#I also need Brennan to know that always a duo will never leave my head fr

[whoblewboobear]

Bumping up the smut scene bc realistically there’s no way Jace would be away from Porter for 6 months and not wanna jump his bones within a day or two of being reunited.

But jokes on him bc Porter has been so terrified to lose him again reformed that he’s like overly careful to the point of being attentive about asking Jace if he’s okay with doing anything again before they’ve even discussed the killing and rage star mind control of it all. And Jace vehemently would like to get his nut and not think about the past because they’re back by each other’s side; always a duo.

[preserving-ferretbrain]

Actually, I Quite Liked It

by Robinson L

Saturday, 10 December 2011Robinson L finally reads The Demon's Covenant. And really, really enjoys it~

Around two years ago I picked up The Demon's Lexicon out of a combination of spur-of-the-moment impulse and goading from our esteemed editor. I found it quite good, and many spectacularly unsuccessful attempts to review it ensued.

I eagerly anticipated

The Demon's Covenant

, but was dismayed to discover some time ago that Kyra had reviewed the sequel and

panned it

. For me, Sarah Rees Brennan pulled off

The Demon's Lexicon

rather well, but I saw signs in her work which convinced me she could very well lose control of her material in the following book. So, while I didn't read Kyra's review to minimize bias, I went into

The Demon's Covenant

with much trepidation.

… And I liked it. I liked it significantly more than I liked the first book.

I'll go into more detail in a moment, but first, some background. The following article contains massive spoilers for both

The Demon's Lexicon

and

The Demon's Covenant

.

The Demon's Lexicon

The first book in the series sets up the situation (evil magicians who increase their power by summoning demons to whom they feed other humans), and the protagonists. Alan and Nick Ryves are two brothers who've been pursued by the Obsidian Circle of magicians all their lives; Mae and Jamie Crawford are a sister and brother duo who seek help from the Ryves when Jamie gets marked by a demon.

Long story short: It turns out Nick is actually a demon trapped at birth in the body of a human. The Obsidian Circle captures Nick in their summoning circle, but then Alan uses it to set Nick free—just as he'd always planned. In the ensuing chaos, several magicians die and Mae removes the demon's mark from Jamie. The surviving magicians scatter, and the newly freed Nick decides to stay with Alan.

The Demon's Covenant

The next book picks up a couple of months later. Mae and Jamie have returned to their hometown (it's probably named somewhere, but I forget) and are trying to live a normal life. At least, that's what Mae assumes, until she accidentally catches Jamie acting mighty friendly with their old enemy Gerald, new leader of the Obsidian Circle.

In a panic, Mae summons the only two people she knows who can help: Alan and Nick Ryves. With this backup in tow, Mae confronts Gerald, who claims he merely wants to help Jamie. Jamie has an inborn talent for magic, and Gerald insists only magicians can give him the guidance he needs.

Gerald also has a proposition for Alan. Due to his demonic nature, Nick has never cared for—well, anyone but Alan, pretty much. Now his awesome demonic powers have been unlocked, he's already gotten two people killed through carelessness, and according to Gerald, it's only a matter of time before his powers run loose again. So Gerald offers Alan a terrible bargain: lure Nick into another summoning circle, and Gerald's magicians will strip him of his demonic powers. Nick will be constrained from doing any more damage than he could accomplish with a sword

[1]

, and Alan can hold onto his brother. That is, if he ever forgives Alan.

As with the previous book, characterization is one of

The Demon's Covenant

's greatest strengths, and I think the best way to describe it is to discuss our main characters one-by-one, and then throw in any additional thoughts before wrapping up the review.

Jamie

When I read

The Demon's Lexicon

, I felt like Jamie was significantly less fleshed out (and consequently less enthralling) than Nick, Alan, and Mae. One of my hopes for book two was that he would get some more character development.

