Pandemonium

Del Pierce's life changed when he was 5 years old. Back then, he was one of the many people who became possessed by a demon. Most of the possessions lasted a brief period of time, but not Del's. His encounter with the demon known as the Hellion, who took over 5 or 6 year-old boys and made them throw tantrums or shoot a slingshot with such accuracy as to knock a person's glasses off, didn't end when Del's mother somehow managed to help Del control the presence.

But that was back then. Demons still jump around from person to person, sometimes acting altruistic like The Truth who abhors liars or sometimes more deadly like The Little Angel who haunts hospitals and whose kiss brings death. Incidents of the appearances are commonplace in the show more world. But the Hellion disappeared completely. And now, Del fears his demon may be aiming for a comeback via Del himself.

At night, he has to restrain himself for fear of what he might do. And the noises in his head are becoming more and more frequent visitors. Del sets out to find some way to stop the demon, but will he be able to handle the truth about the Hellion once he uncovers it?

I enjoyed "Pandemonium". Author Daryl Gregory creates an alternate world, in which possessions are an everyday occurrence and have been for longer than anyone cares to remember. Not only that, but sci-fi author Philip K. Dick plays a major character, or rather, the demon Valis who possesses him does. For the most part, I found myself caught up in this world; then, in a passing moment, mention is made of Eisenhower's assassination, and I was left scratching my head, wondering what the heck that was all about. Fortunately, my confusion was cleared up, but much later in the story than I would have hoped.

As for the characters, I thought the mini Demonology chapters did a fine job of illustrating each of the major demons: The Captain's sudden appearance during a battle in India 2004, The Truth's in the courtroom of the O.J. Simpson trial, and others. Great vignettes, all of them. Also, Del Pierce provided a great glimpse into a man on the brink of sanity, struggling to keep himself in check while the world around him tells him that there's nothing anyone can do for him.

A thrill ride of a book, managing to mix sci-fi, horror, fantasy, mystery and thriller into one engaging story. Highly recommended. show less

Four and a half stars. If you want a review with links, see my blog at: http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2014/10/11/pandemonium-by-daryl-gregory/

Pandemonium reminds me of those times when my foodie friends are dragging me to a “fabulous new restaurant” where (mostly) familiar ingredients are deconstructed, spiced and recombined in a creative way. At least this time, instead of an unsettling mess, it resulted in one of those perfect, satisfying meals that fulfill a sensory need as much as a physical one. Not so unusual that I’m left with a disturbing aftertaste, and not so routine that it is immediately forgettable. To wit:



Salvatore’s award-winning pizza with wine-poached fig (yes, you read that right), bacon and gorgonzola. show more Unusual but delicious take on pizza. http://salvatorestomatopies.com/2012/08/24/salvatores-wins-the-first-annual-slic...

Pandemonium is a lot like that. Somewhat familiar elements drawn from comic books, buddy flicks and mythology are blended together in a plot that moves quickly but respects each ingredient. Add in some complex characterization, dashes of dark humor and develop it with truly fine writing, and I’m served a book that satisfying on both intellectual and emotional levels.

The simple summary: Del is returning to his mother’s home with a dual purpose: confess a recent car accident and psychiatric hospitalization, and to meet a famous demonology researcher at a national conference. Demons are real, although their manifestations usually pass quickly, while the behavior follows certain archetypes: The Painter, the Little Angel, Truth: “The news tracked them by name, like hurricanes. Most people went their whole lives without seeing one in person. I’ve seen five–six, counting today’s.” When Del was young, he was possessed by the Hellion, a wild boy entity, and Del has recently developed suspicions that the Hellion never left him. The story follows Del as he attempts to understand and perhaps free the entity inside him.

