The Demonata
The Demonata is a series by best selling author Darren Shan. It deals with the world of demons (as opposed to his other series, The Saga of Darren Shan which deals with vampires). The series is told by three different protagonists: Grubbs Grady, Kernel Fleck, and Bec, the latter of which is the first female protagonist in a Darren Shan book. It is currently planned that the series will contain ten books, of which seven have been released.
The books
Released
- Lord Loss - June 6, 2005
- Demon Thief - October 5, 2005
- Slawter - June 1, 2006
- Bec - October 2, 2006
- Blood Beast - June, 2007
- Demon Apocalypse - October, 2007
- Death's Shadow - June, 2008
Unreleased
- Wolf Island - October 1, 2008 [citation needed]
- Demonata Book 9 - May, 2009
- Demonata Book 10 - October, 2009
Chronological order
(Note that this is only for Books 1-7 and past that is yet to be known where they'll fit in)
Bec (Between 350 AD and 400 AD.Just as christianity was converting Ireland. About 1600 years before Demon Thief)
Demon Thief (Mid 1970s. About 30 years before Lord Loss)
Lord Loss (Early 21st century.)
Slawter (Fourteen months after the end of Lord Loss.)
Blood Beast (About a year after Slawter.)
Demon Apocalypse (Directly following Blood Beast)
Death's Shadow (Six months after Demon Apocalypse)
Plot
Three main protagonists feature; Grubbs Grady, Kernal Fleck and Bec. While they do meet, they live in separate times, Grubbs in the present day, Kernal in the 1970s and Bec in 350AD.
Lord Loss is the first book, featuring Grubbs Grady. Blurb - "The door feels red hot, as though a fire is burning behind it. I press an ear to the wood - but there's no crackle. No smoke. Just deep, heavy breathing! And a curious dripping sound. My hand's on the door knob. Inside the room, somebody giggles - low, throaty, sadistic. There's a ripping sound, followed by snaps and crunches. My hand turns. The door opens. Hell is revealed." When Grubbs Grady first encounters Lord Loss and his evil minions, he learns three things: the world is vicious, magic is possible, demons are real. He thinks that he will never again witness such a terrible night of death and darkness! He is wrong.
Origins
Lord Loss was originally a poem written by Darren Shan, found in the front of Lord Loss. The story of Lord Loss and the Demonata came to Darren while he was working on The Saga. He wrote the book and left it alone until the Saga was finished. At first he had no idea it would be a series but then he wrote Bec and Blood Beast and Demon Apocalypse. He felt that he needed another book to describe how Grubbs's magical power developed. So the germs for Slawter were born. That time there was no Demon Thief. So he wrote another book to explain how it would be such a big deal when Kernel lost his eyes.
Waterstones have teamed up with Darren Shan and have set up a competition where fans of the series can make up their own demon. The winner's demon gets written into the ninth Demonata book and will receive a signed copy of the book from Shan himself. Nine runners-up will also receive signed copies of the book.
On Darren Shan's blog he stated one of his favorite lines from Book 10 is " I gouge". He said we'll know why when we've read it.