Prosper's Demon

3.5 another case of a story with great potential that ultimately falls short due to it being a novella

All in all a entertaining read, although the narration felt somehow anticlimactic and was sometimes hard to follow. Not as dark as I hoped it to be just by reading the first few pages, but I liked the main character‘s humorous take on his profession.

This was on a list for spooky reads, and because of this stellar cover, I instantly added it to my list. The back cover marks this a pitch-dark, witty fantasy, and I wonder if it’s tagged that because Tor picked it up? It’s not that that isn’t accurate, just anywhere else would have probably gone with horror, supernatural, paranormal… The story follows an exorcist, not known for being delicate, but undeniably effective. The novella flies through some background—never genuinely getting to the level of world-building—and we get shown how good the exorcist really is. His main target is Prosper of Schanz, or more specifically, Prosper’s Demon. This was an enjoyable read. My favorite part is the author’s chosen voice, it really leads the story’s tone, and I feel like it’s purposefully heavy handed. I loved that the story is pretty obviously time-period specific, however the author’s exorcist kind of sits and speaks outside of it. Overall not really a spooky one though!

What a fabulous ending 😂

I always go into K.J. Parker's books with a bit of trepidation. His writing is always good. His characters are too, but are not always likeable, or enjoyable to read about. And he has no qualms about Going There. In this book, He Went There at the end, and holy carp, I did not expect that. It's a story about a guy with the ability to see demons in people, and to remove the demon, often at a very high cost to the poor person they inhabit. And since the demons don't die, he sees them again and again. And again. And sometimes they're in people where removal would be rather awkward. Having no scruples can sometimes help, though.

The book has a bloody opening. Literally. And I thought it would be all that, but then it's more than that. The demons are interesting, they can have a decent conversation too. All in all, fun book.

I enjoyed the prose of this book and the main characters quippy and snarky narration but there wasn't much of a plot to pull me in, it felt more like a character study than a story to me. Still an enjoyable read.

this was short and sweet and fun. that's about it.

The premise and setting were interesting but I just do not like self-aware, humorous POVs. The authorial voice is really weird for such a dark story and I always bounce off of books like these because they’re entirely at odds with, presumably, the point of the genre conventions and tropes they’re invoking. If you’ve seen my other reviews, you also know about 10% of the books I read that try to be funny actually land for me, so this is just a really bad pairing.

3.5. Feels like this shot itself in the foot by being a novella. So much talking, and a lot of fun, but the world and the characters deserved more than this kind of ending and rushed pace.

It’s not something you tell people about, obviously. Not your parents, not your friends, not your dear old uncle or your favorite aunt: I can see the devil in people. I can see the devil in you.

[3.5]

"I was prepared for a fat man in the same way that someone who has grown up on the shores of a five-acre inland lake is prepared for the ocean. There was a lot of Master Prosper. Quite how much of it was necessary, I wouldn't care to say; maybe 60 percent, which is roughly the ratio of genius to bullshit that made up his mental and spiritual being, so probably about that." The above paragraph sums up this gloriously offensive MC and the story he shares. It's short, it's entertaining and it's everything you want in a novella. The overuse of punctuation is a bit grating but *shrug* you can't have it all. Just my kind of acid-dark fantasy. Mr Parker, please make this into a full-on novel/trilogy.

5 stars. Clever story, interesting (morally questionable) characters, excellent writing style. I didn't realize there was going to be a sequel until I finished reading and my Kindle advertised it to me, but now I have it pre-ordered.

My jaw dropped there by the end. Loved the writing, the sass, the dark humor.

One of the books you enjoy reading, but I'm not entirely sure why. Something about the writing is like a spell cast on you. That being said, the concept is very interesting, if a little vague. However, nothing really happens. There was also a weird obsession with things being divided into a 60/40 ratio.