Think no matter if you are a Darren Shan fan or not, you should give this book a try. It is amazing! From the start to the end. Actually wish it can be longer. Love reading the adventures Jebel and Tel Hesani went through.
**SPOILER ALERT**
I guessed Jebel will start to be friends with Tel Hesani. And it was great how you can see Jebel changed. From a little boy just wanting to prove to everyone especially his father and Debbat he isn't as worthless and suddenly goes off to a hard quest which its impossible for him. We can see how he slowly change his views off the world, he matures and think of lower class people-slaves. I guessed Jebel and Bas would be together at the end, was a easy guess.
I was surprised with the ending, as the title says thin executioner, I thought it would just be a simple book about Jebel going to adventures and trials to become a executioner. When he completed his quest, I totally forgot about Tel Hesani's family would be executed if Jebel doesn't return. So I thought Jebel would forget about Wadi his hometown, and travel and learn more about different tribes/nations. Or he go home and life a simple life of a teacher or something even when he went through everything. I was hoping Tel Hesani wouldn't die at the end, but I got a feeling he would, but never thought he was killed the creepy crazy man Qasr Bint.
When I was reading this book, I thought Darren Shan wrote this book differently from the other books I've read (cirque, demonata, larten crespley, zom-b etc) Normally his books will have a lot horrible gory scenes, but I thought maybe he was just trying something different. There was lots of killing and torturing but it wasn't a big deal compare to the usual demons and zombies kinda thing. But when this crazy man Qasr Bint came out. When the story introduced him in and after a chapter or two you can see the horror and gore of Darren Shan. Qasr Bint is a horrible man, he is a crazy villian. In the usual villain in a Darren Shan it will just be like demons and zombies, things you expect to be mentally sick. But Qasr Bint was just a human being, with a sick twisted mind. Seriously? Making everything torture each other is to clean out everyone's sins? I love how Jebel asked if he's so clean why can't everyone kill him. This man just wants power and everyone to do what he wants. Torturing and killing people is just fun for him. At least that's what I think. I thought Jebel and Tel Hesani would escape somehow or trick him into the rock spirits. But instead Tel Hesani remembered their adventures before about the clan that live peace with nature. And use that against them and let the bats kill them. I never thought Qasr Bint will make it alive though. Seriously, this guy is crazy thinking he's like doing God a favor or something.
Revenge is good, Bush and Blair. Stealing and greed got them. Was happy my thoughts of tricking something to the rock sprites was right. It's like karma, they always steal from the dead and this time they were greedy and want treasures, letting Jebel to have a chance to let the rock sprites eat them! Even thought Bush and Blair are villains in this story, I quite like them. The wee ball they have to kill people is quite cool. They want to enjoy life. Ways to steal. Was quite fun to read the parts with them in it. But I guess in the end they get what they deserve.
Darren Shan is really amazing. I really love reading Jebel and Tel Hesani when they go to different parts of the country. How each part of the country have different beliefs, they ways the live, different Gods, different views. I guess it is just like what our world is like but the places they were to is really interesting. People living in harmony with snakes and alligators. And bats to some, that kinda remind me of vampires. A bat suck blood from a cow then the people suck blood from the same wound. The Siq sounds like a really cool place. The people in it are interesting. At first when they bought the head back to the family, I thought they don't care if family die during their trials but it wasn't true. They put the head in this thing and replace the oldest head in there. And people that mourn for that oldest head would be dead anyways so no one will feel upset. Interesting way to mourn for someone. Even though your loved ones are gone but you can still go see them cause their soul is still there. Strange kind of grave I guess. I wonder if all these nations and tribes are all made up or were they reference of some parts of the world.
One thing I don't like about the book would be probably everyone and place's name. So hard to remember at first haha.
I really enjoyed this book. I would definitely recommend to other people and read again some time. I really like the Cirque and Demonata and Larten Crespley series but this book is really good too. I won't know which one is my favourite. This book is different from the rest apart from being shorter haha. Cirque and Crespley series are easy to read. You'll just reading and reading. But Thin Executioner, it make you stop sometimes and think about what happened or why it happened. I'm not sure how to explain but I'm guessing its cause this book is aimed at slightly older audience than the Cirque. It involves a lot more. Slavery, people's beliefs, religions etc. It's more real. Lots of the problems and people in the book, would be easily found in the real world.
This is definitely 5/5 book. Thanks Darren Shan for writing. =)
