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

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.

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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Wiseguy wannabe Capac Raimi comes to the City and is taken under the wing of all powerful crimelord The Cardinal, becoming a man of power and influence. But success in his chosen career opens the door to a world of mysteries. Why can Raimi remember so little of his life before the City? What are The Cardinal’s real motives? How do people disappear so completely that no one except him even remembers them? Who or what are the Ayuamarcans? Raimi’s search for the truth leads him to a group of Incan priests with an agenda of their own.
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Millennium’s selling point for this book is its author’s youth, and at twenty-four, O’Shaughnessy has written a book that many older authors would be proud of.
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Reviewed by Chris Gilmore.

Darren O’Shaughnessy’s debut novel, Ayuamarca: Procession of the Dead features a protago­nist who has lost most of his memo­ries. Capac Raimi, whose Inca name is of central but obscure significance, arrives in an unnamed city determined to make good in his chosen profession of gangster. To achieve this disreputable ambition he must obtain the patronage of The Car­dinal, the boss of bosses, on whose sufferance all businessmen (legitimate or otherwise) depend, and at whose whim they frequently die, The Cardinal being a chaoticist who runs the entire show according to a system of his own based on pseudo-Jungian synchronicities.
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When the citizens of one Incan village had a prophecy of the destruction of their civilization by the invaders from Europe, they followed their religious leaders in a journey to an alternate world where they would be allowed to develop their own civilization. Generations later, a new conflict arises. Their city is unofficially dominated by the Cardinal, a corrupt but powerful member of the religious community, and Capac Raimi, a young and ambitious professional criminal who wants to make a living at his trade, and doesn’t expect to find himself in a battle with the Cardinal. A fascinating story that uses a unique setting and an excellent story line to develop the central conflict. This appears to be the first in a series.

The more books I read the less surprised I become at the poor quality of writing that passes for professional acceptance nowadays. However, reading Ayuamarca shows that there is light at the end of the tunnel and that some quality material is getting through the bland filter. How to describe Ayuamarca?
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Capac Raimi is a young man arriving in a city and planning a new life; the life of a gangster. He plans to get right to the top, to topple the almighty Cardinal and to become the new crime boss of the city. To become as powerful a god.

However things are not always simple and the fact he cannot remember anything before he arrived in the city is one of the minor complexities. Confusions and seeming madness haunt him, demanding answers. Sometimes answers are more important than life itself.
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The book was not popular.
Those lucky few that found a copy to read would have no doubt found it a remarkably interesting and unique tale, but overall not many copies were sold - it took eighteen months for Darren O’Shaughnessy to get this book on the shelves after writing it and perfecting it.
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