No Sympathy for the Demon (The Watchtower Series, #4/Novella)
Author: Darke Conteur
Publication: Coming
Soon!
Synopsis: The demon within Pele volcano forewarned Jezryall about the coming
maelstrom, but it may have been in vain.
Trapped in Hell, Barb Dole discovers the plan is already in motion. When unleashed, it will bring destruction on a Biblical scale, but doubts surround her co-worker's capability to fight this threat, especially when Martin Cunningham's position within the group is finally revealed.
Undermined by fear, their only saving grace may be time as they summon an ancient deity whose allegiance toward the Human race is questionable. With an unexpected ally residing in Hell, Jezryall and her team may have the advantage, but for how long?
Trapped in Hell, Barb Dole discovers the plan is already in motion. When unleashed, it will bring destruction on a Biblical scale, but doubts surround her co-worker's capability to fight this threat, especially when Martin Cunningham's position within the group is finally revealed.
Undermined by fear, their only saving grace may be time as they summon an ancient deity whose allegiance toward the Human race is questionable. With an unexpected ally residing in Hell, Jezryall and her team may have the advantage, but for how long?
Brought to you by TeamNerd Reviewer
Annabell Cadiz
Review: I have been a fan of Darke Conteur’s Watchtower Series
since it first came out and am always looking forward to the next installment
in the adventures of Terin Global. The third novella in the series, Of Covens and Packs, left me
disappointed, so I approached Sympathy
for the Demon with a mixture of trepidation and hopefulness. I ended the
read dissatisfied.
Sympathy for the Demon returns us to the paranormal world of
Terin Global where Jezrayll—the half-demon, half-human in charge of protecting
the human world from the dangers of the supernatural world—has set out with her
clan of misfits to attempt putting a stop to Satan’s plan of breaking free of
Hell and destroying the Earth before he can execute it.
The usual cast
is back: Martin Cunningham, the PR guy; Barbara Dole, the one who can see
timelines; Aslin, the Durid; Daniel, the one who can speak to the dead; Rowan,
Ember, Solain, witches; Detective Darch, police officer who is helping to protect
the secrets of Terin Global. The story this time around mainly focuses on
Barbara more than any of the other characters.
What worked for Sympathy for the Demon was the vivid
world building and the action scenes in Hell. You could really picture everything
and the vampire secret garden (I forgot what it’s called). I like the way the
vampires are set up and how polish and old-world they are.
But much of the
novella didn’t really have very much going on. There was a lot of standing
around and talking about what was happening and theories on what can happen.
Action kicked came in in a bigger way once Barbara took a plunge into heal on a
rescue mission but it didn’t last too long. There was more telling of the
crappiness of being in Hell and Barbara acting more as an angst-ridden teenager
than the supposed strong-take-charge-don’t-put-up-with-crap character she keeps
being painted as. Barbara spent more time crying and wallowing in a world of
self-pity than doing anything of real value. The only time Barbara has come off
as the character she was supposed portray was in the first novella. She has
steadily grown weaker and weaker as a character as the series has progressed.
But that’s what
happened with a majority of the characters. They all fell flat and lacked any
real personalities. It didn’t help that there wasn’t any actual physical descriptions
on most of them either. All the character voices started to sound the same. If
the names weren’t mentioned you wouldn’t be able to separate one from the
other. Jezrayll as the cool, demonic leader just isn’t working. She has these
rare moments where she shows whatever power she possesses but outside of that,
she’s an incredibly boring character. I don’t see any reason for any of the
characters to fear her or respect her or listen to her. She hasn’t grown as a
character or as a leader. She’s actually grown to become as angst-ridden as
Barbara.
If I was hoping
Barbara or the story would get better, I ran out of it when Barbara decided
that sleeping with a sneaky, evil, Incubus named Damikel was a good idea.
Seriously Barbara?! You just fall for the setup without ANY real fight! The problem
with the entire Damikel character is the reason he was in the story in the
first place. THERE IS NO REASON! It’s never explained why he chooses to help
Barbara and Solain out of hell. The entire scene of Damikel convincing Barbara
to have sex with him was completely unnecessary and only painted Barbara as
easily manipulated and gullible. Whatever respect you could possibly gain for
her character disappears after that scene.
I also didn’t
really get the whole thing with the Devil being three separate people. There’s
a Devil, a Satan, and a Lucifer. Those are all the same angelic/supernatural
being! It just seemed too ridiculous to attempt separating them. There wasn’t
much of an explanation as to how that concept worked. Or maybe I just missed
it. It was hard to focus since there wasn’t much happening in the story.
Gaia, the
powerful Goddess who is summoned back to life, was okay. She came into the
story in a really cool way but not much is really said or done with her
character. Her character will mostly likely play a bigger role in the next
novella in the series. Kane, the werewolf, was the best character out of the
novella. He’s honest, tough, and brash. He was a lot of fun to read.
I’m not sure
where the series is heading but I’m starting to lose heart in reading them. I
still have hope the series will pick up and the characters will grow into being
kick-butt, fun loving characters again, but if I decide to read the next
novella, I’ll be going into it with a great deal of caution.
About the Author: Darke Conteur is a Stay at Home Mom with a passion for writing and a Wiccan. She creates works of fiction ranging from the paranormal genre to the science fiction genre. When she isn’t working on her latest inspired piece by her Muse, she can be found taking care of her Husband and her son (Sithboy). She also has two cats, one kitten and a ghost dog who like to demand her attention as much as possible. She first jumped into the world of e-publishing back in 2011 with The Watchtower, the first novella in her Watchtower Series.
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