Customer Reviews

The Demon King

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I am an avid military history and fantasy reader. Often the two genres don't mix, so I was pleasantly surprised when I read the series. It is doesn't follow the typical prosaic path of the average fantasy and it is able to suspend reality a bit more than the typical military history book. The book was much more gritty and graphic than a typical fantasy- which is nice considering that much of fantasy is written for a teen crowd, and as I am older now, I desire a bit more. The book took me through the gamut of emotions - I thouroughly enjoyed the book, and just reread it for the second time in 3 years. It was just as enjoyable the second time. The only other book I have read recently that goes into the darker parts of fantasy as does this series is Mathew Woodring Stover's "Heroes Die". If you liked that, you will definately like this as well.

Never one to shy away from a gratuitous sex scene, the author still manages to weave a compelling story of love, war, faith, and betrayal. Not quite as good as the first book in the series (it's tough being the second sibling) but still a satisfying and enjoyable successor to the Seer King.

The Seer King layed the groundwork for what could have been a terrific tale, yet it seems as if Mr. Bunch lost his way.

First off, I'll tackle the graphic sex scenes. I have but one question, why? Every time I got to one of these passages, I skimmed as hard as I could to get past them. Totally unnecessary. Quite a few times I was tempted to just put the book down and walk away. They add little, if anything at all, of interest to the book. I have my own imagination, I don't need it force-fed down my throat when I am simply trying to enjoy a fantasy novel.

More importantly, where was the story? I felt almost nothing for these characters. I probably felt more for some of the minor players in this book, than for the group of main characters. The plot just wound about, hitting lightly on certain ideas, and then just passing them by. The main theme of the story, when ripped away from the other pointless dribble, would probably fit on 10 pages or less.

The battle scenes seemed to fit into about four different molds, and then just kept repeating themselves with slight variations. As for a novel in the fantasy genre, supposedly using magic as well, this falls far short of the mark. There was very little imagination, completely lacking in the necessary agent of wrapping the reader up in a world only found in dreams.

I found myself intrigued by the first novel in the series, and was certainly hoping that this sequel would only enhance those features of that first. From my point of view, Mr. Bunch failed miserably. The icing on the cake for me was the fact that a third novel in the series is do out only a year later. It would seem to me that if Mr. Bunch does indeed want to continue writing in this genre, he needs to spend this year researching true fantasy literature, not just trying to pump out another money-maker as quickly as possible. A bad sign indeed.

To sum it up, I managed to get through the entire book, which goes to show that there is still a good foundation there, but he needs to do a lot of work to get me to buy a third round.

One last suggestion. The third novel had better be 800 pages +, because as far as I am concerned, anything less doesn't stand a chance of over-coming the obstacles I see to date. Now, a long book won't ensure a great read, but I feel that at least then, it will have a shot at it.

This is the second volume of the trilogy which started with The Seer King. I have written a review of that volume, which I called a 'mixed bag'. Many of my problems with the first volume continue into this.

The "Letters to Penthouse Variations" sex scenes are as peculiarly divorced from matters of action and character as they were in volume 1.

The problems with the social-science side of Bunch's two-empire world are as bad here as in volume 1. See, this is something I know something about. How do you organize a mass movement of assassins, for example, which is equally active in the feudal countryside and among the urban artisans and proletariat? Building the peasant-worker alliance is not so easy as all that, as the Bolsheviks found, yet for the Tovieti all they have to do is wave their hands and everyone runs out and assassinates people. It's just implausible.

Now I thought the warfare stuff was pretty convincing. And yet I really don't know much about the use of the bow, for example, so when I read the notes by the "Danish military history fan" below which suggest that Bunch has messed up that part TOO, I have the jarring suspicion that I only like this part because of my own ignorance :-)

In this volume, our hero, general Damastes, becomes a victim of the Emperor Tenedos' obsession with ruling the world, beginning with the Empire of Maisir (he has to start there because it's the only other country that the Numantians know about :-)). Apart from Bunch's general problems, this volume suffers from the fact that our hero, general Damastes, is willfully stupid throughout the book. For one thing, Tenedos makes it crystal clear that he is intent on world conquest. Then he tells Damastes that he won't be ready to invade Maisir for five years, and he tells Damastes to go down and negotiate a peace treaty. But somehow Damastes then believes that he can bring about a treaty which will ensure peace between the two powers for a lifetime! Then when Tenedos' schemes come to light he feels betrayed and put upon, but why?

But even worse, Damastes takes the longest possible time to discover the "Secret" of Tenedos's Great Spells, which anyone of ordinary intelligence has long since figured out, going back to Volume 1! Look: In one of the battles in Volume I, Tenedos orders some of his forces to undertake a maneuver that gets a lot of them killed for no obvious reason. Then, and only then, he raises a demon that wins the battle for him. And there is a lot of discussion of the "price" you have to pay a demon. OK, you get the picture, right? Don't have to hit you over the head with it, right? And you're not even from a world that's familiar with demons! But Damastes is, and he has years to think about it as he watches the above pattern repeat over and over and over, and listens to Tenedos' revealing mutterings, and STILL not until the end of volume II does he figure out the obvious. It's pretty tiresome.

I would give this volume two stars, except for the fact that I feel that the trilogy should be rated as a unit, which is why I give it 3.

I just finished reading The Demon King early this morning and while it was not a perfect book I must still give it a Four Star rating. I'm proud to see that I will be the seventh person to give it Four Stars. As of this date it has a more favorable rating than most other books of its genre. Five Stars 4
Four Stars 6
Three Stars 3
Two Stars 2
One Star(s) 4

The plot of this book starts out in the middle of the action bringing us to the rebelling province of Kallio and Damaste's attempts to bring the people under the Empire's control. I liked this and I liked the buildup towards the all out war with Maisir.

I had no problems with the sex. None whatsoever. As a man who has some life experience I realize that that is what occurs in life. For some reason sexuality in a novel makes many Americans uncomfortable. Why? Either because nothing has ever been written in Fantasy like it before or because they [The Readers] have never experienced what was being written about in the text. As far as I'm concerned Bunch revolutionized Fantasy with his writing, actually adding to the genre of epic Fantasy. In any event, sex was only a small part of the storyline. The meat and potatoes concerned the war with the Maisirians.

My only problem with the book was the overwhelming technical jargon. Dominas, tribunes, etc. Bunch should either have stuck with the modern equivalents of these ranks or put a glossary inside the book for us to refer to. This brings me to my other quibble. Too many characters! Had there been a Dramatis Personae or an index (Similar To What GRR Martin Did With A Song Of Ice And Fire) both The Seer King and The Demon King would have been easier books to read. Unfortunately this was not done. Thus it became entirely too difficult to keep track of all of the characters, ranks and situations they were in. That said, most of the people in the book were characters one cared for and could admire, save for the azaz and the traitor General Linerges, I believe. Alegria was my favorite minor character. A selfless woman of absolute beauty. Rarely do we see this in Fantasy. John Norman, for example, never wrote of a selfless woman in any of his original 25 Gor novels.

This is a book I would recommend to those adherents of military Fantasy. Other novelists like David Drake/Eric Flint (Who Wrote The Belisarius Series) favorably compare with Chris Bunch. My only other quibble (I've Said This Before) is the overwhelming perponderance of Sorcery in these novels. Too much magic will take away from a good plot, which sometimes occurred in these books. That said, I enjoyed the book enough to give it Four Stars. I'm proud to be the seventh person to do so.

A. Nathaniel Wallace, Jr.

This book was kind of a fun read but the plot and characters were very weak. First of all, no woman would ask a man to sleep with her one last time while she is dying, which is exactly what one of his consorts does. I mean please. Also the only reason why women are in this book at all is so the main character can have sex with them..very silly and lame. The second problem I had was the authors use of military titles, he borrows from Roman history and modern military rank which is a little confusing.
If you like stupid heroines saying mindless things that live for nothing but sex this book is for you.

The Napoleonic Wars set in a fantasy world, including the retreat from Moscow and everything! Having said that, this is a pretty good series. The battle and war scenes are well handled, the trials and tribulations of winter warfare, partisans, and guerillas are very nicely crafted, and the only complaint I could make about it is that the hero is not too terribly bright. Loyalty is a two way street. How many times does Damastes need to be betrayed, anyway? The women are two dimensional at best and seem to exist only to allow the author the opportunity to throw a little "soft porn" into the mix. But - much better than your average sword and sorcery fantasy, intricately crafted world, and very nice flow of action. Read it, it's worth the time.

I thought it was a very good book. the story line went well and it only had one bit i did not enjoy. The other thing was it was a little to long. The same tale could have beentold the same in less pages.

While it is certainly true that Chris Bunch's work almost matches Michael Moorcock's Elric series as a dark, depressing tale, he spins his own unique yarn to the fantasy genre. The fantasy steroetype depicts the protagonist as some mendicant who will eventually mature and become king, emperor, the master wizard, etc. Instead, we have the protagonist, (Damastes) supporting the rule of Laish Tenedos time and time again, despite increasing evidence that Laish Tenedos isn't such a nice guy after all. Furthermore, though the ending of the Demon King is somewhat depressing (many second books to a trilogy are), the protagonist is at least partially responsible for his own downfall (making it all the more tragic.) That in itself is interesting. And as for the graphic descriptions of sex and violence, I firmly believe that Chris Bunch is simply trying to depict the character of Damastes as someone who is able to live for the moment, even with the whole world falling apart around him- not to mention someone who is able to put behind him the loss of loved ones. Chris Bunch has done a damn good job with his series so far, and I look forward the the conclusion in February.

This is a fascinating story that grabs the attention of the reader and doesn't let go. A great soliders tale.

The one weakness of this publication ( series) is the graphic sex that could be eliminated totally and not be missed. For this reason I would not suggest this series to younger readers. A pity since many fantasy readers start to appreciate this genre as adolescents.