A YouTube reviewer called Kritigri decided to review the first couple of books of my Cirque Du Freak series a while back, as well as Volume 1 of the manga omnibus edition. He did so under a banner on his YouTube page called Blurbal Reasonings. They're quite lengthy -- the review for each book is half an hour, while the review for the manga is over 20 minutes -- so not for those of you who want a swift, to-the-point review. But if you're in the mood for a longer, more leisurely review -- something along the lines of a podcast -- then these should hit the spot sweetly.

One thing that made me smile was a line from the book that he quotes in the description box for the video of the first book: "I was in a state of shock, but the sight of her emerging over his shoulder like some terrible arachnid sunrise spurred me into life." That was one of my favourite lines, not just from the book, but the entire series -- but almost no one ever comments on it! I was very pleased with myself when I came up with that comparison, and it's a line that has stuck in my head over the years. Sometimes people quote back lines that I've written, and I honestly don't recall writing them, or which book they came from, but this one... yeah, pride might be one of the seven deadly sins, but I don't care, I'm properly proud of that little line, and yes, I remember it well. Well chosen, Kritigri. Well chosen indeed!!! :-)

Book 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K1dLgZ53jIM

Book 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGymtShGtYA

Manga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yj3vSQbhmE

If, by some strange quirk of fate, you haven't read the Cirque Du Freak manga -- or maybe didn't even know it existed -- then I have good news for you! The manga books have been out of print for years, but my American publishers have started to re-release them in large, beautiful omnibus editions. Each Volume contains two books, and three Volumes have been released so far, gathering together the first half of the overall storyline. For more info about that, and links to where you can buy them (they're available worldwide), click here: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly