Review: Zom-B Mission by Darren Shan

What has happened to the world since the dead took over? Where have the humans gone to hide? Who do the living most have to fear? B Smith is heading for unknown territory...Leading a group of humans through London and out into zombie-infested suburbs sounds like suicide - but not for the undead! Even so, the horrors of the journey will be beyond anything B has yet seen ...

As this series progresses, it is getting harder and harder to write reviews of Darren Shan's Zom-B books without creating spoilers for previous episodes. So please be warned - if you have not yet read the previous books in the series then I urge you to stop reading this review and go and do something more interesting... such as reading the previous books in this fantastic series!

I never got around to writing a review of the sixth book in the series, Zom-B Gladiator, as things were pretty hectic at work at the time. However, I'll take this opportunity here to say that I loved it as much as I loved its predecessors. I can't remember where I read this, but at the time I was surprised to read one reviewer criticise Zom-B Gladiator for being very short on plot. For me, that is the magic of this series - in one episode we might see a significant plot development, but then in the next book we are treated to wall-to-wall action, or another atrocity so horrific that it puts into the shade all that came before it. For me, Zom-B Gladiator had both of these: B fighting for survival on board HMS Belfast, and the truly evil Dan-Dan demonstrating that however horrific the zombies are, humans can still out-evil them.

As it is my birthday week I treated myself to a copy of Zom-B Mission, and it arrived today. Every Monday I have a meeting at school that lasts from 3 pm until 6pm, and this week I was watching the minutes tick over slowly as I was dying to get home to read Darren Shan's latest instalment. As with all of the previous books it is a relatively quick read and I finished it in a single sitting, and it is almost my favourite of the series so far. Only almost though, and I will come to the reason for this in a bit. In Zom-B Mission, B and her team of Angels are tasked with taking Emma and Declan, the mother and child they took in to their care in Gladiator, to a sanctuary out in the countryside. On their way, they are also to stop off in Hammersmith to pick up another group of human survivors. B and the team are excited that they have finally been given a mission, but calamity strikes before they depart which dampens their excitement considerably (you'll have to read the book to find out what).

Escorting the zombie version of fast food through infested territory is not without its risks, and the journey is not without incident (hell, this is a Darren Shan book so of course it isn't!). However, I don't think it is spoiling things to say that the group eventually reaches the 'safe' compound of New Kirkham (is that an almost nod to another master of the genre?). This journey and their eventual destination gives us a much greater insight into what is going on outside of London, as until now the books have very much focused on the revitalised, and the occasional human or monster that has come their way, and Shan smoothly reveals a little more of the post-apocalyptic world he has created, and some of the many hazards that face the small groups of survivors, many of which I would never have even considered. In addition to this, B's past also starts to catch up with her and we see how far she has developed as a character, and how even in her semi-zombified state she is more human than many of the humans out there.

So why is it only almost my favourite so far? Long time readers will know that I am not averse to cliffhanger endings. I loved the way Shan finished the first book in this series - it really was one of those jaw hitting the ground moments. However, in this one I felt that the cliffhanger was just a little too extreme, and almost left me feeling like the book hadn't been finished properly, and that i had been cheated. I can't tell you how this episode ends (obviously), but all I will say is that yet again Shan reveals an evil in his horrific world that is sadly all too human in nature. Oh yes... and the Owl Man is back! Hurrah! Which kind of makes up for the cliffhanger in my mind :-)

Review: Zom-B Baby by Darren Shan

How do you know if you're working for a lunatic? Where do you go when you've run out of people to trust? Have you ever heard an undead baby scream? B Smith is out of her comfort zone ...

*** Warning: contains spoilers for previous books in the series ***

Just as B thought she had found somewhere she felt comfortable, with Revitaliseds of the same age, and someone who could mentor her, said mentor, Dr Oystein, dropped that pretty huge bombshell at the end of Zom-B Angels that has left B feeling confused and concerned that she may just have allied herself with a complete nutjob who believes he is God's chosen one. So begins an instalment of this brilliant series that is more about soul-searching than it is about horror and gore. B must decide whether County Hall really is the place for her, but to do so she may have to experience even more of the horrors that exist in this deadly new world.

First off, lets get any discussion of the cover of this book out of the way. I know that some people have found it pretty grim, even by this series' standards, but I personally find it is fitting for both within the series as a whole and this particular instalment. 

Now onto the story itself. We are incredibly fortunate to be welcoming Darren Shan to school next week for an event, and I know loads of the students are getting excited about this. In promoting the event to the staff at the school I have mentioned many times that the horror and zombie aspect of the story is really just a vehicle for a story that covers a huge variety of different themes. As I have mentioned many times before, in my reviews for the first four books in this series, the author covers such themes as racism and bigotry, corruption, genetic engineering, and now religion and belief. However, one element I have not dwelt on enough in my reviews is that of B herself. Maybe that's because the first three books were about setting the scene, world building and establishing B as a character, and the fourth was about really driving the plot forward. 

Now, in Zom-B Baby, B is given the chance to really reflect on what has happened to her and society, with Oystein's epic pronouncement being the catalyst for this period of deep introspection. She has to decide whether Oystein is mad, and in doing so she has to take a look back at her life before the 'apocalypse', and especially her father's racism. This is not something she feels able to do at County Hall, surrounded by Oystein's crowd of sycophants, and so B takes herself off back into the revived-infested streets of London, hoping to find some kind of answers to set her make what is a huge decision. On her journeys she stumbles across and old acquaintance, and I don't think it is creating spoilers to say that she also comes face to face with something that could even rival Mr Dowling as Shan's most repulsive creation to date (the clue is in the book's title).

Zom-B Baby is yet another brilliant episode in a series I have loved from the very first chapter of Zom-B. It arrived yesterday and we had visitors so I didn't get a chance to pick it up until late, but there was no way that I was going to bed before reading it, and so it became another single-sitting read Zom-B book. For anyone out there who thinks that the zombie genre has become tired and generic in recent years, I say get your hands on these books and prepare to have your love of the genre rekindled.

