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Doc Sidhe #2
Sidhe Devil
THE CONTINUING ADVENTURES
OF DOC SIDHE
When fight arranger Zeb Poole meets his friends Harris and Gaby for the first time in several months, he decides there is something different about them — and he's right. Their adventures on the fair world, a place that is half magic and Celtic myth, half weird science and gangster-era danger, had changed them forever. They take him there to prove their story. And that's when his own adventures start.
For in the fair world metropolis of Neckerdam, a mad genius is sending fiery destruction against the city's skyscrapers, demanding fortunes to end the terror... and plotting an untimely demise for the city's greatest protector, Harris' and Gaby's friend, Doc Sidhe.
And across the sea, in a land that would be Germany in the world Zeb knows, a dictator has set in motion a campaign of racial purity that is chillingly familiar to Zeb and Doc's grim world allies.
OF DOC SIDHE
When fight arranger Zeb Poole meets his friends Harris and Gaby for the first time in several months, he decides there is something different about them — and he's right. Their adventures on the fair world, a place that is half magic and Celtic myth, half weird science and gangster-era danger, had changed them forever. They take him there to prove their story. And that's when his own adventures start.
For in the fair world metropolis of Neckerdam, a mad genius is sending fiery destruction against the city's skyscrapers, demanding fortunes to end the terror... and plotting an untimely demise for the city's greatest protector, Harris' and Gaby's friend, Doc Sidhe.
And across the sea, in a land that would be Germany in the world Zeb knows, a dictator has set in motion a campaign of racial purity that is chillingly familiar to Zeb and Doc's grim world allies.
500 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published May 1, 2001
About the author
Aaron Allston
181 books382 followersAaron Dale Allston was an American game designer and author of many science fiction books, notably Star Wars novels. His works as a game designer include game supplements for role-playing games, several of which served to establish the basis for products and subsequent development of TSR's Dungeons & Dragons game setting Mystara. His later works as a novelist include those of the X-Wing series: Wraith Squadron, Iron Fist, Solo Command, Starfighters of Adumar, and Mercy Kill. He wrote two entries in the New Jedi Order series: Enemy Lines I: Rebel Dream and Enemy Lines II: Rebel Stand. Allston wrote three of the nine Legacy of the Force novels: Betrayal, Exile, and Fury, and three of the nine Fate of the Jedi novels: Outcast, Backlash, and Conviction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 11, 2024
3.5 stars
I wish Allston had written more in this series! I liked Zeb as the protagonist even more than Harris in Doc Sidhe, I think because his experiences as a black man in this 1930s analogue fantasy world was more compelling than Harris's sad sack romantic problems.
I wish Allston had written more in this series! I liked Zeb as the protagonist even more than Harris in Doc Sidhe, I think because his experiences as a black man in this 1930s analogue fantasy world was more compelling than Harris's sad sack romantic problems.
January 26, 2016
Fantastic sequel to "Doc Sidhe". Allston writes an excellent modern Pulp style story. The action and plot are well done and the characters are intriguing. Highly recommended
June 2, 2026
Aaron Allston's Doc Sidhe was one of my biggest surprises of the past year. Though I was already familiar with the author's Star Wars novels, and although I already considered his X-Wing books to be amongst the best in the Star Wars EU, I still didn't expect such an obscure book to so enjoyable. I'm baffled as to why Doc Sidhe doesn't receive more praise from Allston's many fans. At any rate, I was impressed enough to immediately seek out a copy of the book's even harder-to-find follow-up, Sidhe Devil. Thank goodness for e-Bay! Sadly, while Sidhe Devil should entertain anyone who Doc Sidhe, it fails to recapture the charm of its predecessor. A well-written urban fantasy tale that nonetheless suffers from an overstuffed plot and too much real-world commentary.
Sidhe Devil was released in 2001, a full six years after Doc Sidhe. That places the two novels on opposite sides of Allston's (first four) X-Wing books. I mention this fact because Allston's corresponding rise to EU royalty clearly freed him to pursue a more ambitious story. And this novel certainly is ambitious… In fact, after telling an unabashedly pulpy story with Doc Sidhe, Sidhe Devil tackles no less of a topic than a parallel-universe equivalent of the years directly preceding World War Two. This means obvious analogues to the Nazis, eugenics programs, and the contentious Berlin Olympics of 1936. The novel is also told primarily through the eyes of a present-day African-American, with anti-minority sentiment being every bit as prevalent as you might expect. It's definitely not what I was expecting.
So how does Allston push the Doc Sidhe premise in such a serious direction? As readers of that earlier novel should recall, Allston presents a universe where our reality (the "Grim World") exists alongside a geographically-equivalent realm (the "Fair World") that is inhabited by magic-wielding fae. The only catch being that the Fair World is permanently 60-70 years "behind" the Grim World, and is doomed to echo all of the Grim World's major historical events. Thus the early-20th century, dieselpunk aesthetic of the Fair World. In Sidhe Devil, our established hero Harris Greene takes a back seat to his kickboxing trainer and best friend Zeb Watson, who follows Harris to the Fair World after foiling trans-dimensional assassins at Harris' wedding. Watson is then adopted into Doc Sidhe's crew of crime-fighters, and a web of intrigue eventually pits them against a cadre of racial supremacists in the quasi-European dictatorship of Weseria. Secondary plot-lines include Watson's participation in a mixed martial arts competition, as part of his team's cover in Weseria, and persistent commentary on how Fair World peoples are divided into "Lights", "Darks", and "Duskies" based on their skin color.
Let me begin by saying that Sidhe Devil is very fun in the moment. It's every bit as fast-paced as Allston's other books, with the author's trademark mix of straightforward prose, vivid action scenes, and bits of humor. I have zero complaints about the writing style of the novel. The book also deepens the Sidhe universe in interesting ways, and I actually preferred this novel's lack of dimension-jumping. I'd also like to emphasize that, on balance, Watson is a likeable protagonist. If nothing else, he's far better developed than Harris Greene, whose characterization was one of my bigger complaints about Doc Sidhe. My final bit of kudos goes to the supporting members of Doc's crew, with the sword-wielding Noriko and the brutish Rudi standing out as my personal favorites. Overall, Sidhe Devil never becomes remotely boring, and has lots of great heroes to root for.
All of this should make Sidhe Devil even better than Doc Sidhe, but that simply isn't the case. In reality, most everything that surrounds the core plot fails short. The biggest issue here is all of the aforementioned social/political commentary, which might titillate some readers but struck me as ham-fisted. Nothing takes me out a fantasy plot quicker than constant allusions to real-world racism or the awfulness of the Nazis. And then there's the fact that Sidhe Devil runs of for far too long. At around 500 pages, it's 150 pages longer than its predecessor, and that added content results in a lot of bloat. Action-packed bloat, but bloat nonetheless. Easily the biggest offender here are all of those "Olympics" scenes, which accomplish little apart from emphasizing the already-blatant historical analogues. Merely cutting the Olympics, as well as a couple of the action set-pieces (preferably one of the terrorist attacks in Neckerdam…) would've resulted in a much tighter, 350-ish page book.
Despite its obvious flaws, Sidhe Devil isn't all that far away from a four-star read, yet what we actually got feels like an enormous missed opportunity. It's still a shame that Allston never had the opportunity to pen a third novel in this world. Doc Sidhe was clearly a longtime labor of love, and there's enough great worldbuilding here to suggest that Allston had tons of additional ideas for the setting.
Sidhe Devil was released in 2001, a full six years after Doc Sidhe. That places the two novels on opposite sides of Allston's (first four) X-Wing books. I mention this fact because Allston's corresponding rise to EU royalty clearly freed him to pursue a more ambitious story. And this novel certainly is ambitious… In fact, after telling an unabashedly pulpy story with Doc Sidhe, Sidhe Devil tackles no less of a topic than a parallel-universe equivalent of the years directly preceding World War Two. This means obvious analogues to the Nazis, eugenics programs, and the contentious Berlin Olympics of 1936. The novel is also told primarily through the eyes of a present-day African-American, with anti-minority sentiment being every bit as prevalent as you might expect. It's definitely not what I was expecting.
So how does Allston push the Doc Sidhe premise in such a serious direction? As readers of that earlier novel should recall, Allston presents a universe where our reality (the "Grim World") exists alongside a geographically-equivalent realm (the "Fair World") that is inhabited by magic-wielding fae. The only catch being that the Fair World is permanently 60-70 years "behind" the Grim World, and is doomed to echo all of the Grim World's major historical events. Thus the early-20th century, dieselpunk aesthetic of the Fair World. In Sidhe Devil, our established hero Harris Greene takes a back seat to his kickboxing trainer and best friend Zeb Watson, who follows Harris to the Fair World after foiling trans-dimensional assassins at Harris' wedding. Watson is then adopted into Doc Sidhe's crew of crime-fighters, and a web of intrigue eventually pits them against a cadre of racial supremacists in the quasi-European dictatorship of Weseria. Secondary plot-lines include Watson's participation in a mixed martial arts competition, as part of his team's cover in Weseria, and persistent commentary on how Fair World peoples are divided into "Lights", "Darks", and "Duskies" based on their skin color.
