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Demons
The Barnes & Noble Review
John Shirley gives us a taste of what can happen when we live as if our actions are inconsequential. Through the eyes of one of the main characters, an artist named Ira, we see the future: a world where demons are everywhere. As is the case with humanity, good and evil aren't easily discerned, and so the folks one would normally count on have failed us, and, like the Bible says, the meek do inherit the earth
John Shirley gives us a taste of what can happen when we live as if our actions are inconsequential. Through the eyes of one of the main characters, an artist named Ira, we see the future: a world where demons are everywhere. As is the case with humanity, good and evil aren't easily discerned, and so the folks one would normally count on have failed us, and, like the Bible says, the meek do inherit the earth
So it is that we see the Gnashers, Spiders, Grindums, and Dishrags all doing what demons do best -- torturing humanity. Shirley does a great job giving dimensions and personalities to each of the demon clans, which makes the story that much more enjoyable to read. The Bugsys, for example, are galactic gamblers and love the thrill of laying down a bet -- I'd love to see some Vegas croupier catch them cheating and try to throw them out!
Although Demons is a lot of
fun to read, it is also a very deep
and profound story. (S.V.)
148 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2000
30 people are currently reading
538 people want to read
About the author
John Shirley
322 books463 followersJohn Shirley won the Bram Stoker Award for his story collection Black Butterflies, and is the author of numerous novels, including the best-seller DEMONS, the cyberpunk classics CITY COME A-WALKIN', ECLIPSE, and BLACK GLASS, and his newest novels STORMLAND and A SORCERER OF ATLANTIS.
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
He is also a screenwriter, having written for television and movies; he was co-screenwriter of THE CROW. He has been several Year's Best anthologies including Prime Books' THE YEAR'S BEST DARK FANTASY AND HORROR anthology, and his nwest story collection is IN EXTREMIS: THE MOST EXTREME SHORT STORIES OF JOHN SHIRLEY. His novel BIOSHOCK: RAPTURE telling the story of the creation and undoing of Rapture, from the hit videogame BIOSHOCK is out from TOR books; his Halo novel, HALO: BROKEN CIRCLE is coming out from Pocket Books.
His most recent novels are STORMLAND and (forthcoming) AXLE BUST CREEK. His new story collection is THE FEVERISH STARS. STORMLAND and other John Shirley novels are available as audiobooks.
He is also a lyricist, having written lyrics for 18 songs recorded by the Blue Oyster Cult (especially on their albums Heaven Forbidden and Curse of the Hidden Mirror), and his own recordings.
John Shirley has written only one nonfiction book, GURDJIEFF: AN INTRODUCTION TO HIS LIFE AND IDEAS, published by Penguin/Jeremy Tarcher.
John Shirley story collections include BLACK BUTTERFLIES, IN EXTREMIS, REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY WEIRD STORIES, and LIVING SHADOWS.
source: Amazon
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
November 9, 2009
On the one hand, Shirley is a talented writer, original and often clever. On the other hand, you need to have a high tolerance for descriptions of people being choked to death on steaming green demon penis. The horror here is revolting but not frightening, and it is really the social commentary that Shirley is best at, particularly when poking fun at the artistic and intellectual establishments:
"The lava lamp is protosociety's purely unconscious expression of the primeval ooze on one level, shaping itself into our most remote sea-slime ancestors; on another level, the lava lamp is the pleroma, the fundamental stuff that gives birth to the existential condition... tabula rasa for the unconscious..."
"The lava lamp is protosociety's purely unconscious expression of the primeval ooze on one level, shaping itself into our most remote sea-slime ancestors; on another level, the lava lamp is the pleroma, the fundamental stuff that gives birth to the existential condition... tabula rasa for the unconscious..."
December 26, 2025
I don’t write reviews.
This wasn’t my favourite of Shirley’s, but he touched on some really poignant topics. I found his combination of multinational corporations, scientists and evil cultists to be be right on target. There were some creepy scenes and plenty of food for thought. The poisoned townsfolk attack in the sewer was especially harrowing.
Contrary to public opinion, I found the second book to be a better story. There’s a good deal of mind control afoot, and seeing what I have, regarding a mass event and its aftermath in the past few years, I could believe that everyone denied the demonic carnage. People decide what is true, to the exclusion of all they are shown, are easy to fool and next to impossible to deprogram.
I went with the audio version because it was narrated by Shirley and, drum roll please, Harlan Ellison. His narrations of Stephen’s out of body experiences were the best of the best.
This wasn’t my favourite of Shirley’s, but he touched on some really poignant topics. I found his combination of multinational corporations, scientists and evil cultists to be be right on target. There were some creepy scenes and plenty of food for thought. The poisoned townsfolk attack in the sewer was especially harrowing.
