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Darren
Shan's
adventure
at
Vampire
Mountain
continues
in this
third of
a
three-part
installment
in the
saga of
the
young
half-vampire.
In the
last
book,
Darren
was
subjected
to the
Rites of
Initiation,
a series
of
lethal
trials
that
only the
strongest
and most
worthy
vampires
could
survive.
As a
half-vampire,
Darren
did
exceptionally
well,
facing
down an
underwater
maze, an
underground
ordeal,
and a
trial by
fire.
But when
he came
up
against
two
maddened
boars,
his luck
ran out,
and only
the
intervention
of a
friend
saved
his life
— only
for the
Vampire
Council
to rule
that
Darren
had
failed
his last
trial
and
should
be put
to
death.
That
outcome
led to
Darren
uncovering
a
sinister
plot by
a
vampire
named
Kurda,
soon to
be
appointed
a
Vampire
Prince,
and
seemingly
a wise,
if
unorthodox,
leader —
though
in
reality,
a
traitor
who had
led a
legion
of
vicious
vampaneze
to the
tunnels
of
Vampire
Mountain.
Rather
than
surrender
to
Kurda,
Darren
leapt
into a
rushing
underground
river
and was
swept
away ...
Which is
where
this
book
picks up
the
tale.
Bashed
against
rocks,
pummeled
by the
current
and
nearly
drowned
at every
turn,
Darren
only
barely
manages
to
survive
his wild
white
water
experience
in the
subterranean
river.
Finally
hurtled
out into
the open
as the
river
sprays
from the
mountain's
flank,
Darren
floats
miles
downstream
in the
freezing
cold,
where he
is about
to
perish
in the
snow
when
he's
rescued
by an
unlikely
old
friend.
It's all
a bit of
a tall
tale —
battered
boy
survives
even
more
physical
abuse,
braves
hypothermia,
and
struggles
back to
health
via a
little
help
from the
wilderness
itself —
but
Darren
Shan the
writer
understands
the need
to
provide
a
semblance
of
believability
in order
to allow
his
audience
to
suspend
disbelief,
and near
the end
of the
book,
looking
back
over the
strange
and
outlandish
series
of
events
that
enabled
Darren's
survival,
one
character
notes
that
there
may be a
larger
force at
work.
And
indeed,
there is
a sense
of
tragic
symmetry
to the
tale;
Shan
gives
nothing
away
before
its
time, so
it's too
soon to
tell,
but
there's
an
ancient
prophecy
concerning
both the
vampires
and
their
predatory
cousins
the
vampaneze
that
Darren
seems to
be
prodded
toward
fulfilling,
step by
step, by
events.
And what
events
they
are! In
the
course
of the
story,
Darren
has to
find his
way back
to
Vampire
Mountain,
evade
death at
the
hands of
traitors,
and
reveal
the plot
he has
stumbled
upon to
a
hostile
Council
— to say
nothing
of his
quick-witted
plan for
how to
engage
the
vampaneze
in a
battle
that
will
secure
the
future
of the
vampire
race
despite
the
ominous
prophecy
the
forbidding
Mr. Tiny
has long
ago
pronounced.
But the
bumps
and
bruises
Darren
has
accumulated
thus far
are only
the
start,
because
as the
final
battle
between
vampire
and
vampaneze
plays
out, he
discovers
the
terrible
truths
about
warfare.
As
always,
Darren
Shan
treads a
fine
line in
The
Vampire
Prince.
He puts
his
eponymous
character
through
some
dreadful,
chilling
situations,
but
never
loses a
sense
for how
to
temper
the
action
(and the
meanings
of the
action)
in a way
that
will
spare
his
young
readers
from any
real
trauma,
while
giving
them a
story
with
enough
reality
to chew
on. By
not
talking
down to
his
audience,
Shan
reinforces
the
moral of
his
story.
He also
expects
more
from
himself,
and,
like his
readership,
rises to
the
challenge,
This
book and
the two
before
it
constitute
a
three-part
story
with a
more
complex
plot
than the
earlier
books.
Story
elements
from two
books
ago
emerge
to play
crucial
roles;
friends
met in
Book 4
reach
the end
of their
arcs
here in
Book 6,
and
Darren's
physical
and
moral
development
continues
on a
definite
(and
well
defined)
path.
With
about 14
books to
go in
the
series,
Shan's
fans
will
literally
grow up
with the
character
— and be
the
better
for it.
http://www.wigglefish.com/stories/0001_0005_0001.cfm?id=1377 |