Let me begin by saying that Sidhe Devil is very fun in the moment. It's every bit as fast-paced as Allston's other books, with the author's trademark mix of straightforward prose, vivid action scenes, and bits of humor. I have zero complaints about the writing style of the novel. The book also deepens the Sidhe universe in interesting ways, and I actually preferred this novel's lack of dimension-jumping. I'd also like to emphasize that, on balance, Watson is a likeable protagonist. If nothing else, he's far better developed than Harris Greene, whose characterization was one of my bigger complaints about Doc Sidhe. My final bit of kudos goes to the supporting members of Doc's crew, with the sword-wielding Noriko and the brutish Rudi standing out as my personal favorites. Overall, Sidhe Devil never becomes remotely boring, and has lots of great heroes to root for.
All of this should make Sidhe Devil even better than Doc Sidhe, but that simply isn't the case. In reality, most everything that surrounds the core plot fails short. The biggest issue here is all of the aforementioned social/political commentary, which might titillate some readers but struck me as ham-fisted. Nothing takes me out a fantasy plot quicker than constant allusions to real-world racism or the awfulness of the Nazis. And then there's the fact that Sidhe Devil runs of for far too long. At around 500 pages, it's 150 pages longer than its predecessor, and that added content results in a lot of bloat. Action-packed bloat, but bloat nonetheless. Easily the biggest offender here are all of those "Olympics" scenes, which accomplish little apart from emphasizing the already-blatant historical analogues. Merely cutting the Olympics, as well as a couple of the action set-pieces (preferably one of the terrorist attacks in Neckerdam…) would've resulted in a much tighter, 350-ish page book.
Despite its obvious flaws, Sidhe Devil isn't all that far away from a four-star read, yet what we actually got feels like an enormous missed opportunity. It's still a shame that Allston never had the opportunity to pen a third novel in this world. Doc Sidhe was clearly a longtime labor of love, and there's enough great worldbuilding here to suggest that Allston had tons of additional ideas for the setting.
October 27, 2017
In this second novel in the Doc Sidhe (Sidhe is pronounced She) series, Harris and Gaby are in California for their wedding. Afterwards, they run into a criminal gang from the Fair world looking for Doc. Zeb Watson, Harris’ martial arts/kick boxing trainer is his best man, and he get’s tangled up with the weird looking gangsters. Zeb hears their story about the Fair world and doesn’t believe them, so they take him with them when they go back. They need to make sure Doc is okay.
The Fair world is running decades behind the Grim world in time, and this new plot seems to involve their Nazi counterparts, the Reinis, trying to take over their European nations with the white super race. There is also an Olympics type organization, and the Reinis are trying to show the world that they are the best. Zeb is entered, and he’s black, and plans on taking the gold if the white sun god doesn’t kill him first.
This was another fast, action-packed novel of an alternate world, with an alternate Doc Savage and aides fighting evil around the world in the person of Doc Sidhe and his aides. All the aides are present, and even a few gangsters help Doc and team out in beating the white super race. The author was a popular SF writer, but sadly died of a heart attack several years ago, so we won’t see any more stories in this series. However, he proves in these Doc Savage pastiches that he could have written more if he’s had time. The two published novels in the Doc Sidhe series were lots of fun. Highly recommended.
The Fair world is running decades behind the Grim world in time, and this new plot seems to involve their Nazi counterparts, the Reinis, trying to take over their European nations with the white super race. There is also an Olympics type organization, and the Reinis are trying to show the world that they are the best. Zeb is entered, and he’s black, and plans on taking the gold if the white sun god doesn’t kill him first.
This was another fast, action-packed novel of an alternate world, with an alternate Doc Savage and aides fighting evil around the world in the person of Doc Sidhe and his aides. All the aides are present, and even a few gangsters help Doc and team out in beating the white super race. The author was a popular SF writer, but sadly died of a heart attack several years ago, so we won’t see any more stories in this series. However, he proves in these Doc Savage pastiches that he could have written more if he’s had time. The two published novels in the Doc Sidhe series were lots of fun. Highly recommended.
April 15, 2021
The joy of mid-list RPG novels. This return to the retro-pulp fantasy world of Doc Sidhe leans heavily into the themes of race, culture, and parallel history that were only hinted at in the first novel. By changing up the viewpoint character to Zeb Watson we get not just an excuse to re-orient the reader to the world with yet another new person, but also get the African American viewpoint on the world. It works very well.
July 31, 2018
I thought this was excellent. Characters unique and memorable, plenty of action and adventure, moderately weighty plot; really nice.
August 6, 2020
A fun, pulpy ride that doesn't take itself too seriously.
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January 9, 2010baen ebook
April 19, 2012
Fun romp. I want to read more.
April 3, 2013
Enjoyed but a little difficult to keep up with the scene changes sometimes.
May 29, 2009
Good sequel to Doc Sidhe. Wish he'd write more.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews