The Night Eternal (original 2011; edition 2011)

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Night Eternal: the final installation in the Strain Trilogy. As the title may tell you, you’re in for a very dark and desolate journey. I will keep this short and sweet as much of this novel needs to be experienced firsthand, instead of through a review.

The Storyline
As the story opens, Dr. Ephraim (Eph) Goodweather is still reeling from the loss of his son, Zachary. Due to the vampire nature, his mother Kelly came back for him after she had already been turned.
”The insidious epidemiology of the virus spread in a vampiric perversion of human love.”
Norah and Fet are slowly developing a relationship between each other as Eph has been continually absent from Norah’s life.

The world they live in now is an extremely bleak one. The vampires control everything and you don’t get fed unless you work for them or reside in a blood farm.
”The farms were the only entirely different thing in this new world. That and the fact that there was no more educational system. No more schooling, no more reading, no more thinking.”
The blood farms were exactly as they sound: humans were rounded up as they were in concentration camps and they are drained of blood. Only the young and healthy were kept; the older humans simply weren’t kept around.
’The darkly quiet exterior of the camp spoke to an oppressive efficiency that was almost as shocking.’

The Vampires
I had been anxiously awaiting how the authors decided to handle the creation aspect. I’ll keep this as a spoiler as some readers may be pleasantly surprised and I would hate to ruin this for them. The idea that vampires were originally archangels has been done before; however, I do think it was written quite well and I was intrigued. I’ve been racking my brain and the only instance of this happening before that I recall was Melissa de la Cruz’s Blue Blood’s series, so that’s not the best of comparisons. Anyways, I was intrigued by the alteration of the story of Lot and of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and that one of the archangels, Ozryel, was actually the cause for how vampirism began.

The Writing
I had complained early on in the trilogy that the books read like a screenplay and that they would do fabulous as a movie, but left a little to be desired as a novel. The writing in the third, despite the bleakness, was completely enthralling and was worth suffering through the darkness. And dark it was; there was not one single of iota of happiness until maybe the very end and even that can is up for debate.

Final Thoughts
I’m quite pleased at how the trilogy was wrapped up. Ending a series well always seems like such a struggle in trying to wrap up all the storylines and loose ends but I think the authors pulled it off sufficiently. I’m not sure that it’s exactly what I had anticipated, not sure what I would have changed if I could, but you're still left with a feeling of completion. All in all this is one of the best vampire series I have read; definitely one of my favorites. ( )

Review of a book received from the Amazon Vine program in exchange for an honest review, review written 2011.

Two years have passed since the fall of The Night Eternal. The Master has consolidated his control over humanity by the wholesale slaughter of the leaders, the intelligentsia, the scientists – anyone who might challenge his supremacy – and of those who are elderly or infirm or otherwise incapable of being contributing members of society. In the meantime, humans are controlled by the vampires – if humans want to eat, have clothes and be left alone, they must contribute. Payment by money no longer exists – humans are paid with vouchers for rations and clothing. And the unlucky ones are sent to camps, where they become either breeding machines or slave labor. Eph, Nora, Vasiliy, and Gus and his friends continue to fight against the Master and his regime. But things seems to be coming to a head; the vampires have discovered their hiding spots and the rebels are on the run. They need to translate the Lumen, to discover the location of the Master’s origin, and destroy it – thereby destroying the strain. But can they do it? Will they be able to stay ahead of the Master and his strain long enough to decipher the ancient text? And will they survive the treachery that raises its head amongst them?

