Another good book in the Cirque du Freak series, and what a good writing of the Irish accent!! Very action pack, closer to an epic fantasy quest, that was different but interesting. It allows the bond between two characters to evolve a lot and I like it. Only two books left and I'm really curious to see how the author wrap it all up. Definitely a series worth reading and a series not talked about enough in my opinion. This book as darker moment an I think this is perfect for the targeted audience. Something I would have lot so much as a kid, and which I still enjoy quite a lot as an adult!

The Lake of Souls takes place right after Killers of the Dawn, with Mr. Crepsley dead and Steve's revelation that he is the Lord of the Vampaneze. Darren is unable to cry. He feels numb, but with the help of the bearded lady, Truska, he eventually does so. Mr. Tiny then appears and tells Harkat that if he wants his nightmares (which have returned) to stop, he must walk through a portal that Mr. Tiny makes. Harkat refuses to let Darren go with him. Debbie Hemlock and Police Chief Alice Burgess want to start an army to combat the vampets, but have to get the approval of the vampire princes first, so they are only mentioned briefly. Darren later decides that he should go with Harkat, much to Harkat's dismay. Darren and Harkat then walk through the mysterious portal, and are thrown into a strange, gray world.

Darren and Harkat are forced to complete many diffucult tasks. They first hunt down a black panther and collect a map inside it. Darren finds that the panther's teeth have been marked with letters. They start rearranging the teeth, with Harkat using up all the teeth to get SLAM DARK HUT, and then again to find it reads HARKAT MULDS. Harkat dismisses it as an utter waste of time, as Mr. Tiny loves to meddle with time. Harkat keeps the teeth, saying that they might be useful as they are sharp.

Next they have to steal 'gelatinous globes' from the world's biggest toad. They arrive to see the toad standing in the middle of a lake surrounded by crocodiles. Darren and Harkat zip through the lake, grab a few globes, then run off.

Darren and Harkat eventually meet up with Lady Evanna. Her appearance is completely unexpected, and she does not wish to tell the two how or why she is there. She helps them get across the lake where they meet a man who calls himself Spits Abrams. Spits is a former pirate and heavy drinker, and although Darren and Harkat do not trust him very much, they decide that Mr. Tiny put him in that world for a reason, and decide to take him with them.

They soon reach a small area filled with 'people' which they decide to call Kulashkas (since they are chanting "kulashka" more than any other word.) They are required to steal vials of 'holy liquid'. Darren and Harkat enter the village, Spits being afraid, to find the 'holy liquid' to be the venom from the fangs of a huge creature called the Grotesque. The Grotesque is apparently the Kulashkas' god. Darren and Harkat rush to two vials containing the venom and are attacked by the Grotesque.

Harkat raises the vial as the Grotesque attempts to kill him, and the Grotesque backs off. The Kulashkas arrive, pointing spears at Darren and Harkat, trying to drive them back. They are driven closer to the Grotesque and Darren drives them back with his vial. The chief of the Kulashkas starts trying to speak to them in a non-understandable language, with Darren saying that he can't understand them. The chief starts gesturing that they are free to leave, but must return the vials to the altar which carried them. Darren starts to do so, but a drunken Spits arrives,and cuts the kulashkas with his knife as darren throws one vial at the Grotesque, which explodes, hurting the Grotesque and those nearby it, revealing the liquid to be highly explosive. Harkat sees floorboards underneath them and starts stomping on them. Darren joins in, with Spits saying, "What in the devil's name are ye..." before crashing through the floorboards.

They end up in a tunnel, following it until they reach a room. There is a fridge, which Spits asks about, as he did not have fridges in his time. There are also postcards, signed by Mr. Tiny. Harkat is bothered by the postcards, but does not explain why. They then leave the room, Spits taking a few extra bottles of whiskey.

They soon reach the Lake. It is seen to be covered with dragons and Darren and Harkat figure out that they should make bombs, filling the 'gelatinous globes' with the Grotesque venom and throwing it at the dragons. They finally get up close to the Lake and Spits says that when Mr. Tiny brought him here, he told him that there was a spell on the Lake forbidding dragons to be closer than eight metres to the Lake unless a living person fell into the Lake. Then Spits quotes on how many people are in the Lake of Souls. He starts talking about how the crew on the Prince o' Pariah, the ship he used to serve, loved his meals, revealing that he is a cannibal. Spits says that he plans to stay by the Lake of Souls, feeding of the people who lived there. He is persistently told not to feed on the souls and is accidentally knocked away from the eight metre zone. A dragon soon breathes fire at him and he is seen burning, running around not able to see, and then falls into the lake, breaking the spell.

While being ruthlessly attacked by a dragon, Harkat pulls up his former identity, revealed to be Kurda Smahlt. The world freezes and Mr. Tiny appears to congratulate him. He also tells them, since Kurda and Harkat are of the same soul, only one could survive. It is decided that Harkat will remain alive.

Back at the Cirque du Freak, Harkat removes the panther's teeth and starts juggling the letters around, and just when he reaches HARKAT, he stops, apparently shocked, then rearranges it to find it reads KURDA SMAHLT. Darren then realizes that Harkat's name is an anagram and that the answer was in front of them all along, saying that if they spent more time on the teeth they might not have had to go through all the tasks. Harkat also takes out the postcards, pointing the time and date it was sent, noting that it was all dated twelve, twenty, thirty, and fifty years later. Harkat then reveals his theory: that the barren land they had visited was the future.

It is also told by Lady Evanna that no matter who wins the War of the Scars, either Darren or Steve would become the Lord of the Shadows who is a ruthless ruler of the night.

