Prosper's Demon by K. J. Parker

Prosper's Demon (Prospero's Demon, #1)

by K. J. Parker

"As if Deadpool had slipped into the body of the Witcher Geralt." —The New York Times

In the pitch dark, witty fantasy novella Prosper's Demon, K. J. Parker deftly creates a world with vivid, unbending rules, seething with demons, broken faith, and worse men.

In a botched demonic extraction, they say the demon feels it ten times worse than the man. But they don’t die, and we do. Equilibrium.

The unnamed and morally questionable narrator is an exorcist with great follow-through and few doubts. His methods aren’t delicate but they’re undeniably effective: he’ll get the demon out—he just doesn’t particularly care what happens to the person.

Prosper of Schanz is a man of science, determined to raise the world’s first philosopher-king, reared according to the purest principles. Too bad he’s demonically possessed.

Reviewed by lyx on

4 of 5 stars

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3.7/3.8

a sweet short story, if sweet is the appropriate word to be used here.
k.j. parker does a good job of setting up the lore without restricting the reader to it. he implements a lot of vague rather than detailed set-in-stone descriptions and doesn't waste much time on world-building, which is all quite fitting for the style of the novel and the present narrator. it all works very well together. on that note, i loved the narrator/protagonist, who might not necessarily be meant to be liked, but his dark, dry humor is right up my alley. his interaction with the other people in the story as well as the demons - interesting little creatures - were a lot of fun to read.
i was looking forward to reading this book for a while so my expectations might have been a bit too high, but it was a good quick read, and if you need something /different/ and fresh to clean your palate, especially this time of year, give it a shot.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 13 October, 2021: Finished reading
  • 13 October, 2021: Reviewed