Тони, человек обладающий экстраординарной силой, которому никогда не сидится на месте, и у которого всегда чешутся руки, при этом Тони всегда выходит сухим из воды. Он случайно встречается с Гильвером, странным мечником, опутанным бинтами с ног до головы, и его жизнь идет коту под хвост. Тони проваливается в мрачный другой мир, отделенный от всех и вся, он озадачен вопросами, кто загнал его в этот угол? И кому черт возьми это все нужно? Эта первая повесть в серии, связана с миром популярнейшей игры Devil May Cry. Она подводит события к началу первой игры.
It's so inconsistent. Tony kills 40 people at the start of the book by himself, but then Gilver shows up and kills 50 people with the help of Tony and everyone thinks Gilver is so impressive for that? Also Tony is ripping out spines and crushing skulls into pulp and then is ??? disgusted that Gilver killed some guys and calls him a psychopath.
Tony kills a bunch of people, then he knocks a bunch of guys out instead, and then he's back to killing people. And then we're told he's known for mercy and NOT killing people.
The job he takes with Grue is so confusing. They are tasked with protecting this guy. Tony fights his way through a bunch of soldiers by himself to check on the guy. His allies all cheer and are excited. And then he fights his way back to Grue and the two of them go hide because "the odds aren't good." When they return both sides are completely dead. And then! The dead rise. And Tony fights them all himself, so even more guys from when "the odds were bad" and no one helping him because Grue is shell shocked.... like ???? it doesn't make sense.
He makes 50k and then laments he'll need another job to buy a new jacket???
He never cries! But three separate times he's near sobbing.
He's like I can't be picky with my jobs cos I'm flat broke. Then dismisses every job???
Jessica is a crazy plotline. Grue getting her a date with Tony 💀 but also just the hospital thing.
Grue shows up after being missing for days and Tony freaks out, ecstatic to see him! And then Grue is like Calm down! And Tony is like what did you think I'd do if you went missing?! Um? Nothing. You did nothing. And then Grue just leaves. What was the point of him showing up?
And then the whole I have to work these rotten jobs for money to pay my daughters hospital bills. Which doesn't make sense, if it's a well paying job Gilver would have taken it, there's plenty of small jobs to take, hospitals don't demand immediate payment. But then! We find out she was sent to a sanatorium for seeing things and I'm like??? I don't think they charge you to drop someone off at one of those.
Also the whole Tony showed up and changed the mercenary game so they don't work for crime bosses now, they're their own boss. But also the clients don't come to them?? They let a middleman take a cut? Even though the clients request them by name. I'm like ??? this seems contradictory.
Kerry finding him and undressing him and desperate to have sex with him 💀 was so gross. But then! He left and in a throw away line we find out she killed herself over that????
And then! Nell. Like what???? Why do we pause for this whole scene of assembling the guns in the middle of a burning room while she's bleeding out? Take her to the hospital? The gun pieces were all laid out on a tray. Toss that in a sack and get her medical attention you dingus. Also like ??? How is it raining in the room 😂
Also him flipping onto his head to kill Gilver 💀 his shoulder is paste, his bowels exploded, his arms are "dead", thighs shredded, and he's like ah yes let me just stand on my head real quick.
That's the thing too, this book is just really gross. Even the drinking competition was gross. Like how did Gilver not drown? And what do you mean he drank a keg of vodka and walked out the door like excuse me??
His mood swings wildly and I overall just don't like the characterization.
I just finished reading. I waited over half a year to lay my hands on the Devil May Cry novel. And I can say it was worth all the waiting. I enjoyed it in 100%.
For those who haven't read it. Tony Redgrave is a mercenary, but he doesn't take on whatever job that is offered. Thanks to his unusual strength he is considered to be the best, and thus gets most of the offers. However he's position changes when Gilver appears in Bobby's Cellar. And from that day nothing looks the same. From the first page it becomes fully clear that Tony Redgrave is Dante. The same way one can guess that Gilver is actually Vergil.
