The Saga of Darren Shan: Vampire Rites Trilogy by Darren Shan

As I said in my Vampire Blood Trilogy post, the first trilogy made a good introduction to the world of vampirism and the character of Darren Shan. The Vampire Rites Trilogy is where things get serious and I have to say (despite finishing the series now) that this is my favourite trilogy of the four.

In the Vampire Blood Trilogy, a young boy by the name of Darren Shan is turned into a half vampire by fellow vampire Larten Crepsley in order to save his friend’s, Steve Leonard’s, life. The trilogy follows Darren and Mr Crepsley on various adventures and shows Darren’s adjustment to drinking human blood in order to live.

I’ve tried to limit spoilers as much as possible but there maybe a few inevitable ones lurking about. 

 Proceed with caution

The Vampire Rites Trilogy takes a much more serious turn, thrusting Darren into the wider vampire community. The trilogy consists of Vampire Mountain, Trials of Death and The Vampire Prince.

Vampire Mountain is the journey of Darren, Mr Crepsley, Gavner Purl (another vampire) and two Little People (servants of Mr Tiny – a time lord of some sorts) make to Vampire Mountain so Mr. Crepsley can present Darren to the vampire council. This is of upmost importance as blooding a child like Mr Crepsley did to Darren is not usually permitted amongst the vampires.

During the gruelling trek to Vampire Mountains, Darren encounters a mad bear, tainted with vampaneze blood (vampire cousins who kill those who they drink from). During this battle, a Little Person helps Darren to victory. Little People, who are most see working with ‘Cirque Du Freak’ carrying out menial tasks to keep the show running, are mysterious creatures and not much is known about them, they are mute but are good hunters with a lot of strength. Mr Tiny (their master) sent two of them along with Darren and Mr Crepsley to give an important message to the Vampire Princes. After a tragic accident to his companion the remaining Little Person reveals he can talk and goes by the name of Harkat.

When they finally reach Vampire Mountain, Harkat reveals his message to the Vampire Princes. The message shocks and terrifies the vampires. However, these thoughts are put on hold as Darren is presented to the Princes who, though disagree with Mr Crepsley’s choice to blood him, submit him to a sequence of vampire trials to prove his worth as a vampire.

Trials of Death mainly focus on Darren going through the trials to prove his worth. The trails are exceptionally hard and have caused the deaths of many vampires in the past. As Darren is only half a vampire, the trials are even harder. A vampire general (soon to be prince), named Kurda Smahlt, strongly disagrees with putting Darren through the trails at such a young age. He is also fighting for a new age of peace between the vamipres and the vampaneze, something which many vampires disagree with. Darren discovers that Kurda is in league with vampaneze and plans to bring them to Vampire Mountain.

The Vampire Prince involves Darren exposing Kurda and the beginning of the war against the vampaneze. The majority of this book is taken up with planning and executing a battle against the vampaneze in Vampire Mountain, with Darren getting his first taste of real battle and the harsh realities that come with it.

I mentioned before that this trilogy is my favourite. We gain a massive insight to the world of the vampires and how they live. Again there is more development of characters, Darren is amazed at the shear amount of vampires in existence and the complexities of their way of life, if he agrees with them or not.

We meet various characters who give us a deeper understanding of Mr Crepsley, the vampire who trained him and the other vampires who widely respect him and how his words are highly valued even amongst the Vampire Princes.

What is also interesting about this trilogy is that there is a wide time gap between this one and the previous one. This helps us see Darren’s development more clearly rather than having all of the books take place directly after each other.   Six years have elapsed between Tunnels of Blood and Vampire Mountain, even though Darren only looks a year or so older from when he was blooded, he has mentally matured greatly. This is very apparent in The Vampire Prince where he is disgusted and sickened by the bloodshed between the vampires and the vampaneze.

Trials of Death bears a striking resemblance to Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K Rowling. Darren, like Harry, is forced to partake in gruelling trials which he is too young to do. However unlike Harry, for Darren, these trials are out of necessity, to prove himself to the vampire community, himself and to not put Mr Crepsley’s name to shame, whereas, Harry in the tri-wizard tournament is kind of just conveniently placed there to witness the rise of Lord Voldemort (don’t get me wrong I do love the Harry Potter books, even though Goblet of Fire is one of my least favourites).

