SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

I'm definitely appreciating this prequel series a lot more this time around. Well, my memory of my last read is fairly limited but, still. I think being older and slightly wiser and reading this immediately after the main series is collectively giving me a much more interesting experience. Next time I read these books, I believe I'll begin with 'The Saga of Larten Crepsley' and then dive into The Saga of Darren Shan'. I thought about reading them in this order this time around but, I chose to read them how they were released.

This book is giving me a slower sense of nostalgia than 'Cirque Du Freak' did. I know the main series really well and so I had more of a clearer idea of what would happen next. 'The Saga of Larten Crepsley' is pretty much the best of both worlds. Tinier bits of nostalgia while not having as strong of a memory of the plot. Nostalgia + hints of a 'new story' energy.

Larten's experience as an apprentice to Seba is a lot stricter, tougher, and more serious than when Darren was Larten's apprentice. Seba is far from an outright, but he's just more traditional I guess. Also, Seba is about 500 years old or so during this apprenticeship. Larten was roughly 180 years old at the start of Darren's. So simply looking at it that way, the gap in age between Seba and Larten vs Darren and Larten, is far greater. The culture differences and whatnot is massive.

It was pretty cool that Paris Skyle showed up out of nowhere to meet Seba. Just goes to show how well respected Seba is. Seba nearly becoming a Prince says a lot as well. Just a cool bit of background knowledge there. Larten's first two vampires he met, were pretty elite vampires.

I TOTALLY forgot that Murlough was involved in this series. I think that's super cool as Murlough was a really entertaining/creepy villain. It makes book three, 'Tunnels of Blood' in 'Cirque Du Freak' all the more interesting and kind of makes me look forward to reading the entire series starting with this series one day. I mean, I know these two aren't fully the same series but yeah, close enough!

Murlough indeed wasn't as crazy at this point in time, and if I remember correctly, I believe Mr. Crepsley alludes to this in 'Cirque Du Freak'. It also makes Mr. Crepsley's fairly wise, and surprisingly tolerant attitude about the vampaneze more intriguing.

Of course it's well established that the vast majority of vampires and vampaneze have a general respect for each other. Gannen is a good example of an honorable vampaneze. Vancha having clear respect for his brother Gannen, as well as literally being a vampaneze once upon a time, is further proof of the two groups having a complex, yet mostly tolerant relationship.

When Murlough was first introduced in 'Tunnels of Blood' he wasn't the best example of a sane, respectable vampaneze. He went insane due to several factors, a large one being his excessive, reckless drinking habits. He went way beyond what was even acceptable for vampaneze. Murlough was particularly off his rocker at that point, even for the vampaneze.

Reading about this relatively normal Murlough was very interesting. I can only imagine what Mr. Crepsley must have thought when he ran into Murlough all those years later with Darren. Talk about a full circle moment.

In fact, Darren and Larten's first experience with a vampaneze was literally Murlough. Crazy. The similarities didn't quite end there either. Larten also was mostly unaware of the vampaneze when he encountered Murlough. He basically didn't know a thing about them, same as Darren.

Murlough showed surprising patience and respect towards Larten, as Larten was fiercely defending this new boy he encountered named Wester who just lost his family to Murlough. Murlough claimed he did this because Wester's father killed a friend of his.

Murlough ended up sparing the two of them simply out of respect for Larten which, is honestly kind of incredible when recalling the Murlough that I remember reading about in 'Tunnels of Blood'. Murlough even said Larten could make a good vampaneze and that he could come find him if he ever decided to leave his master. Murlough didn't even ask for Larten or Seba's name.

I'm not going to lie, the whole scene was utterly fascinating. Running into Murlough was maybe slightly predictable but I'm not remotely mad about it. Murlough being included is an awesome way to connect this series to the 'Cirque Du Freak'. The whole encounter was just awesome and it shows another side to the single-book villain that was Murlough. That final fight between Murlough and Larten in 'Tunnels of Blood' was after practically 200 years! Insane! I'm unsure if Murlough will return in this series or not but, that scene was just cool.

Larten taking in Wester as a friend and pretty much saving him from being alone in the world, was very cool and another aspect I forgot about. When Seba also accepts Wester as a SECOND apprentice this also shocked me.

The whole idea of the two kids needing to abandon their life and just move on to have a new purpose is quite cool, and deep.

But yeah I mean this second part was so cool. My memory being jogged slowly is so fun.

I'm having a great time.