I just finished an ex-libris copy of John Shirley’s book Demons on cassette, that I won on eBay. Structurally, Demons is two shorter books with the same characters. The first book tells of the coming of demons to Earth and the second is a more complicated struggle against the forces that brought the demons here. Although ostensibly horror, it reads like Science Fiction and I think of John Shirley as a Science Fiction writer.

Demons is a different flavor of horror, though, like a Coontz or King book, only inside out. Shirley starts with the demons walking around and breaks Lovecraftian horror rules by describing them in detail. His approach to horror is to make it seem ordinary and show how life continues in the face of the impossible terror of the demons. This is all allegory, of course, for the evils that are hiding plain sight in the real world. The straight line plotting and a simple solution lessen the impact of first book. The second book in the tapes is much more of thriller in its construction. Characters jet set around the world with alternating chapters for different characters and plot lines. Shirley spends quite a bit of time demonizing those that would destroy our world through greed and egotism. To an environmentalist, the book is preaching to the choir, to a King/Coontz fan looking for horror, it might lack impact without the political message.

Shirley reads most of the book himself, but Harlan Ellison does an over-the-top narration of one of the plot lines and breaks up the flow of the narrative, but in a good way. You can’t help but enjoy Ellison’s characterizations, even when they are awful. There are a couple of women narrating one of the plot lines, and even though they did a good job, Ellison’s performance overshadows them.

Demons, with its flaws, is still highly recommended. Shirley is a great writer. There were a few choices in plots and characters that I didn’t like, but still make the book interesting, adding color and texture.

When he is good, John Shirley is great, and in any case, he is always fun.

Demons is available on Amazon by clicking on the image above. There are some used copies under a dollar  in the Amazon shops that you can get to from the main Amazon page. Buy it and listen to it on the way to work!