Gamma, half demon,
raised in a lab by humans to hunt down and destroy demons, needs allies to
rescue her brother
And there can be no
greater ally than the Demon Prince of Pride. If you can trust a Demon Prince.
And the irony of the Demon Hunter allying with the Demon Prince isn’t lost on
her
Gem has a goal - but
does she even know what she wants? Or who she can trust?
This book series has
a fun world (and this
book overtly links Pippa DaCosta’s two worlds) with demon princes and an array
of different demons: from various lesser demons that are animalistic through to
a range of elementals. We have half demons, a demonically scarred real world
reeling from a major demonic incursion and lots of magic, battles and
exploration
It’s an excellent
world. The parts of the world lost to demonic power and incursion, demons
trying to find their place in the world of humanity or in these little demonic
lands. And even the animalistic demons are interesting in their differences and
how they are used
But we don’t explore
all that much of them. Oh we use a fair bit of it to explore magic and powers
and, like the previous book, there is an ongoing sense that there’s a whole lot
more to this world than I get to see (I like the merging of the book series
because it adds a lot more weight and context to this world building. Argh I
like this world but give me more!) but I have to concede that isn’t the point
of this book
This book is all
about identity - who people are and what they want to be. Oh we have an
excellent plot with great conflicts, some interesting relationships and
loyalties and some really really really nifty fight and action scenes.
But identity is the
core here. Obviously we have Gem herself, the demon, the weapon created by the
Institute, the human… something more? She struggles back and forth between
human feelings, demonic violence the weapon’s hatred of all things demonic. And
this constantly makes her doubt who she is, what she wants and even what
feelings are real
There’s her brother
Delta, and what is he to her? Can she see him for what he is, what their
relationship actually is - can she see past what she wants him to be?
Around her is Torrent, another half demon who has the same demon/human conflict but also his own battle over what he wants to be. How will he grow, which will he preserve - what actually matters to him the most. And can you decide to be something you’re actually not because you value this identity so much?
Then the Demon Prince
of Pride - and the conflict over what he is. After all, he is supposed to be
the most deceptive, manipulative being on the planet so you can you trust
anything he says about what he wants, who he is etc? Can you even trust
yourself around something this manipulative? Can you know yourself? Your own
motives? Who you are? It’s certainly almost impossible for Gem to see who and
We even have an old
member of the Institute whose whole vision of himself and relationship to his
former test subjects needs to be questioned and reassessed on a fundamental
level
We even have identity
issues for things like the lesser demons - we see them as raging monsters most
of the time but then we see another side of them as more animalistic than
monstrous: include cute and affectionate. Which causes a new conflict about how
to deal with them. Even the hell realms themselves also have their own flora,
their own products -there’s always more levels.
These personal
conflicts are fascinating and while we do have action the core of the book is
Gem constantly second guessing herself, her motives, her goals and her
allegiances. It’s really well done. Yes… sometimes I want more magic, more
conflict, more battles, more finding a place for humans on Earth, more battles
with the Institute and more of Pride… but it isn’t fair to critique a book for
not being something - especially when what we have is excellent.
We have very few
human characters here but several of them are POC: Adam, the Institute human is
a POC. Pride, while a demon, presents as a Black man when in his human guise
and is definitely powerful, wealthy, charismatic and awesome on several levels.
They’re both good, nuanced and complicated characters - and complicated
characters are how this book works. There are no LGBTQ characters and Gem does
move in a largely male world. We have Vanth but she’s there as an antagonist -
the other main characters around her: Delta, Pride, Torrent are male.
This book is a really
interesting one. It’s interesting to see how a world that sets up so much
physical conflicts, characters who are all about combat and fighting, instead
managed to create a series that is all about personal introspection and growth.
And it would be easy to make such a book tedious - ye gods I’ve read a lot of
tedious books that have tried and failed to present some “personal growth”
storylines: but this book really hit it, perfectly.
