Thursday, September 06, 2012

The Night Eternal by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan

I finished up reading the del Toro / Hogan vampire trilogy. The third book is The Night Eternal. It was a tremendously good book and outstanding conclusion to the trilogy.

In this book it's two years after The Fall. The vampires under the Master have won. Humanity has been subjugated under vampire domination. The air has been intentionally poisoned with pollution and black rain and only 2 hours a day of weak sunlight. It's only during that time that the vampires have to go and hide.

The vampires no longer go around rampaging, drinking humans dry and turning them into vamps. There are now concentration camps in which serve as blood farms where both fresh blood is produced for the vampire ruling class; as well as baby farms to produce future generations of human blood producers of the preferred B+ blend.

Still the Master's enemies from the earlier books battle on in the underground resistance. The story centers around Professor Setrakian's confederates Eph, Nora, Fet and Gus who were the principals of the earlier books - and of course the Master. The running theme of Eph's struggle for his son Jake's soul runs through the book. Jake has been taken by his mother to the Master who keeps him unturned and human, grooming him for a sinister plan. Also the pseudo-vampire Quinlan is prominent in book III and his fascinating backstory and relationship to the Master is explored.

In the story Fet comes into an armed nuclear bomb sans a detonator. Additionally the resistance still has the Occido Lumen book which, combined with the nuke, may contain the secret to destroying the Master and his undead brood. The book is the story of their attempts to unlock the secrets of the Lumen, acquire a detonator, battle hunger, stay a step ahead of the Master's vampire horde (along with the vampires human accomplices), and come up with a plan destroy the Master and his vampire empire.

The teasers from the first two books about the origin of the vampire Master and the other 6 Ancients is explored in a gripping side tale dating back to biblical times.

It's a superb story, fast paced and really well written. The ending was outstanding. I'd like to see this made into a movie series.

Well that finishes off a multi part book series. I've got a couple more with one book to finish as well. So I should try to get through those too.

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