Author: K.J. Parker
Genre: Novella
Format: Paperback
Pages: 100
I loved this more than I thought I would. This is my second book by K.J. Parker, and this is my second time picking up Prosper's Demon. The first time, I only got a couple of pages in and knew I wasn't in the mindset for the book, and I'm glad I waited. If I would have read the book the first time I don't think I would have enjoyed it as much as I did this time. So glad I waited so I could throw myself into this book and give it my full attention. Because it needed it.
Parker throws us right into the story and builds everything around this unreliable narrator whose name we never learn. The narrator talks of people and places like the reader should know who they are, and it doesn't matter really that we don't because none of them are important to the plot. The important moments are hidden into smaller details that hardly seem worth putting on the page. I was so focused on one thing I missed the obvious answer of what was about to happen.
Which means I was picking my jaw off the ground at the end of this story. I knew that a twist was coming, I just didn't see that. Which I should have because as I flipped back a few pages, there were hints and set-up to let me know something was hinky.
I'm also impressed with just how much K.J. Parker slammed into one book that is a hundred pages long. Not just a thoroughly fleshed-out story either. The backstory to our 'hero' is there and his long run-in with the demon that goes out of its way to do harm to said 'hero'. There's even a nod to another series in this book tieing that world and this together. Not to mention the science, the math, and the world-building that also happens on these pages.
This is a book you read in once sitting because it down might mean missing a detail. I'm pretty sure it's one that if I went back and read it again I'd find moments that's I missed. All of this story was my jam. I loved that our narrator had sort of lost all ability to feel guilt or remorse. What he was born to do sort of beat it out of him. The hard choices and no respect. It doesn't make what he does right, but you sort of understanding was he's cold-hearted.
This is why the ending shouldn't have shocked me much as it did...
Anyway, I loved this and will be picking up the sequel Inside Man after the holidays. I really like K.J. Parker's writing style and I need to read more of his books.
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