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Saga Of Darren Shan Books In Order

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Publication Order of Saga Of Darren Shan Books

A Living Nightmare (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Vampire's Assistant (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon
Tunnels of Blood (2000)Description / Buy at Amazon
Vampire Mountain (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon
Trials of Death (2001)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Vampire Prince (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
Hunters of the Dusk (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
Allies of the Night (2002)Description / Buy at Amazon
Killers of the Dawn (2003)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Lake of Souls (2003)Description / Buy at Amazon
Lord of the Shadows (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sons of Destiny (2004)Description / Buy at Amazon

Publication Order of Cirque Du Freak: The Manga Graphic Novel Books

A Living Nightmare (2003)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Vampire's Assistant (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Tunnels of Blood (2009)Description / Buy at Amazon
Vampire Mountain (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Trials of Death (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Vampire Prince (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Hunters of the Dusk (2010)Description / Buy at Amazon
Allies of the Night (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
Killers of the Dawn (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
The Lake of Souls (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
Lord of the Shadows (2011)Description / Buy at Amazon
Sons of Destiny (2012)Description / Buy at Amazon

The series, “Saga of Darren Shann” is also known as The “Cirque du Freak: Saga of Darren Shann” in the US. It is a young adult book series, which is composed of four trilogies, with three books per trilogy, hence, the series includes twelve books. This series is written by Darren Shan and it is about a young boy who has inadvertently become involved with vampires. The author Darren Shan had based the main character of the series on himself, when one day during his mid-twenties, he was thinking about the consequences of a vampire attacking him and turning him into a vampire while he was thinking about his favorite Stephen King book, Salem’s Lot. That idea gave him the incentive to start thinking about what it would be like for a boy to meet a vampire and to reluctantly become his assistant, so he wrote the first book of “Saga Of Darren Shann” series called The Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare, which was published in January 2000. According to the latest known statistics of the book, The Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare has been published in over 33 countries, in over 30 different languages. Also, a film based on the first three books in the series (first trilogy of “Saga Of Darren Shann” called Vampire Blood) was released in theatres in the US on October 23rd, 2009. “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant” is the 2009 American adaptation.

“Saga of Darren Shann” is about a normal human schoolboy named Darren Shan, and the story begins in The Cirque du Freak: A Living Nightmare with him and his best friend Steve Leonard, getting tickets to the Cirque Du Freak, which is an illegal freak-show that included such bizarre half human, half animal performers such as the Wolf Man, Gertha Teeth, Hans Hands and Rhamus Twobellies. During the creepy performances, Steve realizes that one of the performers is a vampire. Steve stays after the performance, to talk to the vampire and while eavesdropping on his friend Steve and the vampire, who is known as Larten Crepsley, Darren is the witness to something truly scary between Steve and Crepsley, so Darren steals Crepsley’s performing tarantula, which is something that will have devastating consequences for Darren and Steve. Darren is compelled by Crepsley, to become his personal assistant and to also become half vampire in return for Crepsley saving Steve’s life. This is a deal Darren had to make to his save own life as well.

In book two of “Saga Of Darren Shann” called “The Vampire’s Assistant” readers learn that Darren has abandoned his normal human life to reluctantly serve Mr. Crepsley as his personal assistant. So Darren must learn the way of life and the habits of being a vampire himself, but he is having a difficult time of it, and it causes him to be lonely. To help Darren become accustomed to his new way of life and hopefully make some friends, Mr. Crepsley has him live among the performers of the Cirque Du Freak. Mr. Crepsley persuades Darren to share his living quarters with Evra Von, the Snake Boy, who has his first appearance in the series in the first book. Darren soon becomes accustomed to his new life and his new position as Crepsley’s assistant, as he becomes friends with Evra. He and Evra also become friends with a young human boy named Sam Grest, who wants to become a member of the Cirque Du Freak. But still, Darren is not willing to drink human blood, even though he knows he will die without it. Mr. Crepsley tries to persuade him and even tries to force Darren to drink it, and all the while he is becoming weaker. Darren will have to be convinced to drink it before he succumbs to his own death, in spite of the human beliefs that he has a difficult time abandoning to save his own life.

In this series, “The Saga of Darren Shann”, author Shan had departed from the longtime folklore belief held of vampires and has added his own beliefs and made them more human than the belief held in popular culture even of present time. These vampires are alive, not undead, and can be killed by an accurate bullet, as well as being decapitated and pierced through the heart with any object that can penetrate. They are also not characteristically evil. Shan’s vampires also don’t drink human blood from the necks of their victims, but they cut a vein, only drinking a small amount of blood and then healing the cut in the human’s vein with their saliva. There is a separate or breakaway group of vampires called the vampaneze, who kill their victims and drain all of the blood of their victims. By feeding this way, the vampaneze don’t need to feed as much and can live longer than the vampires. By draining all of the human’s blood, the vampire or vampaneze would absorb the human’s spirit, which allows the vampire or vampaneze to have access to the human’s memories. If any animal or human were to somehow drink vampire blood, it would cause them to go into a deadly, mental agitation that would result in their death, which resembles the affliction of rabies. Vampires and vampaneze also don’t have fangs, but cut the veins of their victims with their strong, sharp nails. Vampires also don’t combust in sunlight, however, exposure to sunlight will burn them and prolonged exposure for four or five hours to sunlight will kill them. They are also able to exist and function during the day in the shade, and things like garlic, holy symbols (holy water and crosses) and silver have no killing or damaging effect on them. Vampires can’t reproduce, but they are created with blood to blood human contact. Vampires are also mortal, but they age at a slower rate than humans. Vampires also have reflections and shadows, but can’t be photographed. Vampires are also physically stronger and more resilient than humans, and they can run at a higher speed than then the human can track. They also sleep in coffins as they do in folklore.

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