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"If
people
ever
tell you
vampires
aren't
real --
don't
believe
them!"
The
opening
line
from the
fifth
book in
the
Cirque
du Freak
series
is
especially
appropriate,
considering
that
young
Darren
Shan,
the
Vampire's
Apprentice,
finds
himself
deep in
the
bowels
of
Vampire
Mountain.
Hundreds
of
vampires
are
arriving
for a
congress
that
convenes
once
every
twelve
years,
and
Darren
has had
the
chance
to meet
lots of
new
friends,
and
rivals,
in his
short
time at
Vampire
Mountain.
But
Darren
has
also, as
usual,
gotten
himself
into a
potentially
deadly
pickle:
the
higher-ups
in the
vampire
hierarchy
are
upset
that
Darren's
master,
Mr.
Crepsley,
has gone
and
"blooded"
an
underage
boy,
creating
a
half-vampire
in the
process.
They
have
demanded
that
Darren
Shan
prove
himself
worthy
of his
vampiric
existence
by
taking
the
Trials
of
Initiation
-- a
challenge
that
young
Master
Shan has
agreed
to,
though
perhaps
too
readily,
considering
that he
later
discovers
the
penalty
for
failure
to
successfully
complete
the
trials:
death!
And what
fine
trials
they
are.
Darren
faces
water,
fire,
and
crazed
boars,
relying
on his
wit and
courage,
with a
bit of
vampiric
luck, to
get him
through
it all.
Not that
he
emerges
unscathed:
every
trial
leaves
its mark
on our
young
hero.
The cost
of valor
is
steep,
paid in
pain and
fear,
but
Darren
is equal
to each
one of
them ...
well,
almost
...
Even as
young
Master
Shan
endures
his
trials,
the
assembled
vampires
ponder
troubling
news.
The
prophecy
that a
Vampaneze
Prince
will
rise and
lead the
fierce,
murderous
offshoot
of the
vampire
race
into a
full
scale
war
against
the
vampires
-- a war
they are
destined
to lose
-- has
everyone
a bit
jittery.
Only one
of the
Vampire
Princes
believes
there is
a way to
avoid
war.
Kurda,
viewed
as a
coward
by his
vampiric
brethren,
champions
the
cause of
peace
and
diplomacy.
When
reports
of the
vampaneze
journeying
to
Vampire
Mountain
are made
known,
the
prophecy
takes on
new
credibility,
but so
does
Kurda.
Can
negotiation
work?
Can a
treaty
be
signed
in good
faith
with
creatures
so
willing
to kill?
If
Darren
survives
the
Trials,
will it
be only
to
perish
in a
horrific
battle
between
legions
of
supernatural
foes?
Darren
Shan
(the
writer)
exercises
his
magnificently
fiendish
imagination
in
creating
a lean
and
suspenseful
story
filled
with
adversity,
courage,
and
political
intrigue.
That
Darren
comes
face to
face
with
unspeakable
horror
just in
time for
another
cliff-hanger
ending
(this is
the
second
in a
three-book
arc
within
the
series)
is a
credit
to
Shan's
meticulous
mastery
of his
material,
a world
more
richly
revealed
book by
book,
where
old
codes of
honor
and
threatening
legends
from
antiquity
boil up
in
bloody,
sometimes
grotesque,
and yet
always
wholesome
adventures.
While
other
series,
both in
books
and on
TV,
offer
adolescents
supernatural
allegories
for the
pangs
and
terrors
of young
adulthood
only to
wallow
in
angst,
Darren
Shan's
ongoing
saga
hails
physical
courage
and
fearless
persistence
-- all
in the
course
of a
stamping
good
string
of
stories.
http://www.wigglefish.com/stories/0001_0005_0001.cfm?ID=1258 |
