Customer Reviews

Demons

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

When it comes to John Shirley, you have to take your chances. In my humble opinion, I find him a writer of widely varying quality (though one who steadily improves, there is little backsliding in his work). If one goes as far back as CELLARS, there is really not much to recommend; however, Mr. Shirley has produced such excellent work as: IN DARKNESS WAITING; WETBONES; and, most recently, DEMONS. This is a terrific short novel--well-paced, gripping, and solid. Mr. Shirley's mastery of this short form is impressive. A sense of dread is pervasive thoughout, though his prose is lean and to the point.

In this most imaginative premise (though I sense some inspiration from John Ostrander's DEMON WARS arc in the GRIMJACK comics), unstoppable, murderous demons have suddenly appeared on Earth. They can make their presence known anywhere and anytime. With no defenses, humans must make their way through this hell on earth as best they can (this is Shirley's most interesting facet in the book--how John and Mary Sixpack continue about their daily business in this new dystopia).

It was a pleasure to read DEMONS, and I look forward to Mr. Shirley's next work.

While "Demons" may lack the intense machine-gun narrative of John Shirley's "A Song Called Youth" cyberpunk trilogy, it nonetheless is a splendid example of his fine literary style which has garnered praise from distinguished writers ranging from William Gibson to Clive Barker. I found "Demons" to be a riveting read, especially Book 1, which is a phantasmagorical trek through San Francisco in the midst of a demonic occupation. Book 2 adds some intriguing touches with regards to cyperpunk and environmental disaster fiction thrown into a plot which shows what happens when big business runs afoul of demons. Melissa, the daughter of an obscure college professor, is the main character - and emotional heart - of both books. Shirley's prose has rarely been better. This is yet another fine book from one of my favorite authors of fiction.

I read this book in two spurts- first read through the first volume and a few chapters into the second, grew very, very bored then a few months picked up the book again and finished reading the remaining 100 or so pages. That about sums up the book i think; its got a good storytelling, with some nice hooks, the demons are descriptive enough, and there is a cosmology described(the golden urn, undercurrent, black pearl, conscious circle, etc etc) but the author only makes vague references to each of their meanings. it seemed that the author wanted to test the waters of conspiracy and occult, but was more interested in metaphysical, new age 'feelings' than delving too deeply. at times the righting was too detailed about things that were simply uninteresting, and then left gaps on things that were interesting, but left unspoken. perhaps this was the feel going for...some attempt at 'deeper' symbolism about society and all- but it was a tough pill to swallow given the graphic nature of some of the scenes [which were told well.], but the book bordered on taking itself too seriously and flirting with the harder core of occult genre. add to it that the second volumen severly brought down my opinion of the first- it was too many characters, too much going on, and the writing was begining to loose its prose, that i put it down for months, only to read it later. the verbocity of the author was good, but the details were lacking- the story had good basepoints but should have delved deeper.

it was a difficult read that had started out good.

Demons' back cover is somewhat misleading, though that doesn't mean that the two books(Demon 1 & 2) are not a good read. Shirley's style pulls the story in an unexpected direction. Instead of falling into a routine of voilence and heroic dashing back and forth, he writes his characters as real world people afraid and determined. His use of language at times is stunning "... the Gnasher, who struck an elegant pose and swung his genitals like a zoot-suit chain," and funny at the same time.

The first book is much shorter and perhaps a little more interesting. As with all sequals the second is not quite as good, though some of the OBE (Out of Body Experence) scenes remind of Lovecraft's cosmic dream cycle. The quick snap end of Demons 2 makes up for the slow plot building in it's first half. And while the story itself is inventive and unexpected it dose from time to time, most often in the second book, fall a little short of expectations. In those times however Shirley's skillful writing holds the reader's intrerest.
Both books make excellent reading similar to Sean Stewart's "Resurrection Man" and "Galveston

The book Demons is a story of the seven clans of demons and the people who fought against them, or at least tried.... John Shirley describes everything in his book vividly, and at times he does it too well and he does it magnificently at times when you wish he hadn't painted a picture of that particular scene. Each demons has its own often hilrious name, from a bugsy to a tailpipe, but although the names sound cute and all, in 'reality' the demons are far from that description. Overall the book is magnificently written, but I should warn everyone, this book is not for anyone, there should be a level of maturity and readiness in the reader before they should ever read this book.