My thanks go to the rather mashing people at Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy to read.

Review: Zom-B Angels by Darren Shan

After spending the last few months wandering around London--a city filled with the dead--B Smith has given up hope for any sign of normal human existence. But then B finds strange signs all over the city--a "Z" plus red arrows. Following them, B finds The Angels-- a group gathered in the hopes of combating the evil dead and the forces that introduced them. But all is not as it seems and it's up to B to find out: what battle are they truly waging?

*** Warning: This review will contain spoilers for earlier books in the series. I you have not yet these other books then please navigate away now.


The closing line of Zom-B City left us with something of a cliffhanger, with readers' jaws hitting the ground possibly as hard as B's did. As with previous books in this series, Zom-B Angels picks up the story immediately following the close of its predecessor, with B discovering that she has been subtly manipulated into walking into County Hall. However, it is not some kind of trap, and for the first time since she first woke in the underground complex B finds herself among friends. More importantly she finds herself under the care of a Dr Oystein who has many of the answers that B (and us readers) have been craving since the opening chapter of Zom-B. Answers such as how the zombie plague started, the identity of the freaky clown thing Mr Dowling, why B is a freethinking revitalised zombie rather than one of the stumbling reviveds and more.

Darren Shan has done it again and produced another superb instalment in this series, although given that he wrote all twelve books in the Zom-B series back-to-back then this should be expected I suppose. Darren promised his readers that the first three books were very much setting up B's character and the zombie changed world, but this fourth book would start delivering much sought after answers, and he hasn't let his readers down. This book is much lighter on the action and gore than previous episodes, and as such moves at a slightly slower pace, but what it delivers in plot development make it just as un-put-downable. You may as well dig a deep hole and bury pretty much every guess you have made about what?, how? and why? as you will probably be wrong on most counts (I was), and the shocks, although not bloody in this book, are just as effective. This volume is certainly setting things up nicely for the rest of the series now.

When the first book in this series was released Darren Shan stated that he wasn't setting out to just write a zombie horror story. He was very clear in his intentions to cover some pretty hefty themes, and we saw that in the first book with B's racist father, and how she had been brought up to have similar bigoted views. Now, with this fourth book, Shan has continued to create topics for discussion, with themes that touch on religion, corruption, genetic engineering and more. Again Shan has delivered on his promise: this is definitely far more than just a zombie story full of blood splatter and brain munching.

I have been a fan of Darren Shan's ever since I first picked up and read Cirque du Freak back in 2000, but this latest series is possibly my favourite out of anything I have read by him. I used to think that Shan was a great storyteller, but lacked a little something as a writer. No longer - this series shows that he has continued to develop and mature as a writer over the past decade or so, and now he is both a great storyteller and a damn fine writer to boot.

My thanks go to the ever generous people at Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy of Zom-B Angels to read. The fifth book in the series is due out in the UK at the end of September, and given its title, Zom-B Baby, and its gloriously disgusting book cover I'm expecting a return to some Shan-tastic blood, guts and violence.

Review: Zom-B City by Darren Shan

How many survived the zombie apocalypse?Where do the living hide in a city of the dead?

Who controls the streets of London?

B Smith is setting out to explore...

Warning: this review will probably contain spoilers for Zom-B and Zom-B Underground so do not read on if you haven't yet read these two books.

I think that as this series progresses my reviews are likely to get shorter and shorter for fear of creating spoilers. There are so many clever and jaw-dropping moments in the three Zom-B books to date that I would hate for someone to stumble across a review for one of the later books in the series before they have read the books that preceded it. So please forgive me for the brevity of this review, its shortness is my little gift to the uninitiated :-)

Before I say any more about the content of Zom-B City there is one burning issue that I want to focus on and that is some of the negative reviews that the first couple of books may have attracted. Now I am a firm believer that everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and naturally given their content these books will definitely not be to everybody's taste. However, some reviewers have made negative comments based on the incompleteness of the story and their feelings that it leaves the reader hungry for more. 

Durrrr! Surely that is the point? These books were written to be episodic in nature - sort of a literary form of the old Universal and Republic serials, designed to leave readers clinging onto the cliff by their fingernails, desperate to visit the cinema the following week to find out what happened next to Flash Gordon/Zorro/Jeff King/Crash Corrigan/etc. It's not as if readers have to wait a whole year for the next instalment, unlike many series books these days. With one being released every three months I think the books fit this strategy perfectly, and it's a great way to engage reluctant readers, although my one small concern is that some parents may find the hardback price a little prohibitive.

In Zom-B City we see B emerge from the underground military complex as the only survivor following the zombie attack of the previous book. B finds herself in a seemingly deserted East End, deserted that is except for the numerous reviveds that now wander the streets looking for food. These mindless zombies ignore B once they realise that B is dead just like them, leaving her free to roam unmolested. Once she has kitted herself out with new gear she starts to walk tall, even giving herself the tongue-in-cheek title of Queen of the City. However, she is brought back to earth with a bang as she quickly discovers that there are more than zombies on the streets, although some of these uninfected may just be as inhuman in their actions as the brain chomping reviveds. One of them in particular, although not a threat to B, comes across as more than a little crazy given his rather gruesome hobby.

I'm still wary of creating spoilers but I will say a couple more things, as I know there are fans out there who will want to know this: Mr Dowling the clown is back, and even more nasty than he was described in Zom-B Underground (Shan's gory imagination runs riot with this character); and also, two simple words..... Owl Man!!!!

At just 213 pages and including more of Warren Pleece's excellent illustrations this is yet another quick read that Shan fans will fly through, especially given the furious pace of Shan's plot. I read somewhere that Darren has stated that the first three books are very much setting the scene, and the fourth is where the story really kicks off. I can't wait, and luckily for lil' old impatient me the next book, Zom-B Angels, is scheduled to be published in June so not long to wait. Zom-B City is due to be published on 14 March and my thanks go to the lovely people at Simon and Schuster for sending me a copy to review.

Review: Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan

WARNING: This review will contain spoilers for Zom-B, the first book in Darren Shan's new series. Seriously, if you have not yet read that book then you should click away from this review right now.

Waking up in a military complex, months after zombies attacked school, B has no memory of the last few months. Life in the UK has turned tough since the outbreak, and B is woven into life- and battle- in the new military regime quickly. But as B learns more about the zombies held in the complex and the scientists keeping them captive, unease settles in. Why exactly was B saved? And is there anyone left in the world to trust?

With Zom-B Darren Shan left himself a seriously difficult act to follow. Those two twists towards then end have had everybody talking (and if you say you guessed both of them then I'm sorry, I simply do not believe you). That twist regarding B made me feel guilty for making assumptions about the character, something I am sure Darren was trying to achieve with his readers. And then he followed it up with B being savaged by the zombies that were rampaging through the school. Way to kill off what we were led to assume was a main character! Or did he?

OK, it isn't creating a spoiler to say that no he did not kill off B. She is alive (sort of) and well (ok, maybe not glowing with health), and wakes to find herself in some kind of large room, surrounded by zombies who are facing up to a team of figures dressed in black leather and motorcycle helmets, wielding spears and flamethrowers. She soon discovers that she is a prisoner in an underground military complex, and no longer human. In fact, she is a zombie herself, although not one of the mindless brain munchers (known as reviveds). Instead she is one of the revitaliseds, having retained her intelligence, memories and the morals/conscience that we saw developing in the first book.  Unfortunately for B she also has zombie fangs, sharp bones sticking out from her fingers, hair that won't grow and the inability to sleep. 

The powers that be have no idea why some people become revitaliseds, so for the time being B is a glorified lab rat. AT the same time, they keep B and the other revitaliseds completely in the dark as to the state of play above ground, so they have no idea if the county and/or rest of the world has been taken over by zombies, or whether it was a small outbreak of a mysterious disease that the authorities now have under control (considering there are another ten books to come in this series, I'll leave you to guess which is the more likely scenario). Before the end of this second instalment we begin to work out that B and her new 'friends', despite being signed up members of the undead, and far from the villains of the piece. And we also discover that there are far more nasty things than zombies emerging from the pen of Darren Shan. Have a close look at the cover of the third book, Zom-B City, although if clowns creep you out then perhaps you shouldn't (yes, that is an eyeball on its nose).

Like many Shan-fans I expected Zom-B to be full of gore, and apart from the opening and closing chapters, I was wrong. However, the blood splatter is back with a vengeance in Zom-B Underground, with possibly some of Darren's most gory and violent scenes to date. It should be remembered though that this is a YA series, and Darren is writing for a slightly older audience than he did with his vampire and Demonata series. As with the first book in the series the author continues to make his readers think, with the continued themes of racism and bigotry. This was introduced in the first book, with B agonising over the attitudes of her father, and how much of her own personality was due to his nurturing. In this book Shan cleverly continues the 'debate', but this time it is the zombies, and more specifically B and the revitaliseds on the receiving end of abuse, bigotry and intolerance from their human captors.

Two books in and this series is shaping up to be an absolute cracker, with Darren Shan at the very top of his writing game. Zom-B City is scheduled to be published in May, and two more instalments later in 2013. If you know a teen boy who loves horror films and games, but is a reluctant reader, then these are a sure fire way of getting him turning those pages. I for one can't wait to read the next instalment as I have far too many clown and Owl Man related questions I need answering.

*** WIN A Framed Zom-B Poster Signed by Darren Shan

Today is the release day for Zom-B, the first book in Darren Shan's new zombie series. I posted my review a month ago (click here to read it) and I know Darren's legions of fans have been eagerly waiting for this day to arrive. When I got my copy the lovely people at Simon and Schuster very kindly let me have a second copy for my godson Danny who has been a Shan fan for many years, and should you put more faith in the thoughts of a teenager rather than those of a teacher then this is what he thought of it:

I've read ZOM-B twice now and really enjoyed it both times. The first time i read it in one night, I couldnt put it down it was that good. I found the storyline very typical of Darren Shan and I absolutely loved the way he described the zombie "scooping" their dinners' brains out of their heads. The cliffhanger at the end of the story was brilliant. I cant wait for the next book to come out. I am definately a big fan.

Now, thanks to the generosity of those fab people at Simon and Schuster I have this awesome signed and framed poster (see below) to give away to one lucky winner. All you have to do is answer the question in the form below and fill in your details. The deadline for entries is 7pm BST on Thursday 11th October.This competition is open to UK residents only.

Contest open to UK residents only.
Neither the publisher or I will be held responsible for items lost in the mail.
I hold the right to end a contest before its original deadline without any prior notice.
I hold the right to disqualify any entry as I see fit.
I will contact winning entrants for their postal address following the close of the competition. Winners have 48 hours to reply. Failure to do so in this time will result in another winner being randomly selected.

Huge thanks go to Simon and Schuster and Angel Publicity for arranging this competition.

News: Book Cover for Zom-B Underground by Darren Shan

On Saturday I attended a bloggers' event held by the lovely people at Simon and Schuster. The event was arranged so that they could showcase some of their forthcoming 2012 and 2013 titles. As we were taken through the new releases, month by month, it was very clear that many of their YA books scheduled for the remainder of this year are more suitable for girls than boys (this is in no way a criticism - girls are just as important). However, if I'm brutally honest there was only one title that I wanted to hear more about, and that was Darren Shan's Zom-B.

