I haven't watched the Artemis Fowl movie yet, and although I will at some point, based on all the terrible reviews, it's not something I'm looking forward to, which is a real shame. I loved the books (still have to finish them -- I'm rather behind on quite a few major series, which is why I never have a dig at readers who fall behind on mine -- I know how hard it is to keep up with a multi-book storyline!) and Eoin Colfer in the flesh is one of the funniest, nicest guys I've ever met -- we became quite good friends, though our paths haven't crossed in a while. (Remind me some other time to tell the story of how the pair of us came face-to-face with Tony Blair in Number 10 Downing Street and I introduced us as "the Irish contingent.")

I was really hoping for a great Artemis Fowl adaptation, one that would knock the ball out of the park (as our American cousins would say) and manage to get past the difficult-first-movie hurdle that's stopped so many books series adaptations dead in their tracks -- Cirque Du Freak included. My stomach dropped when the reviews started to come in, and I felt so bad for Eoin. Hopefully it will get resurrected one day and done proper justice second time round -- that seems to be what all us YA series writers are praying for these days!!!

Anyway, one of the reviews caught my eye for a couple of reasons. It was on the Pajiba site, it was very amusingly written (I think Eoin will have admired its reviewer's wit, even though she savaged the movie), and it dropped a funny reference to the Cirque Du Freak film very close to the end. If you want to check it out, CLICK HERE

Mystic Shan strikes again!! A fan called Charlotte spotted these paragraphs when re-reading the first Zom-B book and drew them to my attention. I'd actually forgotten this section. I knew the series had predicted the rise of the racist far-right and the ways that their rich paymasters, in league with bought politicians, would seek to manipulate us and drive us down paths of their choosing (I occasionally get criticised by a stray Trump supporter or two who accuse me to disrespecting him with this series, unaware that they were written years before he launched his bid for the White House), but the mention of lockdown had slipped my mind. Thanks, Charlotte, for a very good and timely spot! :-)

THERE CAN BE ONLY 9

A couple of months ago, back when J K Rowling was Public Enemy 1 in the eyes of some people, the CBR site put together a list that they called "Here Are 9 Fantasy Series to Read INSTEAD of Harry Potter." They listed some extremely cool series that I'm a fan of, as well as some that are unfamiliar to me, and I was tickled to see Cirque Du Freak named among them, and humbly pleased when they noted that "Though the saga doesn't specifically address queer themes, its promotion of tolerance and celebration of diversity... has earned the books a modest queer following -- at least from those unafraid of the dark." You can check out the full list by CLICKING HERE

I don't wish to reopen old cans of worms (or cans of old worms!), so I'm not going to comment on the transphobia controversy that led to such a list being put together in the first place, except to state that while I respect J K Rowling's right to express her views, and actually found it very interesting to read what she had to say on the subject, personally I DO see trans women as women. What I will say is that despite our differing stances on this issue, I read and loved the Harry Potter books when they came out, and they have consciously and subconsciously influenced quite a bit of my work over the last couple of decades (especially my Archibald Lox books), and I still consider them must-reads for anyone who loves escapist, empowering fantasy.

I always think an author's work needs to be separated from the author, as very few of us make for model citizens -- an interesting mind is very often a strongly flawed machine. Also, those "flaws" can be extremely subjective -- I've often spoken about the need for tighter gun control, and while many of my readers have applauded me for those views, others have derided me or even cast my work aside and vowed never to read another word that I write. Some of my favourite writers are people who I probably wouldn't like to spend much time around in the flesh, as we differ in many key ways on many key issues, but I've never let that bother me or turn me away from their work -- I'd rather read a great book by someone I despise, than a bad book by someone I was best friends with.

In short, in my opinion, regardless of whether we stand with or against J K Rowling on the issue of trans people, any list like this should be titled "9 Fantasy Series to Read AS WELL AS Harry Potter," because those books are the cream of the crop, and if you deny yourself the pleasure of reading them, you're the one losing out.

BOOK LOVER BROTHERS

Brothers To The Death was reviewed over on the Book Lover blog a while back, and seems to have rather taken the reviewer's breath away, literally, judging by the opening line of the review:

"Let's begin by saying I was left speechless for a few days but now, I think, I am ready to tell you about this amazing book and series finale."

