Sympathy for the Devil [Mass Market Paperback]

Holly Lisle (Author)

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Baen Books (1995)
• ASIN: B000MQOD8C
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Holly Lisle has been writing fiction professionally since 1991, when she sold FIRE IN THE MIST, the novel that won the Compton Crook Award for best first novel. She has to date published more than thirty novels and several comprehensive writing courses. She is currently working on the second book in her Cadence Drake series.

Holly had an ideal childhood for a writer...which is to say, it was filled with foreign countries and exotic terrains, alien cultures, new languages, the occasional earthquake, flood, or civil war, and one story about a bear, which follows:

"So. Back when I was ten years old, my father and I had finished hunting ducks for our dinner and were walking across the tundra in Alaska toward the spot on the river where we'd tied our boat. We had a couple miles to go by boat to get back to the Moravian Children's Home, where we lived.

"My father was carrying the big bag of decoys and the shotgun; I was carrying the small bag of ducks.

"It was getting dark, we could hear the thud, thud, thud of the generator across the tundra, and suddenly he stopped, pointed down to a pie-pan sized indentation in the tundra that was rapidly filling with water, and said, in a calm and steady voice, "That's a bear footprint. From the size of it, it's a grizzly. The fact that the track is filling with water right now means the bear's still around."

"Which got my attention, but not as much as what he said next.


" 'I don't have the gun with me that will kill a bear,' he told me. 'I just have the one that will make him angry. So if we see the bear, I'm going to shoot him so he'll attack me. I want you to run to the river, follow it to the boat, get the boat back home, and tell everyone what happened.'

"The rest of our walk was very quiet. He was, I'm sure, listening for the bear. I was doing my damnedest to make sure that I remembered where the boat was, how to get to it, how to start the pull-cord engine, and how to drive it back home, because I did not want to let him down.

"We were not eaten by a bear that night...but neither is that walk back from our hunt for supper a part of my life I'll ever forget.

"I keep that story in mind as I write. If what I'm putting on paper isn't at least as memorable as having a grizzly stalking my father and me across the tundra while I was carrying a bag of delicious-smelling ducks, it doesn't make my cut."

Cheerfully,
Holly Lisle

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Raising Hell in North Carolina, June 5, 2004

By 

Shanshad "shanachie_shadowfax" (Discworld) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Paperback)

Dayne Kuttner has made a challenge to God that the deity cannot refuse. To give the damned souls of Hell another chance to repent. The ineffable deity has responded to Dayne's challenge in an unexpected way releasing several thousand Hellspawn into the State of North Carolina. And while heaven may be offering them a chance to repent, Hell has other plans. They are to tempt more souls into hell, starting with the soul of Dayne. Holly Lisle delivers a book that is full of fun and hilarity, and some food for thought as well as she takes a look at the institutions of heaven and hell and the world of humanity in between.

As with most of Holly Lisle's writing, there's a good dollop of humor in this story, keeping it from becoming darkly serious and overdramatic. This allows the story to be thoughtful without becoming overly preachy. Our heroine Dayne is delightfully tough and intelligent, a strong adversary for the fallen angel Agonostis. And while most of the devils and demons remain more comical than outright darkly evil, and some even downright likable, the characterization feels appropriate to the tone of the story.

Despite the humor, there are moments of true poignancy and epiphany that keep this story from being merely fluff. It's the reason I keep re-reading this book even though it's beginning to fall apart on me and I'll need a new copy soon. While the look at religion is not necessarily the traditional one (Holly Lisle plays fast and loose with some of the conventions) there are still profound messages that Ms. Lisle conveys about the essence of faith, the nature of good and evil, how Heaven can exist if there is a hell, and what does it truly mean to be a human being.

One of my few complaints with this book is that while it offers a satisfying conclusion to the protagonist's story, it leaves an open ended teaser ending for the next story in this trilogy-and these books are a bit difficult to get a hold of. Readers who enjoy humor, fantasy and romance and don't mind a rather tongue in cheek look at the denizens of Heaven and Hell are encouraged to give this book a try. If you enjoy this one, the second book in the trilogy is THE DEVIL AND DAN COOLEY, and the third is HELL ON HIGH. And you may also want to check out GOOD OMENS by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

Happy Reading! Shanshad ^_^

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Comedy of Theology, October 5, 2000

By 

J. Burke (Indianapolis, IN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Paperback)

This is a deceptively simple book; the basic story can be set up in a few sentences: in agony over her life as a nurse, the death of her husband and theological platitudes, Dayne Kuttner tempts God to give the damned of Hell a second chance--and he does, though not quite in the way she expected. What follows is an oftentimes funny helter-skelter ride of escaped demons and other assorted damned-souls loose in North Carolina. Of course, Lucifer (Puissant Lord of Evil, Utmost Originator of All Things Foul, Master of the Netherworlds, Purveyor of Anguish) sees the opportunity and grabs it: he sends his lieutenant Agonostis into the mess to tempt more mortals to their doom--and to seize Dayne herself for Hell.

Lisle's rewritten the Bible and Christianity here. Don't expect every event or presumption of the book to follow rigorous doctrine. Instead, look for the mass of real-life medical and theological questions bubbling under the surface. She covers issues like euthanasia and the responsibility of medical practitioners to their (dying and nearly-dead) patients. But the philosophical meat is the theology: how can Heaven and Hell co-exist? Is this even morally possible if God is wholly good? What sends a person to Hell? Does anyone ever deserve to be there? And what exactly _are_ good and evil? How close together can they get?

I'm making the book sound heavy, but on the surface you can view it as a light-hearted comedy. This level was enjoyable on the first read, but I found myself returning later to the questions couched between the lines and the allegory they create. If you're just after a good, fun read, go for it; but if you want more, you'll definitely find it. I haven't read anything quite like it before or since; I even created a new personal category for it, which is the title of this review.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Serious subject, but one of the funniest and best Holly!, February 10, 2005

By 

R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL (Paperback)

Just pick up the book and read the first page. If you're not laughing out loud enough to embarrass yourself, then this is not the book for you.

Doubting and disgusted, heroine Dayne challenges God to let the demons in Hell have a chance. Just like physics, for every action Hell's got an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, Satan sets demons loose in North Carolina to claim as many souls as they can including Dayne's.

The story examines good and evil, heaven and hell, but with a light brush. "Sympathy" is both amusing and thought-provoking. IMHO, the best of Holly Lisle's work so far.