When I started reading I hoped for some good action. And I'm not disappointed. For me, the action is amazing. The general atmosphere of the novel suits the one created by CAPCOM. We have here Tony/Dante with haughty one-liners, as always. Along with his unhealthy appetite for strawberry sundaes (wonder where anime makers found that idea...) and booze. Another advantage of the novel is big font (yeah, I like big fonts, I'm not ashamed) and manga-style drawings. I can't say they're of the greatest quality, but their atmosphere is something that lacks the second novel (which I haven't read yet). If I was to focus on the plot. The general idea is not bad however the plotholes are hard not to notice. But as long as the action is going well, all I can do is laugh about some parts' stupidity and go on reading. There are really poor fragments like the sudden change from Tony to Dante, when you think "God, this is the same man? Tony wasn't such an idiot..." But despite all of that I couldn't help enjoying this novel.
Annoying parts: * overusing of 'mercenary word', it appeared pretty much on ever page at least once for the first half * 'uncanny' appeared four times within the 50 pages maybe, geez, aren't there any synonyms to this word? * 'Tony this, Tony that' the name appeared definitely to often * "I'm gonna find you demons and send you straight back to hell! Me! Devil hunter Dante!" - no comments.
Overall, I can say it wasn't that bad. And personally for me, it was quite good novel. I absolutely loved the Tony/Gilver relationship. The general attitude of Tony. The fighting style of Dante. His oversized sword. And... favorite red coat being damaged again. However, we don't know anything about where Dante lives (he doesn't have his own shop yet) and what he does except drinking, eating strawberry sundaes (no mention of pizza!) and being a mercenary. I liked it anyway :D
Na verdade pretendo fazer uma resenha bem sucinta que pode ser resumida em: O protagonista salva a história.
Começando com o ponto positivo são os personagens. Jessica, Grue, Goldestein, Enzo e principalmente o Tony são ótimos. As interações entre eles, as cenas, as conversas com o Tony são muito boas e trazem a naturalidade e emoção que faltou em todo o resto da novel.
Aos pontos negativos e que, para mim, prejudicam de maneira gigantesca a experiência com a novel: a escrita. Como leitora de livros majoritariamente, eu busquei abrir minha mente e levar em conta que é uma adaptação de uma mídia visual, entretanto nem isso tornou a experiência melhor. Com cenas confusas, momentos arrastados e uma grande dificuldade em dosar emoção e rigidez, Gokeida conseguiu um feito impressionante de tornar uma obra de pouco mais de 200 páginas, algo teoricamente curto para padrões de livros, uma experiência cansativa e sonolenta. A energia que passa é que Gokeida enquanto escrevia que passou a encontrar o seu ritmo de escrita ideal, tanto que a novel melhora consideravelmente a partir dos 60%. Faltou uma releitura e uma revisão talvez?
O final é excelente e ele conseguiu integrar os elementos que faltaram na metade anterior, se você conseguir passar pelo grande muro que é a primeira metade da obra você encontrará uma boa recompensa.
