I read this series when I was younger, so this was a delightful refresher on such an incredible series. Darren Shan is an insanely brilliant author and I truly wish he was more of a household name. I hope more people read this series and experience such a fantastic world and cast of characters. Luck, Darren. May you be victorious, even in death.

WARNING: SPOILERS AND STRONG LANGUAGE



Fuck this.

Fuck...all of this. What the hell even is this.

I refuse to believe I went through 11 entire books to find out IT WAS ALL A DREAM.

First, where the hell did ALL of that character development go?! Darren started with "I'm never drinking blood! I'm still partly human!" to the realization of "I'm a vampire." and then "I'm a vampire Prince. I have duties and responsibilities to the clan first and foremost. (Except Debbie.)" which turned to "I'm one of the hunters. I have to kill my former best friend Steve, the Lord of the Vampaneze because of Destiny and fate and blah, blah...WHAT. MR. TINY'S MY DAD AND HE SET THIS WHOLE THING UP???" AND THEN IT WAS "Fuck that. I make my own fate."

Personally, that would have been great. At least, greater than how it actually turned out.

I mean, an expression of free will would have been a fantastic ending. It would have made everything worth it-- all the deaths, the development, the twists, the heartache. Even if either Darren or Steve had died and the other became the Lord of the Shadows, it would have been n  somethingn.

But Darren Shan literally gave us nothing. He invalidated every action, every word, every thing by making NONE OF IT HAPPEN.

So, SOMEONE ELSE becomes a young half-vampire and engages the War of Scars and goes through completely different character developments. Someone who ISN'T Darren Shan. It isn't just a name change; a completely different person goes through the same actions and everything results either in a different way or the exact same way.

Darren's sacrifice becomes nullified. Everything becomes nullified. It was all a bad dream.

Like, what the hell. What the fucking hell.

This is heartbreaking.

This series has been the inspiration of dozens of daydreams and doodles and excitement and addiction. I loved it as a whole. But this book? *sigh*

Let's pretend the last few chapters never happened, shall we?

OH MY GOD. This series is amazing. The ending was by no means the best ever, but it was satisfying enough. I'm definitely someone who prefers happy endings, but endings are never happy when most of the characters you love are dead by the end of the series. This is the best thing I could have hoped for, and the book didn't disappoint.

I wouldn't give it a full five stars; maybe 3.5 or 4, because some parts were just too cliche and not as well-written as some of the other books, but...it brought a form of closure. It showed rejection of predetermination, and I did love that.

I truly hope there would be a sequel series showing the fate of the vampires and vampaneze and Evanna and the consequences of Darren's actions.





Wasn't that nice?

*sigh*

I completely, 100% recommend this series to everyone. I do not, however, recommend this book. Any ending of your own invention is bound to be more satisfying and meaningful than this...thing.


what the hell, darren shan.

what the fucking hell.

do better.

do so much better.

this was crazy

What the fuck was that

Re-read 25/08/23: Audiobook. Series reread complete ✅

This series is so nostalgic for me. Really glad I got around to rereading it again.

I was both surprised and not surprised by this book. So much of it is spent focusing on Darren trying to figure out a way to void/avoid both possible futures that if he didn’t find a way it would be ridiculous. The way everything goes down is rather predictable, and I’m sort of sad that it wasn’t accounted for in said prophecies. That said, there is much of the book still left after the expected happens, and that was what surprised me. Despite feeling quite neutral about the series overall and about the time-travelly gimick of the very ending, it also left me feeling sort of weird after and I needed a while to process that. The whole way of how the Little People end up working when you close the book feels a lot smarter and more subtle than when you’re actively reading the series.

[SPOILER ALERT]

Now that I've finally finished the entire series, I'd rather give a review of the entire books in general, rather than just this ONE end to the Saga.

Of this specific book, however, it was one of the worst of the series. It was dragged out and boring. I don't see the purpose of furthering the book after Darren's death, and even if we accept his moment in purgatory, what was the point of that last chapter? Farewell to the fans? It was just too melodramatic to me.

I particularly liked when Alice slapped Darren in the face and reminded him that he was not a child. I think this is an essential problem I have in the book. Darren is roughly 28 years old but still thinks and acts like a child. There can be NO justification for that. The whole idea of the child vampire has been done before, and it was far more realistic and better executed. I'm referring to Claudia, the little girl vampire in Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles. Even Claudia, trapped in a child's body (even younger than Darren's, and SHE NEVER AGED) matured mentally. Darren still talks, acts, reasons like a child throughout the whole damn book. It drove me INSANE!

