Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

Prosper’s Demon – The Tale of an Unstable Balance

Prosper’s Demon is the latest novel from the mind of K.J. Parker, and it is a chilling yet evocative read. This is a tale of possession like you’ve never read before – the sort that will force you to sit down and ponder. And perhaps fear for your health, should this fate ever befall you.

In a world where demons can truly possess unsuspecting humans, it probably seems like there’s no worse fate out there. But there’s a very good chance that this assumption is wrong.

At least if we’re to believe what we’re being told in Prosper’s Demon. This is the tale of one unscrupulous exorcist and his hunt against one demon in particular – his foe if you will. Their battles may be brief, but they stretch through the years, clashing together time and time again.

Writing

K.J. Parker set out to write a chilling novella that tore away everything we readers take for granted. And they succeeded. Prosper’s Demon was as thrilling as it was alarming, thanks to our main perspective’s unreliable narratives.

This was an utterly unique and fascinating novel. The main character, the questionable exorcist I mentioned above, is never named. But he’s quite confident that we will not like him – or agree with his methods (or motives). This is a clever twist, one that immediately forces us to recognize the unreliability of these accounts. And the sheer brutality of it all as well.

The world we’re introduced to sometimes feels dark, as demons freely hop from one human host to another, leaving pain and devastation in their wake. But that’s really at the beginning of this tale, as Parker dives into something much more dark – and human.

I already said this, but I want to clarify my point. Prosper’s Demon is an experience. It’s a chilling one – you won’t look at any other tale of demons and exorcism the same way after you read this novella. But maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Development

Being a novella, Prosper’s Demon flew along at a steady pace. Our protagonist’s obsession easily led him, and thus us, forward in this story. It was fascinating to see more of how this person thought. More than that, it was interesting to see the demons around him and how they acted and interacted with him and each other.

This story is surprisingly complex, thanks in part to the unique nature of the narrative itself. It intentionally misleads at times for the sake of having a bigger surprise or impact later. That’s not what I expected to find when I picked this book up. But I’ll be the first to say it worked out quite well here.

Really, it all comes down to this: our protagonist’s untrustworthy and alarming narrative made it so that we could never really know what was about to happen next. Be that for good or bad. It certainly was memorable.

Conclusion

Prosper’s Demon was a unique and distressed read. I can tell you that this novel opened my eyes to new interpretations of the matter. It also left plenty of room for thought. Perhaps this is a story best read in daylight – just a suggestion.

This review was originally written for Word of the Nerd, but has been ported over to Quirky Cat’s Fat Stacks now that the site has shut down.

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