"Demon" by John Varley

 

Publisher:    Berkley

Copyright:   1984

ISBN:           0399129456

It has taken me a long time to get around to reading the third book in this trilogy. The reason for this hesitation was that I wasn't overly impressed with the second one (Wizard), but felt that I should at least try to finish the series despite my misgivings.

The first few pages of Demon were rather odd to say the least, but it began to get better as the story progressed (unfortunately this was but a brief respite). It wasn't as good as Titan (The first book in the trilogy), which had a well defined plot arc. Contrarily both Wizard and Demon seem to be books that didn't really need to be written, and you get the feeling they were simply done to fulfill the contract (or at least I did). Whether this is true or not I don't know, but it sure seems that way because they both ramble, and Demon rambles even more than Wizard.

In any case, it has been about 20 years since the end of Wizard, and in this book Gaea seems to be represented by a gigantic version of Marilyn Monroe. The Titandes are still around even though it seemed as if they were doomed at the end of Wizard. Robin the witch is back after leading the coven for a good portion of the 20 years, she is low disgraced. Her daughter is with her, and she seems to be ready to blame anything and everything for her misfortune.  Gaby is also back (from the dead?) But seems to be more of a ghost anything else.

To be honest I wasn't even able to finish this book, in fact I only got about a third of the way through it before I gave it up.

Sorry, Varley fans. Definitely not one of his best.