In fact, ALL the characters were childish and in no way realistic representations of adults. Vancha was like an overgrown child, himself. And Mr. Crepsley was so overdone that I felt like I was watching one of those low budget, burlesque, crappy Disney sitcoms. The only real adult there was, was Alice.

Another contention of mine in this specific installment of the series was the fighting scene. How does Darren find so much time for chatter? I'm not even talking about the observation of everything going on around him, but he just stands there looking on while everyone else is fighting. Taking so long to make decisions that one of his friends almost dies right before him- and no doubt, many more he didn't see. Darren is a worthless vampire. I'm better off finishing the damn Twilight series if I was able to stomach this.

Another problem I had with the book was the overall writing style. Why on earth do we have so many "asides" facilitated by more hyphens and brackets than I see on a balance sheet in accounting? To me, it is a sign of poor writing when you cannot WORK the important details in, but have to just drop the bomb here and there because you remember it JUST when it's CONVENIENT. A good example, was Truska's ability to move her beard. Where did that come from? That was just out the clear blue, but of course there was an aside to make it seem normal and A-okay.

The IRONY though I believe is in the ending of the book when he wonders if the new Darren Shan will grow up to be an amazing writer, who will be able to successfully spin his journals into workable fiction.

Well I do believe I have the answer, Master Shan.
The answer is, "No! He did not."

از زمانی که اولین جلد این سری را در دست گرفتم تا وقتی به آخر جلد دوازدهم رسیدم تنها دوازده روز طول کشید. به مدرسه می‌رفتم، بعد از تعطیل شدن، بدو دم فروشگاه مرکزی انتشارات قدیانی می‌رسیدم و بدون کوچک‌ترین مکثی کتاب را می‌خریدم.
هر کتاب 1800 تومان بود و من به سرعت به آخر پس‌انداز نه چندان پُرم رسیدم. یکی دوبار از بابام پول گرفتم و کار به جایی رسید که فکر کرد کسی برایم توی مدرسه قلدری می‌کند و پول‌هایم را به زور می‌گیرد. البته که درباره زورگیری حق داشت اما قلدر نه توی مدرسه که توی جادوی «حماسه‌ی دارن شان» قرار داشت.

ایده کتاب فراتر از جذاب است. شاید الآن و با شروع تب همه‌گیر کتاب و فیلم و سریال خون‌آشامی از آثاری با این محوریت دوری کنید اما اطمینان می‌دهم که اینطور نیست. خبری از داستان عشق تینیجری با پیش‌زمینه خون‌آشام و گرگینه و اینها نیست. با داستانی طرف هستیم که در نوع خودش یکتاست.

ترجمه ایراد دارد؟ صد البته. حتی می‌خواهم پا را فراتر بگذارم و به پرداخت داستان ایراد وارد کنم. دارن شان ایده‌های نابی دارد اما...
اینجا و با پایان مجموعه اعلام می‌کنم که «حماسه‌ی دارن شان» رسما از هری‌پاتر سر است. مطمئنا خیلی‌ها با این نظر مخالف هستند اما اگر هیجان پسرکی سیزده جهارده ساله را داشته باشید. اگر هنوز دل‌تان با دنیای فانتزی باشد؛ می‌فهمید که چوب جادویی هری سال‌ها از چاقویی که دارن در دست می‌گرفت دور است.

بهترین مجموعه فانتزی‌ای که بعد از «ارباب حلقه‌ها» خواندم. جسور، سرشار از شگفتی و پر از معماهای پلیسی (اسم کتاب دوازده یکی از آن‌هاست). جایی که به تمام شجاعت خواننده برای جلو رفتن نیاز است. می‌دانم که حداقل سه بار کل مجموعه را خوانده‌ام و هیچ‌وقت ازش سیر نشدم و فکر نمی‌کنم چنین چیزی شدنی باشد.

This is it. The time has come. My final review of the Cirque Du Freak series. I remember in the my review of the 3rd book I said "If the series gets better each book then the last book is probably gonna be EPIC!" and I was right. I accept the ending as a really good one, but wouldn't be sad if it didn't end this way. Anyways this series has been a pleasure to read, and it upsets me I have finished such an epic series. However I'm gonna go back to another series of Shan based on a different character from the Cirque Du Freak series. I hope everyone that reads this loves it as much as I do. i understand why Mr.C didn't like the first one, but to be honest it wasn't the best in the series. the second one is the one that jump starts the series. My favorite part of this series was hands down the twists (there are a lot). It has been a honor reading your books Darren. There is one part in this book that just completed everything, and that thing was making a reference to the first book. It just made me smile. This has been my 12th, and final review for the jaw dropping, exciting series that was hard to put down. Thank You.

