Sons
of
Destiny
is the
twelfth
- and
last -
of the
Cirque
Du Freak
series,
whose
narrator,
Darren
Shan has
evolved
from
ordinary
boy to
Vampire
Prince
fighting
for the
fate of
the
world
against
his
childhood
best
friend
and
adult
nemesis,
the evil
Vampaneze
Lord,
Steve
Leopard.
This
episode
begins
as our
young
hero
declines
to kill
his
shocked
nephew
(Steve's
son)
Darius,
after
Steve
murders
someone
dear to
him. In
fact,
Darren
takes
Darius
back to
his
mother
and
explains
why
they're
both
still
alive to
his
sister
Annie.
With no
chance
to rest
- and
still
undergoing
the
debilitating
purge
- Darren
must
confront
his
enemy
and
Steve's
vampaneze
at the
Cirque,
where
his
friends
- and
his
girlfriend
Debbie
Hemlock
- are
all
trapped.
After
a great
deal of
violence,
Darren
and
Vancha
face off
against
Steve
and
Vancha's
brother
Gannen
Harst,
after
which
Darren
is left,
weak and
badly
wounded,
to his
final
encounter
with
Steve.
Mr. Tiny
has
ordained
that
whichever
of the
pair
survives
will
become
the
monstrous
Lord
of
Shadows
and
destroy
humanity.
As Mr.
Tiny
reveals
shocking
secrets,
Darren
desperately
seeks an
alternative
to this
dark
destiny
- and,
of
course,
he finds
one.
All
this
happens
in the
first
half of
the
book,
and if
it had
ended
there,
it would
have
seemed a
fitting
conclusion
to the
series.
But the
story
continues
through
a
revival
from the
Lake of
Souls to
a final
task
back at
the
beginning
of the
series -
and a
chance
to foil
Mr.
Tiny's
Macchiavellian
machinations.
Though
it's
cleverly
(perhaps
too
cleverly)
plotted,
it
became
way too
much
deus ex
machina
for my
taste
(and my
son's) -
but read
it
yourself
and form
your own
conclusion.
http://www.bookloons.com/cgi-bin/Review.ASP?bookid=6750 |