The plot moved nicely with enough balance between introspection and action to keep me interested. What I loved the most, however, was the writing. There’s the vivid imagery:

A small white-haired women glared up at me, mouth agape. She was seventy, seventy-five years old, a small bony face on a striated, skinny neck: bright eyes, sharp nose, and skin intricately webbed from too much sun or wind or cigarettes. She looked like one of those orphaned baby condors that has to be fed by puppets”

the humor:

“The question, then, was how long could a human being stay awake? Keith Richards could party for three days straight, but I wasn’t sure if he counted as a human being“

and sheer cleverness (because I’ve been this lost driving in Canada):

“For the past few hours we’d been twisting and bobbing along two-lane back roads, rollercoastering through pitch-black forests. And now we were lost. Or rather, the world was lost. The GPS told us exactly where we were but had no idea where anything else was.
Permanent Global Position: You Are Here.”

and the occasional snarky social commentary:

"What did it matter? I imagined bearded guys all over academia working themselves into a lather over this, precisely because the stakes were so low."

For those who might want a sense of the flavor, I was reminded of American Gods, of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Card world (my review) blended with Mythago Wood (my review), but done much, much better. While I had problems maintaining interest in each of the aforementioned, I had no such challenge with Pandemonium. Each bite revealed something almost familiar but somehow unexpected. There’s a lot to enjoy, and an equal amount to ruminate on after finishing. I’ll be looking for more from Gregory.



Oh yes: a sincere thank you to Carly for inviting me to dinner. show less

I suppose this is the first Daryl Gregory that I really really loved. And since it's only my second novel, it might be not too far a stretch to start thinking he might be one of THOSE AUTHORS.

You know, Good Ideas, Great Execution, Cool Characters, Deep Plot... and while we're at it, it's a fantasy/SF hybrid with major horror undertones, a vast world-building mythology/history doing an alternate universe diverging from the '50's and ending in the present.

DEMONS. Or is it daemons? Whatever, it's awesome. Possession all over the place and while there are still people with mental health issues, real demons are possessing people out in the open and it's kinda obvious as hell it's a real thing. So real that it's on the law books. Media. You show more name it. It's there. And this is just the setup.

The rest of this novel has surprises. So I'm not gonna start spoiling stuff, but the fact that this begins quirky and develops fascinating twists and never strays far from a gorgeously drawn world with complicated and cool characters in a VERY un-UF way, becoming more of a thriller than anything, makes me want to jump for joy.

It's a serious treatment of both mental health, fantasy, and Jungian analysis. :) And because it leans fully on the hardcore fantasy side rather than a trite dismissal on the traditional fiction side just makes me weep with joy. :)

So yeah, I love this stuff. :) Quality all the way through. :) show less

Dennis the demon? Not quite the same ring to it

The I-couldn’t-put-it-down book of the holiday weekend was a delightful first novel by Daryl Gregory (not to be confused with Darryl Gregory of two-"r” spelling), Pandemonium.

Gregory is that rarest of sci-fi novelists: an exceptionally literate fellow still snug-a-bug in awe of the basic glories of fantasy. Pandemonium takes as its premise that demonic possessions are common enough to be merely eventful rather than scoffed off as religious delusion or psychiatric disorders. A number of demons have been inhabiting and abandoning humans since days immediately following the end of WWII. People don’t like it, but like any danger, it becomes a risk most find bearable.

Except for our hero, show more Del Pierce. Del survived a possession as a small boy and appeared to have recovered with no ill effects. But now the demon seems to be back—or maybe it never left. In Del’s quest to be rid of possession, Pandemonium takes a rip-roaring ride through Jungian archetypes and the power of comic books, turning his novel into a masterful mashup of sub-genres. It’s a wee bit o’ horror; a tad of psychological thriller; a dash of comic book literary enterprise, and once a character with an uncanny resemblance to Sinéad O’Connor appears, a ripple of romance.

This is a fast-paced adventure story wrapped up in a horror novel, as Del careens from a possession convention (strangely similar to ComicCon) where he converses with the demon inhabiting the body of Philip K. Dick to a lake haunted by a demon-possessed version of the Loch Ness Monster (if Nessie were a bald, fat guy). But like any good psychological thriller, every time Del discovers another bit of information about the demons, including the one that possessed him, he’s forced to face another bit of nasty truth about himself.

