"Great storytelling and worldbuilding"

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

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted January 18, 2004

Summary

The Chess Master . . . Julian Cavanaugh carries the fate of the vampire Underground on his world-weary, eight-hundred- year-old shoulders. He wants only a life of peace with Lorelei and their expected child. But peace can't exist while the evil Ialdaboth lives. As the malevolent immortal draws closer, Julian plans his strategy, maneuvering allies like chess pieces on a board—except these rooks and pawns have wills of their own. . . . Lilith left hope behind centuries ago. She wants to help the Underground but fears her presence will lead her fiendish ex-master to her new friends—including Jarod Greene, the human she loves. Rafael hates being seventeen—forever. He wants desperately to be human again . . . and to love Sasha, who rescued him from Ialdaboth's coven. But if he chooses one, he may lose the other. And he may lose both if the secret he harbors can't save them all. . . . Tara Summers walks a fine line as human mother to child vampire Daniel. She wants to believe hypnotherapist Gray DeAngelo will help her. She fears, though, he may annihilate the Underground—and her along with it. Endgame . . . For centuries, Julian has dreamed of a world where vampire and human live together, in harmony. Yet with the ultimate evil upon them, he knows his dreams are doomed. Will he—can he—win the war with Ialdaboth? Or will he have to face the death of his dreams . . . and of everyone he knows and loves?