I’m always happy to consume more DMC media. Very cool to see Dante’s origins before he opened his shop and started fighting world ending evils and Devils. “Gilver” didn’t fool me for a second but it is interesting that he still hasn’t won a single fight against Dante to this day. Jackpot!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Where do I begin? The Devil May Cry novels have some dear yet mixed memories for me. My interest in them blossomed in 2013, I'd say. I would often see them just neatly sitting there on the shelf in the Boardwalk library, in the area where I'd often hang out instead of the community room, or just browse through what they had there. Ah, the memories in that small area... Many, many dear memories with me and my best friend. Other memories reside as well aside from with only him, but any moment shared with him have always been the most important to me. Anyway, moving on. I never really knew what these novels were aside from Devil May Cry. For a long time, I assumed it was pretty much a two volume compilation/adaption of the Devil May Cry story up until that point (so all four games). Boy, was I wrong, haha! I actually did read some of it, like a random chapter out of one of the books while I was waiting for my dear best friend, back in I wanna say 2014, then I never read it again until last year, despite my reoccuring intentions to between those years. It took me a while to get through the first arc, honestly... It just took me a while to get past Denvers, which is horrible because he's only in maybe 4 chapters at max. But about the time I got to Grue and his daughters and seeing Dante (or rather, Tony) interact with them, I was totally immersed. I loved Grue, and the relationship Tony/Dante had with him and his daughters Jessica and the other two whose names I forgot was heart warming to watch and I honestly wanted more. It was like he really had a family in his crime partner and his family. Unfortunately, with the emergence of the suave and mysterious new mercenary in town, Gilver (whom we find out to be Vergil in the final chapter, surprise, surprise), things begin to go awry for Tony/Dante. Well, actually... From the very beginning of the book, demons wreak havoc throughout the night, some of which are very familiar enemies to the first, second, and third games (so basically iconic DMC small enemies). In the beginning, they live in the shadows and only come out during a certain time of night, picking off any unlucky civilians who happen to be out that late, which just so happens to be Denvers after his 99th fight with Tony. This fight was definitely a big one too, he had a butt load of paid mercenaries at his disposal, all armed and pointed at Tony. Reluctantly, Tony disposes of every single one of them in the time it takes for a dust cloud to clear, however, his beloved red coat suffers the necessary sacrifice for surviving such an insane barrage of bullets against one man. Tony tosses his coat to Denvers and tells him to get it fixed for him, then wanders off to go drinking at the dinkiest bar around, his favorite place, and the mercenary gathering hub-- Bobby's Cellar. As for Denvers, he parts ways and begrudgingly heads to a shop to see if he can't get the darned coat fixed. As the air grows chillier, and the night grows darker, Denvers covers up with the red swiss cheese coat, anything to help warm his flesh. Unfortunately, that night would be his last, as demons emerge from the shadows, wailing "DAANTEEE" and hack Denvers into pieces. Around this time, Dante/Tony is just doing his own thing, giving Nell Goldstein, his personal gunsmith as well as his unofficial surrogate mother (as stated by Gilver and demonstrated between both Tony and Nell's interactions and attachments to each other, as he resembles her son and is thus as much her surrogate son as she is his surrogate mother) a visit to modify a gun he took off of Denvers. She's a curt old woman who is always focused in her work and always scolds Tony for being reckless, and yet she'll never turn him away. Even when she tells him to get out, she still won't mind it if he stayed, and she often lets him mooch food off of her too, and allows him to pay her in payments. For all the smack she gives him, he gets a lot of slack from her too. As for Tony/Dante, she's probably the one person he ever let his guard down around the most. Now, as for Denvers. Being that he's dead, you'd think he wouldn't see of him again, right? Well, as seen with a couple incidents already that Tony and his partner Grue have had to deal with, something has been raising the dead in their small city. Tony encounters Denvers again, but this time he's just pieces of a corpse barely being held together, most of all his head, which hangs by a single vein or tendon. As he approaches Tony, he still dons that swiss cheese red coat, this time stained a far dirtier red than before. Tony is disgusted and mortified, but doesn't let it show. He considers this their 100th fight as he puts his self proclaimed "rival" of sorts to rest.
Shadow demons, or just demons, have been possessing corpses (and later on, they even possessed the living and had them gauge out their eyes and proceed to eat their own eyeballs as they screamed out Dante's name. This ended up being Grue's grave as he let off a bomb after Gilver had cornered him there while Grue was on a job to take out one kid, which he did, to get a lot of money for medicine for his daughter). Grue managed to take out all of these fresh zombies, but at the end of the novel, Gilver replaces those numbers by killing every single regular in Bobby's Cellar, including Bobby, and turning them into his zombie army, leaving them with a slight bit of consciousness and will so as to let the second and new Nexus feed off of their misery, as that is what kept the gate to hell open and growing. The first Nexus was in the basement of the sanatorium which Grue's oldest daughter Jessica was taken to after he died. The source of the Nexus was Jessica's inexplicable pain, emotional and physical, not only with the loss of her father, but her strange unexplainable illness and the fact Gilver/Vergil actually turned her into a part of a tree, one which pulsed and grew with every pained breath she took. Tony/Dante found her after he rushed there the moment he found out she was there, just to see her, then to save her when he found that the sanatorium had been overrun. Finally, once he found her, the only choice left to him was to kill her. He called her a princess one last time and ended her suffering, as well as destroyed that Nexus. Soon after, he used the remainder of his savings to open two bank accounts for Grue's two remaining daughters. But who knows who would take care of them now. That was never quite touched on again.