A fascinating study of a certain type of occult phenomenon - how, to use Goya's words, _el sueño de la razon produce muenstros_ - the sleep of reason produces monsters.

Shirley's book tells about a demonic invasion that threatens to engulf planet Earth. The demons come in various types; my own personal favorites are the Bugsys - sleazy characters who somehow manage to get human beings to be their pets. And as Shirley fans will know, he has a great capacity for melding the hyperreal elements of fantasy with the gritty reality of the urban.

Would discuss the implications of this powerful book further, but I don't want to give away too much of the plot. Highly recommended.

"I like my apocalypse tales to have giant insects" Clive Barker told Fangoria in a late 80's interview so it's no wonder that Clive has blurb on the back of this book. Indeed the blurb respect of not only Clive barker but the equally discerning taste of Poppy Z.Brite and William Gibson were enough to hook my interest in John Shirley. What I did not know about the man is that he was a former punk rock front man who was writing about cyperpunk in the 80's so yeah even Gibson knows Shirley did it first. Beyond that reading interviews and bouncing around his site I discovered he actually went toe to with Harlan Ellison, to take on sci-fi's crown prince of grumpiness with wit well it takes chutzpah.

Demons is a novel that has chutzpah, if you were not lucky enough to be exposed to the Jewish phrase lets put it this way Demons packs a punch after punch. While my first introduction John Shirley was in his most recent novel Crawlers which was great, followed by one of his recent short story collections Black Butterflies. So far everything I have read by Shirley has been first rate.

Demons however I consider to be the best of all three. The first sentence of the prologue is `It is amazing what you get used to' from there you are instantly launched into an apocalypse populated by monsters. I am not going to name all the variety of demons but Shirley has put handy guide to them in the front of the book, which includes important facts about there physical make-up, intelligence levels and there social structure.

This guide is handy because these beasts are launched out of hell and into the novel so quick and powerfully you will be right beside the characters in astonishment. The book is two interdependent short novels about the same characters but written in different tones. The first half is a savage brutal end of the world tale that is what I imagine fifties monster and bug invasion movies would have felt like with George Lucas's CGI team working on it.

While the second slows down it was something Shirley could not avoid in his attempt to take demons to the level that makes it special as horror novel because it doesn't just have hordes of invading demonic beasts but it has an intelligent and important message. However corny that may sound it isn't. Demons does have it's share of monsters and humor but it is so outrageous at times that it shows a superior level of artistic skill when Shirley pulls the story back in with a poignant message. Not unlike Richard Matheson's classic I Am Legend Shirley questions who are the real monsters, where are the roots of this apocalypse?

The lagging the story does in the middle is quickly forgotten when you get to the end. The finale is a welcome pay-off. For me it was Shirley's desires to break the unwritten rules in the way he describes things and where the plot twists. Demons is one of the most fun books I have read in years and made a devoted fan out of me. John Shirley's latest projects were novelization of the Constantine movie...his next projects are novels based on Hellblazer the comic not the film. And re-issue(slightly re-worked) of his classic horror novel Darkness divided I for one can't wait for those.

Coolest quote of the book: "How like fish you are, swimming in the sea but unaware of it; you are the fishy swimmers awash in a sea of suffering"

There were very interesting ideas in this book, as well as a couple of great "moments." But I was expecting more of a horror novel and less of a philisophical/science fiction/environmental/political novel. There were basically no demons in the 2nd part of the story!! A couple of scenes, sure, but overall, it was much slower paced than the first part. I really liked the idea of a secretive group of people joined via special powers, and liked the character of Ira. Also enjoyed the dialogue from some of the demons - creepy and funny all at once. I recommend this book, but be warned it's not what you expect.

John Shirley has, in his novel Demons, concocted an enticing, genre-bending blend of science fiction and horror. This book really contains a novel in two parts, or a short novel and its sequel. Both make for intriguing reads.

Approximately the first third of the book contains the short novel Demons. Told from the viewpoint of Ira, an artist with a penchant for the occult, Demons takes place in the not-too-distant future, in 2011. One random day akin to any other in San Francisco, Ira goes to visit his girlfriend Melissa, who, unbeknownst to Ira, harbors the "Gold in the Urn," and her father Dr. Paymenz. However, unlike any other day, demon-like creatures begin to fall from the sky and wreak havoc on the unsuspecting general public. Combining forces with several occultists and scientists who make up a secret society, Ira, Melissa, and Paymenz aid in the attempt to discover the source of the demon attacks and aim to put them to an end.

The second and longer book, Undercurrent, was a much more tedious read. It wasn't that the story or writing were poor, I just found this portion of the book to be much slower-paced. Furthermore, the "horror" element is lacking in this portion and Shirley spends more time divulging the science fiction aspect of his tale giving excruciating details of out of body experiences and other psychic phenomena. In Undercurrent, which takes place nine years after the attacks, we are introduced to Stephen Isquerat. Stephen works for a large company called West Wind. Once the company becomes aware that Stephen has some psychic ability, they put him to work in their psychonomics sector, whose purpose remains fairly elusive, even to Stephen himself. What Stephen does know is that the company's CEO will stop at nothing to get what he wants, even if it means killing hundreds of animals and people with a supposed pesticide called Dirvane 17.

We also learn in this sequel that the government, or someone, has tried to cover up the horrific events of nine years ago. Tapes have been erased and people have begun to believe that the events were the result of a terrorist attack. Some hallucinogen was released that caused mass hysteria, primal rage, and large-scale hallucinations. Still, the Conscious Circle attempts to unravel the mystery and thwart the maliciousness of those with a penchant towards ill will. During this second book, Melissa is in Turkmenistan with her and Ira's son, Marcus, on an obscure mission. Meanwhile, Ira is in Portland, Oregon apprenticing under Yanan, a member of the Conscious Circle. All of them have important roles to play in the saving of humankind.

While the first book was fast-paced and a fun, easy read, I felt that some plot elements were somewhat underdeveloped. The second book, on the other hand, was an extremely slow, tedious read, though slightly more developed than the first book. This isn't to say, however, that the second book was well-developed. Like the first book, it seems as though Shirley could have gone slightly more in-depth with explanations of actual plot elements, while he probably could have pared down some of the OBE explanations. It would have been nice to have seen the seven clans of demons developed a bit more, and possibly the plane from which they came as well. Nonetheless, this was still a worthwhile read. The concept is excellent as is Shirley's writing, I just felt that emphasis could have been placed elsewhere in order to make Demons slightly more entertaining and a little less irksome.

Shirley is an exciting horror Sci-Fi writer- his stories fall into the vein of political satirist who uses horror and sci-fi themes to get his point across. Overall he is an exciting and descriptive writer who can fall into the trap of "underwriting"- things happen that he doesn't explain or develop enough. His short stories such as "Black Butterflies" suits him best cause of his short and to the point writing style. Unlike King (who can "over write" in his novels) Shirley throws you in and makes you struggle to keep up with the characters as he introduces many and than kills them off just as quickly. Shirley's themes of corporate greed, media addiction, and apathy gone wild really hits home with me so this may be the reason I give him high marks. It is nice to get some social critique while getting your socks scared off you. With Demons you get two short novels in one book= the 2nd one called "Undercurrent" (sequel) is better than the first cause Shirley is able to spend more time with the main characters so that you care about them more. "Demons" falls short at times because Shirley introduces Major Plot items (the Golden Urn?) and doesn't really give you any background on the item. Where as in his other novel "Crawlers" has a horrible title but really is one of Shirley's best - -he nails the "teen" speak, makes you feel for most of the characters, and makes you feel like at any minute anyone is going to die= needed for this type of novel. If you like nasty/gross/tense horrors with a nice political/social commentary pick this one up ASAP and than read "Black Butterflies".