Darren also faces certain death if he fails (in accordance with the traditional vampire ways) whereas 

if Harry failed he would be simply withdrawn. The threat of death makes the meaning behind the trials much more prominent for Darren and having read the other works, it’s highly possible that Shan may just kill off Darren (or any other character for that matter) at any point.

Again, Shan’s writing in this trilogy is absolutely astounding. He gives the 

reader enough information to firmly attach themselves to the characters, even to the extent of if another character likes or dislikes another character, we do too. He also makes us believe that devastation could happen at any minute to any characters, with some highly likable and important characters being killed.

Next:  Vampire War Trilogy

Some people may not like this trilogy as much as there isn’t necessarily as much action as there are in the others but, personally, I really enjoyed it. It fully created the world Darren was in, sharing his emotions and giving us a deeper understanding of the ways of the vampires, with the added tension of knowledge of action yet to happen.

Morning, Noon and Night by Sidney Sheldon

I picked this book up simply because I was bored and it happened to be there. I wasn’t expecting much from this book. I’d never read any Sidney Sheldon before and really didn’t expect to enjoy the book as much as I actually did. However I was bored and wanted to read something, so I read.

Morning, Noon and Night is a crime mystery novel. The plot is a lot more complex than the blurb made it out to be. It all starts off with multi-millionaire Harry Stanford being pursued by a group of three people. Harry, his dog, bodyguard and hired young lady friend set off to lose the followers. Leaving his hired lady friend behind, they board his boat. On this boat Harry dies in a freak thunderstorm, despite being advised by his captain that travelling in the conditions would be risky.

However this only takes up the first few chapters. The rest of the plot is based around Harry’s four children. Three of whom share the same mother, Harry’s wife. The other is the product of an affair Harry had with the children’s nanny, who after ran away with her child to escape the publicity after the scandal.  

It is strongly pointed out that Harry was a poor father and sent his three children away to separate boarding schools and constantly lowered their self esteem when he did see them. Because of this his three children openly hate him and disconnect themselves as much a possible from his name. Tyler, the eldest son became a well known court judge, Kendall, the daughter, became a famous fashion designer and Woody grew into a nine hole polo player. When they hear of their father’s death, they are all eager to get their hands on their share of his money.

Everything seems set for the three of them to get an equal share of their father’s money, until Harry’s other child; Julia comes along to rightfully claim her share. This is as far as I’m willing to go with the plot as there are so many twists and turns in the novel, I do not wish to spoil them. 

Morning, Noon and Night is amazingly well written with Sheldon leading the reader on to believe certain parts of the plot then suddenly chucking in a totally unexpected twist, making the story much more interesting. However, there are certain points where you question character’s motives throughout the novel but all these questions are cleared up rather nicely by the story’s conclusion.

I enjoyed the novel’s ending as it was bitter sweet with justice being served with an addition of disappointment. There is only one minor fault that I found with this novel and that is the romance between Julia and the family lawyer Steve. Personally, I found it to happen all a bit quickly and was the only part of the novel I found far too predictable. Throughout the story it is often pointed out that Julia is single. There is also an entire chapter containing some sort of montage of Julia going on various dates with men her flatmate knows, all leading to failure. Then all of a sudden once she’s in Boston she meets Steve with whom she has an instant connection with and proceeds to live with him whilst legalities are being sorted out. I’m not saying that the romance between the two is unrealistic; I just feel it was far too expected and easily predicted in comparison to the rest of the plot points.

 

Sheldon also does a fantastic job in character development. There are multiple chapters dedicated to each of the Stanford children, all are engrossing and even if they don’t seem it at the time, related to the overall outcome of the novel. These chapters make you feel somehow attached to the characters and have more sympathy with them when disaster strikes. For me, it was one of the best things about the book. All the children’s individual story lines link in with the overall plot. All of this is done pretty much flawlessly with a great flow to it.

I found Morning, Noon and Night a surprisingly entertaining read. It was also quick and easy, there wasn’t much you really had to think about you just had let Sheldon take you through. It was a definite change to what I would usually read but I’m very glad I did. It’s not a revolutionary piece of literature but it was enjoyable nonetheless and made me want to read more by Sidney Sheldon at some point.