![]() ![]() ![]() Utter dreck even the most devoted fans of the series will feel cheated. The premise has long lost whatever freshness it once had, and cocky, self-centered Darren is neither interesting nor likable enough to make anyone really care. Nothing happens in this, except set up for the next. All the hallmarks of Shan’s earlier works-slipshod writing, banal characterization, pedestrian pacing, overly telegraphed foreshadowing of the Had-I-But-Known school-are present but here he commits the cardinal sin of the gross-out horror genre by being boring. ![]() At last he makes a fateful decision that could put his very life in danger-one page before the end. There Darren takes a tour, overhears some alarming rumors, plays vampire games, and subjects the reader to endless narrative dumps of vampire politics and lore. After a tedious and slightly uncomfortable journey, during which Darren and his companions run across a dead vampire, make friends with a pack of wolves, and survive a completely risible bear attack, they arrive at the vampire headquarters. ![]() Crepsley, decrees that he must be presented to the Council of Vampire Generals at Vampire Mountain, even though Darren is only a “half-vampire” (a concept never really explained). Six years after his last adventure, Darren’s vampire mentor, Mr. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! Shan ( Tunnels of Blood, not reviewed, etc.) has extruded a fourth volume in his series about an adolescent vampire (also named Darren Shan) traveling with a supernatural freak show. ![]()
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