Bookfreak Review: Working For The Devil, by Lilith Saintcrow

So, as I stated in my previous post I also purchased the above titled book the other day. It had been on my Amazon list for a while, as I stumbled upon it tredging through the Customer Reviews of yet other books. The description was intriguing, as I have an unwaivering love of badass chicks. It sounded like an Anita Blake knockoff, but as Anita's been more of a lover and less of a fighter lately, I've been craving some tough broad action. Also in it's favor was the blurb on the back from one of my personal rock-star authors, Jacqueline Carey. Even more to my delight, Lilith Saintcrow herself credits Carey in her acknowledgements as the "best damn fantasy author in the last decade". Lilith Saintcrow is a girl after my own heart, in more ways than one.

I found the book to be an interesting beginning to a series with potential. It's set in the future, with a whole techie, cyberpunk vibe. There's hovercraft (bout time), and databands for the wrist that access the net, all the bells and whistles. But mixed into this futuristic world is also the arcane. Magic-workers are a registered population, licensed to practice their skills and carry weaponry the normal population can't. The protagonist/heroine is Dante Valentine, yeah the name is a bit cheesy. But she herself is not. She's pretty hard, but as it's written in first person, we understand her inner vulnerabilities and reasonings. And here's where it gets Anita-Blakeish, she's a Necromance, but instead of raising whole physical bodies, she just raises their spirits for a living. She also does some bounty hunting on the side, and that's where the plot picks up. She gets tapped for a job...by the Devil. Saintcrow does an interesting job of describing this, and Lucifer's character is less scary, and therefore MORE scary because of it, in my opinion. He's attractive, calm, and reasonable. He gives her a job to do, with promises of vast riches upon completion, but doesn't give her the option of NOT taking it. He assigns her a demonic partner, Japhrimel (a total badass demon assasin), and then sends her on her way.

There's a couple of little realistic things thrown in that always bother me in other books, like "Do these people never have to pee, sleep or eat?" So I gotta give her some credit for covering mundane details. Dante's got lots of emotional baggage, and that is covered with enough to make her interesting and relatable as a character, but not so much as to get tiresome. A lot of the apocolyptic history/techie stuff is glazed over, which I was fine with. It is easy to get quagmired in those details. In her pursuit of her quarry she interacts with interesting and endearing friends and an ex-boyfriend (I was kinda "Feh" on him). Her interaction with her demon partner was my personal highlight. She's torn between hating him and relying on him, and she understandably learns to appreciate the intimidation he brings to the table. Saintcrow slowly builds their relationship, but it never fully develops, which I found frustrating. I will acknowledge that it did not conform to predictable "Happy Ever After" strictures, and so I must give props for daring to be different.

I'm impressed, but not blown away. I'll probably get the next one, if only to beef up my collection of badass women. She's got a sword, for pete's sake. She had me at THAT, really. Plus, I got a chuckle when she complained of not wanting to kill someone because of dreading the paperwork involved. Nice.

I give it three and a half Napoleons.

It would have been four Napoleons, but I would have liked more of Jaf. Dude has wings that can also be just a coat. I know. Sweet.