Palace of the Damned (Saga of Larten Crepsley, Book 3)

By Darren Shan

Blurb: 
After failing his mentor and killing the entire crew of a ship in a bout of revenge for the death of his assistant, Larten is bereft with guilt. He no longer has the drive to live the vampiric life, and hides out in Paris, masquerading as a human. There, he finds some happiness, even falling in love with a girl. But the darkness inside him is too great for humanity, and he is forced to make a choice: hide in the shadows of the human world, or take his place among the vampire clan and protect those weaker than himself. But enemies are waiting, traps are laid, and Larten's path is bound to be strewn with bodies.

Review: 
As always I want to start by praising the chapter sizes of these books. I discovered that averagely each chapter was 10 pages which is just a lovely size, it just makes it easier to read. 

However I’m sad to say that I didn’t enjoy this book as much as the last. Although it had a good beginning and end, I just didn’t get completely hooked by this book. I believe this to be because Ocean of Blood was such an amazing book that this book has been overshadowed. I think if I read this with gap from the last book I would have enjoyed it more. Nevertheless, I still found it enjoyable to read.

*SPOILERS*

The book begins with Larten arriving at Greenland after the boat massacre. The realisation that he has a tiny baby with him sinks in and realises he can’t care for it so he decides he wants to bury it somewhere and let it die. For an intro this was very dark and I loved it. I think at the end of Ocean of Blood I expected him to be trying to save the child but in the end he was trying to find a good resting place for it. I don’t think anyone expected that change of events. 

Once the child is left, the darkness continues to creep in when Larten Crepsley takes himself to a cliff ready to jump to his death. Suicide. Such a hard hitting subject that I think Darren Shan did very well in writing about without risking people that are sensitive to the content. 

As you probably can imagine. Larten doesn’t die but how he is saved I never could have predicted. Mr Tiny stops Larten due to knowing his future is important and wanting to keep Larten’s involvement with Darren happening. I’m glad to finally have a scene with Mr Tiny, it’s been long waited for. Due to saving Larten, the baby was also saved and raised by him. Mr Tiny even named the baby Gavner Paul. A character from the Darren Shan series who was known for snoring just like in this book and was a friend to Darren. It’ll be interesting to see how Gavner comes to be a friend in the next book, especially after the cliffhanger of Gavner having to choose whether to kill Larten in revenge for his parents. 

Eventually Larten settles into family life in Paris with a girl named Alicia, who eventually becomes his fiance. Normally, I’m all about romance in books for some reason I couldn’t connect to this couple. It was nice to see to see him in love but I think I always wanted him to be with Arra Sails and even reading the Darren Shan Saga I wanted him to get back with her. I guess they’re my true pairing of the series. Therefore I did enjoy seeing Larten try to woo Arra Sails, but he was not successful just yet as she set on being a General first.

However it was nice to see Larten having a calm happy life, well till he is betrayed by an old friend. The recurring character Tanish Eul, makes an appearance once again. At first as Lartens friend and boss but eventually he betrays Larten in order to save his own skin. This side of Tanish Eul was hard to read, it made me so sad that this cowardly vampire would do such horrible things. It was strong character development but sadly ruined the character for me.

After all of the betrayal, Crepsley finally returns to Vampire Mountain to complete his Vampire studies. I think this is when I begun to lose interest, it’s been long expected but I was enjoying Larten free-roaming the earth. I still enjoyed it just not as much, I want to make that clear. 

Although something interesting that did happen in the mountains was Wester met Kurda Smahlt from the Darren Shan saga. He meets him by arguing with him about the Vampenese. It was nicely snuck into the book and appreciated the introduction to the character.

I’m still excited for Brothers to Death, which I’ll start reading soon. With it being the last book of the series, I have no doubt that it will be brilliant as everything is made known in the conclusion book. One prediction of mine is that Wester might die as he is Lartens blood brother and his eagerness for war is increasing. 
We shall see...
Rating: 3.5 runes out of 5 


 Check out my review on book 4: Brothers to Death

written by Lauren