Aeterna by Kim Bannerman

I've become incredibly picky about which vampire novels I'll read these days, but staying with my current jam of post-apocalyptic treats, Aeterna by Kim Bannerman ticked all the boxes for me. The premise is simple: the vampire bloodlines have finally banded together to overthrow the human race. Their underground city of Aeterna has everything the vampires need, and humans are reduced to mindless blood-factors in the – ahem – same way the Machines treat humans in The Matrix. So I'm drawing that parallel, and I'll leave it there.

We follow the doings of Marcus, the scion of the ruling family, and the last vampire to be made before humanity's downfall, and then Bo, a human who has been genetically engineered for a special hunt event that will determine which vampire bloodline will rule the city for the next hundred years.

But both Marcus and Bo are special: Marcus cannot remember his mortal life at all, and his boundless curiosity sees him breaking the rigid protocols that bind vampiric society, while Bo is aware and is not some mindless, jelly-brained clone. She remembers what she shouldn't – how to string together words, how to think. 

Aeterna has been built to last for ever, but in doing so, it has become trapped in stasis – a natural state for vampires that Marcus kicks against. I won't spoil to say how the hunt goes, but Marcus and Bo are thrown together by a twist of fate that sees the very foundations of this eternal tremble. 

Overall, Bannerman's writing is solid, fast-paced and engaging, and I found myself immersed in the setting and more than happy to ride this one through to its cataclysmic end. My inner editor had a few nits to pick, but nothing to make me too twitchy. If you, like me, were ever a fan of the White Wolf Vampire: The Masquerade RPGs back in the late 1990s, then this one will more than likely push all the right buttons.