Who Wants to be The Prince of Darkness?

by Michael Boatman

Lucifer is enjoying his retirement in an obscure corner of Limbo when he learns of a plot by Gabriel, the current ruler of Hell, to use humanity’s greatest weapon against it – Television!

Cue the hottest reality game-show ever conceived: Who Wants To Be The Prince Of Darkness? Gabriel orchestrates an “Infernal takeover” of Earth by stealing unwitting mortal souls and sending them to a mostly empty Hell, hoping to reinvigorate the Infernal Realm.

Now Lucifer must find a living champion to seize control of Hell and free millions of stolen mortal souls before the theft becomes permanent. But who would ever want to be Hell’s champion?

File Under: Fantasy [ Down Among The Dead Men | Fifteen Minutes For Eternity | Damned If You Do | The Morningstar ]

• ISBN10: 0857663984
• ISBN13: 9780857663986
• Publish Date: 1 March 2016
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Angry Robot
• Format: Paperback (US Mass Market)
• Pages: 400
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780857663986

Reviews

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


Disclaimer: I stopped reading this book at the 58% mark.


The book description sounded funny and interesting. So imagine my surprise when I started reading it and the book seemed to have no connection to the description whatsoever. It did finally start tying into the description somewhere around the 25-30% mark. But even then, it only seemed to slightly touch on it.

The plot mostly revolves around this guy who has risen to become some kind of fitness/mental health guru. Who isn't really likable at all as a character. And then he has this mysterious breakdown on stage in front of his fans that is filmed live on tv. He starts talking like a crazy man and can't stop himself. This is the cue for the book to take a turn for the weird and finally start to pull in some of the synopsis description. But even then, we don't really get much of it.

Each chapter there is a different view point character, and not all the chapters continue on from where the last character left off. So one chapter you'll get the guru, and then another chapter gives you one of the demons from Hell, or maybe you'll get the now evil archangel Gabriel's son (who is the host of the tv show alluded to in the synopsis). And then it will change to someone else, and basically I was left wondering what I'd gotten myself into.

Lucifer doesn't actually look for a contestant for the game show like the description says. He does end up with a mortal to be his champion, but this guy (the guru) is so clueless about everything you're left wondering why HE was chosen and what exactly he's going to be able to do about anything.

Some of the book was actually funny, but a lot of it wasn't. I think my favorite character was Ally D. I liked her a lot, and even more so after her secret was revealed. But even reading about her wasn't enough to make me want to finish the book. I think I might have liked the book better if the description hadn't been so misleading. I went in expecting something like the description, and that was NOT what I got.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon