Working for the Devil

Picking up this series kinda blindly, I wasn't really sure where to categorize it in the UF world. Obviously, it's a kick-ass female with magic and blade, but you know how that is. Seen it on the shelves a MILLION TIMES. Huh. Even the blurb just tugs at my old heartstrings for Anita Blake and Rachel Morgan. I thought it was a throwaway blurb.

But then I learned how wrong I was.

Imagine this: It's bladerunnerish, high-tech noir with hovercraft, laser pulse rifles, juicy biotech implants, gene-splicing. It's also rune magic, Annubis-based necromancy, whole schools of magic, and even eclectic voodoo, ritual, and a lot more right out in the open. It's open trade for SF and Fantasy in this near-future overpopulated world.

So delicious.

And then show more there's Dante with her deep connection with Annubis and her dripping holy blue fire blade, her strong necromantic craft for sale for lawyers, the police, or anyone with the means to pay. And she's got a new job from a character she can't quite refuse: Lucifer. Who wants her to assassinate another demon. As a little backup, she gets a high-level demon as a backup... and as a familiar.

Holy crapola.

So wait a second.

Not only are we getting to levels of necromancy only seen 7-8 books into Anita Blake, but we're also moving ahead to powers equivalent to books 4-5 in Rachel Morgan. In Blade Runner.

OH, MY GOD, I AM SO IN LOVE.

And it's true. I slammed through this book kinda dancing with glee. And yes there's a bit of UF romance but it takes a back seat to the action and intrigue... just as I prefer it. And let me be a bit clear about where I place this in my favorite UF categories. I have some series I love for being imaginative and others for being super charming and classy, but my first love is for outright powerups and bitch'n kick-ass magics.

This one is pulling on those heartstrings HARD. :) show less

What most struck me about "Working for the Devil" was the heavy cyberpunk setting. I hadn't realized this book would deal with advanced technology of any sort, let alone an alien setting filled with its own unique culture, races, and catchy vernacular. I found it very reminiscent of the "Shadowrun" franchise, and for that reason, WftD has much to owe Jake Armitage and his dark world of augmented mercenaries and government corporations.

It takes a while for the plot to get going in this book, and I had to get used to the protagonist's wisecracking, but things get very interesting the more one invests. Danny Valentine proved to be a very sympathetic and likeable character, and her suicidal methods make for some thrilling storytelling. Her show more relationships with the other characters are intense and complex, particularly her interactions with the demon, Japhrimel. I was really surprised when elements of romance started rearing their seductive little heads, but these were subtle and definitely took a backseat to the action and intrigue of the plot. WftD is certainly an urban fantasy FIRST, and a paranormal romance second.

Some downsides to consider (though they didn't detract from my enjoyment at all) there is some definite angsty martyrdom going on that some may find a bit tiresome, and sometimes I think the author unnecessarily revisits thoughts to the point of being detrimental to the story's pace (for instance, Danny will have an internal thought, then immediately say that thought outloud, repeating it almost word for word).

Ultimately, I found the characters, plot, dialogue, and setting of "Working for the Devil" to be a great experience, and the Dante Valentine series one I had faith in continuing...so much so that I bought the complete anthology off of Amazon! show less

For the whole series: By the gods and kittens, that *censored* hurt.

Seriously excellent world building, really strong character development, a fascinating look at ethics without truth, and just... damn. An impressive and in many ways resonating construct, but I'm literally writing myself a note to never pick this particular series back up again because the price is so damn high.

And yeah, it gets five stars. Because it does what it does so very well. And because so many of the underlying structures are absolutely beautiful.

I went into this one thinking it had tremendous potential, but was sorely disappointed.

It is a first person narrative told by Dante Valentine, our badass heroine and "necromance" (fancy word for necromancer). Yes, she's pretty much an exact rip-off of Anita Blake, minus the charm. Here's where we get to my first major problem with the book: the protagonist is completely unlikeable. I mean, unlikeable in every conceivable way. She has the emotional maturity of a six year old, is arrogant, impetuous, and all-around bitchy. Not a fun combination. Dante is hired by Lucifer (yes, that one) to retrieve a McGuffin, and he sends along his chief assassin -- a demon -- to accompany Dante on her mission which we all know won't turn out well.

