|
Darren
Shan,
Vampire
Prince
and last
hope in
the war
between
the
Vampires
and
their
old
enemies
the
Vampaneze,
has
faced
fire,
flood,
wolf-men,
and wild
boars.
Now his
duty
takes
him into
real
peril:
high
school!
Still on
the
trail of
the
Vampaneze
Lord,
Darren,
the
vampire
Mr.
Crepsley,
and the
"Little
Person"
named
Harkat
Mulds
make a
return
to Mr.
Crepsley's
old home
town,
where a
rash of
killings
has
terrorized
the
human
population.
This is
the same
locale
where,
years
before,
Darren
fell for
a young
beauty
named
Debbie
Hemlock
while he
and Mr.
Crepsley
hunted
down a
renegade
Vampaneze
named
Murlough.
But
unlike
the
reign of
death
the
insane
Murlough
mounted,
this
rash of
killings
does not
appear
to be
the work
of a
crazy
Vampaneze,
even
though
certain
aspects
of the
killer's
mode of
operation
fall
well
outside
any sane
Vampaneze's
habits.
More
puzzling
is the
question
of who,
exactly,
forged a
portfolio
of
paperwork
for
Darren
Shan and
set a
school
inspector
on him
to force
him into
a local
school
or face
charges
of
truancy
—
someone
who
knows
that
Darren,
a
half-vampire
who ages
at
one-fifth
the rate
of a
human
being,
is in
his
mid-twenties
even
though
he looks
like a
teenager.
But if
their
enemies
are
behind
this
trick,
why
wouldn't
they
simply
attack
and kill
Shan and
his
friends?
Is this
yet
another
scheme
of the
sadistic
Mr.
Tiny's
doing?
Darren's
first
day at
school
is
depressing
at best
(he
mopes
that
he's too
used to
being in
charge
of
Vampires
as one
of their
princes
to like
doing as
instructed
by
schoolteachers)
until he
enters
English
class
and
meets up
with
none
other
than
Debbie
Hemlock
— now a
young
woman
whose
shock at
seeing
Darren
again is
matched
only by
Darren's
hormonal
delight
at their
reunion.
But the
mission
Darren
and
company
have set
out on
cannot
be set
aside
for
personal
or
romantic
distractions,
and in
any case
there
are
killers
watching
Darren's
every
move —
killers
who will
murder
anyone
who
stands
between
them and
the
young
Vampire
Prince.
Debbie
Hemlock
is only
the
first of
several
characters
from
previous
books to
put in
an
appearance
here,
and with
each
fresh
revelation
Darren
Shan
(the
writer,
that is)
takes
you more
by
surprise
until
matters
reach a
blood-hot
pitch in
the
tunnels
that run
below
the
cities —
a maze
of
sewers
and
ducts
where an
inevitable
second
encounter
with the
ruthless
Vampaneze
Lord
unfolds.
Poor
confused
Darren
is, as
ever,
gripped
by a
brutal
dilemma,
but this
time
it's a
matter
of the
heart
that
puts the
extra
icing of
fear and
aggravation
on top
of the
usual
blunt
melee
between
the
Vampires
and the
Vampaneze
(and the
human
collaborators
the
Vampaneze
call
their
"Vampets").
This
eighth
book in
the
Darren
Shan
saga is
a
crucial
turning
point
both for
the
current
story
(the
series
is set
up so
that
each
story
takes
place in
a
trilogy
of
books)
and for
Darren
as a
character,
as he
approaches
true
Vampiric
maturity,
not to
mention
good
old-fashioned
manhood.
The
result?
There's
more
danger
and
darkness
in this
than in
previous
books —
chalk it
up to
growing
pains as
much as
to the
author's
inexhaustibly
diabolical
cleverness.
It's a
dark
night of
the soul
for
Darren
Shan,
and
things
are
certain
to get
even
darker
before
the next
book —
Killers
of the
Dawn,
an apt
title —
wraps up
this
thrilling
chapter
next
April.
Rating:
5 stars
out of
5.
http://www.wigglefish.com/stories/0001_0005_0001.cfm?id=1789
|
