Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A remarkable debut of richly rewarding, powerful epic fantasy, February 26, 2007
I really wish I knew exactly how to pronounce this author's last name because I'm definitely going to be spreading it around to anyone interested in reading great fantasy. Terry Cloutier really bursts out of the gate like gangbusters with this lengthy, richly rewarding debut novel, book one of The Zone War trilogy. Maybe you're thinking you don't want to invest a significant time and effort into reading a 600+ page novel from a brand new fantasy writer, but rest assured that your commitment will not be wasted one iota in The Demon Inside. You'll be swearing this book is all too short when you get to the end and face the daunting task of waiting for book two to see what happens next.
The foundation for the story is Edward Fox, a most sympathetic protagonist indeed. At the age of twelve, Edward was abducted by a deranged psychopath named David Wayne Diamond, a man who delighted in skinning his victims alive. While he was eventually rescued and Diamond killed, Edward is still haunted by the experience. Now, it is seriously affecting his relationship with his wife, who believes the scars on his legs date back to a farming accident. When the memories threaten to overpower him, Edward does now what he has always done - space out from the world completely and retreat into a world of his own creation. In the Zone, he was always safe and completely in control of his environment - no one could hurt him there, including Diamond. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.
As his real world body lies in a coma, Edward finds himself back in the Zone for the long haul - only now, the Zone has undergone some serious changes. Edward no longer has the power to control what goes on there, which proves especially inconvenient and dangerous when he learns that he is the Creator whose triumphant return has been highly anticipated by many in the Zone. Almost completely powerless and exceedingly vulnerable, Edward isn't exactly the Creator that his followers expected. Doorgen Sandon, a great knight (a creation of Edward's younger imagination), and a young wizard are sent to find the Creator and return him to the Old Man (head wizard), while a company of devoted monks also seek the Creator they have been prophesying about. They, along with a fascinating mix of remarkably memorable individuals, find themselves compelled to become Edward's protectors (as they hope he will come into his powers eventually) against the evil and deadly forces of a mad emperor determined to kill this Creator and thus open up the way for his own conquest of the entire Zone. Edward doesn't know it yet, but this emperor is a malignant soul he is far too familiar with already.
There's no lack of action in these pages, as the emperor lets loose the dogs of war against neighboring cities and dispatches a cadre of soldiers, terrible witches, and other sundry evils to dispose of Edward and his friends. Much blood is shed by the swords of Sandon and his fellow Knights, a young wizard sent to do an experienced wizard's job more than proves himself despite serious physical odds, and the forces of evil increasingly bear down upon a more and more isolated Creator. Many great characters rise above the tumult, such as the bold and fiery Lady Jasmiine Vaxin (who bears more than a striking resemblance to Edward's real-world wife), and - sometimes to my dismay - many of them go. Cloutier forges his own path through the fantasy genre, sometimes killing off, after a few odd pages, individuals I expected to be major secondary characters. That authorial capriciousness really kept this reader on his toes, never knowing for sure whether a fallen hero would actually rise again.
While all of this intense action is taking place in the Zone, Cloutier pauses here and there to reveal more about Edward's real-world past, specifically his efforts to mentally and emotionally recover from his violent kidnapping ordeal. Both of Edward's story lines come to a most dramatic climax, leaving this reader desperate for more. This isn't one of those lengthy novels that you put down with a "Whew - thank goodness that's done" feeling - far from it. In fact, The Demon Inside has you directing a few choice words Cloutier's way for his authorial decision to leave you hanging on a precipice of anticipation until such time as the second novel in the series is released. That, my friends, is good writing.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Review of The Demon Inside, July 24, 2008
Terry Cloutier's The Demon Inside, Book I, is a well-conceived book with a complicated fantasy world and realistic characters. The novel centers on Edward Fox, who is abducted when he is a child by the serial killer David Wayne Diamond. Edward creates an imaginary world called `The Zone', where his mind goes in order to escape the torture Diamond inflicts upon his body as he slowly skins Edward alive. Though Edward is eventually freed before Diamond can kill him, who himself is killed by police, Edward never forgets `The Zone', and disappears inside this imaginary world whenever the real world becomes too difficult for him to handle.
In some ways, The Demon Inside, Book I, reminds me of Terry Brook's Magic Kingdom for Sale--Sold!, Philip Jose Farmer's The World of Tiers, or C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. All of these books deal with seemingly ordinary humans transported to a magical realm where they must learn the extent of their power in order to save the fantasy world. Though Cloutier's book follows a similar theme, he manages to create something fresh and uniquely interesting in The Demon Inside. Edward Fox isn't only trying to save an imaginary population, he's also trying to save his sanity by finally standing up to his inner demons.
The characters in Terry's book are not simple. Many of them have their own agendas, which makes it difficult to put them in neat boxes of good and bad. Edward Fox is perhaps the hero, but in his adulthood, he is consumed by fear of his childhood tormenter. David Wayne Diamond's desire to skin kids alive is never fully explained in the first book, but he is not presented as a wholly evil, all-powerful nemesis. He has weaknesses which makes him all the more human, his survival is as threatened as everyone else's in the novel, and like everyone else, he desperately wants to live. The Demon Inside introduces the reader to a host of other characters, such as the wizard Eraac Storn, First Guardian Doorgen Sandon, or my favorite, the psychotic preteen Trueen Firth. The characters all seem like regular folk one feels could actually exist; no one acts mindlessly with their only purpose the acquisition of power or the singular desire to hurt and kill. Instead, the readers mostly meet military men or individuals on missions who are simply doing what they are told by higher ups, and who want to advance in the world in order to lead better lives for themselves and, often times, their families. The fact that the characters are multi-dimensional makes The Demon Inside all the more challenging to read.
