barely a slap on the wrist. The characters that I have come to know and love make either a very brief appearance or no appearance at all.

I love the Vampire Earth series and I liked the point of this installment when it finally arrived but I was missing some old friends. I have to have faith that Knight will tighten things up and everything will be back to normal.

I was soooo looking forward to the first entire book that Valentine was a Bear. He went red once. As in Tale of the Thunderbolt... once again it appears that Valentine has lost all of his hunter traits.

We were at a time where it seemed that Valentine would exceed any expectations of strength, speed and endurance than any other hunter bar none. This book portrays him as a broken down mid level field grade officer. I remember one part where he said that you only recover 90 percent of what you had before and he wondered how many 90%'s he had.

Come on. The stage is set up and you have to continually wait for any type of action, all this book is a bunch of self doubts and filler. Very predictable with predicatable twists.

What this series needs is exactly what most other longer series needs, the stage is set so lets get to some character development and see some action.

Even though we have now finally seen Bears in action, we have never had good descriptions of what happens and goes on in the Bears minds. That would be great to read.

This was by far the worst book in this series. Don't get me wrong, I love David Valentine, but the character is aging. What happened to the young David Valentine? Anyways, the story was really weak. Without spoiling it, the climax was horribly lame. You'll read this and be like... "Dude just roll in there and kill people!" But unfortunately he won't. If you've read all the books up to this, then you're going to read this book, as did I, but you'll find this doesn't meet up to the standards of the other books. At least I didn't. Now I need to read Jhegaala (if you haven't read that series, check it out).

Everytime I get my hand's on one of the books in Knight's Vampire earth series I tear through it like a fat kid eats cake. I'm always disappointed when the end comes simply because I want more (again...fat kid, cake). The books are very well written and easy to read. The human characters are believable and empathetic and the non-human characters are wonderfully crafted. The story is always thrilling from beginning to end but the author never sacrifices quality for a quick pace. Can't wait for the next one. Get to typin' E.E.!

I've read every book in this series and the Dragon series, and so far have had nothing but praise for Knight.

This book is disappointing.
-What's up with the "let's bring back every major character from other books back"? This idea was poorly executed and becomes a bit too unbelievable.
-The characters are shallow. Compared to previous Valentine books, these guys are just zombies.
-The writing style itself is different. While the previous books were, for the most part, page turners, this one reads as if a boring college professor is discussing a small war in a country you don't care about.
-The main idea behind this book is pointless. Basically, if you don't read this book, you wont miss much.

However, Knight has proved that he can write a good book, and it's way too early to give up on him just because of one bummer.

As the title of this review would suggest I just finished reading the book and all I can say is that I can't wait for the next one. At first I was dissapointed that there wasn't more resolution in the end, then I realized that EE Knight had me wanting more and already in anticipation for book 8 of the series.

Like the other reviews of this book mention, this book definetely has a whole lot more 'human element' to the book. There are only a couple battles against the Reapers and when they do kill Kurians, the dirty job is left to the Bears and we just hear the after battle reports. It's more focused on the Quislings and ex-Quislings that are part of Valentine's brigade or are joining the resistance in Kentucky.

What I have always loved about the Vampire Earth series is how EE Knight manages to tie aspects from all of the previous books together and still expand on the fictional world he's created. With references and cameos from all his previous books, you get a taste of all your old favorite pieces of the series: Smoke (Duvalier) his old Cat mentor, Will Post his first mate from the Thunderboldt, Narcisse also from Tale of the Thunderboldt, his adoptive son Blake (who also happens to be a reaper) and of course a cameo from Ahn-Kha his old Golden-One (Grog) friend, along with a whole slew of others.

If nothing else this book is just a stepping stone towards humanity finally being able to reclaim it's freedom back from the Kurians who had us under their thumb for over 43 years. Originally the series seemed more to focus on how we could fight to keep our heads above water and doing what we had to just to survive. Now EE Knight has set up the story for how we are going to be able to break out from under Kurian controll!!

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.

"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.

I thought I'd never see the day when the VE series "jumped the shark." By the end of the previous book, we we're just beginning to unravel the mysteries of Valentine's heritage and his newly awakened powers. Our hero was waging an epic one-man war against the Kurians from coast-to-coast. VE had horror and drama and a sense of building momentum. If you were having a good time then, get ready to be disappointed.

Fall with Honor reads like a particularly bland article in Civil War Reenactor's Monthly. I was bored to the point where I felt tempted to skip entire pages. Valentine has become an average Joe battling middle age as much as the Kurians. It's hard to believe this is the same guy who ripped off a Reaper's arm with his bare hands.

I really hope Knight can get back on track. I'd hate to see VE go over a cliff the way Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series did.

I was definitely satisfied with Fall with Honor. The battle scenes and military descriptions were up to Knight's previous standards as was plot development, character descriptions and dialogue. This is a continuation of the epic story he's depicting in the series. With that, the challenge for both the author and reader is setting expectations. Knight is exploring the Earth occupation and human resistance through the eyes of a "living" person. Valentine makes mistakes, learns and grows. We, as readers, follow along on his journey. Along the way, Knight paints a vivid picture of friends, allies, and new abilities gained at high personal costs. In Fall with Honor, we get glimpses into where their journeys have taken them. That's not the main focus, however. Just as Valentine is forced to compromise his personal relationships to battle the Kur, so must we, as the main conflict between humans and Kur advance. In this book, we start seeing the climb back up for Valentine and the rest of the human race.
It's a good read...

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.

Fall With Honor is possibly the most human book of the Vampire Earth series. E.E. Knight exposes some of David Valentine's raw nerves for the reader to explore while expanding "The Cause," introducing new characters, touching on the past and laying groundwork for the future.

During the troop movement in this book, I started thinking about how some of my favorite authors leaned toward the mundane and even repetition in the description of travel. Piers Anthony's Xanth and Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant serials tended to drone in this area by focusing more on the landscape than the characters interaction with it. Knight hasn't fallen in that respect. Another problem aptly avoided is the constant adding of strength to a heroic character. If anything, he diminishes Valentine, lets him count his scars and allows his experience in the field of battle to come into play.

Knight has taken his exciting series and extended its life by avoiding the "insert hero in bad situation and fight new experimental baddie" pit. I mentioned the book being more human. It's easy to get lost in the need for the supernatural in a sci-fi series but often forgotten are the human players in that script. A majority of the conflict in this specific story is between the human pawns on different sides of a bigger war as well as the internal battles for these main and external characters. This Knight hasn't fallen, he's just getting up.

I've followed the vampire earth series for quite some time now. I thought the first 5 were great. However, the last two, Fall with Honor especially, have lost a lot of what made the others fun to read. There's no real excitement or internal struggle. Characters have lost their depth. It feels like Knight has run out of ideas and is just plodding along with the story because he's supposed to.

No good story should be drug on forever.

If you're a fan of the series, I'm sure you'll read it. Just don't expect much. Hopefully the next one will revive the series and turn toward a conclusion.