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Revision as of 10:34, 21 April 2018
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{{infoboxinfobox1
|title=Birth of a Killer (The Saga of Larten Crepsley)
|author=Darren Shan
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|pages=272
|publisher=Harper Collins
|date=September 2010
|isbn=0007315856
|amazonukcover=<amazonuk>0007315856</amazonuk>|amazonusaznuk=0007315856|aznus=<amazonus>0316078638</amazonus>
}}
Larten Crepsley leads a hard, hard life. One child amongst many, born during an industrial revolution, he works horrendously long and dangerous hours in a silk factory even though he's yet to see his teens. If the family is to eat, there is little choice. The foreman is a violent bully, issuing regular beatings, and nobody dares challenge him and if it wasn't for his orphan cousin, Vur, Larten's life would be grim indeed. But things never seem quite so dark when you have a true friend, do they?
But not so! In the crypt sits the mysterious Seba Nile, a member of the vampire clan in need of an assistant...
Huzzah! More Darren Shan vampires! I love these stories. ''Birth of a Killer'' is the first in a four-part prequel series and will follow our favourite outcast vampire, Larten, in the centuries leading up to the ''Saga of Darren Shan''. I really enjoyed this first book - it's written with Shan's trademark page-turning skill and it has as much social comment as it does bitingand bitey things. Seba Nile is a brilliant creation - a hard taskmaster with biting a corrosive wit, he made me laugh out loud several times. But he's also kindly and ethical, if only Larten could realise it.
Larten himself is in part a typical, sulky, wayward teenager. He's impulsive at times and he has a terrible temper, fired by a fierce sense of injustice, which Seba tries to give him control over. He's also tremendously introspective and spends a lot of time brooding. He's ambitious too, and endlessly curious about the vampire world he aspires to become a part of.
Horror fans will also love the zombie horror in [[The Dead (The Dark) by David Gatward|The Dead by David Gatward]], which has a wonderful sufficiency of gore.
{{amazontext|amazon=0007315856}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=76802310316078638}}
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[[Category:Confident Readers]]