Contrary to public opinion, I found the second book to be a better story. There’s a good deal of mind control afoot, and seeing what I have, regarding a mass event and its aftermath in the past few years, I could believe that everyone denied the demonic carnage. People decide what is true, to the exclusion of all they are shown, are easy to fool and next to impossible to deprogram.
I went with the audio version because it was narrated by Shirley and, drum roll please, Harlan Ellison. His narrations of Stephen’s out of body experiences were the best of the best.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 2, 2008
This was my first delve into Shelly's work and I wont be going back anytime soon. This started out strong with a bang that proceeded to fizzle out with a series of foreseeable "plot twists" and an ending that showed an absence of originality. It was a cliche ending that was an utter letdown and was very undeserving of all of its reviews (at least the ones they decided to publish) especially the one claiming that it is "barely street legal."
If you are a true horror fan you will stay away from this horribly bland novel.
If you are a true horror fan you will stay away from this horribly bland novel.
November 22, 2011
I loved this book. What sets out to be a strange, PKD satire spins out into a suspenseful, truly horrifying morality tale full of incredibly creepy visions rendered in deliciously precise language. You've got to admire what this book achieves in it's brevity, especially in the days of obligatory door-stop genre novels. I had a hard time putting it down, but it clearly pushed some subconscious buttons, giving me nightmares for a while, so I had to reluctantly stop reading it for a week. Given Shirley's note in the beginning, there is a bit of uncanny prophesy about it all. My only disappointment was in some of the received gender notions and the cliched use of a sinister female sexuality-- the femme fatale, etc. I highly recommend this book.
December 22, 2009
Ira, an artist, has just had his world ripped apart. Demons have invaded and are gleefully ripping humans to shreds one by one.
Apparently, this book is two books in one. Book 1 tells Ira's story and his battle with the Demons. It began with a rip-roaring start but petered out somewhere mid-way when Ira, the woman he's in love with and a group of men who belong to a secret society attempt to figure out how to defeat the demons and reclaim their world. I lost interest midway as the story got bogged down in a lot of metaphysical talk and seemed to skip around too much. It also wasn't as "horrific" as I'd anticipated. The ideas are all there and are indeed frightening but the telling of the story just didn't do it for me.
Unfortunately, Book 2 isn't any better. It takes place some nine years later and this time a group of greedy, power hungry folks thinking they're gods bring the demons back to life but not before the book goes into horrifying detail about the evils these people are doing to the environment. Ewww, for me it was a thoroughly unpleasant and often boring story. Not helping matters out any is the overblown reading by one of the male narrators who gets so worked up and gasps for breath so many times during his reading I thought he was going to croak from the effort.
Apparently, this book is two books in one. Book 1 tells Ira's story and his battle with the Demons. It began with a rip-roaring start but petered out somewhere mid-way when Ira, the woman he's in love with and a group of men who belong to a secret society attempt to figure out how to defeat the demons and reclaim their world. I lost interest midway as the story got bogged down in a lot of metaphysical talk and seemed to skip around too much. It also wasn't as "horrific" as I'd anticipated. The ideas are all there and are indeed frightening but the telling of the story just didn't do it for me.
Unfortunately, Book 2 isn't any better. It takes place some nine years later and this time a group of greedy, power hungry folks thinking they're gods bring the demons back to life but not before the book goes into horrifying detail about the evils these people are doing to the environment. Ewww, for me it was a thoroughly unpleasant and often boring story. Not helping matters out any is the overblown reading by one of the male narrators who gets so worked up and gasps for breath so many times during his reading I thought he was going to croak from the effort.
May 23, 2023
There are books that change your life, no matter how great I think it is, I doubt that this book will have the effect on most of you that it did me. When I discovered the work of John Shirley I had just made the decision that I wanted to take my own writing seriously. I was getting lots of advice, and mostly I was trying to learn lessons from the greats I grew up reading. The discovery of this book and John Shirley at Bluestocking Books in San Diego upended my thinking and was a huge influence on me as a writer.
I bought Crawlers and Demons, in part because they were Del Rey books, a brand I mostly trusted, and this writer who I missed until that point somehow. It had blurbs from Clive Barker and William Gibson, wait he wrote The Crow!!! When I looked him up he had a career in both Science Fiction and Horror. I kept getting advice to pick a lane, and this dude was doing both. That was a goal I had. By all accounts, he was political and radical in his thinking. That was something I was craving in the genre. He fronted some of the first Punk bands in Portland??? This guy rules!
Demons is two novellas put together, and I think the first one is an absolute masterpiece, a genius piece of work. The second one is good and important but it has the unfortunate job of following up a story that was complete. The first book was published with a indie small press, and the thinking was that needed to be expanded to make it a full book to be published for a national market. At the time doorstop, huge epics were all the rage in publishing. Demons is not that but it had to be longer. Trade paperbacks of novellas were not in like they are today.
The fact is the first book is worth the cost of admission. The whole shebang opens with the narrator saying it is amazing what you get used to. The people in this novel have gotten used to eight clans of demonic creatures attacking and killing people across the globe. An invasion from where? And by whom? These monsters are described in a helpful and hilarious glossary before the story starts. Bugsys are described as a parody of humans, and tricksters, The Sharkadians have head-like jaws, wings and apparently female. Nightmare stuff. Spiders and massive leviathans called Tailpipes, just to name a few.
When the demons show up society has no answers, the people just have to run and survive. There is fun monster action, and in the hands of most authors, this would set up a kaiju story that might have a message that goes over the heads of most readers. This is a John Shirley book, the radical voice of the genre that wore a spiked dogged collar to Clarion and scared the shit out of Harlan Ellison (who read part of this novel’s audiobook) by jumping out of a tree onto him while tripping balls.
Demons is not a typical kaiju end-of-the-world monster mash because the person who wrote it is a radical voice commenting on the world. Published in 2000, and written in the late 90s Demons is a book in the SF horror tradition of ecological horror. The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner released in 1974 might be the best example of this. Brunner’s book is so bleak it makes McCarthy’s The Road look like a rom-com. Demons also makes a powerful statement about the destruction of our ecology and tie it to capitalist assholes profiting from it, and does it with a sense of humor and fun.
Demons doesn’t just take aim at the capitalists; it finds a way to comment on in sly little ways about nearly everyone. You can’t do a story about demons without talking about religion.
“If the commentator was Christian, he said it fulfilled revelations. The Jews, the Sikhs, the Muslims pointed to other prophecies, the fundamental Christians, anyway, were easily refuted: the Second Coming never came about. They waited and waited for the Judgement; for the angel with the flaming sword, for the Rapture, for the dead rise, but not (now and then the demons raise the dead but not the way Christians expected), for Jesus to come in his glory.
Jesus was a no-show. Naturally, the evangelists rationalized his conspicuous absence: The Sacred Timetable, don’t you know is a little off, that’s all but the most “righteous” of them were eaten alive, a limb at a time, in public no differently than sinners. I remember when the demons rampaged through Oral Roberts University. The sniggering delight that some hipsters and cynics took in the brutal series of blood atrocities was most embarrassing - for the rest of us cynics and hipsters.”
This passage was a huge indication in my first read all those years ago, that Shirley had zero-f's to give if his commentary hit a little too hard for some in the audience. I grew up with lots of safe voices in the genre, who wanted to appeal to everyone. I had read the splatterpunks, and needed more voices like that. Here was a voice in the genre who had stood on the stage in a basement as the focal point of a punk band and was channeling that energy into a book of ecological rage, using hilarious metaphors of this demonic invasion.
Who are the demons? In the end who are the demons? The rampaging monsters or the capitalist forces that caused them to rise? Are the storms, heat waves, forest fires, and dust bowls of climate change the monsters of our future? No the reality is it is the suits making cash in board runs, the capitalist bastards trading your grandchildren’s future for money. John Shirley’s Demons is about exactly that.
“Yes, the little city of Hercules,” Nyerza said. “all but wiped out a few years ago in an industrial accident. Very like what happened in Bhopal in the last century,I understand. Perhaps you lost friends or relatives there?”
One after another they traced the demons you these accident sites where sacrifices caused the demons to rise. This is a hardcore allegory and one that instantly hooked me as a Shirley fan. He was the voice in genre I was looking for all these years. That was almost two decades ago now. I have a three-layer John Shirley shelf. I have written extensively about his career and work, including the bonus features for the e-book of his horror masterpiece Wetbones. I worked with John to adapt one of his short stories for a screenplay. My love for his work is pretty boundless but the spark that lit this flame was this allegory.
Demons book one is a short, funny, and exciting novella that services that allegory. It is not a spoiler, as there are many laugh-out-loud and holy shit moments. It is what I call idea dense with moments that seem like a throw-away joke but provide great commentary.
“You guys are staring at me like I’m nuts, but you’re special- they have that mobile Fox Channel transmitter, on that bus that uses that satellite info and dodges the demons. They have that show The Clans and it’s pure demonphile stuff.”
Keep in mind this line, obviously, a dig at shows like COPS was written before the rise of reality TV. Shirley has had a habit of mocking the future before it came true. If you read his most recent SF novel Stormland you should be worried. As far as the Demonphile stuff, we have seen in our current times that the MAGA cult has taken a criminal moron like Trump and turned him into what they view as a saintly figure. They do this when the list of his anti-American actions is endless. They worship him.
As for Demons book two. While it is not the unfuckwithable masterpiece that the first half, it is also saying important stuff about today. It doesn’t have the humor or the monster action but it is very much about how we as a society bury the obvious right in front of us in an attempt to just carry on.
I think Demons is an underrated book. Reading the reviews online it is funny to me how many people just don’t get it. Now that I have read everything by Shirley I don’t rank as high as some novels Wetbones, City Come’ A Walkin, Transmaniacon, and the Song Called Youth trilogy are absolute masterpieces. Stormland his latest SF novel I think will be one of the SF books that with time will sadly pre-date stuff.
Anyways I pulled this one on the shelf on a whim, planning to re-read one of my favorite scenes, and got hooked. Demons rules. Shirley is right the cultists in boardrooms are wrecking the planet and killing you in a ritual sacrifice, the problem is they raising money, not demons but you are in no less danger.
I bought Crawlers and Demons, in part because they were Del Rey books, a brand I mostly trusted, and this writer who I missed until that point somehow. It had blurbs from Clive Barker and William Gibson, wait he wrote The Crow!!! When I looked him up he had a career in both Science Fiction and Horror. I kept getting advice to pick a lane, and this dude was doing both. That was a goal I had. By all accounts, he was political and radical in his thinking. That was something I was craving in the genre. He fronted some of the first Punk bands in Portland??? This guy rules!
Demons is two novellas put together, and I think the first one is an absolute masterpiece, a genius piece of work. The second one is good and important but it has the unfortunate job of following up a story that was complete. The first book was published with a indie small press, and the thinking was that needed to be expanded to make it a full book to be published for a national market. At the time doorstop, huge epics were all the rage in publishing. Demons is not that but it had to be longer. Trade paperbacks of novellas were not in like they are today.
The fact is the first book is worth the cost of admission. The whole shebang opens with the narrator saying it is amazing what you get used to. The people in this novel have gotten used to eight clans of demonic creatures attacking and killing people across the globe. An invasion from where? And by whom? These monsters are described in a helpful and hilarious glossary before the story starts. Bugsys are described as a parody of humans, and tricksters, The Sharkadians have head-like jaws, wings and apparently female. Nightmare stuff. Spiders and massive leviathans called Tailpipes, just to name a few.
When the demons show up society has no answers, the people just have to run and survive. There is fun monster action, and in the hands of most authors, this would set up a kaiju story that might have a message that goes over the heads of most readers. This is a John Shirley book, the radical voice of the genre that wore a spiked dogged collar to Clarion and scared the shit out of Harlan Ellison (who read part of this novel’s audiobook) by jumping out of a tree onto him while tripping balls.
Demons is not a typical kaiju end-of-the-world monster mash because the person who wrote it is a radical voice commenting on the world. Published in 2000, and written in the late 90s Demons is a book in the SF horror tradition of ecological horror. The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner released in 1974 might be the best example of this. Brunner’s book is so bleak it makes McCarthy’s The Road look like a rom-com. Demons also makes a powerful statement about the destruction of our ecology and tie it to capitalist assholes profiting from it, and does it with a sense of humor and fun.
Demons doesn’t just take aim at the capitalists; it finds a way to comment on in sly little ways about nearly everyone. You can’t do a story about demons without talking about religion.
“If the commentator was Christian, he said it fulfilled revelations. The Jews, the Sikhs, the Muslims pointed to other prophecies, the fundamental Christians, anyway, were easily refuted: the Second Coming never came about. They waited and waited for the Judgement; for the angel with the flaming sword, for the Rapture, for the dead rise, but not (now and then the demons raise the dead but not the way Christians expected), for Jesus to come in his glory.
Jesus was a no-show. Naturally, the evangelists rationalized his conspicuous absence: The Sacred Timetable, don’t you know is a little off, that’s all but the most “righteous” of them were eaten alive, a limb at a time, in public no differently than sinners. I remember when the demons rampaged through Oral Roberts University. The sniggering delight that some hipsters and cynics took in the brutal series of blood atrocities was most embarrassing - for the rest of us cynics and hipsters.”
This passage was a huge indication in my first read all those years ago, that Shirley had zero-f's to give if his commentary hit a little too hard for some in the audience. I grew up with lots of safe voices in the genre, who wanted to appeal to everyone. I had read the splatterpunks, and needed more voices like that. Here was a voice in the genre who had stood on the stage in a basement as the focal point of a punk band and was channeling that energy into a book of ecological rage, using hilarious metaphors of this demonic invasion.
Who are the demons? In the end who are the demons? The rampaging monsters or the capitalist forces that caused them to rise? Are the storms, heat waves, forest fires, and dust bowls of climate change the monsters of our future? No the reality is it is the suits making cash in board runs, the capitalist bastards trading your grandchildren’s future for money. John Shirley’s Demons is about exactly that.
“Yes, the little city of Hercules,” Nyerza said. “all but wiped out a few years ago in an industrial accident. Very like what happened in Bhopal in the last century,I understand. Perhaps you lost friends or relatives there?”
One after another they traced the demons you these accident sites where sacrifices caused the demons to rise. This is a hardcore allegory and one that instantly hooked me as a Shirley fan. He was the voice in genre I was looking for all these years. That was almost two decades ago now. I have a three-layer John Shirley shelf. I have written extensively about his career and work, including the bonus features for the e-book of his horror masterpiece Wetbones. I worked with John to adapt one of his short stories for a screenplay. My love for his work is pretty boundless but the spark that lit this flame was this allegory.
Demons book one is a short, funny, and exciting novella that services that allegory. It is not a spoiler, as there are many laugh-out-loud and holy shit moments. It is what I call idea dense with moments that seem like a throw-away joke but provide great commentary.
“You guys are staring at me like I’m nuts, but you’re special- they have that mobile Fox Channel transmitter, on that bus that uses that satellite info and dodges the demons. They have that show The Clans and it’s pure demonphile stuff.”
Keep in mind this line, obviously, a dig at shows like COPS was written before the rise of reality TV. Shirley has had a habit of mocking the future before it came true. If you read his most recent SF novel Stormland you should be worried. As far as the Demonphile stuff, we have seen in our current times that the MAGA cult has taken a criminal moron like Trump and turned him into what they view as a saintly figure. They do this when the list of his anti-American actions is endless. They worship him.
As for Demons book two. While it is not the unfuckwithable masterpiece that the first half, it is also saying important stuff about today. It doesn’t have the humor or the monster action but it is very much about how we as a society bury the obvious right in front of us in an attempt to just carry on.
I think Demons is an underrated book. Reading the reviews online it is funny to me how many people just don’t get it. Now that I have read everything by Shirley I don’t rank as high as some novels Wetbones, City Come’ A Walkin, Transmaniacon, and the Song Called Youth trilogy are absolute masterpieces. Stormland his latest SF novel I think will be one of the SF books that with time will sadly pre-date stuff.
Anyways I pulled this one on the shelf on a whim, planning to re-read one of my favorite scenes, and got hooked. Demons rules. Shirley is right the cultists in boardrooms are wrecking the planet and killing you in a ritual sacrifice, the problem is they raising money, not demons but you are in no less danger.
April 5, 2011
A wholly uninteresting book that prides itself on nothing more than that John Shirley can write about creepy things. I feel that the plot wasn't nearly as interesting as it could have been and it's as if Shirley sat down, saw a few creepy creatures in his head and said "I am going to structure a plot around these and it's going to suck." I can't say exactly why I picked this up but the first few pages were very interesting, coming to the center of the book was like coming to the end of a decent slice of pizza: there is a lot of despair along with a vast emptiness you feel might never be filled.
August 31, 2016
Hopefully writing a full review later, but for now - awesome. Unabashed John Shirley fan. I don't know if this can top Hellblazer: Subterranean, but it comes close. Great book!
June 28, 2018
Insanely logical and well written. Enjoyed it! Will be reading everything I can find by John Shirley now. Don't know why there are so many bad reviews - the characters were not badly written, I don't agree the ending is cliche or predictable besides the second part where Stephen is obviously being used and manipulated by Jonquil to do what her Uncle wants but whatever that's not so horrible, and I felt the whole demon clans and other worlds/spiritual imagery to be interesting but not "overdone" and not super distasteful or even particularly horrifying. It was a pretty good read I feel and it makes me want to explore the author's other writings and I enjoyed it. I do agree the first part seems better written but I firmly liked them both.
November 9, 2011
Well, I read this as a part of my Master's Thesis and it was OK. It was actually perfect for the work as it explores the interconnectedness of demonic creatures (metaphorical and actual)and the humans who encounter them. Are they supernatural entities or are they just projections of our monstrous selves? You know, man's inhumanity to man and all that. There is some action, some pull no punches gore and killing, kids, animals, etc. (felt forced, 'see how hard core I am?')and quite a bit of spiritual (read cross religious not Christian) discourse. The plot is a little rudimentary and predictable but there are very few novels of this type in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy genre. Over all, worth a read but not a second.
October 12, 2007
From the man who wrote the screenplay for The Crow (an excellent film), comes this book, a compilation of 2 novellas. I personally prefer the first one - they're both about demons attempting to take over, and I found the first novella way creepier (hence, my preference). Shirley is very intelligent and will throw all kinds of ideas at you in this book. Thought-provoking.
October 30, 2013
I'm extremely reluctant to label any book as 'amateurish', since someone obviously published it, and someone did take the time and expend the effort to create it.
That having been said, I've read comic books with more plot and character development than this. This book is the written equivalent to those movies made by the Sy-Fy Channel that become insipid once you're out of middle school.
That having been said, I've read comic books with more plot and character development than this. This book is the written equivalent to those movies made by the Sy-Fy Channel that become insipid once you're out of middle school.
January 10, 2016
I enjoyed reading this book...
I often search for new authors of horror stories and am often disappointed in what I find, always going back to books by Stephen King. Not this time! I finally found a book that satisfied my hunger for good horror novels, I am looking forward to reading more of John Shirley's books.
I often search for new authors of horror stories and am often disappointed in what I find, always going back to books by Stephen King. Not this time! I finally found a book that satisfied my hunger for good horror novels, I am looking forward to reading more of John Shirley's books.
July 19, 2010
Well Well, we got em a particular type of Nastiness this time in
CyberPuke Maestro John Shirleys Quikulator SF/Horror book Demons.
This baby is well Written with Eye SHockers to boot.
Wait no Further Yon YE Christians. As Hell has Runnith Over.
and a quick exit is indeed the best route to take in this scenerio.
Look out for the President getting Face Fucked by a demon after he
tries to get mercy from a unconditional Surrender to the DemonKind.
Yep Nasty like I said.
Science IS called in on this Sick Pup as a last ditch attempt to save
the or any day. Good luck cause your gonna need it.
(also)having Harlan Ellison help to Read this baby also adds to the
experience. Duh
Demons Sad Pup that is is Gets 4 Solids outta 5
(update) I attempted to read this pup again but could not get into the motherhead. Writing seemed to be a bit off, That will happen sometimes when the energy of the virgin is replaced by that of a well versed slut.
New Rating is 3 outta 5
CyberPuke Maestro John Shirleys Quikulator SF/Horror book Demons.
This baby is well Written with Eye SHockers to boot.
Wait no Further Yon YE Christians. As Hell has Runnith Over.
and a quick exit is indeed the best route to take in this scenerio.
Look out for the President getting Face Fucked by a demon after he
tries to get mercy from a unconditional Surrender to the DemonKind.
Yep Nasty like I said.
Science IS called in on this Sick Pup as a last ditch attempt to save
the or any day. Good luck cause your gonna need it.
(also)having Harlan Ellison help to Read this baby also adds to the
experience. Duh
Demons Sad Pup that is is Gets 4 Solids outta 5
(update) I attempted to read this pup again but could not get into the motherhead. Writing seemed to be a bit off, That will happen sometimes when the energy of the virgin is replaced by that of a well versed slut.
New Rating is 3 outta 5
October 15, 2014
I had to give it 3 stars because of how I rate but it wasn't as bad as its average rating would imply.
It's actually two books, two different stories taking place nine years apart but the second story can not work without the first. Unfortunately the first book is much worse than the second. It's short and it feels like it was just an intro for the second book; the plot is underdeveloped. The second one was better, nothing special but an average light reading.
It's actually two books, two different stories taking place nine years apart but the second story can not work without the first. Unfortunately the first book is much worse than the second. It's short and it feels like it was just an intro for the second book; the plot is underdeveloped. The second one was better, nothing special but an average light reading.
October 29, 2015
A quick read however I found myself disconnecting from the story. I found the inconsistency in describing the characters and scenes made it difficult for me to image what was going on. The story seemed an afterthought to the demons - perhaps a book just about the demons would have made for a better read.
February 7, 2024
Ah man, what a bummer
How do you make a demon apocalypse boring? Reading the description and reviews, I thought I was in for a gory hell-fueled romp, which is right up my alley. I've found a surprising lack of demonic apocalypse stories, and so I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into John Shirley's 'Demons.'
Rather than one complete novel, this is actually two novellas put together. They build off of each other and continue certain character storylines, however they are quite different and are disappointing in unique ways.
Demons Book One:
Within the first few pages, the sky darkens, hellspawn materializes, a schoolbus full of children get dismembered, and the president gets his face obliterated by a demons 'steaming green member.'
All was living up to expectations, and then the book slowed to a crawl and never really picked itself back up. It gets bogged down in boring, senseless metaphysical babbling. The characters are flat as and dimensionless as a reflection of paper in a mirror, and are used to deliver this incoherent spiritual/techno-babble through stilted, impersonal dialog and deus-ex-machina's that come without any sort of buildup. It's bland and boring, despite only coming in at about 130 or so pages.
It's unfortunate because John Shirley shows he can craft creepy and disturbing scenes. The best moments are when the titular Demons are allowed into the spotlight. Sadly, it comes all too seldom.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Demons Book Two:
This story takes place nine years after the initial demonic invasion, with almost the entirety of the population being gaslit into believing it was all "holograms, drugs, and terrorist attacks." If you can ignore how utterly contrived and ridiculous that is, you'll be rewarded with another bland novel that preaches the dangers of "evil soulless corporations!" Ooooh, original!!!
It's a little more fleshed out than the previous book, thanks in part to the bigger word count. I was getting a little invested, wondering where the story was headed until it culminated In the same babbling "metaphysical" raving. Great. Like before, the standout scenes are a couple of demonic set-pieces that tantalize you with the fantasy of a better story.
Rating: 2.5/5
How do you make a demon apocalypse boring? Reading the description and reviews, I thought I was in for a gory hell-fueled romp, which is right up my alley. I've found a surprising lack of demonic apocalypse stories, and so I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into John Shirley's 'Demons.'
Rather than one complete novel, this is actually two novellas put together. They build off of each other and continue certain character storylines, however they are quite different and are disappointing in unique ways.
Demons Book One:
Within the first few pages, the sky darkens, hellspawn materializes, a schoolbus full of children get dismembered, and the president gets his face obliterated by a demons 'steaming green member.'
All was living up to expectations, and then the book slowed to a crawl and never really picked itself back up. It gets bogged down in boring, senseless metaphysical babbling. The characters are flat as and dimensionless as a reflection of paper in a mirror, and are used to deliver this incoherent spiritual/techno-babble through stilted, impersonal dialog and deus-ex-machina's that come without any sort of buildup. It's bland and boring, despite only coming in at about 130 or so pages.
It's unfortunate because John Shirley shows he can craft creepy and disturbing scenes. The best moments are when the titular Demons are allowed into the spotlight. Sadly, it comes all too seldom.
Rating: 2/5 stars
Demons Book Two:
This story takes place nine years after the initial demonic invasion, with almost the entirety of the population being gaslit into believing it was all "holograms, drugs, and terrorist attacks." If you can ignore how utterly contrived and ridiculous that is, you'll be rewarded with another bland novel that preaches the dangers of "evil soulless corporations!" Ooooh, original!!!
It's a little more fleshed out than the previous book, thanks in part to the bigger word count. I was getting a little invested, wondering where the story was headed until it culminated In the same babbling "metaphysical" raving. Great. Like before, the standout scenes are a couple of demonic set-pieces that tantalize you with the fantasy of a better story.
Rating: 2.5/5
September 2, 2020
Demons for me is a tale of two books. Apparently, it started off as a novella, and later became a novel, when a second, longer part was added to it. The first part of demons was great. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. It had an interesting concept, a kind of light, understated tone to it, a well-developed plot, and a decent conclusion. The characters were just so-so, but there was a lot to like about it. I wished that was all I had read because the following, longer part did not come close to delivering.
All of the charm and wit the novella had, the extended novel was lacking. The story was incoherent and nonsensical. The author wanted the reader to believe that through some sort of control of the media, that people did not believe that the demon invasion happened, despite the fact that thousands upon thousands of people died, it had dominated every facet of the world when it happened, every single human being alive witnessed it, the president of the United States was killed by a demon, and the vice president was running the country through a bunker. Am I missing something? In the novella, demons were bad and they overran the planet. Now, the author decided to use the ridiculously overused trope that it was the evil industrial corporations that were responsible for summoning these demons. Writers have a habit of using the evil, industrial corporation as the villain like a crutch. It’s old and tired. And for some reason it would be desirable for these folks to have demons destroy the planet and have it become some sort of dystopian world. Yeah, that’s exactly what a corporate industrialist would want. None of it made sense, including the part where they take away a child so they could replace him with a member of the circle. It was a big mess. I would recommend reading the first part and stopping there.
Carl Alves - author of Beyond the Shadow
All of the charm and wit the novella had, the extended novel was lacking. The story was incoherent and nonsensical. The author wanted the reader to believe that through some sort of control of the media, that people did not believe that the demon invasion happened, despite the fact that thousands upon thousands of people died, it had dominated every facet of the world when it happened, every single human being alive witnessed it, the president of the United States was killed by a demon, and the vice president was running the country through a bunker. Am I missing something? In the novella, demons were bad and they overran the planet. Now, the author decided to use the ridiculously overused trope that it was the evil industrial corporations that were responsible for summoning these demons. Writers have a habit of using the evil, industrial corporation as the villain like a crutch. It’s old and tired. And for some reason it would be desirable for these folks to have demons destroy the planet and have it become some sort of dystopian world. Yeah, that’s exactly what a corporate industrialist would want. None of it made sense, including the part where they take away a child so they could replace him with a member of the circle. It was a big mess. I would recommend reading the first part and stopping there.
Carl Alves - author of Beyond the Shadow
December 15, 2024
I thought I might be the only person who felt this novel was amateurish - in writing, plot, character development, etc. You don't know how relieved I am to find out I'm not alone. My monthly electric bill scares me more than this. Usually, I give a book 50-100 pages before I decide to quit on it. Not here. I tossed the book after 24 pages.
February 16, 2020
DNF: This guy has a thing with male genitalia doesn’t he? I had to put it down after a few sentence description of a demons “steaming member”. Overwritten and clogged on top of that so no. No no.
January 11, 2021
Weird, but entertaining.
September 11, 2022
خداوکیلی خوب نبود!
September 10, 2016
This is a very strange (in a good way) book. Demons suddenly appear and begin destroying the world of man. The first few pages are a bit jarring as they're more like the reference pages some authors put at the end of novels. Some people might read this and just toss it aside because it doesn't jump right into the story, trust me - stick with it. The author spends several pages describing the seven clans of demons in detail but if you slog through that the story picks up soon and takes off. It's setting the feel of this being a journal rather than an omniscient telling of a tale.
It's very much a tale of good versus evil. The lusts and greed of men versus the altruistic self sacrifice of others. I personally saw a lot of layers to this story. There was the simple man vs demon story but there was also people struggling against their own inner demons. There's self sacrifice, cowardice, heroism, etc. There are, revelations about our nature and how even good people will do things that others might find horrid for the few, but which really are for the betterment of the many.
I liked how the author entwined the demons and human urges.
I especially liked how the concept of humans possessing demons rather than the other way around was explored at one point.
I think my favorite part was the description of a man's journey through the outer planes and Hell itself in the second half of the book, very evocative descriptions.
It's very much a tale of good versus evil. The lusts and greed of men versus the altruistic self sacrifice of others. I personally saw a lot of layers to this story. There was the simple man vs demon story but there was also people struggling against their own inner demons. There's self sacrifice, cowardice, heroism, etc. There are, revelations about our nature and how even good people will do things that others might find horrid for the few, but which really are for the betterment of the many.
I liked how the author entwined the demons and human urges.
I especially liked how the concept of humans possessing demons rather than the other way around was explored at one point.
I think my favorite part was the description of a man's journey through the outer planes and Hell itself in the second half of the book, very evocative descriptions.
June 14, 2013
The book is a collection of 2 stories, neither of which could stand on its own. The first story was fast-paced and in-your-face, leaving all of your guilty pleasures fulfilled. However, the story was over as soon as it began, and it left a lot of questions unanswered. The second book had a much more developed plot as well as detailing both the new and old characters in greater depth. While it was decidedly slower-paced, I didn't seem to care and all of the building suspense was worth it to me. The ending (s), left me feeling satisfied.
Overall, a good book with a vast vocabulary that had me sheepishly looking up definitions from time to time. The major critic of the book was the scattered unfinished, unexplored ideas presented at various parts. The first book has a prologue with regards to the current state of society as well as an interesting cut scene ending with the president of the USA getting orally dominated by a gruesome, green demon penis... Probably not for the faint of heart.
Overall, a good book with a vast vocabulary that had me sheepishly looking up definitions from time to time. The major critic of the book was the scattered unfinished, unexplored ideas presented at various parts. The first book has a prologue with regards to the current state of society as well as an interesting cut scene ending with the president of the USA getting orally dominated by a gruesome, green demon penis... Probably not for the faint of heart.
October 26, 2014
Demons is a novella with a little bit of everything- demons (of course), brutal killings, secret societies, people looking for immortality, dastardly betrayers, government obfuscation. The first part was horrifying- strange demons suddenly appearing and killing thousands (after "playing with their food"). Then a secret society gets to work, trying to figure out how/why the demons appeared. In the end, despite more horrifying slaughter, there was forgiveness and hope (deliberately vague to avoid spoilers). I liked Shirley's Bleak History a lot, and this is the second Shirley novel I read.
October 6, 2016
If I would have just read the first part of this book I would have given it one star. I felt like there was no character development and the pace of the book was too swift without much explanation. The second part of the book was much better, I felt the story was more captivating and intriguing however I do still feel that it was missing a lot of the meat to a good story. For what it's worth they were unique and interesting stories but I feel I would have liked them both much more as full length novels instead of one book split into two stories.
September 23, 2013
I dunno, I picked this up because it was on one of the bookseller employee's best of apocalypto books ... it's really not that good, but it IS page turning. It reminded me a lot of those Evangelical books ... the Left Behind series, and This Present (Coming) Darkness.
Ultimately, I thought it would be better than what it was. It's mediocre at best.
Ultimately, I thought it would be better than what it was. It's mediocre at best.
July 25, 2015
This is one of those novels whose execution of its plot is so bad in and of itself that I never finish the 2nd half. Sadly, the writig isn't so bad: itś void of the misuse of words, bad spelling, and horrid syntax so prevalent today. Yet, the novel fails in its content: demons are vapid and unimaginative, and a mystical magical person saves the day.
did-not-finish
February 12, 2012I started listening to this and I could not get into it. I didn't like the narration and the story seemed to drag. I hope the rest of you have better luck!
Audiobook BookRay from bookcrossing... passed on
Audiobook BookRay from bookcrossing... passed on
July 22, 2016
A new take on the apocalypse & it's quite unique. The ending was different than what I was expecting & that's a good thing. Brings new meaning to the effects of greed, the desire to get ahead & looking at the dark side of a persons personality.
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