The Characters of World at War: Revelation, a soldier, a vampire, and a Soviet paratrooper.

With the release of World at War: Revelation, I wanted to take a couple of blog posts to introduce you to the characters. It's a diverse lot, ranging from American soldiers to ancient demons, and including Russian paratroopers, werewolves, and a beautiful vampire. But in that regard the characters mirror the book--diverse, intriguing, tough to label, but easy to enjoy. Let's dive in.

Mike Hudson: An American infantryman involved in many of the book's pivotal battles. Mike is the main character. There are several other that share equal inkage, but Mike is the man. Mike is an unwilling hero. He's not a rippled body builder, he's not dominant, nor decisive, nor immune to fear. He's human, confused, and at times frightened, but he has one great power. He never quits.  Oh yeah, he also get's to fall in love with Katarina.

Katarina Ubirek: Four-hundred years old, if she is a day, Katarina has been feeding off the human race since before Mike Hudson's great-great-great-grandfather was born. It tends to make a being calloused, and calloused she is. Humans are no more to Katarina than cows are to us, but then something happens. Then she meets Mike Hudson.  Their story is one of the best parts of the book, but don't look for weepy eyes or glistening bodies. Kat isn't that kind of vampire.

A brief caveat. When I mention "glistening vampires" I'm not joining the legion of readers/viewers (mostly men) who scoff at Stephanie Myer's  Twilight series. If that's her vision, awesome. The books are very well-written, and she's made a ton of well-deserved money off them. I'm simply stating the my vision is darker, and my vampires more brutal.

Colonel Michael Balakirev: A Russian paratrooper. The commanding officer of the Soviet paratroop battalion tasked with capturing and holding the West German town of Tanenhause. Balakirev is a veteran, tough and pragmatic, yet he is also human. Too many military thrillers make the enemy, whoever that is, into cardboard targets to be knocked down. I've tried to avoid that. Whatever Americans thought of the Soviet regime, I doubt their soldiers were that much different than ours. Balakirev wants to hold Tanenhause, he fights hard to hold Tanenhause, but he also cares for saving his men's lives.

That's it for today, I hope to have more tomorrow. The novel in which these characters reside is World at War: Revelation, a enthralling combination of military thriller, alternate history, and paranormal beings, creepy and cool. It's available in the Kindle store, right here.