Read: "God’s Demon" by Wayne Douglas Barlowe

Read: God’s Demon by Wayne Douglas Barlowe, 2007, 9780765309853.

Not so bad, not so great. The blurbs on the cover were from film directors and cartoonists which did not give me confidence. But, the book had a good review and a neat concept. I fell asleep three of four times reading this book. Not sure if that can be blamed on the book though.

Sargatanas is a Major Demon down in hell. Sargatanas and other demons have been in hell for several thousand years. Lucifer disappeared after the fall and Beezlebub has been in charge ever since. Beezlebub is Lord of the Flies and is composed of an ever shifting and buzzing cloud of flies that will coalesce into humanoid form on his throne.

Major Demons are like royalty and each Major will usually have his own city and territory. Sargatans’ city is an obvious , if flawed due to circumstance, version of The Above. Of Heaven. Sargatanas has regretted his decision to join the charismatic Lucifer’s rebellion ever since the downfall and decides to earn his way back into Heaven. He begins a rebellion against Beezlebub, defeats him in the end of the novel, and ascends back into Heaven. Other things happen of course.

The author’s foreward says that he got the idea from a Milton poem. Or James. Henry? Some poet I am not going to look up right now. I wonder how many of the many characters are taken from that work or from myth and legend. Maybe I’ll try and look some up.