Just as every cop is a criminalAnd all the sinners saintsAs heads is tailsJust call me Lucifercause I'm in need of some restraintI blame Buffy for the rash of ass-kicking, smart-talking, bitchy female vampire slayers and the legions of sidekicks who inexplicably give them unconditional love.I don't mean to imply that loving Buffy herself was inexplicable. Buffy was something special. Even when she was bitchy, she was prone to saying things like, "I'm cookie dough. I'm not done baking." Even as she was touted as "the blonde who strikes back" in gender studies courses and pop culture crit, she was busily disarming our heroic archetypes with plain, good-old goofiness. And girliness.Her imitators, as often as not, miss the point. Once, in a discussion about why there's so much bad writing in high fantasy, a friend of mine said:John Clute, the one unquestionably brilliant critic in sf/f (when you can understand what the hell he is saying) has all kinds of interesting things to say about the difference between Tolkien and his imitators—being able to distinguish between Tolkien and Brooks is the minimum standard for any critical apparatus applied to the genre, in his opinion. One of the observations he makes is about the role of time and change. Tolkien’s world is, among many other things, an attempt to come to grips with the industrial revolution, and everything in Middle Earth is constantly twisting in the corrosive stream of time. The imitators tend to fetishize the tokens of the bucolic world—sword, cloak, stew—and the actions play out in a bubble world immune to THAT kind of change—real change. In a sense, Middle Earth is saved neither for Frodo nor for us.I think there's something similar -- if not as widespread or profound -- going on with Buffy in the sort of fetishization of the female vampire slayer, the victim who strikes back, that misses the point of who Buffy was and what she represented.But for better or for worse, an army of pseudo-Buffys, from Anita Blake to Cassandra Palmer to Rachel Morgan to (the colorfully named Lilith Saintcrow's) Dante Valentine have descended upon us. They all have handsome men of the demon/vampire/werewolf persuasion pining after them, and often it's pretty difficult to pinpoint why.WORKING FOR THE DEVIL isn't really a paranormal romance (the romance part is extremely subtle and not the focus of the book), but I read it anyway because I thought it might have useful elements of the sort we're looking for. Dante Valentine is a necromantic bounty hunter, who gets hired by Lucifer himself to hunt down a rogue demon who's escaped from Hell. He assigns his eldest son, Japhrimel, to protect her.That's really all you need to know about the plot. Battles, confusion, chase scenes, and the requisite ass-kicking all ensue.Saintcrow alternately scored and lost points with me for her setting: an Earth that simultaneously pings the futuristic and alternate-history tropes. Sometimes it works quite well, and sometimes she seems to have changed details or place names simply for the sake of changing them. But her settings have distinctive feels, and I'm a sucker for a good sense of place. Hell, in Saintcrow's imagination, is probably the most distinctive and fascinating fictional land I've been to yet: alien, excruciating, and as incomprehensible as you'd expect it to be. But the author seems to understand the difference between mysterious and merely confusing, and stays safely on the right side of that line.The best part of the story, for me, was the delicately drawn relationship between Dante and her reluctant demon guardian. Dante dislikes him, but comes to rely upon and trust him gradually, and the narration manages to clue the reader in on their growing attraction before Dante realizes it herself without making her seem stupid.Dante herself is a bit hard to take at times (and gets worse in the following books). She's harsh toward friends and enemies alike, abuses her sidekicks, dishes it out but can't take it, and her witty observations usually seem forced.But the books move along at a terrific clip and the supporting characters are interesting enough to make up for the fact that the heroine's a harridan. Would I have found it as engaging if I hadn't been stuck at SeaTac waiting for a flight to Milwaukee that had been delayed for five hours? Hard to say, but it was fun in the same way your average action flick is fun, and at the time that was good enough for me.
I picked this book up because I finished Living With The Dead while visiting my in-laws and wanted something new to read for the trip back. It was one of those books I always picked up, thought looked interesting, but never quite got around to reading- probably because it seemed like more of the same old, same old I get from so many other urban fantasy authors. It was not.Saintcrow blends sci-fi and fantasy pretty seamlessly, creating a world where hover crafts and cyber-age drugs blend with demons, necromancers, and practitioners of magic. The focus is almost always on the action, and while there is romantic interest, Saintcrow, and her main character, Necromance Dante Valentine, are never sentimental or driven by their libidos. It is a particular feat, I think, that the reader is simply thrust into this new world, with back-story trickling in through the plot, but I never felt like I was struggling to keep up or understand terminology and technology. Working For The Devil's plot introduces POV character Dante Valentine, a bounty hunter gifted with the ability to speak to the dead. Her day job is settling probate questions; her side job, however, is bit more action-packed. The novel opens with Dante receiving a summons from the Prince of Hell, Lucifer himself, who wants her to track down a demon who has escaped Hell with a dangerous artifact. He assigns his Right Hand, Japhrimel, to assist Dante with the task. Both Dante and Japhrimel have personal reasons for wanting to track down Santino, the escapee, and they grudgingly agree to work together. Dante assembles a crack team, including her best friend and fellow Necromance, a male witch, and a shaman. Once the hunt is on, they use all the magic, technology, and physical skill at their disposal- and still discover they might have gotten into a bit more than they bargained for.I will definitely be reading on into this series. It's rare to find an author with an original idea, a truly kick-ass heroine, and the ability to rough up her characters and her readers to turn out a truly thrilling plot. This book was an excellent blend of action, fantasy, and science fiction that hit all of my buttons.
What do You think about Working For The Devil (2006)?
Overall, this book was...meh. It's a pity because it had all the right ingredients to make for a great UF (or is it more paranormal romance?) series with an intriguing cast of characters, a fascinating psi/magic system and the Devil himself. Sadly though it missed the mark with a heroine that's too sassy, selfish, self-entitled and downright annoying at times. I get that Saintcrow is trying to emulate the likes of Kim Harrison's Rachael with a kick-ass female, but I think less snark would've balanced the character out better.As for the so-called romance... Well I just didn't feel the sizzle, the angst, or really anything that pulls at the heartstrings. The ending? A thinly veiled attempt at a cliff-hanger but unfortunately won't have me immediately purchasing book 2 any time soon.Still, the world building was brilliant if a little poorly executed in that new elements kept popping up with little or no explanations. Would I rush out and purchase book 2? Probably not.
—Light Blue Butter
I love me some urban fantasy where the worldbuilding has been carefully considered and there's years of history that support the difference between those worlds and ours. If you have vampires and paranormals and demons wandering around, it pays to have thought about how that has greatly affected the economy, social services, government and law enforcement.Lilith Saintcrow produces probably the best worldbuilding I've ever seen in adult urban fantasy. So much so that I could forgive her (awesome and feisty) protagonist Dante Valentine occasionally not thinking about things that she really ought to be, as a generally smart and with-it gal, thinking about. There were a couple of places where I inferred conclusions from premises, and assumed Dante had inferred them too, but then it turned out she hadn't and was shocked shocked SHOCKED when all was reveal'd.(I can also, I think, see places where maybe an editor or prereader has said "But what does Dante FEEEEEEEL about this? Tell us how she feels!" But I'm a little allergic to emotional exposition.)But basically, it's awesome. Violent women with swords and magic in futuristic cities blowing shit up YES PLEASE.
—Karen Healey
Originally posted at FanLit:http://www.fantasyliterature.com/revi...Dante Valentine is a freelance Necromance — clients hire her to communicate with dead people so they can solve murders, settle estate disputes, etc. When the Devil wants to hire Dante to find a rogue demon named Vardimal Santino, and to recover the important object he’s stolen from Hell, he gives her no choice but to obey. Dante doesn’t want to work for the devil, but she does want to keep living. To help with that, the Devil assigns her a bodyguard — the demon Japhrimel. While Dante and Japhrimel are trying to track down Santino, they run into Dante’s ex-boyfriend, Jace, who seems all too willing to help. Eventually they discover that the demons have been doing some genetic experiments with humans and that not only is the future of humanity at stake, but so is the guardianship of Hell. If Vardimal isn’t stopped… um… all Hell will break loose.I don’t typically read these urban fantasy series featuring smart-mouthed tattooed leather-clad women bravely slaying scary paranormal creatures while grumbling about their jobs and parentage and juggling at least two hot possessive guys on the side. All these stories are pretty much the same to me. I only picked up Working for the Devil out of a sense of obligation since Brilliance Audio sent me a review copy. Fortunately, the audio production is excellent with Tanya Eby doing a first-rate job with all of the parts. She’s a great reader and I enjoyed listening to her.It’s too bad I didn’t like the story more. It wasn’t bad, but it just didn’t manage to rise above mediocre. The most interesting feature is Saintcrow’s futuristic world, including races developed by genetic experimentation, which she gives us only hints about. Some readers will be frustrated by this, but I liked the mystery of it and the promise that future installments would fill in the details.I also appreciated the focus on action rather than the romance because one of the main problems I have with these types of books is that I never believe in the romance. Frankly, Dante’s a bossy hostile foul-mouthed bitch, and I have no idea why two hot guys are so in love with her. Are they so shallow that all they can see is how great she looks in her demon-fighting gear? I’ve complained many times about the vapid female characters I find in older SFF written by men, so I’m going to start complaining about some of the equally ridiculous male protagonists being written by modern female writers. I can’t admire characters whose primary criterion for a great relationship is that they both look great in their blood-soaked leathers.For readers who like sassy kickass heroines, Working for the Devil is likely to go over pretty well, and I’d recommend the audio version. I’m going to give the second book, Dead Man Rising, a try, but I’m doubtful that I’ll like it any more than I liked this one — Dante Valentine just isn’t someone I want to spend my precious free time with.
—Kat Hooper