For a while, I thought my hopes would go unrealized. Jamie serves primarily as a source of conflict throughout most of the story: Mae and company are trying to protect him from the magicians while Gerald tries to entice him to join them, and Jamie himself seems somewhat open to being enticed.

Towards the end, Jamie reveals his magical powers to his mother, Annabel. (Incidentally, I like the way Mae gives up trying to talk Jamie out of doing this when it's clear he's made up his mind, and settles for giving him her support.) This shows growth, but the real moment of insight comes during his conversation with Gerald after Annabel freaks out and drives off. Gerald capitalizes on this disappointment to convince Jamie his only home is with the magicians.

Jamie looked at Gerald with longing, and then looked away. “We could go to Wales and do magic, and everyone would be kind to me. Things would be beautiful, and I'd have so much power—” “Yes.” “And we'd still send demons over the mountains to murder people.” “Nobody would make you do anything you didn't want to do. You could take all the time you need to get used to—” “The idea of killing people?” Jamie asked, and he put a hand to his mouth and laughed behind it, terrible and muffled. “No. There's something you never understood, Gerald. You never had a chance.”

Which means that Jamie was stringing Gerald along this whole time. You'd expect that kind of duplicity from Alan, but not Jamie. This lad has hidden depths.

Gerald, furious at being rejected, attempts to kidnap Jamie instead. Mae begins to embark on a hopeless rescue attempt … only for Annabel to step in and brain Gerald with a golf club, saying “Get away from my son.”

There are some scenarios, no matter how overdone or badly done (which this one thankfully wasn't) which I can never get enough of. Seeing one character overcome their prejudices or grievances—whether or not they're justified—and demonstrate their love and affection for another never fails to reduce me to a twitching ball of gushy sentimentalism.

Ah-hem, moving on.

Mae

Mae also comes out very well in this book. While

Lexicon

did better in establishing her as a unique and interesting character than Jamie, she still wasn't all that memorable. In

Covenant

she comes into her own as an intelligent, capable, determined young woman. For me, Rees Brennan gives Mae just the right number of flaws to offset her strategic aptitude and implacable loyalty to those she cares about. I think the portrayal of Mae's lingering guilt over killing a magician in the previous book worked very well. I also like how her dreams of being part of the Goblin Market neither play to patriarchal stereotypes nor shout “look at me subverting these patriarchal stereotypes!”

Of course, then Rees Brennan had to go and throw in a generic love triangle/quadrilateral/thing. I don't intend to do too much Minority Warrioring in this review, but I couldn't help noticing that as soon as the narration switched to the point of view of a young woman, romantic concerns began to predominate the story to an unprecedented degree.

[2]

While this was a disappointment, it doesn't overshadow Mae's sheer awesomeness as a character, and I look forward to finding out what Rees Brennan has in store for her in the final book.

Nick

After completing

The Demon's Lexicon

, my biggest concern for future installments centered around Nick. By the end of the book, Nick has been set free with all of the immense power and none of the constraints of a demon summoned into our world. I wondered at the time how Rees Brennan would create any sort of credible threat for Nick without resorting to Deus Ex Machina.

I think she came close to Deus Ex Machina with Gerald's new mark—it seems like even a full circle of magicians shouldn't have enough power to challenge a demon. But mostly, Rees Brennan creates situations where the danger to our heroes can't be solved by a simple application of brute force. Indeed, Nick's demonic powers coupled with his callous attitude toward most human beings quickly makes him as much of a threat as scheming magicians. As Gerald succinctly observes: “he calls down storms whenever he gets angry, and the death of half a world would not disturb him.”

Throughout most of the book, Rees Brennan keeps Nick moody and inscrutable, leaving the reader to wonder if just maybe, the revelation of his demonic nature has frayed his already-loose bonds to the human world, and whether Alan's proposed betrayal might sever those ties completely.