I really enjoyed this even though it took me a really long time to get back into listening to it. Things did get a little strange to me, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, it just didn’t really add to the story. At least in my humble opinion…

Of course I still adore Darren, but things got super dark and spoiler alert!!…….. a bunch of characters died that I didn’t really want to die. Then the last like 20% of the book we got really strange and somewhat existential. Like I said, not a bad thing… just weird.

There was a huge bomb dropped that was the whole reason I knocked off a star. We find something out about Darren and Steve that made me just lose it. If you’ve read it, you definitely know what I’m talking about. I was thrown off and irritated about the whole thing. But I guess there had to be some surprises in this one and there wasn’t very many characters left to kill off…

Anyway, so the ending… it was good. I was once again thrown for a loop because I couldn’t figure out where we were headed and it’s totally a good thing. We ended after coming full circle and my brain exploded a bit. Like wha?!?! I never could have seen the ending occurring the way it did and I love good surprises.

I recommend this to those who have loved the rest of the series. If you’re reading reviews of this and haven’t started the series yet and you like middle grade stories, this is a great group of books!! There’s action, love, vampires, and a lot of growing up. Basically a good time all around!!

Sons of Destiny (Cirque du Freak #12), Darren Shan
Darren face-to-face with his archenemy, Steve Leopard. One of them will die. The other will become the Lord of the Shadows and destroy the world. Is the future written, or can Darren trick destiny?

عنوان: پسران سرنوشت: قصه های سرزمین اشباح؛ نویسنده:ه دارن شان؛ مترجم: فرزانه کریمی؛ تهران، انتشارات قدیانی، کتابهای بنفشه، 1383؛ در 245 ص؛ چاپ دیگر 1388؛
عنوان: پسران سرنوشت؛ نویسنده: دارن شان؛ مترجم: منصوره فرجی‌ خواه‌ مقدم، قم: ییلاق یاران‏‫، 1397؛ در 205 ص؛ شابک: 9786008122265؛

هشدار: اگر کتاب را هنوز نخوانده اید و میخواهید آن را بخوانید، از خوانش ادامه ی این چکیده خودداری فرمایید. «دارن شان» شخصیتی است نیمه شبح، پس از فهمیدن اینکه «داریوس»، خواهرزاده‌ ی ایشان است، او را تبدیل به یک نیمه شبح می‌کند، و در استادیوم فوتبال، نبرد نهایی بین خیر و شر آغاز می‌شود، که در نبردی بین «دارن» و «استیو لئوپارد» است، «استیو» شکست می‌خورد، که آقای «دستینی» به او می‌گوید، که هر دو فرزندان دستینی (به فارسی معنی سرنوشت را می‌دهد ولی چون اسم خاص است تغییر نمی‌کند) هستند، و او دوست داشت ببیند، در این نبرد خونین چه کسی برنده می‌شود، «دارن» هم نقشه‌ ای طراحی می‌کند، تا «استیو» او را بکشد، چون «استیو» هم به علت زخم‌های کاری، به زودی می‌میرد. تا هر دو به دریاچه ی ارواح بروند، که پس از چند هزار سال «دستینی»، «ایوانا» را به یاری «دارن شان» میفرستد، و او «دارن شان» را، از دریاچه ی ارواح بیرون میکشد، و او را پیش «دستینی» میبرد، «دستینی» او را تبدیل به «آدم کوچولو» میکند، و به زمانیکه «دارن شان» برای نخستین بار با «استیو»، به «سیرک عجایب» رفته بودند، میفرستد. «ایوانا» به «دستینی» کلک میزند، و یادمانهای «دارن شان» را، در لباس «آدم کوچولو»یی «دارن شان» پنهان میکند، «دارن شان» یادمانها را به آقای «تال» میدهد، و پس از آن برای همیشه میمیرد.؛ ا. شربیانی

Dit was niet mijn ding om drie grote redenen:
1. Als ik ergens een hekel aan heb, is het 't "en het was allemaal maar een droom"-cliché. Nu heeft Sons of Destiny dat niet, maar het komt akelig dicht in de buurt
2. Ik vond de plottwist rondom Mr Tiny tegenvallen.
3. De tweede helft van het boek is bijna alleen maar exposition. Het voegt nauwelijks iets toe.
Daarnaast had ik graag meer gelezen over Vancha en Gannen.

De twee dingen die ik wil kon waarderen, was het spannende eindgevecht en de verrassende uitkomst. Ik had zo'n einde zelf al bedacht, maar had niet verwacht dat de auteur het daadwerkelijk zo aan zou pakken. Zeker deze laatste mini-saga binnen de Darren Shan-saga was echt niet mijn smaak.