I have already mentioned in a blog post how much I was looking forward to reading this, and I was incredibly excited to come away from that event with a proof copy of the first book in the Zom-B series. Not only this, but we were also shown a finished hardcover copy (with dustwrapper) of the book, and I can report that it looks stunning. The end papers are illustrated by Warren Pleece, as are a number of pages throughout the book, and these images will really add to the story. I managed to read all but the last three chapters of Zom-B on the train home from London and it is everything I had hoped for and more. Watch this space as my review will appear nearer its September publication date.

We were also given a very sneak preview of the cover for the second book in the series, Zom-B Underground, and as Darren has now tweeted it and added it to his website I thought I would pop it on here for you guys to see. I am guessing it has been created by Cliff Neilson as I believe he was the illustrator responsible for the cover of the first book. As with the first, I think it is a brilliant cover, and this series of twelve books is going to look fantastic as a complete collection.

Make sure to visit Darren Shan's own website regularly for more Zom-B info as it is released.

Attention Grabber: Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan

Attention Grabber is my sort-of-weekly feature where I post what I think is a great opening paragraph to a book, the sort of opening that pulls young readers in and hooks them from the start.

As I posted my review of Brothers To The Death by Darren Shan on Monday, this week I thought my attention grabber should be from the books that started it all, Cirque Du Freak. By this I mean much more than it being the start of the hugely popular The Saga of Darren Shan - it is the book that in my opinion opened the door for the majority of the brilliant children's and YA horror books that have been released since. With so many great horror books available these days it is hard to believe that before Darren Shan's vampire saga there was little blood splatter or gore in books for young readers.

The opening chapter to Cirque Du Freak is a little different from most books as it serves as an introduction to the author, and his claim that what follows is a true story.  However, before we get to that claim we are treated to a stomach-churning passage about spiders:

"I've always been fascinated by spiders. I used to collect them when I was younger. I'd spend hours rooting through the dusty old shed at the bottom of our garden, hunting the cobwebs for lurking eight-legged predators. When I found one, I'd bring it in and let it loose in my bedroom.

It used to drive my mum mad!

Usually, the spider would slip away after no more than a day or two, never to be seen again, but sometimes they hung around longer. I had one who made a cobweb above my bed and stood sentry for almost a month. Going to sleep, I used to imagine the spider creeping down, crawling into my mouth, sliding down my throat and laying loads of eggs in my belly. The baby spiders would hatch after a while and eat me alive, from the inside out."

News: Book Cover: Zom-B by Darren Shan

Edit: Review now added at:

http://bookzone4boys.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/review-zom-b-by-darren-shan.html

Back in October I posted a press release I received from Simon and Schuster regarding their announcement that Darren Shan had signed with them to produce a new series of books titled Zom-B. The first book in this series is scheduled to be launched on 27th September, and the further 11 books in the series will then be released one every three months until 2015. Today S&S revealed the cover of Zom-B at the London book fair, and now they want to share it with world. The cover was designed by Nick Stearn, aided and abetted by illustrator Cliff Nielson and I love it. I think we are being left in no doubt at all as to what these books will be about! Just imagine those fingernails tearing into your throat!!

News: Book Cover - Brothers To The Death by Darren Shan (Saga of Larten Crepsley Book 4)

Unfortunately the fourth book in the so far brilliant Saga of Larten Crepsley will not be on sale until May, but in the meantime feast your eyes on this image, the artwork for the front cover of that book, to be titled Brothers To The Death. Illustrator David Wyatt has outdone himself yet again with this incredible image which I found on his blog, along with an earlier version of the cover. It looks like Larten is going to be heading to New York in the finale to the series, and the blood splattered evidence on the cover suggests that this one could be quite a gore-fest! 2012 is going to be another massive year for Darren Shan, with this final Larten Crepsley book and then in the autumn the first in his twelve book Zom-B series. I can't wait!

Edit: 15th January 2012


I've just been trawling though the HarperCollins website looking at their future releases and I spotted that the final cover of Brothers To The Death is now there for all to see. It has changed a little from David's original image (above) with the red tones being far more dominant - it really does look like hell is about to descend on the cityscape.

I am also loving the blurb about the book, sounds  like it could be a great end to the quadrilogy:

Just as Larten is finding a new place for himself in vampire society, trying to help vampires escape the Nazi menace, horrifying tragedy falls on his own family, thanks to the nefarious Vampaneze.

With his old friend Wester calling for war against the ancient enemies of vampires, Larten finds himself a figurehead of the campaign.

But there are more evil things than just the Vampaneze stirring. And soon, Larten might find himself grieving again – as he faces the worst and final betrayal…

News: Zom-B - the new zombie series from Darren Shan

I am a little behind with this as we had a parents' evening at school today and I have only just got home, but I have been wanting to share this press release with you all day, especially as it fits in so well with Horror Month. Any news about a new Darren Shan series is enough to have me grinning from ear to ear and I am sure there will be legions of his fans around the world salivating at the prospect of Darren writing a twelve book zombie series, with a book released once every three months. If you are a Shan-fan then read this press release and then tell me you're excited as I am:

Press Release

Darren Shan moves to Simon & Schuster with new teen series Zom-B

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd today announced the acquisition of a new series from international bestselling children’s author, Darren Shan.

Zom-B was acquired by Ingrid Selberg, Director of Children’s Publishing for Simon & Schuster UK, from Christopher Little of The Christopher Little Literary Agency, for a major seven figure sum for UK & British Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada), including e-book rights, in twelve titles. The books will be edited by Venetia Gosling, Fiction Editorial Director at S&S UK Children’s, with the first title planned for publication in hardcover in Autumn 2012.

Zom-B is a radical and exciting new series, written in serial form across twelve books. Simon & Schuster plan to publish in hardback with simultaneous e-books, one book every three months starting in Autumn 2012, feeding fans new material, and building series momentum, all the way through to 2015. Paperback editions will follow.

Darren Shan is the number-one best-selling author of the twelve book series The Saga of Darren Shan, the Demonata series, and more recently The Saga of Larten Crepsley. His books have sold over 25 million copies around the world and have been translated into more than 30 languages. Darren divides his time between London and Ireland.

Ingrid Selberg said of the new acquisition: “We are absolutely thrilled to welcome the inimitable, bestselling Darren Shan to the S&S children’s list. The Zom-B series combines classic Shan action and a fiendishly twisting plot with hard-hitting and thought-provoking moral questions. This is challenging material, which will captivate existing Shan fans and bring in many new ones. We are very excited and proud to be publishing this extraordinary author.”

Darren Shan said: "I am very excited to be taking my new zombie series to Simon & Schuster. The team impressed me greatly with their vision for the work and their enthusiasm, and I look forward to becoming part of the family there and unleashing a string of literary bone-chillers on the world!!!"

Review: Palace of the Damned by Darren Shan (The Saga of Larten Crepsley Book Three)

In the third instalment in the creepy, captivating Larten Crepsley series, Larten finds out what it means to love… but is he also damned to find out what it means to lose?

Lost in the arctic waste, carrying a baby whose love he could never deserve, Larten faces the darkest time he has ever known.

But hope has a way of shining through even the smallest of cracks, and just as Larten reaches the end, a new beginning presents itself. The trouble is, for Larten, the violence of his youth is never far from the surface… and those he loves are the ones he hurts the most. As Larten experiences heaven and hell, and tries to save the soul of a child, the question is: can he save his own?

Has Darren Shan sold his soul to the devil? That's a question I have asked myself after finishing all three of the books I have read so far in The Saga of Larten Crepsley. Why? Because the man has not failed to deliver even once, so surely there must be more than natural talent at play here?

I will try to make this review as spoiler-free as possible as far as Palace of the Damned is concerned, but if you have not yet read Ocean of Blood yet then you may want to navigate away from this page now by clicking here now. OK... for those of you still reading, Palace of the Damned picks up pretty much straight after the dramatic and bloody conclusion to the second book in the series. Larten is full of self-loathing following his actions on the Pearly Tornado, and he is now heading into the frozen Arctic wasteland where he intends to put himself out of his misery for good. Things are slightly complicated by the fact that he is still carrying the baby he 'rescued' from the ship, and with no sign of any form of civilization it looks as if this young child may die with him. However, after what seems like days he finds himself led to the legendary Palace of the book's title where something happens that changes everything. And there is no way that I am going to tell you what that is, although we do witness the naming of the baby.

Following the release of Ocean of Blood, and Larten's taking of the baby, there was some excitement among many fans as they speculated as to who the baby was, with most of them getting it spot on, and as this happens in the first few chapters of the book I don't think it is too much of a spoiler to say that it is Gavner Purl (but I'm not taking any chances.... highlight that space if you're not bothered about finding out the identity of the child). Yet again, Darren Shan treats his readers to another key morsel in the history of Larten Crepsley and this character goes on to play an important role in the rest of this book.

As in the previous two books in this series Palace of the Damned is split into several parts, with sometimes lengthy jumps in time between each one. So, after the first three chapters we leap forward from the Arctic wasteland to Paris, 1906, and herein lies my only criticism of this this book - I wanted it to be much longer. It is only 256 pages in length and I reckon there is easily another 50 plus pages of story that could be told to fill in some of the jumps in time (how did Larten and the child get to Paris for starters?). Maybe I am being just a little too picky as not all of the jumps in time are quite so huge though; in fact, the jump from Paris to Larten's next destination happens at just the right time in the story, and to fill in that journey with more detail would not have added to the story. I guess I am just greedy for more history of this great character.

I loved Ocean of Blood because of its focus on Larten's formative 'teenage' years, when he was initially full of reckless abandon, and then later seeing the influence various others had on his development towards 'adult' vampirehood. In this book we see yet another change in Larten as his life journey continues: he is still full of regret at his massacre of the people on the Pearly Tornado, but in Paris he faces another challenge as he falls in love with a human. Of course, Larten being Larten he omits to inform her that he is a vampire and therefore it was only going to be a matter of time before..... (I told you it would be spoiler free). However, his relationships with Alicia (for that is her name) and the child he rescued that she adopts as her own, are of paramount importance to the rest of his story in this instalment, right up until the final page where we are left hanging with those dreaded words To be continued..... If you are weak like me you will then go on to read the sample opening chapter of book four, to be titled Brothers To The Death. I kind of wish I hadn't done this, and I wish HarperCollins hadn't included it at the end of the book, as on reflection I qould have liked to be kept in suspense for the next six months or so. However, it wasn't all bad as this sample chapter does itself end on a cracking 'ooohhh-can't-wait-to-read-the-next-book' moment.

All in all Palace of the Damned is yet another superb addition to the saga from Darren Shan and I loved the way he has developed his character even more and we are now really beginning to see the Larten we first met in Cirque du Freak, although I am saddened a little by the fact that there is only one more book left in the series. I wonder what Darren has planned for his legion of fans once he has finished telling Larten's story? Palace of the Damned was released in the UK yesterday and my thanks go to the good people at HarperCollins for sending me a copy to review. Tonight I am off to see Darren Shan with Charlie Higson at the Bath Festival of Children's Literature and I am really looking forward to it. Watch this space for a report on the event.

News: Book Cover - Palace of the Damned by Darren Shan (Saga of Larten Crepsley Book Three)

Back on 12th June I wrote a short post about the book cover for Palace of the Damned, the third book in Darren Shan's brilliant Saga of Larten Crepsley. If you remember, the image I showed you on the day was of the brilliant artwork by David Wyatt, without the title and author text added. Now HarperCollins have released the final version of the front cover, with all the necessary details added, and I think it is stunning, and definitely my favourite of the series so far. With the book due to be released on the 29th September, I know I am not the only Shan fan waiting impatiently to find out what happens to Larten next.

News: Book Cover - Palace of the Damned by Darren Shan (Saga of Larten Crepsley Book 3)

Unfortunately the third book in the so far brilliant Saga of Larten Crepsley will not be on sale until October, but in the meantime Darren Shan recently released this image, the artwork for the front cover of that book, to be titled Palace of the Damned. It isn't often that we get to see images like this in their full, original glory, without the accompanying title and author text so I thought I would share it with you in case you missed it on Darren's site. As with the previous two covers for the UK editions of the series the artwork is by illustrator David Wyatt. The end of Ocean of Blood was pretty nasty, and left fans on something of a cliffhanger, and I think that this image is a great taster of what is to come in the next book. If you go to this page on Darren's website you will also be able to see some of David's earlier drafts of the cover.

Review: Ocean of Blood by Darren Shan (The Saga of Larten Crepsley)

The epic tale of the vampire Larten Crepsley continues. The question is – how far can Larten go… alone?

Free from their mentor Seba Nile, Larten Crepsley and Wester Flack join the Cubs – wild young vampires with little respect for human life, and a taste for mindless enjoyment.

For the Cubs, everything is easy. But nothing has ever been easy for Larten, and soon fate throws his life into another spin. With dark paths to travel, Larten finds himself far from the Vampire Mountain and its rules. A long way from home, sick and alone, he must decide what kind of vampire he will be. Whether he will stand firm, be true to his master and his princples – or whether he will lose himself in blood…

The publication of a new Darren Shan book is always something of an event at the school where I teach - in the weeks running up to release date we have a constant stream of boys coming in to the library to ask if we have it yet. There are only a very small number of authors whose books have this effect on our boys, which goes to show how important Darren's books have become in encouraging boys to read. Anthony Horowitz brought the action genre to life with his Alex Rider books, and in the same way Mr Shan has done this for horror. We often read about new YA horror authors being heralded as the new Darren Shan, but many people probably don't know that Darren received many rejections when he first took his original Saga to publishers - horror for kids didn't exist outside R.L. Sine and the output of Point Horror, and publishers were very nervous about books like this. With some of the titles on the market these days it is hard to believe how things have changed in only ten years, with horror now being one of the most popular geners for younger readers, and especially boys.

Being the kind, thoughtful teacher that I had great fun in making the boys at school aware that I had already received my copy of Ocean of Blood some time ago. I didn't even hold back from telling them just how good it was - possibly one of my favourite books from the Saga of Sarren Shan/Larten Crepsely world. It was worth it just to see the envy and frustration on their sad little faces (I am of course joking now). However, it is release date for Ocean of Blood today and I am sure a good number of them will be begging their parents to stop watching a certain wedding on the TV so that they can be taken into town to buy it.

So what makes Oceans of Blood so good? Well for me it is all down to the period of Larten's life that it focuses on. In Birth of a Killer we are introduced to Larten as a young boy, and we discover how he first became a vampire (and more importantly for some, how he got his bright orange hair), but in Ocean of Blood we reach his tempestuous 'teenage' years. These are the years that are amongst the most important in the development of what will be a person's adult personality; personality traits that can be dramatically altered by even the slightest intervention of an influential person or by what to others might seem like a minor event and yet they become the traits that a person will carry with them for the rest of their life. 

Of course, Larten isn't actually a teenager in this book: when we left him in Birth of a Killer he was at least in his forties, and Ocean of Blood starts off several years on from this, and goes on to span a further handful of decades. It's not often that a kid's books will tell the tale of an adult, and yet when reading this you rarely get the impression that you are reading about a grown man. Darren has written this book as if Larten is a stroppy, indecisive, hormonal teenager, which in vampire terms he is, and it works so well. Larten really does not know which direction he wants his life to take, and so he flits around trying to find the person or event that will help him make a decision. The opening of the books sees him running with the Cubs, a group of 'young' vampires who like to drink, gamble, fight and generally lark around. Life is all about having fun, and sounds pretty much like any gang of disaffected young people living in small town Britain, or students in a university town. Well it would if the favourite past-time of these vampires wasn't being part of a war pack, where they treat human wars as a spectator sport, visiting battles mid-action, watching the carnage and then feasting on the gallons of blood that soak these battlefields at the close of a day's fighting. However, saying that, it is amazing how many kids in schools around the world will quickly gather around and watch a fight in the playground at break time.

Soon, however, Larten gets itchy feet again and he and Wester returned to their master, Seba, and spen some time travelling the wilds of America with him, watching the battles of the American Civil War from a distance, rather than participate in the war pack activities that they had previously found so enjoyable. During this time they also hook up with the foul-smelling vampire General Vancha March, before finding themselves at the door of Lady Evanna, the powerful witch who is of great importance to vampires, and a person who will have a significant impact on Larten as he continues to mature as a vampire. 

It isn't long before Larten, Wester and Seba return to Vampire Mountain, and it is this period in the story where we begin to see Larten at his most indecisive - he really does not know what he wants from life: should he focus on his training to eventually become a General, or should he spend more time travelling the vast world outside Vampire Mountain and make the most of this before taking on any kind of responsibility. These are decisions that many teenager and young adult has to make at some point, and in my years as a teacher I have seen many students go through this agonising process. However, I am not going to tell you which direction Larten chooses as I want you to find out for yourself, all I will say is that the choice he makes leads to moments of great sorrow, and also some scenes of great horror (it ain't called Ocean of Blood for nothing) which are amongst the best that Darren Shan has written.

Fans of Darren Shan will certainly not be disappointed with this book - I didn't want it to end as I desperately wanted to continue to observe Larten's personality slowly developing as he begins to become the complex character we first met in Cirque Du freak. The ending of Ocean of Blood will certainly have you gasping for breath and begging for your next fix of The Saga of Larten Crepsely, and fortunately we only have to wait until October for book three in the series, titled Palace of the Damned. My thanks go to HarperCollins for sending me a copy to review.

Darren Shan Wants Your Blood - Ocean of Blood Promo Game/Competition

edit: It seems there have been a few technical problems with this feature and so it has been taken offline for a couple of days.


To celebrate the release of the second book in the Saga of Larten Crepsley series, Ocean of Blood, HarperCollins Children's Books have teamed up with Firebelly, a creative agency specialising in the entertainment industry, to help teen horror author Darren Shan collect 1 MILLION virtual drops of blood from his dedicated followers.

Darren is thirsty for your blood, and here’s how he’s going to get it:

Simply donate a drop of blood to the virtual ocean with a click of your mouse and be in with a chance to win one of 1,000 prizes instantly. These vary from free wallpapers, to signed books, iTunes vouchers and iPod Nanos. If users are unsuccessful first time round, they have the chance to donate as many drops as they like in order to win an instant prize, so keep bleeding to win! Once the 1 MILLION drops have been donated and the ocean is full, one user will win the top prize of an iPad 2 with all of Darren’s teen books pre-loaded and a personalised Saga of Larten Crespley book cover framed and signed by Darren.

What are you waiting for? It won’t hurt...much! 

Visit www.facebook.com/darrenshanofficial. Please give generously.

*** Birth of a Killer Contest Result

The lucky winner of a copy of Birth of a Killer is:

Harvey 

Well done and thank you to everyone who entered. I will now endeavour to contact the winner through by email. Please reply within 48 hours or I will draw another name out of the hat. Many thanks to Bloomsbury for providing the prize.

(Note: all names were drawn randomly using a nifty little freeware programme called The Hat)

*** Contest: WIN a copy of Birth of a Killer by Darren Shan (saga of Larten Crepsley)

I recently posted a review of Birth of a Killer, the first book in Darren Shan's new series, The Saga of Larten Crepsley. Now, thanks to the generous people at HarperCollins I have ended up with a spare copy which I have decided to  give away to a reader of The Book Zone. In order to be in with a chance of winning a copy of this book all you have to do is answer the simple question and fill in your details on the form below.

The first name drawn at random after the closing date will win a copy of the book. Deadline for entries is 8pm Saturday 9th October. This contest is open to UK residents only.



Contest open to UK residents only.
I will not be held responsible for items lost in the mail.
I hold the right to end a contest before its original deadline without any prior notice.
I hold the right to disqualify any entry as I see fit.
I will contact winning entrants for their postal address following the close of the competition. Winners have 48 hours to reply. Failure to do so in this time will result in another winner being randomly selected.

Review: Birth of a Killer by Darren Shan (The Saga of Larten Crepsley)

Following the massive success of the Demonata series, Darren Shan is back where it all started – telling the life story of the vampire Larten Crepsley. Spanning centuries and continents, taking in sea voyages, murder, war and love, this is the epic, bloodsoaked tale of a vampire who started out a nobody… and ended up changing the world forever.

When Larten escapes the terrible workhouse in which he toils, he doesn’t know that he is running from an early death… into another kind of transformation. After meeting the mysterious vampire Seba Nile while sheltering for the night in a crypt, Larten finds himself drawn into the shadowy world of the vampire Clan. As he travels and learns, Larten finds himself enjoying the adventure he has always dreamed of, seeing a world beyond any he suspected in his poverty-stricken youth.

But Larten begins to discover something else, too. Much like death, becoming a vampire is something you can’t come back from…

Most readers of The Book Zone will not need me to tell them that Birth of a Killer, the new book from Darren Shan, is actually a prequel to his fantastically successful Saga of Darren Shan series. One of the key characters in that series was Larten Crepsley, the vampire that first blooded Darren Shan, thus turning him into a creature of the night. Larten is a very popular character with Shan fans, and in my opinion is one of the author's greatest creations: his personality seemed so well developed, with his emphasis on the correct use of grammar when speaking, his moody, withdrawn manner and his flame orange hair (who ever heard of a vampire with ginger hair???). When I first read the original Saga I was left with many questions about the back history of this great character, and it would appear that Darren Shan felt the same.

The book opens with Larten as a young boy, working all hours loosening silk from the cocoons of silk worms in a factory with his cousin Vur Horston (a name familiar to Saga fans). Immediately we discover the reason for the bright orange hair, and inventive it is too (and no I'm not going to tell you what it is - you will have to read the book yourself). Darren Shan also does not keep us waiting long before revealing the life-changing moment in his hero's life, the moment that has him running away from home and very soon finding himself in the company of the vampire that will become his mentor and eventually blood him, Seba Nile. Birth of a Killer does not have the blood-splatter moments of the Demonata series, but it is still violent enough in places to keep fans grinning from ear to ear, and this early scene is one of those moments.

Although in familiar territory this book never seems like a reproduction of the previous series. Those stories were very much a coming-of-age story for the main character, whereas these are spaced over a much greater period of time. As such we start off with Larten as a boy, and then pretty much immediately after he has met Seba Nile we get to part two of the book, and we jump five years in time. Eight short chapters later and the narrative jumps through time again, with Larten now at the age of 30. The author set out to tell the story of a man who is over two hundred years old, in a mere four volumes, so temporal jumps in narrative like this are going to be essential for the story to be told. At times I felt that although getting older in years, Larten's character did not necessarily seem to be maturing in the same way. However, once Larten attended his first Council I realised just how immature and naive he was in vampire terms and this side of his personality made much more sense. I am still trying to decide whether I would have liked to see more of the time between when Larten meets Seba, and when he hits thirty - I think I will reserve judgement on that area until I have read the next three books in the series (the fourth due out in May 2012).

What I loved about this book was the way that Darren Shan explores the vampire world he created in more detail. These aren't your girly, romantic Twilight vampires, but neither are they at times the debonair, aristocrats of the Dracula movies. These vampires get drunk; they gamble; their personal hygiene occasionally sucks big time. At the event I went to yesterday Darren Shan explained when he created his vampire clans he had in mind the likes of the Masai, Samurai, Native Americans and the Celts - tribes of people where the male was dominant, and where you had all levels of people - from mighty warriors and hunters to beggars and thieves. This is exactly the kind of society that we see with his vampires - some wish to lord it over all and sundry, testing their physical abilities to the extreme during the Festival of Death, whilst disaffected younger vampires rebel by playing cards and drinking in a side tunnel.

If you have not yet discovered The Saga of Darren Shan then you could read this book before you read those others. However, I would recommend that you do read the original Saga first as I have. In my opinion it will be a far more rewarding experience to  get to know the adult Larten first, and then discover the events and experiences that made him the vampire the fans love so much. Birth of a Killer will then have you nodding sagely to yourself as you spot a familiar name, or discover the answer to a long-wondered question (such as the whole orange haired vampire thing).

Yet again Darren Shan has delivered a book that will please his legion of fans. I must thank HarperCollins for the review copy they sent me. It is now availabe to buy in hardcover.

(That's book three finished and reviewed as part of the R.I.P. Challenge)

Book Zone meets Darren Shan

September 30th saw the release of the first book in the long-awaited prequel series to Darren Shan's fab vampire series The Saga of Darren Shan. Entitled Birth of a Killer, the book (and the three that will follow) charts the story of Larten Crepsley, the vampire who first blooded Darren Shan and a character we came to know and love in the original series. In order to promote the release of this book Darren has again hit the road, with two dates in Ireland before jetting across the Irish Channel to appear in England, and more specifically the Theatre Royal in Windsor this morning and I was one of the horror-loving fans who went to hear him speak.

Before his entrance the audience were asked to shout out words that could be used to introduce the author and his young fans described him as "the master of horror", "scary", "gory", and my personal favourite: "fear manipulator". Enter the man himself.

Darren launched straight into a reading of a passage from one of his books, a scene he described as being a "nice, gentle, uplifting extract" - yes, it was the slaughter scene from Lord Loss. If you have not yet read any of the Demonata books, Lord Loss is the first book in the series and this scene is a particularly gory one that hits the reader square between the eyes in Chapter 2. Reading his own work aloud to an audience is a particular strength of Darren's, and he had his young audience hanging on his every word, even though most of them had probably read that scene several times. In fact, they were so rapt with attention that Darren's shouted cry of anguish when Grubbs first sees what has happened to his father had them jumping out of their seats.

Following this reading Darren introduced his new Saga of Larten Crepsely series. He explained that after finishing the original Saga series he started wondering what Larten's backstory could have been. "How did he come to be a vampire? How did he rise the rise ranks? And crucially why did he walk away from the clan when he did?". After a lot of thought he worked it all out and decided it was a story he wanted to tell, but he wanted to do it differently, make it a more expansive story than the original Darren Shan coming-of-age saga, and have it covering a period of about two hundred years, from how Larten first came to meet a vampire right up until he finally meets Darren Shan. He then treated his audience to a reading of a passage from very near the start of the book.

Once he had come to the end of this passage Darren then gave his fans the chance to ask him questions. I made a few notes can now bring you a few of those questions and the answers that Darren gave:

Who is your favourite author?

No surprises at the answer: horror legend Stephen King. Darren first read Salem's Lot at the age of about ten or eleven.

Where do you get your inspiration?

Darren replied that his inspiration can come from all sorts of places, but as an author the difficult part if turning the ideas into stories. He explained that developing an idea is all about asking questions, and used Cirque du Freak as an example. He described how he had this image of a boy who met a vampire at a circus and reluctantly became his assistant. The questions that then needed answering were: "How did the boy know it's a vampire? Why does the vampire want to blood the boy? Why does the boy agree to be blooded?". The answering of these questions led to plot threads and eventually the finished story.

Why do you write horror?

Darren replied that he writes books that he would like to read, books that he thinks he would have loved as a teenager. He also explained that he doesn't necessarily see The Saga of Darren Shan has being a horror series, but more of an action/adventure series, with horror elements, but also fantasy and sci-fi elements. Horror has to be about the characters and having an interesting plot, but "every so often you can cut loose and kill off a load of people, and that's just a bit of extra fun".

Why did you finish the vampire series when you did?

"Because it's all a true story". Whether you believe this or not, Darren still felt that the story had come to a natural end even though he had originally planned to write another twelve or so books. It may seem financially crazy to bring a massively popular series to an end but he always follows where a story leads him, and never makes decisions based on money. He also said that he may one day return to the saga, but Darren Shan would not be the central character.

When you sleep do you dream or do you have nightmares?

Darren replied that unfortunately he does not have many nightmares. He then went on to explain that when parents ask if if he worries that books may scare their children and given them nightmares he generally replies "No, I hope they do. That's the whole point of horror." and "...if you can take that story into your sleep and have nightmares about it then it has really worked to its full extent".

Darren then finished off the event by reading a couple of passages from one of his lesser known books - Koyasan (released a few years ago as part of World Book Day).

I then joined the snaking queue in order to have my books signed by Darren. When I finally made it to the front of the queue I finally asked Darren a question of my own (I tend not to ask questions in shows when there are so many young fans desperately wanting to ask an author something. I asked him if he had ever received hate mail from holier-than-though Daily Mail readers. He replied that surprisingly he hadn't, although wondered whether Daily Mail readers may actually like the vampires with their fascist tendencies. He did however receive the occasional email from parents expressing concern about how his books might be a little scary, but nothing more serious than that. He also told me that when he first wrote Cirque du Freak a number of publishers were too nervous to sign him up, and when it was a published one particular high street chain initially refused to stock it. This all seems a little incredible now, given the flood of teen horror books that have appeared on the scene since Cirque de Freak was first published.

It was an absolute pleasure to finally meet Darren Shan. My review of Birth of a Killer will follow tomorrow, so please watch this space.