While I was bothered by a few plot holes – mostly, how is it that they’ve accomplished so little in two years, yet remained ahead of the vamps, and then suddenly everything comes down at once – overall I found this to be an eminently satisfying conclusion to The Strain Trilogy. The characters continue to be a strong aspect, and the plot continues to be fast-paced but strongly developed, and the ending seems realistic – well, as realistic as can be expected in a apocalyptic vampire novel! I thinks fans of this trilogy will be happy with the ending of the series. If you haven’t discovered The Strain yet, be sure to seek it out, starting with “The Strain,” released in 2009, then “The Fall” in 2010, and finally “The Night Eternal,” which was just released. ( )

This was probley my favorite book in the trilogy. I was sad to see it end, but the ending of this book was so unexpected and took a turn I didn't see coming. Worth the few boring parts of the long trilogy. ( )

3 1/2 ( )

The Strain Trilogy is comprised of three separate volumes published between 2009 and 2011: The Strain (2009); The Fall (2010); and The Night Eternal (2011). Written by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan, it chronicles a vampiric takeover of the world and the efforts of a band of humans to resist.

The trilogy as a whole is entertaining. Certainly not with great literary quality but it will make, under Guillermo del Toro’s direction, a heart-stopping movie. The writing is not bad. I presume that the primary author is Chuck Hogan; and, based only on the one novel of his that I have read, Prince of Thieves, he is talented. As in Prince of Thieves, the action in the trilogy is charged, breathless and easy to follow. All three books are quick reads that will keep you turning pages to the last.

Here is the real strength of the trilogy. The vampires—creations, I assume, from the imagination of Guillermo del Toro—are great. They look as vampires should look. They act as vampires should act. No handsome men or beautiful women romancing here. They suck blood and nothing else—preferably type “B”. And they smell bad.

Actually the vampires in the trilogy are not all the same. There is an hierarchy with the Master at the top then the "strigoi" who are linked to the Master telepathically. There are also “feelers”—vampiric children blinded and who scramble on all fours and who are also under the direct control of the Master. This array of the undead makes human existence exceedingly problematic. To be turned is not a pleasant experience. Worms that carry the vampiric virus pass from the vampire to the target through a huge stinger that rolls out of the vampire’s mouth much like a frog’s tongue extends to catch his food. And once turned, the targets loose many of the features that mark them as human: ears, noses, hair, genitals, opaque skin, refined digits. Also, as all vampires starting with Brian Stoker’s Dracula, they don’t react well to silver or to daylight or ultraviolet light.

The Master has some unique characteristics that the "strigoi" lack. He can and has changed bodies: his essence survives body jumps. (This ability has an importance in volume 3.) He, alone, travels with a casket layered with dirt from his home of origin. He thinks, strategizes and reasons. He communicates telepathically. He is fixated on one of the humans, Dr. Eph Goodweather, although it is never clear exactly why.

The band of humans, if the truth be known, is no more attractive in regard to its souls than the vamps, who really don’t have souls. We like them because they are human; and, in short measure by the end of the first volume, they become as agile killing and stalking vampires as Bruce Willis would be if he had a part in the action. The action in volume 3 takes place 2 years after the ending of volume 2. By then, our band of humans is ragged, worn and mal-nourished. One, Dr. Goodweather, a recovering alcoholic, even pops vicodin with regularity. But they barely show their deteriorated or drugged condition when confronting the strigoi: they can take out gaggles of them in short order as if they were in the top of their form. The authors have given humanity’s defenders some back history to flesh them out a bit, although even then we would still not take them home to meet our Moms. They are just not overly loveable as a group or as individuals.

The trilogy is really about action and not people: good versus evil in the broadest brush strokes. And by volume 3 the authors have enfolded the Master into a creation myth rooted in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Turns out there is a God. He just is not pulling the strings as aggressively as one might anticipate. He did, however, have a hand, unwittingly it would seem, in creating vampires. And he eventually intervenes after a fashion, although through a glass darkly.

I presume that there are some loose and dead ends that are never fully explained by the authors but I can’t pull any up as an example. I was tracking several myself, but they were all eventually explained, more or less, by the end of volume 3. I have a sense, however, that the world of The Stain is not as tightly nor sophisticatedly constructed as something Margaret Atwood has done.

Had it not been for Guillermo del Toro’s name on the first entry in the trilogy (I am smitten by his Pam’s Labyrinth), I probably would not have bought the book. With the movie certain to hit the screens, there is no reason to tackle the original text unless you are at the end of your “to read” list or unless you are really looking for an undemanding but page-turning read.
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