My show more second major beef with the book is the setting. It's set in the future -- how far we really don't know -- for little apparent reason. All we really see are some alternative brand names for stuff we use in 2008, there are versions of cars and skateboards that hover, and drugs have been legalized. The "future history" of the setting is told in somewhat slapdash fashion and no exact date for the present is given. At the start of the book, it's not even immediately clear that it *is* set in the future. Honestly, I don't really think it being in the future does much for the plot. It might as well have been set in an alternate present where magic and demons are known to exist by the world at large. Magic and psionics are blurred, and it's not clear if the "magic" in the setting is really just psionics. The setting is a bit of a New Age / Wiccan wet dream, where Christianity and the other organized religions have been proven false and paganism is ascendant. Yay. That aspect combined with the bad-assitude of the protagonist makes me think this is more or less an author wankfest. I don't find those very enjoyable.

I had thought this would be the start to a fun series, but after reading it, I don't plan on picking up any of the sequels. The premise had potential, but it just comes off trite and largely as a rip-off of Anita Blake and a mish-mash of other paranormal romance novels.

Review copyright 2008 J. Andrew Byers show less

No one ever markets books this way, but there are whole bunches of books that are pure, sweet brain candy. They’re not great works of fiction; you won’t find Mary Shelley, David Mitchell or even Philip K. Dick in this particular stack. Brain candy requires a small bit of thinking, but only as much as it would take to choose what you want in the candy store. Most mysteries fit this description, especially those that are part of a series, where you already know the characters and the setting; the exceptions are those those usually explicitly known as “literary,” like Umberto Eco’s The Name of the Rose. Many comics – oops, sorry, graphic novels – fit here, too, like Hellblazer most of the time -- but not Alan Moore’s From show more Hell or any of Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series. Some SF warrants the label, and generic fantasy is almost always in this category. These are the books you tend to read on your commute. They’re all enjoyable, fast reads, with memorable characters and strong plotting.

There’s a whole other category, though; books that you wouldn’t want anyone on the subway to catch you reading, and that you shove under the couch cushions when your sweetheart walks into the room. These books are guilty pleasures. They require no brain work at all beyond the effort to move your eyes from left to right. They can be read in an hour or two, cover to cover. You don’t expect – and you certainly don’t find – exciting prose, fully formed characters, or a plot that makes sense. What’s on offer is fast reading, a story you don’t have to think about – indeed, it helps if you don’t think about it, because otherwise it seems kind of silly – in short, pure brainless entertainment. It’s like eating that entire chocolate Easter bunny in one sitting.

A subgenre of romantic horror has developed in recent years that fits squarely in the guilty pleasure category. Some of it can be quite good, like the early Laurel Hamilton novels. Some of it amounts to nothing but Harlequin romances with monsters included. And some falls in between, solid efforts often by first-time authors, like Working for the Devil by Lilith Saintcrow (Warner, $6.99, March 1, 2006).

Working for the Devil features Dante Valentine (the heroines of these novels – and they’re almost always heroines – always have amazingly romantic names, as, indeed, the authors seem to as well), a Necromancer – that is, someone who can talk with the dead (a trait shared with the Violets of Stephen Woodworth’s novels, about which more soon). The story isn’t about her ability to speak with the dead, however, but with the fact that that ability makes her something not quite human and not quite demon, and therefore the perfect person to assassinate a demon who has escaped from Hell. Lucifer himself hires her, after having had her escorted to Hell for a job interview by a gorgeous green-eyed, golden-skinned, human-shaped demon known commonly as Japhrimel (not his full name, of course, because knowing a demon’s full name gives you complete power over him; only Dante learns it in the course of the book).