Overall, this is a very good book. There are some issues with language that becomes distracting at times, such as the overuse of adverbs and similes, particularly in the last third of the novel. Though the dialogue is mostly well done, there are some melodramatic moments when one can't help but wonder if an individual would really speak that way. But these are mostly quick fixes that can be resolved in a second or third Edition, and overall, the writing is strong and engaging. I am genuinely interested in knowing what happens in Book 2, and I only hope that the sequel will not disappoint.
|
|
|
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A fantastic debut from a talented writer, April 12, 2008
The Demon Inside by Terry Cloutier is the first novel in The Zone War Trilogy. The second book, which is already released, is titled The Balance of Power: The Zone War, Book 2. The third and final book is scheduled to be titled The Master Eye, and is slated for release either late in 2008 or early 2009. It is not your traditional fantasy, sword and sorcery novel. It blends traditional fantasy with a few scenes set in the modern world. I knew this was included in the novel, and initially, it made me a little leery of reading it. I usually only read medieval type fantasy so this, I thought, was a little out of my comfort area. I am really pleased to have decided to take the chance on this novel.
The plot of this novel has some aspects of traditional fantasy novels, a fight between good and evil. However, the package that it is in is something that is quite rare. Due to a very traumatic experience as a child, Edward Fox was forced to partition his mind. When that happened, a new world came into being The Zone. The main plot of the book focuses on Edward Fox, as an adult, being thrust into The Zone yet again. However, unlike when he was a child, he no longer has control over anything in The Zone. He is trust into the middle of a war that is going on, and there are several factions of people who seek to gain control of him because he is the Creator of the Zone. There are also a couple of sub plots woven into the story such as; a group of monks who's only purpose is to serve the Creator and help put an end to the Zone, there is a slight political sub plot with a certain group of characters, there is the sub plot of facing ones demons, then of course there is the sub plot of how a child deals with the extreme trauma. When I first approached this novel and read the back cover, I was unsure just how deep the plot would be, however once I finished the plot was extremely satisfying. It was an almost perfect mix of main plot and sub plots and kept me continually interested. Even the `modern day' scenes didn't jar me out of the story as I thought they would. They were kept rather short, but added quite a bit to the story.
The characters in this book, at times, take a little bit of a back seat to the plot. There are a couple of times that I felt the characters were being dragged alone by what was happening instead of them making the choices that would move the plot forward. There are some very interesting characters in this novel, and one in particular seems to steal scenes he is in. He doesn't appear until later in the novel but the character of Taagaa, was extremely interesting and I only hope he appears in the next book as well. Other characters such as Edward, Eddie (young Edward), Jasmiine, Quint, Storn, Doogren and Daamand are all well written and interesting. They all held true to what you would expect their actions to be under a variety of circumstances and situations. For this type of book, there are a lot of characters, but I never felt as though I lost track of any of them and I can honestly say, there is not one character I didn't have some type of emotional reaction to. From the first page, to the last word, the characters are solid, well defined and interesting.
If I had to pick a couple things to offer up some constructive criticism to in this novel they would be:
1 - As good as the characters are, I would have like to see a little more characters development scatter throughout the pages. It seems the vast majority of character development, especially with Edward, happens in the last fifty pages or so. Also, adding some secondary character development here and there may have taken this novel to the next level.
2 - There were a couple places where the dialogue between characters seemed a little forced and almost on the verge of what I like to call an information dump. Almost as though there was a great need to give the reader a piece of information, and the only way to do it was to just let it go from a character. This wasn't a resounding issue by any means, and does not take away from the overall enjoyment of the book but it is present.
3 - There were a few times when I think a little more description of the scene/ environment may have benefited me as a reader. Just giving me a better idea of what the authors true vision was. I have read enough fantasy novels where I was able to fill in the blanks, but I wonder if what I filled in was truly what the author intended.
Enough of the criticism, what did I really enjoy about this novel, besides almost everything.
1 - The prose and pacing is fantastic. For a debut book from a new author this novel is incredibly polished. The prose is fluid and is written in almost such a way that Mr. Cloutier is daring the reader to stop reading and put the book down.
2 - The story. Some fantasy stories try to be more than what they are. This novel however, is what it is and doesn't claim to be anything else. It set up the world, and provided a very good story with surprising depth to it.
3 - The structure of the novel. The modern scenes were mixed perfectly in with the main parts of the novel. As I said in the opening, when I first heard there would be modern elements to the story I was worried they would dominate the book and take away from the fantasy aspect. However, after finishing it I can only say those modern elements actually helped to enhance the story and provide a base for what was going on. It was a brilliant move and one that worked extremely well.
For a first time author, this novel is fantastic. In deciding what to rate it I ultimately decided on a 4 star rating over a five, mainly because a five star rating, to me, signifies perfection. The way I see it, there are still a few (minor things) that could be tweaked. Hat does not mean by any scope of the imagination that this is not a good book. It's very well done and I will certainly be reading the next one right away and eagerly awaiting the third. If you are a fan of the fantasy genre, or even looking to get into the genre, I strongly encourage you to check this book out. It's a great read and one that I will most certainly be recommending to people in the future.
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
by Terry Cloutier
by Brent Weeks
by Scott Lynch
by Andrzej Sapkowski
by Brent Weeks
