Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by citronella_seance
Prosper's Demon by K.J. Parker
5.0
A Bloody, Philosophical Extravaganza
A Review of Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Prosper’s Demon begins with a murder, a murder that is very easily overlooked once the dark, twisting tale actually starts to wind its way down to Hell. A murder that, in the grand scheme of things, really isn’t so bad, is it?
Our unnamed narrator is, for lack of a better term (and I really mean that), an exorcist. His (and I only use He/Him here because, similar to our narrator’s demon, “this one particular, unique, individual specimen was definitely, in my mind, a He.”) job is to remove immortal, evil, entities from people when they’ve found a home inside of one. The process is brutal, bloody, and painful for both the entity and the human, making many of the encounters with these entities a zero sum game. However, it’s a game our narrator has been playing since he was very young and, luckily, he’s very good at it.
This novella is equal parts witty and gritty and takes you down dark, and even darker still, philosophical paths until you’re questioning who’s really in the right. Our narrator isn’t a “good” person, he makes that abundantly clear. Then again, he’s not an evil person either. He’s simply the person with the skills necessary for the job and the one that just happens to be around at the time to do it.
When our narrator encounters one of these evil entities hidden inside one of the brightest minds of the century, Prosper of Schanz, he is faced with a dilemma. To remove the demon would surely end the man’s life, thus ending a life of pure genius. However, allowing the demon to stay means playing alongside that which he has vowed, and come to, hate. Like I said, it’s usually a zero sum game.
The gory, blood-splattered, bone-splintering ending was, really, both a complete surprise and completely inevitable. What surprised me the most was that I still ended the novella rooting for our unscrupulous narrator. He’s going to die eventually, but damn is he going to raise Hell in the meantime.
Thank you to Tor.com publishing and NetGalley for providing me with free access to the digital version of this book prior to its publication.
Prosper’s Demon will be available for purchase on Tuesday, January 28!
{This review will be published to my blog on January 15, 2020 and can be found at that time at www.csreads.home.blog along with a corresponding Instagram post @citronella_seance}
A Review of Prosper’s Demon by K.J. Parker
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Prosper’s Demon begins with a murder, a murder that is very easily overlooked once the dark, twisting tale actually starts to wind its way down to Hell. A murder that, in the grand scheme of things, really isn’t so bad, is it?
Our unnamed narrator is, for lack of a better term (and I really mean that), an exorcist. His (and I only use He/Him here because, similar to our narrator’s demon, “this one particular, unique, individual specimen was definitely, in my mind, a He.”) job is to remove immortal, evil, entities from people when they’ve found a home inside of one. The process is brutal, bloody, and painful for both the entity and the human, making many of the encounters with these entities a zero sum game. However, it’s a game our narrator has been playing since he was very young and, luckily, he’s very good at it.
This novella is equal parts witty and gritty and takes you down dark, and even darker still, philosophical paths until you’re questioning who’s really in the right. Our narrator isn’t a “good” person, he makes that abundantly clear. Then again, he’s not an evil person either. He’s simply the person with the skills necessary for the job and the one that just happens to be around at the time to do it.
When our narrator encounters one of these evil entities hidden inside one of the brightest minds of the century, Prosper of Schanz, he is faced with a dilemma. To remove the demon would surely end the man’s life, thus ending a life of pure genius. However, allowing the demon to stay means playing alongside that which he has vowed, and come to, hate. Like I said, it’s usually a zero sum game.
The gory, blood-splattered, bone-splintering ending was, really, both a complete surprise and completely inevitable. What surprised me the most was that I still ended the novella rooting for our unscrupulous narrator. He’s going to die eventually, but damn is he going to raise Hell in the meantime.
Thank you to Tor.com publishing and NetGalley for providing me with free access to the digital version of this book prior to its publication.
Prosper’s Demon will be available for purchase on Tuesday, January 28!
{This review will be published to my blog on January 15, 2020 and can be found at that time at www.csreads.home.blog along with a corresponding Instagram post @citronella_seance}