Dante is not a nice person. She is tough, sarcastic, bitter, and unpleasant to friends and enemies alike. She’s a bitch on wheels to her ex-sweetheart, who, it turns out, left her in order to save her life when his family – one of the crime families that appears to rule this world – decided she had to go. She’s not particularly friendly to her friend Gabe, a police officer who assists her in tracking the demon, who coincidentally happens to be the head of the very same crime family that Dante’s ex saved her from. She’s downright horrible to the demon who has been assigned by Lucifer to protect her, despite the fact that she feels (of course!) strangely attracted to him.

The novel is violent, with fights breaking out here and there for no apparent reason except to allow us to imagine the blue light flowing along the blade of Dante’s sword, the gleaming of the emerald embedded in her cheek, and the charge of Power in the air around her. The plot is slower than it ought to be; where political complications could rear their ugly heads, or relationships develop, instead we have incident – another visit to another sort of oddity who can provide information through another mystical means, for instance, or a ride on a “slic,” a sort of skateboard that flies.

Despite the numerous flaws in this novel, I kept reading. No, I didn’t read it on the bus; I read it while I was holed up in my home on a rainy reading vacation, where no one had to see the flaming red and yellow cover featuring a gorgeous long-haired woman and a shadowy man (really, a handsome demon, as all romance readers know that men really are) in the background. I felt guilty to be reading such delicious trash, but it was just as pleasurable as the pizza I ate while I read it. Really, what other kind of book goes better with pepperoni? show less

Contrary to all (mine) expectations...I loooooved this book!!!
Dante is so not the Mary-Sue type which is not really funny you know?!...sure she's gorgeous and strong but she's also rude and doesn't really care what you think or what you want and most of the time if you told her not do to something she'll do it just to spite you!
Loved when she went on a ride with the slicboard to feel alive again after the necromance stuff ...totally understand it even if I don't go around risking my life when I need to prove myself I'm still in control...
I liked also the other characters and the story caught me from page one...now I only have to read the following four books of the series....

This is the first book in the Danny Valentine series by Lilith Saintcrow. Amazon kept recommending this book to me as a great book to read. Guess what? I really did like it!

Danny is a Necromance; that is she communes with the dead. In order to make some extra cash on the side she often takes up bounty hunts. The rumor of her hobby has reached Lucifer, yes the Devil himself, and he has sent one of his demons to bring Danny to hell to offer her a job. A demon is on the loose, a demon that's been granted immunity from hell, and Lucifer needs Danny to take the job. To help keep Danny alive Lucifer sends along his right hand assasin, Japhrimel.

This is a face paced, fun book, with a dark sense of humor. Much of the humor is somewhat cutting show more and sarcastic. The whole book is very dark and reminds me a little bit of Sin City or Gotham City. The cast of characters is very entertaining and each has their own bits of dark past that gives them great depth. There is a little kung-fu taste to the book, as Danny fights with a katana and has her own specific version of honor. Think Kill-Bill, with more magic and not quite as much revenge.

There is non-stop action, more than a little violence and gore. The thing I liked best though was the creativity of the book. The book takes place in a future earth type setting. As such, there is some bandying about of tech-talk that leaves the reader wondering at times. Yet, the incorporation of magic and demons into this tech world is done seamlessly. I was very impressed.

My only complaint would be that the writing is not as high level as I usually like; but for this book the writing style fits the context. Some of the book reminds me a little of Kim Harrison's "Dead Witch Walking" series. This series has a lot more edge and darkness to it though; I guess if I had to compare it with something I've read before (although it's a very unique book so that is tough) I would compare this series to the Sonya Blue Series by Nancy Collins. Although, Danny is not as screwed up as Sonya was and this is a more comfortable series for me to read than Sonya Blue was.

The main story was tied up nicely at the end of the book. Still, I yearned to know more about Danny after I finished the first book. For instance what horrible things happened at the school she went to? What really happens to the demon? How will Danny deal with her new...physique?

Loved the book. I ran right out and bought the second one as soon as I had finished the first. show less