Review by Frank Plowright

Barrow in Alaska is a godforsaken place at the end of the year when there are thirty continuous days of darkness. It’s been twenty years since the infamous vampire incident, and the town now activates powerful spotlights during winter, yet for those who survived the memories remain.

Rodney Barnes rapidly establishes that this isn’t just the case for humans. The vampires feel there’s still a score to be settled. Into this wanders Jalen to stay with his Uncle Calvin, removing himself from the dangers of Los Angeles to somewhere he’s not going to be tracked.

In most previous 30 Days of Night stories vampires alone have provided the horror and the threat, so an appealing aspect of Falling Sun is a secondary threat, horrendous in our world, but insignificant compared with a pack of vampires. Gangsters not knowing what they’re heading toward is a neat piece of contrast, and while not generating further tension – we don’t want the gangsters to survive – it certainly generates further anticipation.

Chris Shehan and Maan House alternate on the art, but in a sympathetic way, each following a separate character and their surroundings. Given the darkness of the subject matter, it’s unsurprising that shadow dominates both their pages, but House uses it as a reason to avoid character definition, while Shehan’s art has greater nuance and personality.

Barnes develops the characters well, a good observation of human nature being after the alarm is raised with several of Barrow’s residents refusing to believe the past and demanding to leave sanctuary. The vampires are pretty much the arrogant entitled pricks they always are, but after a shaky start they’re also defined well.

Any volume of 30 Days of Night follows the same pattern of setting up the bloodbath, letting it play out and checking on the survivors, and Barnes doesn’t depart from that. The enjoyment depends on the balance of those factors. Start the bloodbath too soon and it extends too long, wait too long and the impact is diminished. Barnes gets it right, concentrating to a far greater extent on the people rather than vampires and drawing all threads to a satisfying close.