CLICK HERE for the full review.

That's the sort of reaction you always hope for as a writer! For those unfamiliar with the book, it's the fourth and final book in my Saga Of Larten Crepsley series, which tells the story of Mr Crepsley's life across the two hundred years before he ran into Darren and Steve at the Cirque Du Freak. This one in particular holds a special spot in my heart, as it's the only one of my books that very nearly moved me to tears as I was writing it -- there's a scene near the end, where Larten faces the most devastating moment of his life, and I'd always start to well up when I was working on it! But I'd strongly recommend reading the first three books before you graduate onto this one, or it won't have quite the same impact...

SOUNDS OF SHAN

I shared the "Cirque Du Freak" song by Necronata with everyone last month, and there must be something in the air, because some other musically-inclined Shansters have been busy little bees in recent times...

First, I was sent an email five months ago (yikes! I should have shared it long before this! Sorry!!) by an old Swedish translator of mine (by "old" I mean somone who translated my books into Swedish a long time ago -- not that he's an old guy) called Jan. He said that he and his wife had been working on some songs for quite a few years and were finally taking them public on their web site. If I liked them, would I mind sharing the link with my followers? Well, I did like them, so here, somewhere belatedly, is the link, and you can check out the songs in the Audio & Video section of the site. CLICK HERE

Secondly, a fan of my vampire books, called King Mel, was reading Birth of a Killer, Book 1 of the Saga Of Larten Crepsley series, and decided to compose a cool little piece of music for the scene in which young, human Larten bumps into old, vampish Seba Nile in a crypt, and his life is changed forever... CLICK HERE

I love that scene -- it was one of my favourites to read out loud at events. A year or so before the book came out, before I'd announced what my new project would be, I'd read it out while I was touring. I'd say very little about it, just tell audience members that this was a story about a boy who lived two hundred years ago, and then go ahead and read it. It was only right at the very end of the scene, in the crypt, when Seba proclaims his name and asks the boy for his, that I'd say, "I'm Larten... Larten Crepsley." At that point, fans would realise who the book was going to be about, jaws would drop, eyes would light up, and sometimes I got very audible gasps, and even the odd excited whoop or two. :-)

Oh, and King Mel had forgotten this, so I figured I should point it out. When Larten first enters the crypt, Seba asks him, "Are cobwebs a treat where you come from?" The line is a little Easter Egg throwback to the original series. There are lots of little links (and sometimes very big links -- I was amazed by how many people missed the Daniel Abrams/Spits Abrams connection!) in the Mr Crepsley books, so if you're thinking of reading the two series again in the near future, I can pretty much guarantee that you'll spot something you missed the last time round -- if you pay attention, that is...

fINALLY, a fan of my Demonata books, called Bob Bobin, put together an album of hip-hop tunes that was cheekily entitled... Lord Floss!!! I'm not sure if Bob took direct inspiration from the books, of just thought it would be fun to reference them, but it was a nice tip of the hat -- the "borrowed" cover was fun too, but let's not tell my American publishers about it, or they might get cranky and start moaning about copyright issues... :-) CLICK HERE

I was intrigued to get an email from Taschen a few months ago with the header: Seba's Cabinet of Natural Curiosities. For those unfamiliar with Taschen, they're a publishing company, and they specialise in beautiful niche books, often very large and very expensive, often highlighting the work of artists or movie makers. (I recently picked up huge tomes about Charlie Chaplin and the first three Star Wars films, in a cut-price sale -- sweet!) I've bought from them before, which is why I'm on their mailing list, but this header threw me. Had the quartermaster of Vampire Mountain, Seba Nile penned a publishing deal with them without my knowledge?!? Was this to be an expose of the world of the creatures of the night?!? And if so, how would Vancha March take to being called a natural curiosity?!?

