The City Trilogy by DB Shan : Book 1 - Procession of the Dead

Archive for February 2008

 
 

Join the Procession

Procession of the Dead goes on sale officially on March 3rd, but is already on sale in certain shops around the UK and Ireland, and is also available to buy through Amazon. So if your local shop doesn’t stock it, or if you prefer to buy online, you can get a copy by clicking on the following link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Procession-Dead-City-Trilogy-Shan/dp/0007261306/shanville

Alternatively, you can order it from the D B Shan SHOP.

Going Dutch

I’m delighted to be able to announce that the rights to The City trilogy have been bought by my publishers in the Netherlands. Expect to see the first book, Procession of the Dead, sometime within the next 12 months, and the other two at yearly intervals thereafter.

SFX interview

I was recently interviewed for SFX magazine. It will be appearing in the April issue, which will go on sale to subscribers the last week of March. If your local shops don’t stock SFX, you can visit their web site to find out how to subscribe or order a copy: www.sfx.co.uk/

Early notes

One of the pieces of advice I give to young authors is to plot out a book as clearly as you can — if you have a clear idea of where you want to go with a story, it makes the actual job of writing a whole lot easier. But it’s advice I didn’t follow myself when I was starting out — I often worked from the barest of notes. Below you can find all the notes I used when writing the first draft of Ayuamarca. As you can see, they’re fairly skimpy!
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Back to Books

Capac Raimi arrives in the city to join his uncle’s business, that of small time gangster. He quickly learns the ropes but soon finds himself brought to the attention of The Cardinal. The Cardinal is the gangster who runs the entire city and nothing happens in this city without the the knowledge or approval of The Cardinal.
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Procession PB Cover

This is the UK Paperback cover for Procession of the Dead, which will be released in September 2008. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

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Procession TPB Cover

This is the UK Trade Paperback cover for Procession of the Dead, Book 1 of The City trilogy. Released March 2008. Click on thumbnail for a larger image.

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The Irish Times

ORION imprint Millennium is describing as “an astonishing fiction debut” the first novel by 24-year-old Darren O’Shaughnessy, due out next week.

 

Born in London, Darren moved with his family to Limerick when he was six and has lived there ever since, apart from a spell back in London where he studied sociology and English.

 

The novel, entitled Ayuamarca, subtitled ‘Procession of the Dead’ and further subtitled (this is getting confusing) “The City, Book 1″, is set in a mythical metropolis far removed from either London or Limerick and brings together a cardinal, a gangster, Aztec mysteries and … oh, you’ll have to read it for yourself.

 

With another novel, this time for teenagers, due out in October, Darren’s decision to be a full-time writer is certainly matched by his industry.Reviewed by John Boland

Rocket Fuel

Darren O’Shaughnessy’s Ayuamarca reads like noir dialogue. It’s as gritty as sand in your bikini. O’Shaughnessy handles a more supernatural subject like Neil Caiman or Clive Barker, blending ancient myth and the occult with dark near-future mystery. The novel treads a bit too much into the “cool Brit” pop style of guns and drugs and capers, taking well-worn American genres and spicing them up with dialect and UK locales. Think Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels in 30 years. But I have a soft spot for the British. I don’t know why. I like the Manic Street Preachers. So sue me.

Reviewed by Brent DiCrescenzo.

Vector

The blurb tells readers that Ayuamarca “marks the debut of a prodigious talent” and is “reminiscent of the best of Clive Barker and lain Banks”. I’m afraid not.

 

The story is set in a South American city ruled over by a ruthless, murderous gangster known as the Cardinal. He maintains an army of enforcers and his will is law. Into this world steps the young ambitious Capac Raimi, come to join his uncle, himself a minor villain on the periphery of the Cardinal’s criminal empire. Raimi seems far too scrupulous for a life of violent crime, but nevertheless finds himself taken up as one of the Cardinal’s proteges, indeed a possible successor. He has no idea why, and neither do we.
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