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Demon Riders
There is evil in this world. Demons, rampaging beasts…Texans…
For many in the world, there is only one hope to turn to. Harsk and his Riders, ruthless warriors against the encroaching darkness of the Pit. Defending the weak, destroyers of demons, and broken beyond any hope of repair.
But the Ride is changing. One day of recruiting will turn the Ride on its head, and many will never be the same again. All because of one poor child. Kait Demonborn is a Rider. Evil will never be prepared.
For many in the world, there is only one hope to turn to. Harsk and his Riders, ruthless warriors against the encroaching darkness of the Pit. Defending the weak, destroyers of demons, and broken beyond any hope of repair.
But the Ride is changing. One day of recruiting will turn the Ride on its head, and many will never be the same again. All because of one poor child. Kait Demonborn is a Rider. Evil will never be prepared.
127 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 24, 2017
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 17, 2017
Absolutely loved this book!
It was a magical story, a unique blend of dystopia, fantasy and an element of the Wild West. I really really liked it. And the book was illustrated throughout with beautiful black and grey illustrations of key scenes, which really set the mood and fleshed out the story.
A great book that I'd recommend for any fan of fantasy, albeit a bit short.
It was a magical story, a unique blend of dystopia, fantasy and an element of the Wild West. I really really liked it. And the book was illustrated throughout with beautiful black and grey illustrations of key scenes, which really set the mood and fleshed out the story.
A great book that I'd recommend for any fan of fantasy, albeit a bit short.
April 28, 2018
This small collection of interconnected short stories forms a loose, episodic fantasy novel. The premise is a simple one: a post-apocalyptic America where the remnants of humanity have reverted to a semi-medieval society, in which demons, gods, and other mythical creatures run rampant, some getting along with the surviving human population better than others. Of these creatures, malicious demons – hailing from some hell-like netherworld called the Pit – are the biggest problem. To protect the rest of us, we have the Riders, a ragtag Ronin/Magnificent Seven-esque band of traveling warriors, led by an enigmatic, hardass old curmudgeon called simply Harsk.
Holder's first three paragraphs, in my opinion, form a textbook study in writing a strong opening, introducing the reader to a world of dark fantasy. It puts you there immediately, by engaging all the senses, through a distinct point, after which you should know right away whether or not this book is your glass of beer.
Early on, while replenishing the ranks after a devastating skirmish, Harsk encounters a young woman who it turns out is pregnant with the spawn of a demon. Rather than killing her and it, as pragmatic wisdom would suggest, Harsk takes her along, under the protection of the Ride.
While Harsk is an enjoyably gruff, vivid enough heroic figure, the true heart and soul of this book lies with Kait, the half-human, half-demon progeny of that unfortunate girl we meet in the first scene. Kait grows up among the Riders, struggling with her duel nature, all while learning to hunt demons and defend humans who hate and mistrust her. Over the course of the stories, we get to know her as a scrappy adolescent, an awkward teenager, and finally as a seasoned warrior, all while still struggling to find her place in the world. Admirably, Holder gives Kait – and us, the reader – few easy answers. We get the sense that her struggles – like our own – are a lifelong process. The short-story series format hearkens back to the heroic adventure writers of classic pulp, such as Howard, Moorcock and Leiber, yet Holder refreshingly never quite falls into any recognizable “demon of the week” formulaic pattern. In fact, late in the book, one story shifts the focus onto some side-characters, putting a humanized face on the background culture in an unexpectedly poignant manner, and features no violence at all in the central emotional dramatic conflict.
There's a simplicity and transparency to Holder's imagination, which is both a strength and weakness when it comes to his writing. The world through which his heroes and monsters ride often seems to spring straight from his own weird daydreams onto the page, largely unconcerned with lofty, detail-heavy world-building. That sort of thing can be great, but isn't always necessary, and chokes up too much contemporaneous fantasy writing into a bloated, pretentiously portentous slog. Sometimes, a glance is more evocative than an in-depth, Tolkien-esque explanation. I appreciate a yarn that just drops us into its setting with its characters, sink or swim, so long as I get a sense that the author has everything fully realized in their own mind. That said, there are times, particularly early on, where Holder strays too far into under-writing. He throws together a lot of disparate elements – Wild West, post-apocalyptic, medieval, magical realism, etc – with no cohesive sense of internal logic, as to how this world might have come together as it has, or how it sustains itself. The only reason I knew this was a post-apocalyptic setting is because, in one story, we find out that the state of Texas still exists, at least by name/geographically...and in some vague sense, the author's impression of the local culture there, hinting at something that feels like it's supposed to be social commentary, but which never quite resonates.
