At the beginning of 2014 Darren Shan released the sixth book in his Zom-B series: Zom-B Gladiator.

After B returns to County Hall to help the Angels with their mission, she finds herself out on a scouting trip with a group of Angels, which quickly turns for the worst when she gets captured by a familiar face. She is taken to the HMS Belfast on the Thames where she is forced into gladiatorial style games by a group of rich, inhuman humans, who call themselves the Board. Can she survive this grizzly new turn of events?

With this series as a whole I have noticed how each book fluctuates from the previous one. One book will have lots of action and questions answered, or more raised, the next one will be the opposite. For me, the last book had little happening in the way of story. But this one makes up for it, with its usual bout of gore, craziness and some rather controversial suggestions made by certain characters.

Some particular moments to look out for are the practise fight in the tunnel that gets a bit screwed up; B getting captured; B’s first gladiator style fight aboard the HMS Belfast for the Board; and finally B’s rescue from the cruiser, as this is a bunch of ewws, ahhs and awws in equal quantities! (Don’t judge me :P)

And my favourite quotes from this book are:

‘What have you sacrificed lately?’ ‘My sense of compassion.’images
‘…bears the scar of hope.’
‘…but coincidence is a far more complex beast than most people give it credit for.’
‘They find the peaceful unity in death that is so rare in life.’
‘After the blows to his wedding tackle, I think death comes as a relative blessing.’
‘…chunk by chunky chunk.’
‘See you later, alligator.’ ‘It’ll be sooner than you’d like, crocodile.’
‘…he only kept you around in case he ever needed an organ transplant.’
‘…into the sunset (well, it’s not long after midday, but he’s earned a bit of poetic licence)…’
‘He looks like the cat that not only got the cream but a mouse-flavoured stick to stir it with.’
‘I might even hug a few of you beautiful buggers while I’m at it.’

We’re now half way through this series and I still do not have a clue where this series is gonna go. Overall this book is one of the better ones in the series, and here’s hoping the next one follows by example.

An 8.1 out of 10.