Throughout the novel, Tony exhibits signs of a demon but is in fact mostly human, whereas Gilver, or Vergil, is mostly demon and posing as a human, covered in a suit and bandages. I did skip over many details in the novel, such as the incident with the Oz Club where the two brothers do indeed fight together, but in Gilver's case this is almost entirely just to study Tony's skills and moves up close, not only that but Gilver ALWAYS chose Tony as his partner for every mercenary gig so as, again, to study how he fights. That way, there would be no way for Gilver to be caught off guard and therefore no way to lose to Tony/Dante.
What happens to awaken Dante within Tony Redgrave is the death of his surrogate mother, Nell Goldstein. Right after a visit with her where she was especially curt but Tony accepted she'd open up next time, Gilver pops in, gives her a fatal wound to the back, and sets the entire building on fire. Roughly three blocks away, Tony Redgrave sees and hears of the fire and races back to the building, grabbing a hose and rushing inside to save her, where he finds her working away at her work bench, among the flames. She manages to entrance him to forget all his surroundings and to come closer with her calm and maternal tone. She gives him a gift, having him assemble his new guns, Ebony and Ivory (he always broke everything else he bought from her that she'd make especially for him). We actually get in depth detail of the mechanics of these two guns and how they work and compliment each other, as well as the engravings she left on there for him. As she never knew him as Dante, Tony Redgrave's name was engraved into them, as well as her personal shop's name, original spelling error and all. And there, Ebony and Ivory was born in the same flames that took the life of the mother that made them, and anyone would be certain that her soul rose to heaven, as Dante seemed certain it did as she died in his lap. She kept trying to speak to him about something...but I couldn't quite understand it. But I think she was asking him either to take care of her son...or to take care of himself. Once he was finally able to leave her body, all he had to say was a whisper that disappeared on the wind, "Goodbye, Mother" and he promised to her body that he'd treat Ebony and Ivory more amazingly than any other guns there ever were. He also apologized to her body for having lied to her about his name and identity, for even he had forgotten who he was born as, as his real mother Eva had told him to forget it all and run. So he did exactly that. He forgot his name Dante and he forgot who he was and he became Tony Redgrave, even with a slightly different personality. But there was no more forgetting anymore. He was Dante the Devil Hunter, son of Sparda. But even in his final showdown with his brother Vergil, he still never awakens as a demon. But even after he is missing four of his limbs, he still manages to defeat his twin brother Vergil/Gilver, who he finds out to be his brother only as Vergil begins to fade away back to hell, defeated and writhing in miserable agony. Dante continues to scream out his name but Vergil can hear him no longer, nor could he respond even if he wished to. Dante wanted answers, but he received none. Many hours later, Dante awakens again, healed but not fully, to a familiar voice. His friend and an informant Enzo (the ONLY survivor out of everyone Dante knew in the novel, even the slut who drug him home to sleep with him was possessed and slit her wrists and bled out for her contact with him). Dante ends up moving to a new city and starting up a business called Devil May Cry, where Enzo will often still throw jobs his way, often jobs that nobody else will take but need to be done. Dante accepts only because he needs to keep the lights on and the toilets flushed. And then a crazy blonde lady crashes through his front door on a motorcycle...
Now, to better explain. This first novel of the two Devil May Cry novels takes place predating Devil May Cry 3, which is a prequel to Devil May Cry 1. The novel is meant to end where Devil May Cry 1 begins, but that's because it was written and published about three years before the release of Devil May Cry 3. This was the original prologue, but now it's the prologue to the prologue. Fun fact? The informant Enzo is a reoccuring character originating from the Devil May Cry series, but he's never been in a single game. The most he was mentioned was "an/my informant" in the games, and by name in the game manuals. Other than that, he's been in every other medium, as well as even crossed over into the Bayonetta franchise under the same name, personality, appearance, and purpose. Does this suggest the two worlds could be connected? Probably so, but nothing has been confirmed. Maybe Enzo is just a god, haha.
