Birth of a Killer (The Saga of Larten Crepsley #1)

by Darren Shan

Overview

Before Cirque Du Freak...Before the war with the vampaneze... Before he was a vampire... Larten Crepsley was a boy.

As a child laborer many centuries ago, Larten Crepsley did his job well and without complaint, until the day the foreman killed his cousin as an example to the other children.

In that moment, young Larten flew into a rage that the foreman wouldn't survive. Forced to live on the run, Larten now sleeps in crypts and eats cobwebs to get by. And when a vampire named Seba offers him protection and training as a vampire's assistant, Larten agrees.

This is his story.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780316078627
Publisher:	Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	09/05/2011
Series:	Saga of Larten Crepsley , #1
Pages:	288
Sales rank:	382,765
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 8.10(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 14 Years

About the Author

Darren Shan is the bestselling author of the young adult series Cirque Du Freak, The Demonata, and the Saga of Larten Crepsley series, as well as the stand-alone book The Thin Executioner. His books have sold over 25 million copies worldwide. Shan divides his time between his homes in Ireland and London.

Editorial Reviews

Gr 6–8—This adventure story traces the early life of master vampire Larten Crepsley. Sent to work in a Dickensian factory, young Larten kills the abusive foreman and flees. He takes shelter in a cemetery crypt where he meets the 500-year-old vampire General Seba Nile, who explains to the terrified youngster that vampires aren't evil. Although they drink human blood, just as the legends say, they do not harm those on whom they feed. When he invites Larten to travel with him as his assistant, the boy agrees. As the first entry in a projected series, this story includes quite a bit of exposition. The plot action covers more than 20 years, taking Larten through his first "blooding" and into full vampire status, and features his first meetings with mysterious Cirque owner Hibernius Tall; Seba's vampire ally Paris Skyle; and the vampaneze Murlough. At times, the pacing feels rather rushed with the effort to introduce many important characters, settings, and themes from Shan's "Cirque du Freak" saga (Little, Brown). Transitions are often abrupt, jumping several years between chapters. A cliff-hanger ending promises further revelations. "Cirque du Freak" aficionados will be intrigued by this glimpse into Crepsley's formative years, but the uninitiated will want to read the original books first.—Elaine E. Knight, Lincoln Elementary Schools, IL

School Library Journal

Larten Crepsley watches as the brutal foreman at a silk factory drowns his cousin, Vur Horston. Moments later, Larten is a fugitive, having stabbed the foreman through the throat. As he cowers in a graveyard eating cobwebs, Larten gets a tempting offer from Seba Niles: work as Seba's assistant and, someday, become a vampire. Fans of Shan's Cirque Du Freak series will enjoy the origin story of their favorite orange-haired vampire, though the gore quotient has been greatly reduced from previous volumes. Cameos abound, from Desmond Tiny to Murlough to the Cirque Du Freak itself. Tidbits of explanation dangle promisingly, but never completely answer questions about character behaviors and motivations. The tapestry of relationships in the earlier works are deconstructed here to threads; it's a nice touch, but the technique makes this narrative less accessible to newcomers to the oeuvre, as it presumes familiarity with the characters and plots. Jumping back in time but keeping the same literary style, the author delivers a solid story. (Horror. YA)

Kirkus Reviews