While Harsk is vividly painted enough, I've read plenty of characters like him. We're told plenty about his harsh attitude and the cruel, unforgiving existence he leads, but beyond the aforementioned strong opening, Holder never quite internalizes what it's like to be Harsk, in a truly visceral, psychologically palpable way, as with the best examples of such a grimdark archetypal characters (such as Conan, Ned Stark, or Roland the Gunslinger). It's all the more fortunate, then, that the greater part of the book focuses on Kait, who Holder really seems to like and find most engaging, as did I as a reader. The world she lives in is all made up, built for pure escapism for the writer/reader's enjoyment, but her feelings of displacement within it, of hostility, frustration, anger and confusion, all feel very real, often painfully.
As the saying goes – in the case of both Kait and Harsk – any hero is only as strong as their villains. Holder's demons are indeed a cruel, perverse lot, and he more than convinces us of the need for people like the Riders to stand against them. The circumstances of Kait's conception is appropriately despicable and gut-churning, even though we only hear about it second-hand, and not in graphic detail. Whenever it comes down to brass tacks, the stakes feel real here. Yet not all of these demons are the simplistic manifestations of pure evil they first appear to be, even Kait's father. It's in their startling complexity where we find some of the book's most intriguing surprises, as well as some unsettling moral ambiguity in our heroes.
Overall, the prose of this book flows smoothly and straight-forwardly, except for some abrupt shifts in character POV, which are at times jarring and momentarily confusing. The overall narrative voice ought to appeal particularly to young adult-readers, though Holder doesn't shy away from strong language or adult content, where called for. In fact, the fourth story involves an appropriately pervy encounter with an incubus, which was where both the book and Kait as a character come into their own and hit full stride.
I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the lovely illustrations in this volume – both the cover piece by Alana Fletcher and the internal drawings throughout by Eric Muller. Rather than mere eye-catching decorations, the latter in particular come to feel like an integral part of the storytelling experience, complementing the prose and blending nicely with the overall imagery. Muller's rendition of Kait is, appropriately, simultaneously weird and endearing, rendering the character as at once menacing, quirky, cute, and relatable. I like and relate to Harsk better in Muller and Fletcher's artwork than I do in Holder's prose. The character as drawn makes me think of Kris Kristofferson playing a hardboiled Wild West Gandalf. But I also enjoy watching Holder's prose as he gets better and better, and I look forward to where he goes from here as a storyteller...especially since the final story ends on something of a cliffhanger, with multiple loose ends unresolved, which leaves the reader wanting more.
Holder's first three paragraphs, in my opinion, form a textbook study in writing a strong opening, introducing the reader to a world of dark fantasy. It puts you there immediately, by engaging all the senses, through a distinct point, after which you should know right away whether or not this book is your glass of beer.
Early on, while replenishing the ranks after a devastating skirmish, Harsk encounters a young woman who it turns out is pregnant with the spawn of a demon. Rather than killing her and it, as pragmatic wisdom would suggest, Harsk takes her along, under the protection of the Ride.
While Harsk is an enjoyably gruff, vivid enough heroic figure, the true heart and soul of this book lies with Kait, the half-human, half-demon progeny of that unfortunate girl we meet in the first scene. Kait grows up among the Riders, struggling with her duel nature, all while learning to hunt demons and defend humans who hate and mistrust her. Over the course of the stories, we get to know her as a scrappy adolescent, an awkward teenager, and finally as a seasoned warrior, all while still struggling to find her place in the world. Admirably, Holder gives Kait – and us, the reader – few easy answers. We get the sense that her struggles – like our own – are a lifelong process. The short-story series format hearkens back to the heroic adventure writers of classic pulp, such as Howard, Moorcock and Leiber, yet Holder refreshingly never quite falls into any recognizable “demon of the week” formulaic pattern. In fact, late in the book, one story shifts the focus onto some side-characters, putting a humanized face on the background culture in an unexpectedly poignant manner, and features no violence at all in the central emotional dramatic conflict.
