Review: Fiends of the Eastern Front & Fiends of the Rising Sun - David Bishop


Title Operation Vampyr (I), The Blood Red Army (II), Twilight of the Dead (III) & Fiends of the Rising Sun
Author David Bishop
Publisher Black Flame (now extinct)
Year 2005/2006/2007
Stand Alone or series 4 books in Fiends of Eastern Front series
Pages 256/256/256/416
Reading Time March and April 2007

Summary

Operation Vampyr
RUSSIA, 1941. THE mighty German army is smashing its way through the crippled Russian defences. Idealistic young German soldier Hans Vollmer joins the front on the eve of the invasion of Russia, unaware that darker things than the enemy stalk the battlefields. When he is saved from a Russian attack by a Rumanian platoon, led by the mysterious Lord Constanta, his relief is short-lived. Why do they never see the Rumanians during the day? Why do the Russian dead wear expressions of complete terror? Why are their bodies drained of blood? What unholy bargains has the Fuhrer made in order to win this war?

Blood Red Army
Leningrad 1942. Winter has halted the Nazi invasion of Russia, but the city is still besieged by German troops. Red Army soldiers and civilians are starving to death, but they refuse to surrender. As night falls on Leningrad, the Russians are horrified to see their comrades rising from the dead to join the attack against them. One of the bloodiest conflicts in World War II is the backdrop for all-out zombie war as Lord Constanta and his elite cadre of Rumanian vampyr warriors continue to sow unholy terror among the allies.

Twilight of the Dead
APRIL, 1945: Retreating German troops mount a valiant rearguard action against the mighty Red Army. It is only a matter of time before Berlin falls, especially as the Rumanian vampyr have switched sides to be allies with the Russian forces. German soldiers Hans and Rolf Vollmer know the war is lost, but they believe something more important is at stake. Unless Lord Constanta and his undead army are stopped, the vampyr plan to enslave all humans will succeed. Soldiers from each side must put aside their mutual hatred to target the true enemy: Constanta and his vampyr.



ReviewHans, Klaus and Ralf are all brothers fighting the Russians on the Eastern Front for Hitler during World War II. Hans, the youngest, is the most dedicated. Hitler and the Third Reich enthralls him. His other brothers have seen enough of war to know it's not all it's cut out to be. Klaus is a pilot and wonders why Rumanian pilots canopies are black. Ralf in the Panzer finds dead with bite marks on their necks and Hans is an infantry man and sees also strange things while attacking russian soldiers. Klaus ends up in an hospital and sees strange horrific things. The three brothers get together for some times with their companions and conspire against the Rumanians. The end is not final and it continues on book two. This one is on a point of view of a Russian. The other side of the story. Both books are in the same timeline (this second a bit later) but in the different factions of the War. The third book is the reunion and union against a commom evil.

Fiends of the Rising Sun deals with the vampires fighting in the Eastern Front against americans. This book was to be also a trilogy but unfortunaly Black Flame was closed and so they had to short it to a bigger book. That didn't work out...

VerdictIn my opinion the first three books are very entertaining and anyone who likes II World War books should read it. Vampire and zombies admirers as well. David Bishop is a good writer and made interesting characters and plotline. The end was completly awful and I felt cheated. It was truly awful It made me wait two months before grabing Fiends of Rising Sun which was not
good maybe because it was shortened. It felt uncompleted.

Rating
Trilogy 8/10 (without last book ending)
(6/10 with last book ending)
Fiends of Rising Sun 6.5/10

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