Demon Thief
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 Demon Theif's cover, featuring Artery, slightly warped. |
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| Author | Darren Shan |
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| Country | Ireland |
| Language | English |
| Series | The Demonata series |
| Genre(s) | Horror, Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | HarperCollins |
| Released | October 5, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback) |
| Pages | 288 pp (first edition, hardback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0007231318 (first edition, hardback) |
| Preceded by | Lord Loss |
| Followed by | Slawter |
Demon Thief is a book in Darren Shan's Demonata series. Though it is the second book in the series, it is a prequel to Lord Loss, the first book in the series. The protagonist is also different from that of the first book, a character called Kernel Fleck, who is the narrator of the book. Demon Thief takes place thirty years before Lord Loss so most of the characters from the first book did not appear, though a few did.
The picture on the right shows the subtitle as It's in the Blood. However, the front cover of the UK version of the book has the subtitle as Go to Hell. In Lord Loss, the subtitle is It's in the Blood.
[edit] Plot summary
Cornelius (Kernel for short because when he was a baby the closest he could come to was in fact Kernel) Fleck has never been normal. He has spent all of his life seeing strange glowing shapes floating through the air, which he could manipulate and join. One day, being particularly depressed he is playing with some shapes that are flashing, joining them together. He opens a portal and something (later discovered to be Lord Loss) passes through before returning. Kernel follows it and disappears. A few days later Kernel returns with his brother, Art. However, Kernel doesn't remember anything of the past few days. When he gets back he has no recollection of what happened, and is clutching his brother. The parents are troubled by this, and move.
One year later Kernel and his family are living in a little town miles away. About a year after the family moved to the small town, Kernel's parents go to an art convention (Kernel's father describes himself as an 'artist'). Kernel and his brother stay over at a neighbour. In the middle of the night, Kernel wakes up and sees Art playing with some orange marbles. He is shocked at how different his brother looks until he realizes that there is an orange light over his head and the marbles are being held over his eyes. Kernel takes the marbles from Art so he won't choke on them. On one warm day, with school lessons being taught outside, another citizen of the town, Miss Egin, comes up. She starts eating the patches of light, and explodes shortly after that. Instead of Miss Egin, there is a large patch of light, a portal, that everyone can see. A demon named Cadaver passes through, kills some children and steals Kernel's brother. Kernel follows it back through the portal to get his brother back.
Kernel arrives in the Demon world. Shortly after that he meets four people: Beranabus, Nadia, Sharmila and Raz. It is explained to Kernel that he's in the world of the Demonata, Beranabus is the leader of the four, and they are following the demon that stole Art although not for the same reasons as Kernel. Raz and Sharmila tell Kernel about a legandary weapon, know as the Kah-Gash that had the power to destroy worlds. The group is desperatly pursuing the shards of it (it was split into pieces) before the demons can. Nadia tells Kernel about her psychic power to tell about the future, the drawback being that she doesn't see the exact future, only the ultimite result. That was why they were chasing Cadaver; Nadia fortune telling revealed that pursuing him would lead to a shard of the weapon. Meanwhile, Beranabus is casting spells to summon the patches of light, for making a portal. Kernel decides to join the four, to save his little brother Art. A few worlds later it is discovered that Kernel has the gift to create portals by grabbing the patches of light and puzzling them together.
When the five get into a fight with the demons, Kernel, terrified, decides to make a portal back to earth. Only he and Nadia make use of it, as Raz is dead and Sharmila and Beranabus are trapped. They come back to an unknown city on Earth. Kernel thinks they should go back, but Nadia, who hates Beranabus because he forced her to fight demons against her will, refuses and storms off. Kernel realises that there are no lights, so he can't make a window anyway. Then, one day, he notices a pulsing light, and decides to follow it. As he follows it, he notices more and more lights heading towards a building. he then realises that the building is housing a punk rock concert, and only over 18s are allowed in. He tries to bluff his way in, but fails, and goes round back to an alley to see if theres a door. There is a fire escape, but it's locked, so he decides to crouch behind a dustbing, hoping that if someone comes out for some fresh air he can get in. eventually, a punk and a man in army fatigues comes out, and say that if the demon gets the better of them they will run out here and split up. Kernel realises that they are disciples, and asks for their help. They introduce themselves as Dervish (from Lord Loss) and Shark, and say that they are trying to stop a demon summoning. Kernel helps them find the man that's summoning it, but is to late and the demon comes anyway. It causes terror and kills a couple of people, including the person who summoned it, but Dervish and Shark fight it back.
