Possessed of an unnatural and legendary hunger, the Kurians have come to Earth to establish a New Order build on the harvesting of enslaved human souls. They rule the planet. They thrive on the scent of fear. And if it is night, sure as darkness, they will come.
Postapocalyptic novels by E. E. Knight following David Valentine's fight against the Kurian Order, himself and occasionally his allies.
- Way of the Wolf
- Choice of the Cat
- Tale of the Thunderbolt
- Valentine's Rising
- Valentine's Exile
- Valentine's Resolve
- Fall with Honor
- Winter Duty
- March in Country
- Appalachian Overthrow
- Baltic Gambit
These books provide examples of:
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: David's luck with women (but not relationships) seems to increase with his scar tissue.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Kurians
- Subverted with The Onceler (once-ler), an ancient kurian that doeasn't feed off of people, but instead subsists off of the energy of plants and the small amounts of life force that people give off; this method is harmless to people, but he himself has stated that it's like being an addict in withdrawl, with only being able to take miniscule portions of the drug, and he also loses his ability to not physically age. While he is still in the multiple centuries, he is now physically a wizened old man, which is why the majority of Kurians wouldn't use it. He even went so far as to actually give David a method of killing Reapers, which has seen widespread use in the war.
- Always Lawful Good: Lifeweavers, we hope
- Ancient Artifact: Touchstones, able to send libraries worth of information into a being's mind when touched.
- Ancient Keeper: Kurians and Lifeweavers, sometime for the good of man, sometime not.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Unless you're David Valentine, in which case every time a baby is involved, your life will be screwed over.
- Badass Preacher: Father Max in his earlier years
- Belief Makes You Stupid: The main goal of the New Universal Church is to get as many babies, as much work and as little resistance out of the population as possible. This works well with a good chunk of Kurian Zone citizens.
- Big Eater: Bears get a metabolism boost along with berserker characteristics
- Black-and-Gray Morality
- The Brigadier: Seeing as David is part of Southern Command or a spy among the Quislings, we see a few on both sides.
- Notably, Xray-Tango
- The Caretaker: Narcisse to Blake, though she does do work in her isolated community.
- The Champion: David, but to whom varies.
- Christianity is Catholic: David was raised by a Jesuit and stuck to some deeply Catholic areas for his first few adventures. Protestants may not register on his radar.
- Also, the New Universal Church seems to have services along Protestant lines. May be because the Catholic church took time to corrupt, may be an Author Tract.
- Commander Contrarian: General Martinez, Valentine’s enemy-in-high-places from ‘’Valentine’s Rising’’ on.
- Confessional: Pity the priests David talks to after his missions.
- Conveniently an Orphan: David and several others, a common background after the Kurians set up shop.
- Deflector Shield: Kurians and Lifeweavers are supposed to have this and various other Applied Phlebotinums, but the only one we've seen is the Goobermaker's.
- Depleted Phlebotinum Shells: Quickwood and later Quickwood bullets to Reapers.
- Dirty Old Monk: Most of the upper level NUC members are portrayed like this, starting with the creepy pervert who took an interest in Molly.
- Drunken Sailor: William Post of the Thunderbolt is a depressed example. He gets better.
- Dumb Muscle: Grogs, specifically Gray Ones are used for this by both sides. However, most Bears we see are of normal intelligence.
- Enfant Terrible: Blake. He is a Reaper, after all.
- Father Neptune: Captain Sauder of the Thunderbolt, an unnecessarily cruel man.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: The opinion held by the NUC and Valentine. Gail Post and Molly Carson disagree, despite being “decent” people.
- Healing Potion: Bear blood is used as this in later books.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Brother Mark in Fall With Honor. He couldn't keep lying to himself like he did to the laity.
- Heroic BSoD: After a crowning moment of triumph over the Kurian Order, Southern Command turns on him, Malia doesn't love him anymore and his best friend is lost, probably dead. The once proud and cleanly Major Valentine turns into an unwashed trader who hangs around Grogs and questionable truck stops.
- Hide Your Lesbians: Seriously, where are the gays and Protestants?
- Incredibly Lame Pun: One or two per book that are nearly painful.
- The Kirk: Valentine, when he’s in a command position.
- Knight in Sour Armor: A lot of people on both sides are tired of the Black-and-Gray Morality.
- Loners Are Freaks: Turned up a notch after David’s Heroic BSoD.
- Meaningful Name:
- David against the giant Kurian Order
- Valentine (Lat. ‘’valens’’ strong, healthy) who rarely is under the weather and heals quick is also unlucky in love.
- The Men First: If a commanding officer is a somewhat decent person, odds are s/he'll have this view. David himself has hauled a good number of men out of harm's way. Most Quisling officers, not so much.
- Military and Warfare Tropes: Go find one that doesn't fit!
- Nonhuman Sidekick: Ahn-Kha and Bee.
- No Periods, Period: Averted with Molly, but then never brought up again.
- Officer and a Gentleman: Valentine and a number of other officers. The other men of Southern Command have to be gentlemen (women's needs first) even if they aren't officers.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: In reports, Cats are known only by their codenames (Smoke, Ghost, etc.). Eveready is known only by that alias.
- Our Vampires Are Different: The vampire myth came from two parts, the blood drinking avatar and the life draining Kurian controling it.
- Papa Wolf: Valentine is very protective of the people he is/has been close with.
- Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs: Actually, the beings from before the Lifeweavers ate all their vital auras.
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: Kurian immortality.
- Preacher Man: Father Max, Brother Mark, and usually one among the larger groups/tribes David runs into (Trekkers and Bulletproof).
- The Quisling: Guess what the soldiers of the Kurians Zones are called....
- Sacrificial Lamb and Lion: A few of the former and at least one of the latter per book, proving again and again, Anyone Can Die.
- Sanity Ball: David has a good grip on it most of the time.
- Stay in the Kitchen: Southern Command takes care of their women, but not to the extent of sheltering them from battle. Kur wants them pregnant and/or working.
- Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: Of the evil, A God Am I type.
- Telepathy: Lifeweavers and Kurians use it to communicate among themselves and with humans. Some Lifeweaver tried to set up a network of humans given telepathy, to connect rebellions, but it didn't take with Obay.
- Vampire Hunter: Our hero Valentine along with the Wolves, Cats, & Bears are all vampire hunters in the book series.
- We Have Forgotten the Phlebotinum: It took over an entire book to get the Quickwood from Haiti to the Free Territory, but how many times does David forget to bring some and run into a Reaper?
