Demon by Day
by Helen E. H. Madden
ISBN 1-60180-061-4
Mojocastle Press, 2008
Writing fantasy is a tricky business. You need to offer your readers
wonders while still presenting a consistent and believable world. You
must be daring and creative but still comprehensible. A million tired
plot devices lurk, waiting to suck you into a quagmire populated by
Middle Earth clones. Perhaps most challenging, you must present
characters with awesome talents, creatures who wield fantastic powers
yet remain human enough for your readers to identify with them and
care what happens to them.
I'm delighted to report that Helen Madden's dark fantasy novel,
Demon By Day, succeeds admirably in navigating these
challenges.
Demon By Day is original, engrossing, entertaining,
and sexy as hell.
In fact, much of the book transpires in hell, or one variant of it:
the subterranean world inhabited by the Daeva, a near-invincible race
of demons. The Daeva are unimaginably beautiful, with the power to
shape reality with their minds, but they are fatally flawed. They are
eternally heartless. They know ambition, boredom, hate, pleasure and
desire, but never love. They have been banished to their underground
realm for daring to wage war against the Earth Mother. Now they have
dominion below, but cannot walk the earth without being consumed
by fire.
Only one Daeva can bear the sun, and even then only by shielding
himself from its direct rays: the bastard half-mortal Orziel. Orziel
is the archetypal rogue, a brother to Loki, Coyote, and
Hermes. Orziel's Daeva powers are diluted by his human heritage, but
that hardly matters. His true gifts are his wits, his beauty, and his
phenomenal ability to seduce anyone - male or female, demon or
mortal. He is constantly involved in some mischief and trying to avoid
the consequences.
In the opening scenes of the novel, Orziel has scaled a dizzying tower
to penetrate the room where Asheru, the comely young heir to the Daeva
empress, has been sequestered. I use the word "penetrate"
advisedly. When his tryst with his full-demon lover is interrupted by
Asheru's hostile uncle, Orziel flees. In fact, he does not stop
running through the entire novel, as he schemes to spirit Asheru away
without getting fried by demon fireballs or sunlight.
The plot of
Demon By Day is full of surprising twists and dramatic
escapes, but its true delight is its characters. In addition to the
fabulous Orziel, Ms. Madden gives us the mortal witch Myrrha, with her
blood-drinking mirror. Myrrha is vicious and quite mad, obsessed with
a lithe young street dancer named Jarresh who had once been her
slave. Evil as Myrrha is, she is also fascinating, with cunning and
power to match Orziel's own. Jarresh seems initially to be a weak,
effeminate victim whose only talent is his seductive dancing, but as
the book progresses we see his courage, resourcefulness and
devotion. Then there is the empress Shebazael, a cold and ruthless
dominatrix who nevertheless evokes some sympathy as she winds her way
through court intrigues, trying to save the Daeva race from
extinction.
It's Orziel, though, who holds center stage. The mingling of his human
and Daeva attributes is masterfully accomplished. He can be as
heartless as his demon progenitors, but no matter how he protests, he
cannot help but be moved by Jarresh's unconditional love and
surrender. His humanity makes him vulnerable, but at the same time it
rescues him from the bleak existence that the Daeva endure, despite
their superior powers.
I should say a few words about the sex in DEMON BY
DAY. Frequent. Kinky. Vividly imagined. And integral to the
plot. Ms. Madden's writing is highly visual (she is also an artist)
and her sex scenes play in the mind like dirty dreams.
The ending of
Demon By Day screams "sequel", but this did not bother
me. Orziel and Jarresh have surmounted challenges and dispatched
enemies. It's clear that more of both wait in their future, but for now
the immediate threads have been tied up and the conflicts resolve.
In fact, I'm really looking forward to their next set of adventures.
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