A solid novella, however the writing style didn't engage me as well as I wanted it to. I actually enjoyed the perspective from a demon hunter fighting other demons as well as his own. The opening scene definitely sets the tone for the rest of the book. The idea for this novella is brilliant and I'd be interested in reading more from this author.

Prosper's Demon by K.J. Parker, a short novella that literally invites you to hate it. We learn of a demon hunter that takes demons out of humans but success is in the eye of the beholder.

Another magnificent novella from the master of the form

[... Synopsis ...]

I love K.J. Parker’s short fiction. In addition to his excellent prose, the author is able to pack in so much into his short stories and novellas: they are humorous, subversive, and peppered with historical allusions. Prosper’s Demon is no different. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I have an idea you aren’t going to like me very much. That may prove to be the only thing we’ll have in common, so let’s make the most of it.

As with many of Parker’s novellas, his protagonist in Prosper’s Demon is a version of an anti-hero. He makes mistakes, he harbours prejudices and biases. He’s not afraid of voicing them. He’s only mildly ashamed of the awful things he’s done. He excuses his actions because the ends justify the means. I’m not sure he can count as “unreliable”, when he seems so ready to share his bad behaviour.

In this fantasy world, demonic possession is real. The medieval tendency to blame all maladies and mental illnesses (not to mention inconvenient character flaws) on demonic possession is real in this world. There are, however, people born with the ability to not only see these demons but also exorcise them. Unfortunately for the demon and host, the process of extraction can be excruciating and extremely dangerous for the host (the demons, though, cannot die). The narrator explains his profession, as well as how his abilities developed — in addition to the ways in which he mishandled past experiences and extractions.

Parker quickly establishes the rules of this world, and where and how his protagonist fits. We learn of an ongoing grudge between the protagonist and a particular demon, and this leads the story to the royal palace and the offices of a man named Prosper: genius, inventor, adviser to the rulers. And, as mentioned in the synopsis: possessed. What is an exorcist to do? I won’t say anymore, because that would spoil the fantastic second half of the novella, which builds to a rather shocking ending.

Partly, he said, he enjoyed my company; it wasn’t often that he had a chance to talk to someone whose mind was so little cluttered with education or accepted opinions— (“You mean I’m stupid.” “Good heavens, no. Just ignorant.”)

Prosper’s Demon is an engaging, often very funny novella about possession, ambition, the value of art, and ingenuity. The characters are fantastic and fascinating. I loved this. Very highly recommended.

I love that cover! A dark,funny as Hell look at demon possession. I don't know about you, but I LOVE characters who are morally-grey, and it's especially is fun to read about the unnamed-narrator being a complete and unrepentant a**hole. I loved it!

Purists beware: <em>Prosper's Demon</em>, by K. J. Parker, is not a tale of good versus evil. This is mostly a tale of not-as-bad and maybe-worse fighting it out, ostensibly for a greater purpose, but maybe just in a never-ending cycle of retribution. But as a world champion player of Petty Petty Princess, I can say that this is a feature, not a bug. Our nameless narrator wants to get rid of demons, and one demon in particular. He’ll avoid collateral damage if he can, but if he can’t…well. It might not make for a moral story, but it makes for an interesting one.

A quirk of birth and not a life of holiness left the unnamed narrator with the ability to expel
demons from human hosts, a task he finds grimly satisfying. The demons can’t
hurt him and they can only resist him to a certain extent, so he’s had a
successful career. And if that career is littered with the bodies of those he
couldn’t save in time…well, the church has always placed a higher value on
expelling demons than on the lives those demons want to steal. If a number of
people died in the course of his exorcisms, that still counts as a win. But his
most recent case might end in his first L. How can he fight his old nemesis,
currently ensconced in the body of a young prince, and also fight a strange new
demon, who inhabits the body of the smartest man in the world?

This is indelibly K. J. Parker, by which I mean, it's dryly funny, there's a deep dive on a skilled profession (exorcism this time, and as ever, some engineering), some too-smart-for-their-own-good characters, and always, always some scheme that doesn't fall into place until the last page. I'm not always a big fan of twists, but Parker is a goddamn gymnast: when he sticks that landing, you can't help but want to cheer.

It's always a bit easier to land twists in short fiction, since you really only have space for
one great idea. It's why I had mixed feelings on his Engineer trilogy (too many
reversals eventually undercut the characters and the emotional weight—just like
<em>Game of Thrones</em>), but loved <em>Purple and Black</em> and <em>Blue and Gold</em>.
Those were novellas from the "dark days," when big publishers hadn't
embraced ebooks and only small presses would take chances on shorter-form
fiction (and the prices went up accordingly). Thank you, Tor.com, for changing
all that.

But I digress. <em>Prosper's Demon</em>, which is a perfectly modest and self-contained 112 pages, does indeed set us up for only one twist. It's British in the way that the Freeman and Cumberbatch <em>Sherlock</em> is British: dry, self-deprecating, and so fast-moving that you can miss things if you're not paying attention. But that’s part of the fun: what’s a red herring, and what’s a critical piece of information? I won’t spoil it, but I will say that I completely did not expect the direction it took, especially that twist.

Is the twist <em>good</em>? Yes, it's unexpected and it's perfectly in keeping with the narrator's character. Is it <em>satisfying?</em> Well, that depends. If you agree with the narrator's philosophy that demons are the greatest evil, then sure. If you're not on board, the whole thing reads like the memoirs of an obsession, a cautionary tale rather than a triumphal one. It feels a bit hollow. But maybe that hollowness is part of the point, too. Our narrator tells us that "…only two things live forever, the instruments of darkness and works of genius." It’s a lonely, empty world, only briefly illuminated by triumphs of art or science, and otherwise beset by demons that can literally never die. Life is a struggle, and living on your own terms—free of demons, or free of human judgments—is even more so. But in his unusual ending, Parker suggests that the struggle—which is ugly, and finite—might have its own merits. And regardless of how the narrator leaves you feeling, that’s a pretty good place for the book to land.

Prosper's Demon comes out January 28.