There's a simplicity and transparency to Holder's imagination, which is both a strength and weakness when it comes to his writing. The world through which his heroes and monsters ride often seems to spring straight from his own weird daydreams onto the page, largely unconcerned with lofty, detail-heavy world-building. That sort of thing can be great, but isn't always necessary, and chokes up too much contemporaneous fantasy writing into a bloated, pretentiously portentous slog. Sometimes, a glance is more evocative than an in-depth, Tolkien-esque explanation. I appreciate a yarn that just drops us into its setting with its characters, sink or swim, so long as I get a sense that the author has everything fully realized in their own mind. That said, there are times, particularly early on, where Holder strays too far into under-writing. He throws together a lot of disparate elements – Wild West, post-apocalyptic, medieval, magical realism, etc – with no cohesive sense of internal logic, as to how this world might have come together as it has, or how it sustains itself. The only reason I knew this was a post-apocalyptic setting is because, in one story, we find out that the state of Texas still exists, at least by name/geographically...and in some vague sense, the author's impression of the local culture there, hinting at something that feels like it's supposed to be social commentary, but which never quite resonates.
While Harsk is vividly painted enough, I've read plenty of characters like him. We're told plenty about his harsh attitude and the cruel, unforgiving existence he leads, but beyond the aforementioned strong opening, Holder never quite internalizes what it's like to be Harsk, in a truly visceral, psychologically palpable way, as with the best examples of such a grimdark archetypal characters (such as Conan, Ned Stark, or Roland the Gunslinger). It's all the more fortunate, then, that the greater part of the book focuses on Kait, who Holder really seems to like and find most engaging, as did I as a reader. The world she lives in is all made up, built for pure escapism for the writer/reader's enjoyment, but her feelings of displacement within it, of hostility, frustration, anger and confusion, all feel very real, often painfully.
As the saying goes – in the case of both Kait and Harsk – any hero is only as strong as their villains. Holder's demons are indeed a cruel, perverse lot, and he more than convinces us of the need for people like the Riders to stand against them. The circumstances of Kait's conception is appropriately despicable and gut-churning, even though we only hear about it second-hand, and not in graphic detail. Whenever it comes down to brass tacks, the stakes feel real here. Yet not all of these demons are the simplistic manifestations of pure evil they first appear to be, even Kait's father. It's in their startling complexity where we find some of the book's most intriguing surprises, as well as some unsettling moral ambiguity in our heroes.
Overall, the prose of this book flows smoothly and straight-forwardly, except for some abrupt shifts in character POV, which are at times jarring and momentarily confusing. The overall narrative voice ought to appeal particularly to young adult-readers, though Holder doesn't shy away from strong language or adult content, where called for. In fact, the fourth story involves an appropriately pervy encounter with an incubus, which was where both the book and Kait as a character come into their own and hit full stride.
I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about the lovely illustrations in this volume – both the cover piece by Alana Fletcher and the internal drawings throughout by Eric Muller. Rather than mere eye-catching decorations, the latter in particular come to feel like an integral part of the storytelling experience, complementing the prose and blending nicely with the overall imagery. Muller's rendition of Kait is, appropriately, simultaneously weird and endearing, rendering the character as at once menacing, quirky, cute, and relatable. I like and relate to Harsk better in Muller and Fletcher's artwork than I do in Holder's prose. The character as drawn makes me think of Kris Kristofferson playing a hardboiled Wild West Gandalf. But I also enjoy watching Holder's prose as he gets better and better, and I look forward to where he goes from here as a storyteller...especially since the final story ends on something of a cliffhanger, with multiple loose ends unresolved, which leaves the reader wanting more.
December 6, 2017
-I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Demon Riders, by Jack Holder, is a dark fantasy novel about learning who you are and where you came from, as well as knowing where your true loyalties lie.
The book begins with an introduction as to how the world of demon hunting came to be. From the prejudices that have taken hold of magical creatures, to the vibrant community of mercenaries that’ve taken residence in Texas. These elements set the stage for the Demon Riders and its leader, Harsk. Harsk is a fierce man who has slain legions of demons. One night, however, Harsk encounters a young woman who was forcibly impregnated by a demon. He decides to keep the young woman and her unborn child as part of the ride. As the child grows older, as does Harsk, and the two become closer, as father and daughter. Soon, they learn that there’s more to life than the limits set by what was originally supposed to be good and evil. In this fast-paced adventure, Holder delves into the world of monster hunting, all the while showing that family is family, no matter where you go.
