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The Moonlight Brigade: A Millennial Novel    by Sarah Jane Stratford Amazon.com order for
Moonlight Brigade
by Sarah Jane Stratford
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St. Martin's, 2011 (2011)
Softcover, e-Book

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* *   Reviewed by Hilary Williamson

Sarah Jane Stratford's The Moonlight Brigade is the second (following The Midnight Guardian) in her Millennial series. It takes a similar approach to the movie Inglourious Basterds, except that the series sticks closer to history in that the vampires don't achieve the same success against Nazi Germany.

In the Millennial world, vampires live alongside humans, feeding off them, but otherwise fairly benevolent. They still enjoy aspects of human culture, feel patriotism towards their country of origin, and perform a kind of natural selection by eliminating the least likeable humans. Vampires who survive a thousand years to become Millennials are stronger in most ways and need to feed less often.

In The Midnight Guardian, London's ancient Tribunal of vampires sent five Millenials to Berlin to undermine the Reich: the episode's heroine Brigit, her good friends Mors and Cleland, and humorless Swefred and Meaghan. Not all of them survived a trap set for them, though they did manage to do serious damage in Berlin.

The Moonlight Brigade is Mors' story. As the first episode did for Brigit, it gives his backstory as a Roman general, switching back and forth between that and World War II events. When Brigit returned to London, Mors stayed behind in Germany, seeking to find out what happened to his good friend Cleland. It turns out that the Nazis and their vampire hunters, the Nachtspeere, have found a use for Millenials and seek to trap more of them.

The search takes Mors, and two vampire allies (Rembrandt and Apolline), to Italy, where he falls deeply in love with a human, Giulia, trains young women as guerilla fighters, and exercises his leadership skills once more. Brigit and her lover Eamonn eventually join him there. There's plenty of action and betrayals before it's all over. If you're looking for something different in the vampire genre, look no further than the Millennial series.

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