I've praised covers of the books in this series before, but this one is absolutely my favorite out of all twelve. Just incredible! Just a great piece of art. It's not the original cover, but this is still excellent and one of my favorite pieces of art in general.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Chapters Read: 1-5

So if my memory serves me correctly, this is possibly my favorite book in the series. Well, I like all of these books frankly. It's hard to pick favorites as this whole series is one of my favorites of all time. It's up there though, one of the most memorable. Let's see if my memory holds up. Although that absolutely fantastic ending to book five is competing at this point. Book five really surprised me. I knew the ending was good, but I have a whole new respect for it now.

That being said book five and six are essentially immediate continuations of each other. So book six begins with that wild energy that book five finished with right off the bat.

The first five chapters of The Vampire Prince is essentially pure suffering for Darren. He's recovering from burns, a boar fight, lack of sleep, traveling tunnels, heart ache at Gavner's death at the hands of who he thought was a friend... And now he speeds through a mountain river in pitch black, getting bashed and bumped, bruised and cut. He falls down literal waterfalls.

It was really wild how Darren is thinking throughout his descent, barely aware, pain, and confusion the entire ride down the mountain. It wasn't a very fun read, but it was captivating.

He finishes his journey getting spit out of Vampire Mountain via a waterfall, into a river below in the middle of the night. Although morning is fairly close. He is truly on death's door quite literally. His situation is utterly pitiful. Even considering knowing Darren is the main character, the sense of danger and hopelessness feels very real. The way he drags himself through the river into the snow, forcing himself to strip off his freezing clothes to avoid hypothermia was just nuts. Truly in the most vulnerable, weak state ever. Freezing, tired, injured, broken. He is undoubtedly incredibly tough. As a reader, his survival is rather inspiring. It's a good mental exercise to read on, just a tale/section encouraging one to never give up. I may have been praising/speculating about Kurda/Harkat as 'the main character', mostly as a thought experiment/joke, but all the while Darren is out here being a legend as well.

The wolves he met on his trek to Vampire Mountain end up saving him in this wildly dangerous state! Too clutch.

These five chapters were simply gnarly and gritty. Darren has nearly died about three times in a matter of what I'm guessing is like six hours or so. Just a guess on time there. But the boar nearly kills him, the Vampire Princes nearly kill him, and now this fall through the mountain river definitely nearly kills him. The trials themselves nearly kill him so make that four, although that was days prior.

It's like Darren is being beat down to a pulp, and reborn. This seems clear and intentional now, since the ending of this book is literally the halfway point.... Brilliant writing.

Phew, I am SO looking forward to the rest of The Vampire Prince!!!!