Sheesh. Where to begin with this one? I would start at the beginning but once again the beginning of this book wasn’t actually the beginning. We had another opening with zero context which tried to add drama but it just didn’t.

Let’s take it back a little bit. The ending of book 9. Big death. War seemed to have just gotten started. Much to build on. Right?

Nahhhhhh. Let’s fuck off back in time or to another dimension or to the future (who fucking knows at this point) and run around a jungle with a cannibal pirate chasing panthers and dragons whilst looking for a magical lake to find out who our little goblin mate really was before his ghost was brought back to life?

And the BIG REVEAL for who our mate was made no fucking sense. I can’t even type out how any of this made sense and I cannot believe this is the direction this series went in.

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not been a great series but it’s been good enough for me to keep going. However the ending of book 9 (it was all a dream) and this entire atrocity has not left me wanting more.

I will still finish the series seeing as I’ve done 10 out of 12 books but good god this one was BAD.

Quite a relief, I must say so. After the dreadful three previous books, this one is almost accomplished. First, it takes place in a different location, which comes as something refreshing. Secondly, our boy Darren is more a support character than a main one. Thirdly, something important is revealed that mildly revives the story.

Having said that, it is not good enough. This newer world has the intention to be apocalyptic but it gives more primal sad vibes than anything. The barren land is not even a resource, more like an accident. Deux ex machina happens all over the place with Evanna appearing out of thin air.

It baffles and angers me to discover that everytime something interesting is about to happen, the author just dampens it. The horrible foreshadowing is almost insulting at this poing, the teen readers are not mentally or excitement machines you can just pump and pretend them to act surprised.

The only bright side of this "craft" is that I am close to finish them. Just two more books to go and the pain will be over, or at least I hope so.

I almost gave this one star but the ending bumped it up to two. I really struggled through this one and I figured out at the very first clue with the letters who Harkat really was so that revelation was a disappointment for me. What I liked was this new world (and we find out at the end what it really is) and the time travel element that's been introduced.

I know the author intended this series to be much longer with this other world playing a bigger part but decided against it (I don't know details because I'm waiting until I finish the last 2 books before reading up on it properly). He also said he might still return to it in a new series and I hope he does because although I didn't like this book very much I'd still love to read more books set in this universe.

The Lake of Souls (The Saga of Darren Shan, #10), Darren Shan

The Lake of Souls is the 10th book in The Saga of Darren Shan and is also the first in the 4th and final trilogy in 'The Saga' called The Vampire Destiny Trilogy. The book adds many more questions that will be answered in the final books, and introduces the character Spits Abrams. This book is the longest in the series.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: ماه سپتامبر سال 2006میلادی

عنوان: دریاچه ارواح: کتاب دهم از مجموعه قصه های سرزمین اشباح؛ نویسنده: دارن شان؛ مترجم: فرزانه کریمی؛ تهران، قدیانی 1382؛ در 286ص، شابک 9789644178191؛ چاپ هشتم 1392؛ موضوع: داستانهای نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده 21م

نقل از متن: «روی شاخه های درختی نزدیک من، چیزی مبهم حرکت کرد، به سرعت چرخیدم و در یک نگاه، پیکر کشیده، و تنومندی به رنگ سیاه یکدست را دیدم، که با چنگالهای بیرون کشیده، و آرواره های باز، بالای سرمان پرواز کرد - بعد، پلنگ بالای سر من بود، و پیروزمندانه میغرید.؛ آن روز، قرعه به نام مرگ کشیده شده بود؛»؛ پایان نقل از متن

تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 27/07/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی

We're in the endgame now

This is my least favorite installment so far. We learned a little bit about some characters and a possible outcome of the war, but other than that, this was almost all filler.

خیلی حوصله‌سربر بود این جلدش

WTF did I just read????
Gotta say throughout the first part of the book I had to keep checking that this was part of the same series. Rather than the vampires and vampaneze, this book deals with an endless desert and dragons and toads and zombie-esque temple worshippers and it was just a big mind f*ck. Not at all like the books previous. I do appreciate the novelty that it provided, however.
But the big SHOCKER was the Harkat, who went through all these trials set by Mr. Tiny, was actually the reincarnated (before died maybe sort of) Kurda Smult. I know. WTH? And Harkat and Kurda had to choose which body the soul would inhabit at the end. Personally, I was torn. Kurda was a traitor, but I wanted him to redeem himself. On the other hand, he may not have wanted to or felt like he needed to. Harkat was the safer choice. Harkat did begin to get some of his memories of the previous life back. I'm interested to see how that progresses the story.
Also, still grieving the loss of Mr. Crepsley who I really thought would last the series :(

Darren Shan must help his friend Harakat Muld figure out his true identify. For Harakat to find his identity he has to go on a quest to the lake of souls but Mr.Tiny has one heck on a journy planned for them. So Darren and Harakat go on the adventure that is planned for them and on the way they find something unusual. Will they find out who Harakat is? This book is about friendship,loyalty and good vs evil. Read more to find out.

The Lake of Souls is probably one of my least favorite in this series so far. I stil enjoyed my time with it, but it felt like a side story and a distraction from the main war that the past few books have focused on. It also reads more like a high fantasy story instead of an urban fantasy like the other books have been.

I found the lake to be a really interesting concept. It helped pose a lot of deep, moral questions to the story. The lake also cleared up a lot of the confusion surrounding Harkat. I would love to see the story explore the lore behind the lake at some point.

This one was a fun side quest, but I’m eager to read the eleventh book soon and hopefully get back to the battle. This series is lacking in strong female characters, so fingers crossed that Debbie will live up to her full potential in the final two books in this series.