For my own personal opinion? I spent more than the first half of what I read of this book in complete confusion but desiring more, desiring answers. I wanted to just drop the book after Grue died, but then I read on the Wikipedia page that the events of this book takes place all but directly after the death of Dante and Vergil's mother, where Dante has a forced amnesia. Another fun tid bit of information? My best friend told me that in the developmental stages of the first game, Devil May Cry was originally meant to be another Resident Evil game. But someone from Capcom took a look over it and thought, "this has a hell of a lot of potential to be its very own franchise. Do it. Give it a name and make it something of its own. I think it'll do great" and look at it now. It really has done great. I also love how they make Dante out to be so super cool, but also a good role model for younger people. Such as how he's cool and stuff but thinks unnecessary killing and smoking is totally "uncool" and does his best to avoid both. I like how Dante keeps his cheesy, dorky, but also cool "facade" while his morals still remain, even though he often needs to break them. A lot of what he does and thinks contradicts much of others thinks he does and thinks, but that's just how he is as a person. The novel felt underwhelming after I found out all the spoilers, but it was still a fun ride, and I'll never look at the franchise or any of the games the same as I did before. This is a must read for any fan of the Devil May Cry series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
This is my first time reading a book like this, and I really enjoyed it. It feels a lot like reading Manga, which I've done quite a bit of, but obviously in this case there is a lot more words then there are pictures. But if you are into the Manga scene, I'm sure you would enjoy this!
Devil May Cry was an action packed story full of darkness, hate, evil and all those gloomy details. It definitely stands out from most YA genre books. There is no softness, romance, happiness, sunshine, none of that or anything closely resembling it. It was fast paced, and kept me turning the pages. There was definitely no dull moments and I found myself cheering the main character on the whole time.
We can't be for certain if Tony is a good guy or not. He definitely seems to have goodness in him, but he doesn't really live in a world where he can afford to show it. Instead he stands at the top of his game, the best at what he does to survive. That is until a man covered in bandages named Gilver shows up. He can keep up with Tony with ease, and even best him. What ensues is a downward spiral of even deeper darkness and evil. Gilver brings with him a whole heap of mystery and questions that I was burning to know the answers to.
It was short but definitely not sweet. Definitely an easy, quick read. If you are a fan of the game series at all you should probably give it a try. This book doesn't neccesarily follow along with the game. It's more of a side story and it also fills in some details that aren't completely obvious in the game. I've only played the 4th game myself but I did seriously enjoy it, and Dante became one of my favorite video game characters. So when I seen this at the library I knew I had to give it a shot.
I will definitely be looking to read more in this series, and I will be recommending it to all my friends. Book nerds and game nerds alike. If you're looking to take a step into something a little different than the usual, I think this is a pretty good place to start. And even if it doesn't totally tickle your fancy, it's only a couple hundred pages long so you won't have to make too much effort haha.
Along came a Japanese pop novel based on the video game series Devil May Cry (which is based on Dante's Inferno). Expecting a bad translation and a trash pop novel, I discovered something so much more. A beautifully woven novel that builds intricate characters with pasts and personalities that make them insanely lovable. Although the novel does become a little bit unrealistic at times, it's overall extremely enjoyable. When I read this I wept, smiled, laughed, and finished it in practically one sitting.
The novel follows a lone mercenary who is haunted by his past. Eventually he finds it catching up to him like a nightmare. It takes place before the first game and fills in some gaps.
A must for Dante's Inferno fans and anyone who has a speck of interest in Devil May Cry.
PS I'm usually not a fan of game's that become books, but I'll make an exception on this one
I’m on a real DMC revisit kick at the moment, and it occurred to me that I never actually read the novel which is apparently now considered canon?