Reviewed for Sacramento News & Review: http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/bibliolatry/blogs/post?oid=883972 show less

This book is the ultimate mash-up. Gregory skillfully combines elements of pop culture, blends and bends historical events, and grinds together genres in a way I've never experienced. Set in a world where demonic possession is an accepted, albeit misunderstood, occurrence, we follow Del through his own journey of self-awareness. Possessed at an early age, Del struggles with the after-effects lingering even into his adulthood.

Whether a fan of horror, science fiction, or fantasy, you won't be disappointed. Gregory has a touch of everything in here, all fit together like some masterful jigsaw puzzle of a complex mandala.

I could wish that Daryl Gregory was a more prolific writer, but I suppose if he was, he wouldn’t write as well as he does. Pandemonium is his first novel chronologically, though it is the 2nd one I’ve read. Del Pierce returns home for Thanksgiving with an ulterior motive – seeking the means, however drastic, to rid himself finally of the “demon” which possessed him as a child and which, he thinks, has been locked in his mind, but is seeking a way back out. That’s the overall arc of the novel. But it gets more complicated than that.

Del’s world is much the same as ours, with one big difference – there are archetypes - the Painter, the Truth, the Angel - who “possess” people periodically. No one knows where they come show more from, or where they go when they’re not active. As a young child, Del was possessed by the Hellion (who hasn’t been active since). His family restrained and cared for him until he came back to himself. Things went along normally, until an accident in his teens gave him a concussion, at which time he started hearing things in his head. Working with a psychiatrist, he learned mental exercises that silenced the noises.

Now as an adult, a car accident has brought the noises back, and Del has just been released from Involuntary confinement in a mental hospital. He has become convinced that, in his case, the Hellion has been trapped in his mind. He wants to get rid of it once and for all, and is willing to try extreme measures to rid not just himself, but the world, of this particular demon.

Del isn’t sure if “possession” is a medically explainable event or an actual possession by another entity (an entity he assumes is bad) but he is convinced his control is slipping and that if he doesn’t do something drastic the destructive habits of the Hellion will be released. Psychiatry and drugs are not helping him this time, so with his brother’s and sister’s-in-law help Del explores exorcism as a way of dealing with the “demon” he’s carrying around. Eventually he teams up with an exorcist, a former victim of possession herself, who tells him there is no way to force a demon out of a person. You have to somehow persuade it to leave or kill the human host with the demon in it.

Mother Mariette, the exorcist, and Del team up to search for, and find, the source of the demons. But this raises a moral dilemma of what to do when Del realizes that his “possession” and recovery are not as cut and dried as he thought.

Because I read this novel shortly before my worship community spent a Sunday focusing on Yoruba religion, where the gods possess worshippers, I wonder if exploration of a third alternative, possession as a spiritual experience, might have offered Del/the Hellion and his family a more satisfying resolution than the novel did. show less

Ok, what won me over at first was the cover--by Greg Ruth, an artist whose work I greatly admire. But once I started reading I was hooked.

Pandemonium isn't quite fantasy (it quickly reveals itself to have elements of Alternate History & SF). Gregory creates a world where demonic possession is normal, sort of, at least society's learned to deal with it when it happens; but the story of Del, who was once Possessed as a boy is the heart of the narrative. It has a personal, intimate tone. The story starts out gently and then soon winds up into a thrilling pace.

Interspersed throughout the book are interludes, eyewitness accounts of several of these 'demons', which in their brevity and scope, complement the story-arc without slowing it show more down.

If I'm to compare Gregory to writers, I'd say it would be Tim Powers, James Blaylock, and a less surreal Philip K. Dick.

Pandemonium is one of the most clever books I've read in recent memory; the internal logic of his premise is strong, as are his characters; I was left guessing all the way to the final chapters (I'm often able to figure stuff out quickly), and endings are tricky things, but Gregory manages to come up with one that, while open-ended on the broader scale, is perfect for the storyline.

There are hidden bonuses for genre & comic book fans, but Gregory's storytelling is sublime enough so as not to make the book exclusionary to those not familiar with genre.

Excellent stuff, one of my favorite reads in the past couple of years. show less