Tomorrow marks the start of another month, and another new book by Darren Shan! Archibald Lox and the Rubicon Dictate will be my third new release in as many months, and will bring to an end the Summer Of Shan, freeing me up to go finish my work on the Volume 2 books ahead of their release next year, and freeing up you guys to go read something else! :-)

It's been a strange experience, releasing the books so swiftly. On the one hand I've really enjoyed it, as it's meant people can read the Volume 2 installments almost as one big book, which is the way I originally wrote the story. On the other hand, without a sizeable gap between them, it does feel as if it's drained them of some of the magic that a new release usually involves -- with no big build-up to book 5 or 6, there was no real sense of excitement about their release -- they just appeared, on time, as expected, a bit like two buses that you knew were coming soon around the corner.

Having released the first three books all on the same day last year, and the next three with just one month between each of them, I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the final three books next year. There are BIG cliffhangers at the ends of books 7 and 8, so it would be nice to release the books close together -- but alternatively, it would be wicked fun to make my readers wait and suffer!!! :-)  I'll have a good long think about it over the autumn and winter, before deciding early in the new year.

Anyway, ahead of the release of book 6 tomorrow, here's a review of the first three books in the series, from the blogger ThisDreamsAlive. There are a few small spoilers, but it neatly summarises the overall story arc of Volume 1, without giving TOO much away, and provides some very nice analysis -- "If you’re looking for a face-paced adventure that’s not too difficult to swallow then this is it!" If you haven't yet started the series, this will hopefully give you the confidence to begin, in the knowledge that you won't end up wasting your time on a long, boring, drag of a tale -- as if I could ever write such a thing!!!! :-) :-) :-)

Click here for the review: https://www.thisdreamsalive.com/2021/06/archibald-lox-darren-shan-book-review-1-2-3/

And if it inspires you to download the books immediately (the eBooks are the cheapest way of buying this series -- the first three will currently only cost you a grand total of $2.99 or your local equivalent) or buy the paperbacks (the Omnibus edition is the cheapest way to buy them physically), you can find out where you can buy them here: https://darrenshan.com/news/shanville-monthly