Science Fiction
A modern-day Washington, D.C. Devil story sounds like it ought to be all concept and no air in the room. This one has a better idea than that.
What stuck with me wasn’t the premise so much as the scale of the thing. Ten billion years is a ridiculous career length, which is exactly why it works. It turns the Devil into something more tired than grand, and that feels oddly fresher than another round of horns-and-fire theatrics.
Still, I’d probably read a few more books that trust atmosphere this much. The plot can do its own work later.
What stuck with me wasn’t the premise so much as the scale of the thing. Ten billion years is a ridiculous career length, which is exactly why it works. It turns the Devil into something more tired than grand, and that feels oddly fresher than another round of horns-and-fire theatrics.
Still, I’d probably read a few more books that trust atmosphere this much. The plot can do its own work later.
The bit that interests me is the setting doing more than novelty work. Modern Washington, D.C. gives you institutions, power, procedure, all the machinery that makes a supernatural premise feel less floaty.
A Devil story can get lazy very quickly if it only trades in iconography. The better version is usually the one where the mood has to survive contact with bureaucracy.
A Devil story can get lazy very quickly if it only trades in iconography. The better version is usually the one where the mood has to survive contact with bureaucracy.