This builds tension for the scene where Mae finally reveals Alan's plans to Nick, who storms off to confront Alan, which leads to this:

Low and cold, Nick said, “Betray me.” Alan's head snapped up. “What?” “Betray me,” Nick said again, still in that terrible toneless demon's voice, hands clenching on the kitchen counter so hard Mae thought it would break. “Turn me over to the magicians, take the magic, do whatever you think you need to do, I do not care. But don't leave.”

(Have a mentioned yet I'm a sentimental sucker?)

By the end of the book, Nick has grown to care for Jamie and Mae as well as Alan, and even for Annabel. There's no sign yet of him returning Mae's passionate desire, but I suppose that will come with book three.

Alan

Following the explosive climax of

Lexicon

, Alan was hands-down my favorite character. At first blush, he comes across as a stereotypical too-virtuous-to-be-true hero. And he is, indeed, astonishingly compassionate and self-sacrificing. But by the end of the book, Alan also stands revealed as a manipulative bastard who gambles recklessly with the lives of others for his brother's sake.

In

Covenant

, after Gerald has reminded Alan just how much of a danger Nick poses, he asks “How can you justify setting him free?” To which Alan responds “I can't justify it.”

Alan embodies the extremes of both self-sacrificing virtue and selfish disregard for others. His selfishness has already gotten two anonymous people killed, and will almost assuredly kill many more if something doesn't change. Rees Brennan has given Alan a truly anguishing dilemma: help Gerald to bind Nick, or have the blood of countless innocents on his hands.

What I like about

Covenant

especially is that it shows us how Alan's manipulativeness hurts the other sympathetic characters without resorting to the usual melodramatic and heavy-handed standbys, such as getting a supporting character killed or maimed.

At the end of the book, Mae confronts Alan over the way he lied to her and used her to scam Gerald, summing up her tirade by telling him “It was a filthy thing to do.”

“I know it was,” Alan said quietly. “You couldn't have trusted me?” Mae whispered. “I could have. I didn't,” Alan whispered back. “It was easier and safer to lie. I'm sorry.”

That's pretty low-down. Definitely my favorite character in a series whose characters I'm quickly coming to adore.

Final Thoughts

In terms of the secondary cast, I was glad to see

Covenant

increase the participation of female characters, expanding the role of the dancer Sin and adding Annabel and three highly-placed female magicians to the roster.

While

Lexicon

had a pretty straightforward find-the-villains, kill-the-villains plot,

Covenant

is more ambitious. In

Lexicon

, the tension and conflict between the four main characters provided much of the story's substance; in

Covenant

it provides much of the driving force behind the plot. The faults and flaws of the main characters create the central conflict, while Gerald and the other magicians serve to aggravate matters and provide the obligatory external evil for our heroes to overcome.

As the narrative progresses, Rees Brennan ramps up the tension until we reach the incredible climax. Granted, the climax is a bit cluttered and sometimes hard to follow, but on the whole it serves as a worthy end note for a book which—in this humble reader's opinion—significantly improves upon its predecessor.

Lexicon

has

garnered criticism

for its “middling-to-awful” prose. I didn't particularly notice at the time, though I still remember lines such as “[Nick] drew his sword and held that sharp, glittering barrier between his brother and the rest of the world” with fondness.

Covenant

is a mixed bag when it comes to prose. It has many memorable lines, some of them good, others … less so. For all its faults, the prose didn't bother me (much), and Rees Brennan spices up her narrative with some of the funniest writing I've seen in a while, such as this early exchange between Mae and Seb:

“You okay?” he asked, and then looked mildly embarrassed. “I mean, is there anything I can do about you obviously not being okay?” “Not really,” Mae told him honestly. “Would it help if I stood around uselessly, not knowing what to say?”

Seb, by the way, is a jock type who torments Jamie, and the fourth spoke in Mae's love polygon. However, as the story unfolds we discover 1) that Seb is a magician himself, and 2) that he's much more into Jamie than Mae. I could see arguments for and against him fitting into the “character whose extreme homophobia conceals their secret homosexuality” cliché—upon reflection, that's not how he comes across to me, but I'm in no position to make that judgment call.

