I’m down to the Return of the Jedi of the tapeworm vampire
series (a.k.a The Strain) or The Night Eternal.
We get back into this world two years after the events of The
Fall. The tapeworm vampire holocaust is in full swing. The world is covered in a
sickly layer of poison that blocks the sun, save for a few hours a day. The
Master has eyes everywhere and his vampires rule through fear. The
infrastructure of the world is working, but at a bare minimum. Humans are still
around, but they have been placed into sort of casts. There are the lackeys of
the Master and his brood. They are part security, private army, prison guard and
even civil servants. There are the dregs who form a working class to keep this
new world running with various facilities. Then there are the outlaws who work
to bring down the vampire rule or are thugs who take advantage of this new world
order and run a black market industry. Finally there are the humans that are
tasked as food and fertility specimens.
It is all very bleak, but there is hope. See Eph Goodweather and his band of
miscreants have an ancient text that tells all about the vampires. Sure they
can’t read it (yet) but it houses all the knowledge of what they are and how to
stop them. All they have to do is survive the vampires and themselves. See
relations have gone to pot in the little human gang. Gus the gangbanger has his
own mission, which is by killing them in small raids, ambushes and terrorist
style attacks. Fet has been travelling the world
looking for the whereabouts of the ancients and someone to read this ancient
text. Oh yeah, he also has found a nuke to use against the Master. Nora is
trying to keep her mother alive, trying to start a romance with Fet and keep tabs on Eph. Eph is
still all broke up over his wife and son. Plus he is a drunken pill popper now
to boot. They are a bit of a dysfunctional family/ rebel alliance.
Since this is the final book, we all know that there is a
definite end to move toward. There is a final reveal about the origin of the
vampires and that wasn’t awful. I really had no real idea how it was going to be
explained, and it wasn’t truly terrible. A smattering of double double (quadruple crossing) crossing occurs. A lucky boy
gets a zoo, castle, a cool new dad and a gun in this new world. A bunch of
foretold signs and portents happen, but foretold by whom and why?
There is a prison break. Big losses occur for both sides. There is more
action than last two novels. A final and couple of family reunion happens. There
is a touch of revenge (that I didn’t care about but for other people it was
probably sweet). A final show down and then the big big finish! Sounds like a lot huh?
The Night Eternal is a descent finish to this trilogy. The
nagging questions I had were all answered. The template used to keep the human
race down and the vampires fed was interesting and surprising how they came up
with the idea. Hey! Who also knew that B+ blood was the best tasting? I sure
didn’t, but that was a strange reveal. The creep factor is very low as is the
horror in this final book. That isn’t to say it is not there, it is just much
much lower than the previous two novels. Why? Well,
because there is a lot more action. The action sequences are pretty frantic and
more intense than the previous two novels. The build toward, and the events at,
the end had a smattering of predictability. At least it was a complete ending to
the series. I still think the main characters are a bit meh, but the
story surrounding them is enjoyable. This is still a descent series and worth a
read for fans of creepy monster stories.
It is also a ton better than what FX is doing, and probably
will continue to do, with the t.v. series.
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