More Vampires vs. Superheroes

“THE DAY GUARD”

BOOK 4 of THE METAFRAME SERIES

by Graeme Rodaughan

Rodaughan’s ambitious nine-book series continues with The Day Guard. In this installment of the series we are introduced to a new threat; the Chameleons, a sort of combination Predator and snake-man (cf. Robert E. Howard’s “The Shadow Kingdom”). Chameleons and vampires are arch enemies, murdering each other for thousands of years. But then Chloe, our vampire heroine, runs into a pack of Chameleons for the first time in history and she’s like, “Wanna team up?” And they’re like “Sure, whatever.” Then they walk away, allies.

Well, wasn’t that easy?

I do like the Chameleons, if for no more reason than Rodaughan didn’t fall back on werewolves as an antagonist for the vampires. The People speak, in a simple, three-clause structure that is almost poetic.

The imprisoned vampire-queen Mekra tells Crane, “my mind has grown wings.” In other words, she’s developed psychic powers that allow her to be a threat even though she’s been locked in a tomb for a thousand years. I don’t think that’s a wise thing to tell the guy who’s holding you prisoner.

But the action is great, especially towards the end when all the factions seem to come together. Utter chaos ensues with each side gaining and losing something. If Rodaughan can writing anything, it’s action scenes.

Overall, the writing is very good, concise, dramatic but never flowery. That said, there are missing or superfluous commas and semicolons throughout and Rodaughan falls back on the passive voice now and then. There’s also what I suspect are Austalianisms creeping in. In America, ladders have rungs, not rails.

This is one of the best books in the series so far.

4 stars