One of my absolute favourite Irish authors, not that I know many if I’m completely honest, is Darren ‘Shan’ O’Shaughnessy. Though born in London, he has lived in Limerick ever since he was three, and he is now 41. He is known for his fantasy and horror novels and now has a few series under his belt. The books which originally got his name out there were his 12 book vampire series using his own name: Darren Shan.
A prequel series was then produced about Darren’s mentor, Mr Larten Crepsley; The Saga of Larten Crepsley. Again, I’ve only read one or two out of the four books, but what I did read was interesting and addictive. This showed Crepsley, as he comes to be known in Darren Shan, as a child growing up and how he came to be a child of the night.
His next series was The Demonata. Now, I haven’t finished all of these. I ran out of money about seven books in and so the last three are on my to-be-read list. These books are so much darker than Darren Shan and a lot bloodier. I read these in my late teens and I was gagging at some of the gore. It’s not for the faint hearted. The story gets convoluted the further on it gets, and with three narrators, that’s not surprising, but it does mean that no one is safe. Grubbs Grady, Kernel Fleck and Bec MacConn all live in a seemingly normal world, and whereas I realise most books of this genre are like this, this is different because of how everything is kept normal and yet so abnormal at the same time.
He has recently changed his pen name to Darren Dash, for the adult novels that he is to publish so that people do not get confused with his children’s / young adult books. He has written several adult novels, under varying names; The City Trilogy, comprising of Ayuamarca (renamed to Procession of the Dead), Hell’s Horizon, and City of the Snakes; The Thin Executioner; Lady of the Shades; and The Evil and the Pure.
Darren’s writing has always fascinated me. He’s not in the same league as those such as George R. R. Martin, Terry Goodkind, or J. R. R. Tolkien, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. He has his own style and it works for him, clearly, as he has so many books out! As a huge fan of his books, he is an inspiration to me, and I can’t wait to catch up on those series that I missed!