Doubtless, there are other drawbacks, but none of them significantly impaired my enjoyment of the book. I thought

Lexicon

was pretty good. I thought

Covenant

was awesome, and I for one, giddily anticipate digging into

The Demon's Surrender

.

[1]

Still quite a lot, but substantially less than what he can do with his demon magic.

[2]

In hindsight, I should've known Mae would choose Nick in the end from the moment she saw him all rakish in the moonlight and decided to save him come what may. I must have been blinded by the faint hope that at least Rees Brennan might not opt for the obvious pairing like every single other writer in the industry. Hey, if Rachel Caine and

Melissa Marr

can mix up the formula, why not her? Alas.Themes:

Books

,

Sci-fi / Fantasy

,

Young Adult / Children

~

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~Comments (

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http://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/

at 23:11 on 2011-12-28Well, I'm glad you liked it! Your analysis of the characters is excellent, and I, at least, wasn't bothered by Rees Brennan's prose. One thing that did bother me was - how do people do those hide-the-spoiler things? Anyway, it concerned Annabel. And it seemed a bit much. But, having read all three books, I can assert that Rees Brennan really has control of her plot and characters. I enjoyed the trilogy a lot.

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Robinson L

at 00:36 on 2012-01-03

how do people do those hide-the-spoiler things? The comment guide has a special section at the bottom for the "spoiler" tag. Regarding Annabel, I didn't pick up on the whole Stuffed in the Fridge angle until much later. At the time I was sad, but it felt like the kind of sympathetic character death which draws me more into the story, rather than alienating me from it, if see the distinction.

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http://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/

at 04:51 on 2012-01-07Yes, well. re Annabel, I actually asked Sarah Rees Brennan why she hadn't taken the button off her foil before going to mix it up with the bad guys. You cannot kill anyone with a fencing foil that has the button on. Sarah said she assumed readers would assume Annabel had removed it. Still, I thought it was interesting to see how much Mae and her mother resembled each other. But it seems to me there's a dead mother in every single book. Or at least, if you include the possessed woman - did you get to her? - a woman of a certain age in a really, really bad situation, and a teen girl therefore lacking the help and guidance this woman should give her. It's an uncomfortable trope. I mean, it does seem that Rees Brennan kills a lot of women old enough to be moms of teenagers. And I'm not entirely convinced all those deaths are necessary.

I also felt sorry for the child sacrificed so that Hnikkar could take his body. And there are a fair number of appalling fathers in these books, come to think of it. Fortunately, there's also a good one or so.

Anyway, I did very much like the characterizations of the sibling pairs and the love between and among them. That theme really won my affection for these books, whatever quibbles I have.

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http://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/

at 04:51 on 2012-01-07Yes, well. re Annabel, I actually asked Sarah Rees Brennan why she hadn't taken the button off her foil before going to mix it up with the bad guys. You cannot kill anyone with a fencing foil that has the button on. Sarah said she assumed readers would assume Annabel had removed it. Still, I thought it was interesting to see how much Mae and her mother resembled each other. But it seems to me there's a dead mother in every single book. Or at least, if you include the possessed woman - did you get to her? - a woman of a certain age in a really, really bad situation, and a teen girl therefore lacking the help and guidance this woman should give her. It's an uncomfortable trope. I mean, it does seem that Rees Brennan kills a lot of women old enough to be moms of teenagers. And I'm not entirely convinced all those deaths are necessary.

I also felt sorry for the child sacrificed so that Hnikkar could take his body. And there are a fair number of appalling fathers in these books, come to think of it. Fortunately, there's also a good one or so.

Anyway, I did very much like the characterizations of the sibling pairs and the love between and among them. That theme really won my affection for these books, whatever quibbles I have.

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http://mary-j-59.livejournal.com/

at 04:53 on 2012-01-07Eek! sorry for the double post; I don't know how that happened.