Katrienna Knights, Vampire Apocalypse II: Apotheosis

Vampire Apocalypse II: Apotheosis

Katrienna Knights

ImaJinn, March 2004, $13.75, 248 pp.

ISBN: 189389692

Julian Cavanaugh has a vision that involves the vampire community he guards with ferocious zeal. The eight-hundred-year-old vampire wants to give his peers the choice of remaining a vampire or becoming mortal. He has hopes that those who chose to remain immortal can do so without drinking blood. He wants the children, pre-adolescents who were changed to have the choice of becoming mortal once more. All these things are possible or will be in the future thanks to the research of Dr. Jared Greene, a hematologist whose work with blood will open many doors to the vampire community.

The problem is they are running out of time because Ialdaboth, a creature millenniums old has turned to the dark side and uses his vampires to sow terror and chaos in the world. His goal is to eradicate humans, which means Julian must fight him to the death. A trip to a cave in Italy allows Julian and his forces to retrieve the bones of a four thousand year old vampire who, once he becomes whole, will hopefully provide Julian the information he needs for a chance to triumph in the upcoming battle.

Katriena Knights has created a very different vampire mythos that rivals the works of Anne Rice, Tonya Huff and Charlaine Harris. Julian is a natural born leader with a protective nature, a being who is able to walk in the light and be the nexus between two worlds. There is plenty of action in this supernatural novel most of which takes place miles under Manhattan and in another dimension with portals leading to the surface. This vampire novel is a definite keeper.

Harriet Klausner