Kernel persuades them to go through the window with him. They do, and find themselves in a universe where they are standing on clouds. Kernel makes a portal to Beranabus and they go through.
They meet Beranabus, and he forces Kernel to make a window to Nadia. A few hours later, he comes back with Nadia and commands Kernel to take the window apart. Grudgingly, he does. Nadia swears to kill Beranabus, but he isn't very bothered. They continue to follow Cadaver until they reach the castle of Lord Loss. They enter to find Lord Loss with Cadaver, holding Art on his lap. Beranabus demands that Lord Loss turn over Cadaver to them. Loss agrees in exchange for a member of the group. Kernel thinks that the demon wants him because he can see the lights, however Loss chooses Nadia. He then causes her to explode, much to everyone's horror. Kernel, Dervish, and Shark then begin to argue for the release of Art.
Lord Loss pulls out an ancient chess board and says that their souls will be sealed in it. Kernel will have three guesses to who the "real thief (who stole Art)" is. If he guesses correctly, everyone can go and Kernel can have his brother back. If not, they spent an eternity in the board. Inside the board, Kernel is unable to see anything. He realizes that he is on a black space and uses magic to cause the orange marbles he still has to light everything. He then manages to find a white space which has a lava river in it. He sees a demon that looks like a child and pursues it, however he is knocked into a river by a winged demon. He is rescued, to his surprise, by Nadia. She tells him that when she exploded her soul was not in her body. She had seen ahead and asked Lord Loss privately to take her, since she hated working for Beranabus. Saving Kernel was her last act of help to him.
After searching the board, Kernel finds both Dervish and Shark. He then uses the marbles to find Cadaver, who he believes is the thief. As he chases Cadaver down, he again sees the demon child. Finally catching Cadaver, he names him as a thief, which Lord Loss says is incorrect. Kernel then realizes that Cadaver was just a puppet and thinks that the real thief was Lord Loss, however that is also incorrect. With one chance left, Kernel again sees the demon child. Realizing that it's a clue, he finally knows who the real thief is: It's himself. When Kernel, Dervish, and Shark are released from the board, Lord Loss tells the group who the demon child is. Its name is Artery and it's one of his favorite familiars. When Kernel stepped through the portal at the beginning of the book, he was very lonely. He found Artery outside the castle, caught him, transformed him to look like a regular child, and shortened the name to Art. Since transformation magic was highly complex, Lord Loss decided to find out more about Kernel. Kernel's parents, who had lost a daughter when Kernel was four, decided to keep Art even though they knew he wasn't theirs. They moved to the village so that the people who lived in the city and were familiar with the family wouldn't find out about Art. Sharmila then asks if Kernel wants Art back. Lord Loss is willing to give Kernel Artery, who can easily be transformed back into a human, however warns them that Art will always be a demon on the inside and while he will never attack Kernel, he is certain to hurt others.
Kernel, heartbroken, decides to leave Artery and go home. However, upon arriving home, things were even worse. Seven years passed since his departure and his parents had gotten used to the loss of their children. Kernel realized that they could never truly accept him back, so he travels back to Beranabus.
Kernel then shows Beranbus how, when concentrating on making portals to anything that's with them, the lights don't pulse. For anything that's not with them, the lights pulse. When concentrating on the promised piece of the weapon, the lights don't pulse, and Kernel concludes that the piece of the Kah Gash must be him.
[edit] Trivia
- This story is set in the 1970s. Evidence suggesting this is the fact that at a rock concert during the story, Dervish Grady (as a punk) clearly says "It's the new movement". It was during this movement the Sex Pistols came into the public eye and that Kernel mentions packing up his records when moving to a new house.
- A newer version of the paperback edition glows in the dark as well
- In the book Bernabus's name is spelt Beranabus and Bernabus. Beranabus is used more so it is assumed that is his proper name.
[edit] External links
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| Released Novels | Lord Loss · Demon Thief · Slawter · Bec |
| Upcoming Novels | Blood Beast · Demonata book 6 |
| Protagonists | Grubbs Grady · Kernel Fleck |
| Other Characters | Dervish Grady · Billy 'Bill-E' Spleen · List of characters from The Demonata |
| Demons | Lord Loss (character) · Artery (character) · Vein (character) |
