KJ Parker
Completed 1/26/2017 Reviewed 1/30/2017
5 stars
It’s been a long time since I awarded a book five
stars. This one did it for me. It’s about Saloninus from “Blue and Gold”,
the philosopher/alchemist who lies a lot, and I mean, a lot. He’s now in his 70s. He decides to sell his soul to the devil, in
grand Faustian tradition, for another 20 years to finish his life’s work. But the question is can the king of lies
outwit the father of lies?
It just so happens that the demon sent to Saloninus with the
contract and to watch over him for those 20 years is a fan of his
philosophy. Saloninus’ arguments prove
the lack of existence of God and prove that morality is relative. But does he really believe his own
writings. The demon comes to realize
this as he comes to realize that his brilliant ward probably has a loophole to
get out of the contract at the end of the 20 years.
The book is short; it is just a novella. The narration switches a lot between the
demon and Solaninus, which at first is a little disorienting. It quickly got the two voices down and had no
problem with the switches between scenes versus the switching between narrators,
making it and easy read. As I noted at
the top, I gave this book five stars because I was completely caught up in the
question of what Solaninus had up his sleeve, and the demon’s attempts to
figure it out.
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