Quantum Demonology

by Sheila Eggenberger

"If Faust were a 21st century metal-minded former punk with too much libido and a major attitude problem, this would be her story."

KIRKUS REVIEW

In Eggenberger’s debut novel, an aging heavy-metal music fan and aspiring writer sells her soul to the devil and finds there’s a lot more to life than good and evil.

The novel’s unnamed, Scandinavian narrator has long enjoyed the freedom of being an unattached, self-described “nympho slut” and “metalhead.” However, she struggles to find time to write between shifts at her day job, and as she approaches her 47th birthday, she begins to worry that her writing career may never take off the way she’d planned and that her steady stream of young one-night stands may soon dry up. One day, as she steals a few hours to write in a Copenhagen coffee shop, a dead ringer for her favorite metal musician approaches her. She recognizes him, not as the rock icon he resembles, but as the devil himself. He offers her the promise of the writing career—and love life—she’s always dreamed of in exchange for her soul, but she’s reluctant. The devil is not accustomed to hearing “no,” and so he instead persuades her to help him destroy his wife, the biblical Lilith, before she destroys the world. As the tough-as-nails narrator’s sultry romance with the devil begins and her writing career skyrockets toward celebrity status, she finds that the real world is a lot more nuanced than the one purported by so-called moralists. The novel has distinct, well-developed feminist undertones and proves to be about much more than a powerful woman destroying another powerful woman. Fans of the long-esteemed feminist heroine Lilith may be disappointed to see her as the villain here, but she proves to be an antagonist of Maleficent-esque proportions, and readers may be torn between fearing and loving her character. Feminist readers may also be pleased to see that the tomboy narrator ultimately finds camaraderie with a well-researched group of legendary women, including the Norse goddess, Freya, and her handmaiden Fulla.

An engaging, modern-day Faust for brainy rockers.

Pub Date:Dec. 17th, 2013
ISBN:978-0991105908
Page count:610pp
Publisher:Nigel's Flight
Program:Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online:Feb. 12th, 2014

610 pages, Hardcover

First published December 17, 2013

Reviews

[Sharon Freeman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sheila has written a book of allegorical proportions. This is Faust amped to 100 feet of Goth pumping, sweaty grunt, moving at a firecracker pace. On many levels a prophetic, pre-apocalyptic, quasi dystopian tale, this book will appeal to a wide audience. Written in the first person narrative by an intelligent, humorous and self-depreciating narrator, our narrator speaks to us on many levels and allows to peep under her firmly placed mask, she whispers her secrets to us. Breath taking erotic scenes that leave many bodice rippers trembling in its wake. Erotic writing has been, and no doubt still is, the bane of many writers. This book has great sex, there; I said it, Sex. Sex, in copious and unearthly ways. The characters are epic in stature and nature, and are memorable in their uniqueness. I applaud Sheila in her courage in humanising hallowed beings and writing them so convincingly. The visual landscape takes us from city-scapes to dark, mysterious, and horrifying places. Light and dark themes abound. Quantum Demonology is a fresh look on the diabolical dark side and I like it. And it could only be by demons that it smells damn good. I look forward to seeing how these characters develop. This book would be up there next to Dante’s Divine Comedy as films I would like to see.

[danielle de Medeiros · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) met Christian Grey (50 Shades of Grey), and we substituted the southern psychic for Faustian Viking metal-head, then substituted vampire/bossy businessman for The Devil Himself, you’d begin to understand the delicious package that is Quantum Demonology.