As it turned out, the book was penned by a different Seba -- 18th century naturalist Albertus Seba, and the book was described thusly: "Albertus Seba’s catalog of natural specimens is not only one of the 18th century’s greatest natural history achievements but also one of the most prized natural history books of all time. Inspired from a rare hand-colored original, this collection gathers all his extraordinary illustrations of strange and exotic plants, snakes, corals, as well as “double-headed monsters”, dragons, and many more."

So, nothing to do with Larten Crepsley's old mentor, but still I thought it might be of interest to Cirque Du Freak fans -- I suspect Mr Tall bought a copy of the original long ago, and who know, maybe he even helped Albertus out with a few of the entries -- so if you'd like to visit the Taschen site to find out more (and maybe even pick up a copy) CLICK HERE

With Covid-19 on the resurgence in many countries, this drawing by a fan called Keroromo, shared with me early into lockdown, seems sadly more timely than ever. It depicts Darren, Mr Crepsley and Gavner Purl -- I'm not sure if it's the lockdown that has stressed out Mr Crepsley, or Gavner's snoring!! :-)

My son Dante started back at school late in August, and like parents everywhere, Mrs Shan and I are worrying about how that's going to go. The government in Ireland has done a pretty good job overall of keeping down the Covid-19 cases, but there have been a few big outbreaks recently, which is troubling. The staff at his school are as on top of it as the staff at any school can be, so we've full confidence in them -- but no one can know for sure how this will play out until we're a few months in. I was reading through the new list of school guidelines a few days ago and for a few moments it just all seemed so overwhelming. I had to step back, take a deep breath, remind myself that we WILL get through this, then returned to it in a calmer mood.

I think a lot of us have faced moments like that over the last several months, when the weight of the world seems to be pressing down on us. I've had quite a few people ask me if the pandemic has given me any good ideas for stories -- indeed, many seem to assume that this is a ripe old time for me on the creative front. But funny as it might seem, I've no interest at all in writing about a group of characters who are stuck indoors watching too much TV! :-) Besides, I've already DONE all my pandemic writing -- and I'm not just talking about Zom-B, when killer viruses are a key part of the plot. If you look back through all my work, the one overriding message that runs through pretty much my entire oeuvre is that no matter how bad things get, we can always overcome the odds stacked against us. As a species, we've survived far worse than Covid-19 in the past, and will survive probably far worse in the future. We're good at battling through and coming out the other side. So, if the times are getting you down and you're feeling kind of glum, think back to when Darren was being washed through the heart of Vampire Mountain are failing his trials... to when Grubbs was locked up in hospital after the brutal massacre of his parents... to when B Smith watched with horror as her heart was ripped from her chest.

They bounced back from those major setbacks, and we'll all bounce back too. Trust me -- I'm a story teller -- I know about these things... :-)

DEJA VU OR DEJA NEW?!?

A fan called Amity Lee recently posted this picture of the Japanese paperback editions of The Saga Of Darren Shan. She'd taken off their glossy dust covers to find pictures on the covers of the books inside, and realised that if you put them all together, they formed a huge single picture, which you can see in the photo below. She was amazed by the beautiful work that had gone into this, and to be honest -- so was I!!!

I genuinely can't recall whether or not I knew about this before I saw Amity Lee's photo. The books were published a long time ago, so it's perfectly possible that I was told about this at the time, and have simply forgotten over the years, but equally there's a fair chance that this was something that slipped my notice at the time. These came out during the peak years of my public success, when I was jetting all around the world on tour, and new editions of my work were coming out somewhere on the planet almost every month or two. It was a lovely, crazy time, and some big things did pass me by during all the hubbub -- years later, I'd find holes in my collection and notice that I hadn't been sent certain books by certain publishers -- hell, there were even some British editions that were never sent to me, and they were my closest publishers of all, the ones I was most in contact with!

So, yeah, it's perfectly feasible that my Japanese publishers included this secret covers design without telling me, or that they did tell me but I then forgot it and never put the covers together once the paperbacks had all been sent to me. Or, yeah, maybe I've seen them all together like this before and simply forgot.

Either way. they look absolutely stunning, so I'm delighted to be able to share them with you all. (Maybe "again," if I've shared them here in the past!)

If you'd like to check out what the books look like with their dust covers on, CLICK HERE

IT'S A WRAP!