The Demon's Lexicon (2009)

3Q 3P (my VOYA codes)
The Demon’s Lexicon introduces the reader to a world filled with magicians and demons. Demons live in another world, willing do almost anything to enter ours, it is up to Nick and Alan Ryves to destroy the evil they bring to this world. Add into the mix Mae and Jamie Crawford and you have an adventure. Jamie has been marked to be possessed by a demon, meaning certain death, as Nick and Alan try to save his life (and Alan’s!), the Crawfords are pulled into the supernatural world that is so familiar to the Ryves. However, the real story behind this tale is Nick’s relationship with his family, discovering where he really comes from, who he is, and his relationship with his “brother.”

Honestly, I had a little bit of a hard time immersing myself into this book. Yet, the use of demons and magicians is somewhat refreshing amongst so much fantasy and supernatural stories focused on vampires or werewolves.

Really, really excellent. I have had a couple of less than totally satisfactory reads, but this is wonderful. Demons and magicians and two boys/young men dealing with fear and constantly being on the run. A dead father, a mother apparently struggling with mental illness...

Revelations that are utterly right but totally a surprise.

Robin McKinley's blog turned me on to this one. She's got a real touch to identify the wonderfully done.

Killer first line.
The pipe under the sink was leaking. It wouldn't have been so bad, except Nick kept his favorite sword under the sink.

A REALLY good thing the sequel comes out this week - the ending of the first one is a genuine end but knowing there is more makes it an utter cliffhanger. Sort of "Oh wow, Ok!" and "WHAT just happened?" ( )

WOW, this was definitely different! I thought it was very well written, and a great story! I want to know some more background stories now, though. Good thing I already have the Demon's Covenant on my kindle :D ( )

I didn't like this book nearly as much as I hoped to. I'm not sure whether to give it two or three stars, because once I got to the last hundred pages, it did pick up, and I loved the last few pages. But it took so much to get there, and I honestly nearly put the book down for good halfway through. All that kept me going was the knowledge that people whose taste I'd tend to trust did really love it -- but, on reflection, I'm not sure I would go back in time two hours to when I made the decision to finish it and say yes, go for it, you'll regret it if you don't. I've already decided, for example, that I won't read the sequel, based on the reviews of it. It just doesn't sound that interesting to me.

Part of the problem was that it felt like I'd read it already. The relationship between Nick and Alan reminded me of a certain other pair of brothers who get involved in deals with demons... In fact, it didn't remind me of Sam and Dean Winchester in themselves, as shown on TV, as much as it reminded me of fanfic of the series. I did believe in the bond between Nick and Alan -- I'm not saying that was badly done -- but I just felt like I'd been there before. That feeling did abate a bit in the last fifty pages or so, though.

I can't say I liked Nick as Nick. It's hard to relate to him -- throughout, I was thinking about the choice of him as the character the narration stuck to (it's third person limited). I couldn't fathom it, since surely Alan would be much easier to sympathise with, and through his love for Nick, we might understand Nick better... But having read the end, of course I understand that decision. It's just difficult to have to wait so long for payoff. In any case, I did find Nick fascinating, and I was sure that there was some plot reason for him being the way he is. A small part of me is a little disappointed it wasn't due to PTSD all along, though.

It's worth noting that Alan is a disabled character, but he's still capable in his own ways and there isn't massive dollops of angst and manpain about what he can't do.

Jamie and Mae... I just didn't really care about them, or the love triangle thing that was going on. Another reason why I will probably not go for the sequel.

The author endears herself to me by saying in the (rather skimpy) interview section that she loves Dar Williams' music (though I wouldn't call it country music). You know how people talk about how whatever music they listen to was life-changing? Dar Williams was that, for me, at the tender age of fourteen, and still is now. But that's neither here nor there. ( )

Someone obviously forgot to hire the editor since the writing was atrocious and contradictory. ( )