Stalking the Demon

[Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book on NetGalley in return for a review]

Another short book. Or am I just reading really fast all of a sudden?

It's also another book I requested to review pretty much based on the cover, but there you go.

I enjoyed this book, but it does have a fairly big flaw I feel - the events of the book take place 6 months after some other fairly big events, and is a continuation of them in a way. Of course, if like me you jumped in at book 2 then you're going to have a problem as the first book is referenced pretty much every page. Naturally, in a series it probably helps to have read the previous book, but for whatever reason with this one I felt like it was bashing me over the head with the fact I hadn't read the first book. Although, as I write this review it occurs to me the last time I jumped into something mid series was when I bought Demon Lord of Karanda from the discard pile at my local library, only to find not only was I mid series, but the second series at that. And that was more years ago than I care to remember. To cut this digression short (lest the entire review be a digression!), it would probably help if you read the book one first.

Even though it's a short book, it really could have done with a chapter setting the scene (sorry I keep focusing on this). You are plunged into this world knowing nothing about it and expected to know all these characters and the events that have previously transpired. No introduction to the ensemble or little incidentals such as the key facts of there being 7 planes of hell, 7 of ... not hell, and the normal world in-between, like Constantine, but multi-plane).

With that long winded rant out the way, it's actually a pretty good book. Isn't a run of the mill sword and magic type of affair, rather than having purely “good” and “evil”, magic users belong to schools where colour has an impact, although this isn't really explored. Wizards/sorceresses also wield swords which makes you wonder why they are mages in the first place. Especially as pretty much all of them spent their entire time getting thrown around and killed!

I thought Ciara did a good job of expressing the thoughts and motivations of the characters and the conflicts arising from them. It was also interesting reading how the physical world interacts with magic via artefacts and devices (no crystal balls in sight!). The demon's might have been interesting too, but again you were expected to know up front what they were (and evidently there's more types in book one than in book two... argh). What I read whetted the appetite for more, and it was a little frustrating that things were only hinted at and never expanded upon - there might be some demons, there might be some magic (but no-one is casting much), and so on.

It kept my attention to the end, and I enjoyed how it played out. And, I didn't guess the ending. So, all good things despite how my review is reading when I look at it.

I'll definitely pick up book 1, and then re-read book 2 with the benefit of book one's knowledge. I'm also looking forward to subsequent books!