The Saga of Darren Shan

Infobox Novel series
name = The Saga of Darren Shan
books = Cirque Du Freak
The Vampire's Assistant
Tunnels of Blood
Vampire Mountain
Trials of Death
The Vampire Prince
Hunters of the Dusk
Allies of the Night
Killers of the Dawn
The Lake of Souls
Lord of the Shadows
Sons of Destiny



image_caption = Boxset of book 1-6 of the Saga, published by HarperCollins.
author = Darren Shan
country = United Kingdom
language = English
genre = Fantasy, thriller
publisher = HarperCollins Children's Books (UK)
Little Brown and Company (USA)
pub_date = 4 January 2000 – 6 September 2006
media_type = Print (hardcover and paperback)
Audiobook

"The Saga of Darren Shan" (known as Cirque Du Freak: The Saga of Darren Shan in the US) is a young adult 12 book series written by Darren Shan about the struggle of a boy who has become involved in the world of vampires. As of October 2008, the book is published in 37 countries around the world, in 30 different languages [ [http://www.darrenshan.com/monthly/index.html Shanville Monthly 99(See Section titled SHAN ACROSS THE GLOBE)] ] . A movie based on the first three book in the series is currently in production by Universal Studios. [ [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0450405/ Cirque du Freak(2009) IMDB] ]

Background

Darren Shan's initial breakthrough was a book published in 1999 called Ayuamarca (he later renamed and republished it as "Procession of the Dead"). It received some good reviews but didn't sold much. The second book in that series, Hell's Horizon, was published in February 2000, and it sold even less copies than the first one. Darren Shan wrote and published the first book of the series, "Cirque du Freak", as a fun side project between the two adult books. "Cirque du Freak" received good reviews and Warner Bros bought the movie rights in a seven figure deal prior to publication, though the film was never made and the film rights returned to Shan after three years. [ [http://www.darrenshan.com/facts/index.html Darren Shan/Facts: Biography] ]

Plot outline

"The Saga of Darren Shan" follows the story of Darren Shan, a normal human boy who is coerced by the vampire Larten Crepsley into becoming his assistant and a half-vampire.

*In the first trilogy, known as "Vampire Blood", Darren learns about and comes to accept his vampirism.
**In Book One, "Cirque Du Freak", Mr. Crepsley makes Darren a half-vampire in return for saving the life of one of Darren's best friends.
**In Book Two, "The Vampire's Assistant", Crepsley notes that Darren is quite lonely and brings him back to the freak show, where he befriends a snake-like boy.
**In Book Three, "Tunnels of Blood", Crepsley goes back to his hometown, where one of the vampires' enemies, a Vampaneze, is murdering innocent people.

*In the second trilogy, known as "Vampire Rites", Darren learns about the vampire clan and seeks their acceptance.
**In Book Four, "Vampire Mountain", Mr. Crepsley and Darren make their ascent up Vampire Mountain and learn about the rites of the vampires.
**In Book Five, "Trials of Death", Darren faces the Trials of Death to gain the recognition of other vampires as one of the youngest vampire to be recruited in decades.
**In Book Six, "The Vampire Prince", Darren finds out about the traitor and tries to stop plans to destroy the vampire clan.

*In the third trilogy, known as "Vampire War", Darren learns he may have a larger role to play in the fate of the vampires (and of the world) than he had ever thought.
**In Book Seven, "Hunters of the Dusk", the hunt for the Lord of the Vampaneze, who is destined to destroy the vampire clan, begins.
**In Book Eight, "Allies of the Night", Darren meets some of his past friends who now fit into his quest.
**In Book Nine, "Killers of the Dawn", Darren faces the Lord of the Vampaneze for the second time.

*In the fourth trilogy, known as "Vampire Destiny", Darren is forced to make some difficult decisions, finally taking his destiny into his own hands and dealing with the consequences.
**In Book Ten, "The Lake of Souls", Darren travels to an unfamilar land to find out who his best friend, Harkat Mulds, used to be, as Harkat was a "Little Person", who were creatures resurrected to life after death.
**In Book Eleven, "Lord of the Shadows", Darren finds out more about the Lord of the Shadows and gets closer to his last confrontation with the Lord of the Vampaneze.
**Book Twelve, "Sons of Destiny", Darren faces the Lord of the Vampaneze for a final fight to the death.

