A fan called Mathias emailed me a while ago to say that he was about to start re-reading my Demonata series, but should he start with the first book -- Lord Loss -- and read them in the order published, or should he start with the story that is set the earliest -- Bec -- and read them in chronological order?

For those unfamiliar with The Demonata, it features three narrators, and the over-arcing storyline dances backwards and forwards in time between them, especially in the first half of the series. You certainly CAN read them chronologically -- starting with Bec, then Demon Thief, then Lord Loss, Slawter, Blood Beast and onwards -- but I think the story works best if you read them in the order I arranged the books. There's nothing random about the structure of The Demonata -- I planned it very carefully, even delicately, sometimes in ways that most readers probably didn't even consciously notice. (For instance, are you all aware that the order of the narrators is the same in reverse as it is going forward? That was to play on one of the themes from the series, that time can be circular.) For all the gore and action, it's an intricate puzzle box of a story, one that stretched me to the very limits of my story-telling abilities and took me quite a bit further beyond where I thought I could go.

So, yeah, by all means DO read the books chronologically if you wish, especially if you're re-reading them like Mathias and are curious to find out how the story plays out that way. But for the very BEST reading of the series... trust the writer! :-)

If you don't own The Demonata, you can buy the full set of the UK paperback editions at an incredibly low bargain price over on Lowplex UK -- less than £20 for all ten books! They ship worldwide, and even with far-flung shipping costs included, they still work out at good value, no matter where you live. You can also get the set through Amazon stores and other places, so do look around for the very best deal you can find -- though Lowplex are usually very hard to beat, especially if you live in the UK or closeby. https://lowplex.com/index.php/the-darren-shan-demonata-collection-10-books-set-pack-collection.html