It probably reads a lot less cringe in Japanese, but the English copy I just read was riddled with grammar and spelling issues, and the whole Gilver thing..? Bro, come on.
I don’t think action lends itself particularly well to prose, but the pacing was good enough that it was at least an easy read with a sprinkling of Dante lore.
As much as I love Devil May Cry, this novel ended up being one step below middle of the road in my eyes
It’s a cool premise, taking place before the first game Dante has adopted the name ‘Tony Redgrave’ and makes a living as a mercenary often taking on the mob. The book however doesn’t really bring you into the world though and the characters are very one note and often have awkward mood swings. I would’ve loved to see more underworld politics, betrayal, and inner struggle / obstacles that Dante has to overcome since he’s a good person at heart but they play it very tame here.
Dante himself feels awkward as well as his quips and overall dialogue feels forced a lot of the time. You do get to find out how Dante gets his signature pistols, Ebony and Ivory but the rest feels pedantic.
Overall the book is serviceable but I wouldn’t read it again since it didn’t quite scratch that itch for learning more about the lore of something. I feel like I’m being harsh but could’ve been so much more. Around a 2.5 for me.
My boyfriend let me borrow this well loved copy from his library and I'm glad I did. I've watched him play some of the games as well, if ever I can find the other books in the series I would love to continue.
Tony not only loves his strawberry sundaes at the pub, he loves fighting the demons that the ordinary person cannot see, getting jobs as he goes to make money and servive. With sense of humor and his signature coat life is almost the same every day with new jobs. But when a bandaged stranger walks and starts taking most of the jobs , becoming a favorite among the guys, he joins him on a lot of them but crazy things are happening making Tony weaker in the demon world as time goes on.
Close friends are lost and secrets are uncovered everything will become chaotic and Tony will learn and grow especially at the very end.
I've never played the games but if you are fan of them I highly recommend this book.
Whilst not overly well written (I put it down to it being a Japanese translation) I still enjoyed this book because it gives some much needed context before the events of Devil May Cry- I'm not sure why we didn't see these kinds of flashbacks in the game, or why this novel hasn't been made into some kind of game. I enjoyed reading about Dante/ Tony in action, and laughing at his silly one liners. I also enjoyed seeing my favourite character, Vergil/ Gilver. There definitely were parts of this book that were questionable and contradictory, but nonetheless provided the information missing from the game!
As a big fan of the video game series, I was pretty excited to read this because I'm one of those "backstory, yay!" kind of people. The story has no issue shifting from laid-back to action-packed scenes and though I wish we got a bit more into the mind of Tony/Dante, the character stayed true to his original video-game self (which I greatly enjoyed because OOC characters are irritating).
In conclusion, a great book for both newcomers and veterans of the series. I really enjoyed this one and it's definitely going on the "to be re-read" list.
It was a very tedious task to read this. There are a lot of unnecessary and pointless scenes and the whole Gilver character is just very bad, since it's kinda obvious who it is, but his name just sounds like some kind of bad saturday cartoon villain. However, it gives some interesting information about Dante's backstory, so it's not THAT bad, but i'd recommend you to read about this book's plot on wiki or somewhere else.
Molesta un poquito el cambio de nombre, y no entiendo por qué solo DMC 2 fue una continuación en la saga. Siempre las nuevas entregas son un cambio en la saga, aquí volvemos a una época de precuela cuando ya había una precuela pero a entender que va después del 3 cuando en el 3 ya se conocía a Vergil.
Pero en sí, llega mucho la pérdida y las interacciones de Tony con los "amigos" que tenía. Aunque se entiende y se anticipa cómo acaba la historia.
Since this came literally right after the first DMC game in 2002, I'm assuming like a good majority of this story has been retconned or smth 💔💔. No way they were consistent for 20 years
A really good side quest for this Demon hunter guy. I feel like after 5 games, a show, and that one video summarizing DMC, I'm starting to finally actually get who this Dante mf is
All that's left is to read those manga side pieces and now I could judge that new Netflix show more accurately