Ocean of Blood (Saga of Larten Crepsley, book 2)
By Darren Shan 
Blurb:
Larten Crepsley was a teenager. And he was sick of the pomp and circumstance of fusty old vampires telling him what to do. Taking off on his own with his blood brother, Wester, Larten takes off into the world to see what his newly blooded vampire status can get him in the human world. Sucking all he can out of humanity, Larten stumbles into a violent, hedonistic lifestyle, where cheats beckon, power corrupts, and enemies are waiting.
The first thing worth noting is the fact the books are such a lovely size and how the chapters are short and sweet... well maybe just short as this book gets very satisfyingly dark.
One thing I liked in this book was the introduction of Evanna and Arra Sails from the previous series. It was very unexpected to see Arra working for Evanna before her vampiric lifestyle. It might have been mentioned in the Darren Shan saga but I definitely don't remember so this really snuck on me. I definitely approve of this backstory for Arra Sails as it adds a bit of mystery to her character. It would be great to see more of her as the books continue, afterall we do at least know he marries her at one point.
*SPOILERS*
Another backstory that came about in this book was for Vancha. We already knew that he started his life as a Vampaneze with his brother. But we didn't know he was sort of Evanna's adopted son! Now that was very surprising and has made things a bit weird for when he later has children with Evanna...
I also very much appricate when Evanna keeps hinting about Vancha's brother. As this secret doesn't come out to Crepsley till the Darren Shan series but all of us readers know exactly what she's hiding.
I'm still struggling to find an overall plot, I'm starting to think that maybe it's about Larten Crepsley finding himself by becoming a general and just basically exploring the path he took to end up with Darren.
Something I've enjoyed in this book is the character development. In the first book, Larten started of as a child and eventually grew into a Cub vampire but his personality was matching the one that we knew already. In book 2 this has begun to change as he spends a lot more years as a vampire. He's now a confident man with a reputation in the mountain. Larten has a nickname of Quicksilver because of how fast his hands are. He also is now good with women... except Evanna, the failed kiss scene was one of my favourites.
However despite all this good development, Larten Crepsley personality has also gotten darker. In book 1 before he became a vampire he murdered a man, in book 2 his darkness gets worse as he murders a whole boat crew and passengers. This scene was very unexpected but it made up for the slow beginning of the book.
In the last few chapters on the boat we are introduced to a character called Daniel Abrams, he has strong character development in such a short time. He begins as a young boy working on a ship and has a small crush on Larten's assistant Malora (more about her later). Then he begins to get quite stalkerish with her by following Malora everywhere she went and even catching her in the blood collecting act. Due to that Daniel begins to take charge and decides to revolt against the vampire with a sudden surge of braveness and hatred. After the lost battle, he further unexpectanlty turns cannibal. Amazing plot twist. Amazing character development in such a short time without it feeling rushed.
Time to return to Malora she started out as Evanna's assistant and then became Crepsley's assistant but it turned out she loved him and was just waiting for him to love her back. This only made her death harder for me. Malora was a great character with personality similar to Evanna and it was a real shame when she was savagely murdered. I wish she was in the book longer but instead she was just a step in Larten's life.
Some lightheartedness in the story, (well kind of) is that Larten now has a baby to take care of which I think will help him make his decision to be a general and help him lose the darkness as he raises the little boy in the next book.
I loved this book so much more than Birth of a Killer. I'm really loving the series and I can't wait to read Palace of the Damned.
**UPDATE: After a tweet from Darren Shan, he helped me realise that Daniel, is in book 10 of the Darren Shan series known as Spits when Darren and Harket go to the Lake of Souls.
Rating: 4.5 runes out of 5
