Ok dude, 'Killers of the Dawn' is way better than I remembered. Honestly, I only just started this, and I'm thinking this is notches above what I previously remembered. The day I create my tier list of all the books from 'The Inheritance Cycle/Cirque Du Freak/Harry Potter' I really think 'Killers of the Dawn' may be significantly higher than I would have guessed beforehand. This one ends tragic, and it's certainly depressing, but considering all of this exciting lead up and the unfortunate reality that tragedy in an epic series like this is captivating... Man, this is going to be good I believe.
So before I get ahead of myself, I'll just focus on these first five chapters obviously.
Steve is a lot more sinister than I remembered, and I already knew he was sinister. This time for whatever reason, I'm really starting to see just how nuts he is. I also forgot just how much he's actually involved in the story. Again, as I've said many times throughout this re-read, I have forgotten a lot of details about the story, and with a bit more wisdom and life experience, and I'd like to assume, intelligence, I can see the bigger picture here. While I have forgotten details, I do remember most of the major details in general. So it's just a fascinating experience.
Steve is not simply evil, he's literally like the Joker. The man is literally the smartest guy in the room and it's actually stunning. Like, for whatever reason this clear fact about Steve escaped me in prior reads. I think I read this series two or three times but it's been a LONG time since the last time I read it, so yeah.
Steve is held captive by Darren, Mr. Crepsley, Harkat and Vancha and Steve actually owns the room. The four of them are actually Steve's puppets. They ask Steve about the appearance and various details about the Lord of the Vampaneze and Steve has the slickest type of answers and just literally laughs in their face for the most part. How Steve isn't killed by them in this time is actually insane.
Steve is playing chess, and the gang is playing tic-tac-toe. In fact, it's as if the gang isn't even aware a game is being played. Frankly, it's actually embarrassing the gang is truly this ignorant to everything going on. Mr. Crepsley might slowly be realizing the depth of Steve's intelligence as he does reluctantly admit Steve is many things but he's not foolish.
The gang is sort of just winging it, and trying to play superhero while Steve is actually plotting. Like, Steve in some ways is like a prodigy at being a total evil nutjob. This may all be by design of course by Mr. Tiny, like Mr. Tiny could have given Steve these traits, nevertheless it's wild to see this develop. How Steve became this smart isn't overly important at the end of the day.
The very nature of this war is basically a 3 vs 1. Three hunters to get one Steve. It's revealed that only the Vampaneze Lord can kill the hunters, if someone other than the Lord kills one of the hunters, the vampires win. So it's not that simple as a 3 vs 1 but yeah, it's close enough in my opinion. This also explains why the vampaneze were fighting so strangely in the tunnels. I imagine that if they were cornered, they would have allowed Steve to kill the three of them but Darren managed to knock Steve out and literally almost killed him. In fact, that whole fight seems way more high stakes than I realized! It emphasizes Steve's intelligence, but also I gotta give credit for Darren's own boldness as well. He nearly unintentionally foiled that entire scheme until of course R.V. stepped in and snagged Debbie. The tension in that whole scene actually makes a lot more sense.
But again, regarding Steve and his intelligence, Larten Crepsley is around 200 years old or so, Vancha March is about 300, Darren and Steve are about the same age of like their mid-late 20's. For Steve to just be twelve steps ahead, just playing these dudes is just wild, I never really thought deeply about this before. I don't know, I always pictured Steve as a relatively simply angry, vaguely persistent villain, but I was kinda dead wrong. The guy is actually a problem, and it's pretty creepy and intimidating. He's not just wildly smarter than I thought, he's also got ruthless, reckless traits as well. To just be willing to be within arm's reach of the very people that MUST kill him is insane. Steve is almost killed by Vancha and the way Steve is just sort of indifferent, almost accepting is kind of alarming. The guy is really off his rocker just as much as he's smart. I wonder why he didn't care he almost died. Perhaps he knew they wouldn't kill him? He also seems more worried about getting Darren and Mr. Crepsley more than the bigger mission of defeating the vampires at times. But I don't know. Maybe it's just a mix of both. I think the guy is just angry and petty as much as he's intelligent. Weird. I guess at the end of the day it's not easy to see the logic an evil person.
In general though, overall, Steve is taking this a lot more seriously than the gang is. The gang's whole plan has basically been 'let's find him and kill him I guess lol'. While Steve has been in the shadows grinding, literally building an army on top of it all. I guess when one is labeled the Lord of the Vampaneze, he's gonna have some respectable, formidable traits.
At the moment, they're completely entrenched in Steve's plots and from what I remember, it's really not going to be easy to squirm their way out of this. But I believe at this point they're becoming a bit humbled.
Also, for Steve he does sort of have to make a more elaborate scheme. He has to kill three dudes, who are trained and trying to kill him. So it's just a different perspective I guess.
Let's go, this one if flying by! It's been action packed and fascinating as well.