While I felt like Met Netti and Harsk should’ve been given a bit more attention, considering the fact that Met Netti was raped, I still enjoyed the bond that Kait and Harsk shared. Personally, Harsk reminded me of a protective parent looking out for their child. Kait, on the other hand, was struggling to understand just where she fit in, especially since she was a demon amongst demon hunters. And with the prophecy lingering above both their heads, it made for a good read. I especially enjoyed how Kait referred to the hunters as over protective brothers.
One interesting scene that caught my attention was the way Rel treated Kait. He was acting reserved in front of her, disgusted by the fact that there even was a demon in the demon riders. And though Kait did destroy him, I believe she had just gotten a taste of how other humans may treat her. And that was exactly what’d happened when she grew up, when she went out in the human crowds. I feel like she would’ve abandoned humanity long before, had it not been for the influence of her brothers.
Nevertheless, I did have mixed feelings about the introduction. I feel that while it was necessary to set up the story, it was just too long. This, I felt, was a major detractor for me. I’d much rather focus on Kait’s story, rather than read through Texas’s history, however fascinating it may be. I also would’ve liked the details for Kait’s story to be more fleshed out, such as her relationships, her thoughts and emotions about being a hunter, whether or not she had any doubts.
I did like this book. Holder creates a fantastic world in which magic and normality coexist side by side. But even so, loyalty and love still all. Though the introduction to the setting could’ve been shorter, and the details to the plot a bit longer, this was still a good read. As such, I would give this book a rating of a 3.4 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it for those who enjoy E.A. Copen and Susurrus, by B. Morris Allen.
Demon Riders, by Jack Holder, is a dark fantasy novel about learning who you are and where you came from, as well as knowing where your true loyalties lie.
The book begins with an introduction as to how the world of demon hunting came to be. From the prejudices that have taken hold of magical creatures, to the vibrant community of mercenaries that’ve taken residence in Texas. These elements set the stage for the Demon Riders and its leader, Harsk. Harsk is a fierce man who has slain legions of demons. One night, however, Harsk encounters a young woman who was forcibly impregnated by a demon. He decides to keep the young woman and her unborn child as part of the ride. As the child grows older, as does Harsk, and the two become closer, as father and daughter. Soon, they learn that there’s more to life than the limits set by what was originally supposed to be good and evil. In this fast-paced adventure, Holder delves into the world of monster hunting, all the while showing that family is family, no matter where you go.
While I felt like Met Netti and Harsk should’ve been given a bit more attention, considering the fact that Met Netti was raped, I still enjoyed the bond that Kait and Harsk shared. Personally, Harsk reminded me of a protective parent looking out for their child. Kait, on the other hand, was struggling to understand just where she fit in, especially since she was a demon amongst demon hunters. And with the prophecy lingering above both their heads, it made for a good read. I especially enjoyed how Kait referred to the hunters as over protective brothers.
One interesting scene that caught my attention was the way Rel treated Kait. He was acting reserved in front of her, disgusted by the fact that there even was a demon in the demon riders. And though Kait did destroy him, I believe she had just gotten a taste of how other humans may treat her. And that was exactly what’d happened when she grew up, when she went out in the human crowds. I feel like she would’ve abandoned humanity long before, had it not been for the influence of her brothers.
Nevertheless, I did have mixed feelings about the introduction. I feel that while it was necessary to set up the story, it was just too long. This, I felt, was a major detractor for me. I’d much rather focus on Kait’s story, rather than read through Texas’s history, however fascinating it may be. I also would’ve liked the details for Kait’s story to be more fleshed out, such as her relationships, her thoughts and emotions about being a hunter, whether or not she had any doubts.
I did like this book. Holder creates a fantastic world in which magic and normality coexist side by side. But even so, loyalty and love still all. Though the introduction to the setting could’ve been shorter, and the details to the plot a bit longer, this was still a good read. As such, I would give this book a rating of a 3.4 out of 5 stars, and would recommend it for those who enjoy E.A. Copen and Susurrus, by B. Morris Allen.
August 23, 2023
I really enjoyed these stories. I loved the characters, which is more important to me than almost anything else. 4/5 only because when I picked it up, I didn't realize it was a series of short stories. Pleasant Work was my favorite. 😊 Well done, Sir.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews