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BOOKS FOR
KEEPS, #162, jan
2007
- reviewed by
CB |
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Before today, I
had managed to
avoid reading
any Darren Shan,
which means I
had missed all
12 of his series
of vampire
novels (The Saga
of Darren
Shan'), and I
have connected
with this
publishing
phenomenon only
at Book 3 of
'The Demonata',
his new series.
Shan's name is
given more
prominence on
the cover than
the title,
though both
retreat into
insignificance
before a
fluorescent
green demon with
yellowing fangs
against a
flaming orange
background. This
is teen horror
for collectors,
and Shan has his
own website for
aficionados. In
this kind of
enterprise the
requirements are
to keep the
titles coming,
to build in
connections from
one book to
another, and to
balance the
expected thrills
with some new
variations. From
the preamble to
this story, I
suspect that the
new variations
may have
appeared in the
first two books,
which involved
playing chess
with a demon for
a werewolf's
soul, and I
arrived at a
point where
inspiration was
temporarily
suspended. Much
of the action
was predictable:
real demons
appearing in a
movie about
demons. But I
suspect that
Shan's secret
and his skill is
in building the
series
framework - the
characters and
preoccupations
that develop
from book to
book - that
keeps his
readers
hooked. |
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