Main characters

Darren Shan's vampires

han's vampire concept

The concept of the vampire in the Darren Shan universe is first fully outlined in the second novel of the "Saga of Darren Shan", "The Vampire's Assistant". Shan's concept of the vampire differs from the traditional Hollywood or literary portrayal in many ways. His vampires cannot fly, morph, and will not kill their prey. They do not have fangs(but fangs do apear on the cover of hunters of the dusk). Neither holy water nor the cross are effective against them. While technically a stake to the heart or a silver bullet can kill them, so can other things which can kill humans. The vampires are stronger than humans, but not indestructible.

The closest action they perform to flying is something called "flitting" or "extraordinary flitting"; when vampires sprint, they move so fast that the naked eye cannot see them (they do need a running start, however). They also, after putting some of their blood in a ceremonial object known as the "Stone of Blood", communicate telepathically with other vampires. Their feeding practice is very straightforward; They take their extremely sharp nails and make a small incision into, usually, the back of the arm of their prey to take as much blood as they need. After feeding, they use their saliva, which has special healing properties, to close up the incision. Full vampires can knock out a person with special gas that they breathe through their mouths.

When first blooded, a vampire is only a Half-vampire; They still have half their human blood in them. Half-vampires don't need as much blood to survive as full-vampires do. They aren't as strong, fast, or tough as full-vampires are, but their strengths in these areas are still far greater than a human's. They can move about during the day, but cannot flit, communicate telepathically, knock out people with their breath, or heal cuts with their saliva. After about 20-40 years of being a half-vampire, the vampire cells in the half-vampire's body go through something called the "purge" which means the cells are transforming them into a Full Vampire

A full-vampire ages at one-tenth the normal human rate(for every ten years that pass they age only one year), while a half-vampire ages at one-fifth(for every five years that pass they age only one year).

Vampaneze

In "The Saga of Darren Shan" the vampaneze are the vampires' cousins, and worst enemies. They're enemies in the blood.

For all time, vampires only drank as much blood as they needed, never killing their victims. A few vampires disagreed with this, finding it disrespectful, and broke off from the vampire clan. They called themselves the vampaneze, and killed whenever they drank by draining their victims dry, a practice they defended by the flicker of a person's soul they absorbed every time they killed, therefore preserving their existence. This larger dosage of feeding resulted in their skin turning purple and their lips, nails, hair, and eyes becoming blood red.

Half-Vampaneze still kill, but don't kill as often. They have normal colouring and can move about during the day, unlike full-vampaneze (or full-vampires, for that matter.) Vampaneze live slightly longer than vampires, but otherwise have the same powers. They never lie or use long-distance weapons, such as guns or arrows, and are fiercely brave and loyal.

An uneasy truce between the Vampires and Vampaneze existed, but the meddling of Desmond Tiny destroyed this, plunging both sides into the terrible War of the Scars.

Darren Shan manga

A manga series based on the Darren Shan novels is currently being published in the Shogakukan anthology Shonen Sunday by Takahiro Arai in a weekly serialization. It has been confirmed that Yen Press will be publishing all volumes of the manga in North America beginning in 2009. [http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=17533]

Short Stories

Darren Shan has released numerous short stories on his website, all of which tie into the saga.

*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/14-stevesstoryviva2.html An Essay on Vampires] " "by" Steve Leopard - book 1 tie-in story. The essay was written sometime before Cirque Du Freak.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/13-anniesdiary2.html Annie's Diary] " - Based on Darren's sister's diary during the events of Cirque Du Freak.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/11-destiny-uk112.html Tiny Terrors] " - Takes place during The Vampire's Assistant. It centers around the mysterious Desmond Tiny.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/10-transylvaniaSam2.html Transylvania Trek] " - a short story "written" by Sam Grest, a character from book 2.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/09-shanta2.html Shanta Claus] " (only available at Christmas). A special story that follows Shanta Clause as he visits the homes of many characters in the series.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/08-lonelylefty2.html Lonely Lefty] " - A story centering around Harkat Mulds that takes place during the events of Tunnels of Blood.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/07-brideofsam2.html Bride of Sam Grest] " - another short story "written" by Sam Grest, a character from book 2.
*" [http://www.darrenshan.com/vampires/extras/extras/06-affairofthenight2.html An Affair of the Night] " -A story centering around Gavner Purl, before his untimely death. Ties in with Trials of Death.

The Sam Grest stories have been included in the Midnight Feast collection. Sam Grest was only significant in The Vampire's Assistant.

References

External links

* [http://www.darrenshan.com Darren Shan website]
*imdb title|id=0450405|title=Cirque du Freak
* [http://websunday.net/rensai/set_darren.html Darren Shan manga series website]