A review by violetturtledove
For Love of Evil by Piers Anthony

lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

Considering that the series is 'Incarnations of Immortality' and the characters can be from any time period, I'm surprised it's taken this long to have a story that starts before the twentieth century. At least that way the outdated morals can make some sort of sense. 'The inquisition was actually good at first' is still a hell of a take though. 

There are plenty of stories, and plenty of authors, that can make Satan a sympathetic,  nuanced character. This is not one of those stories, or the author to do it. The main character has lustful thoughts and so from then on it's a sheer drop into total evil. Except he's not really 'evil', just a bit of a dick really. Basically it's a mess. It's an entertaining mess at points, and yes I'm still going to continue to read but I'm going to continue to complain too. There are some interesting points later on regarding the necessity of Evil for the greater good, the place of other religions in this mostly Christian framework, an absent God ruling a dull Heaven, etc. A lot of the events of the previous books are revisited, and it's a strange mix of excusing Satan for his bad behaviour (he thinks his ends justify his means) and also trying to make sure he's still bad enough to be Satan and it just never quite gets the balance right. There are two main global catastrophes orchestrated by Satan because 'evil' but then he stops them because... people are suffering?

But by this point I suspect many readers will have lost interest. I'm continuing through sheer bloody-mindedness, and the occasional bit of cheesy hilarity like "Beelzebub, stop the plague".

There's an ongoing point in these books about the unfairness of the world, mainly on the definitions of 'sin' and the judging of souls. There's been some talk right from the start of 'fixing things' but so far no one has really done anything about it and I'm not getting my hopes up for the last book.  However, the alternative is that the author has created an alternate history, with a fantasy afterlife, and established that within this world,  babies can be tainted by the sins of their parents, only to go 'well it sucks but what can you do?'