Valentine's Resolve, the sixth volume of E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth series, begins three years after the events related in Valentine's Exile. After completing a private vendetta, David Valentine, sometime Wolf, exiled Cat, is re-enlisted in the Southern Command by his former mentor, the Cat Duvalier. The Lifeweavers, whose help is critical to the cause of free humanity, have disappeared, save for one who is being sheltered by a group fighting the Kurian overlord of Seattle. Southern Command needs a messenger, and it seems no one is better suited to the job than Valentine.

The leader of the Seattle group is a man named Adler, who is something of an overlord himself. He has been extraordinarily successful in rolling back the advance of the Kurians into free terriroty and driving them back into the city. He simply denies them necessary resources, namely the human populations. Valentine decides that Adler's scorched-earth tactics are not in anyone's best interests. Of course, that puts him on the outs with everyone and forces him to some fairly distasteful measures to remove Adler without handing a victory to the Kurians.

Knight manages something that is not always a given in an extended series: he's kept it fresh and engaging, not only by providing a new story line for each episode, but by changing locales and supporting cast. Thus Valentine is presented with a new set of challenges, new impediments, and new allies. This installment takes Valentine from Iowa to the Arizona desert and then up to Puget Sound, and I, at least, have the feeling that not only will some of Valentine's new skills come in handy, but we haven't seen the last of some of these people.

There is also somewhat more overt satire in this one, particularly in Valentine's sojourn with the American government-in-exile, secure in the fastness of Mount Omega. It is about as relevant as many consider Washington today, and displays all the corruption and self-absorption that greet us in the daily headlines. Adler is no prize, either -- pure politician, with no moral sense whatsoever outside of holding his own power. He makes the Kurians look good. We see more of the Church imposed on the conquered humans, as well, and Knight doesn't really pull any punches there: it is, purely and simply, a propaganda arm of the Kurian regime, with the sole purpose of controlling the human population.

I've read several of the preceding volumes (still catching up) and have to say that Knight maintains a high level of interest. He's a good, strong writer with a definite gift for building character and milieu without beating you over the head with it, and he never lets it get in the way of the story. Yes, this one is certainly worth the time -- and it looks like all the preceding books are, as well.

Knight has a Web site dedicated to the Vampire Earth. He also has a blog, Bohemian Word Werks.