According to the back cover, the main focus of this story is Hasmed, a demon sent to Earth by his master, and who ends up possessing the body of Harvey Ciullo, a two-bit loser who lives in New Jersey. While the book devotes a fair amount of time to Hasmed/Ciullo, several other demons and their minions get a good deal of coverage in the book; those reading the back cover and thinking Hasmed’s adventure is the entirety of the story in this book might be disappointed to find out otherwise once they start reading.
The book does an excellent job on quickly introducing the reader to the concepts of Demon, laying out the basics in short order When the focus of the tale is on Hasmed/Harvey the story really shines. Stolze has an excellent grasp on writing slice of life, blue collar criminal fiction, and he effortlessly adds on the trappings of a demon on Earth to his tale while somehow not breaking the reader’s suspension of disbelief. Unfortunately, in the first third of the book this skill at writing isn’t always as masterful when it turns to other characters. Sometimes there are attempts at humor which fall dead, and in other cases the reader doesn’t form any sort of bond with certain characters, so you really don’t care what happens to them. This isn’t to say that all the characters outside the story of Hasmed/Ciullo are bad, but a few of them are rather uninteresting or cliched. In the last 2/3rds of the book the quality of the writing for the other characters does pick up, so if you stick with it you will be rewarded.
I must say that I was greatly impressed by the way the author kept close with the information in the Demon RPG rulebook. Too often game fiction is released that has little resemblance to the game world it is based on, making one wonder if the author has ever looked at the RPG, or even knows anything about it other than its name. Stolze’s tale keeps close to the game it is based on, to the point that I could find only one thing that seemed to contradict the RPG. It was very refreshing.
Also of note is that no less than three different types of supernaturals (four, if you count Hunters) show up in the story and interact with various demons. Given White Wolf’s opinion in recent years that crossovers are not “kewl,” it was a distinct surprise when the various entities from other product lines showed up. With only one exception (involving a vampire who just happens to have been hired to kill an individual important to Hasmed) the meetings make sense and do not seem forced at all. I can see people having problems with the analysis some demons make regarding Hunters and Mages (in the latter case I could see an argument for a new rules system in Demon that could allow for some uber-twinking) but it’s a matter of personal opinion (and what your favorite game line is) on how much trouble you will have with it. Finally, the way one of the characters is written implies it may be possible to have “good” (IE those who never turned against God) demons running about the WoD. Assuming the information presented in this book is accurate (as what is in the book on the matter is filtered through the perceptions of one of the characters, rather than from the omniscient narrator) it may be that it might be possible to bring in players who were hesitant to play Demon due to its subject matter, or it’s some set up for a later, angel-based game.
With all that being said, it must be noted that the novel is not flawless. The first problem comes from the fact it introduces a gaggle of characters. While not that numerous, it is hard to keep track of each one’s current activities and backstory; the fact that some characters occasionally use their powers to appear as other people adds to the confusion. Being the first novel in the trilogy, I expect a large number of characters, as the author introduces characters who will be playing important roles in later novels. However, I’m confused after looking at the preview blurb for the next novel in the series, as it focuses on a character who did not appear in this novel, and another demon who played a minor (though perhaps the coolist) role in this book. I do not see how many of the characters from the first book can be worked into the next novel, and after all the time spent developing certain characters in this book it seems odd to think they might not reappear until the final volume of the trilogy, if at all. Perhaps the next volume in the series will prove me wrong, but for now I have my doubts.
Another problem comes from the way the attention to characters shifts seemingly randomly, with minor characters getting large amount of text to things that, in the bigger picture of the novel, amount to nothing, while major events with important characters often get summarized in one or two paragraphs, with some events happening “off-camera” as it were, with the reader getting only a one or two sentence description of them as a character mentions it in passing. For example, the servant of one of the demons decides to use his demonic power to enact a robbery, and nearly seven pages are devoted to him thinking about and carrying out the petty crime. By contrast, Hasmed/Ciullo at one point has to deal with some mob thugs sent to kill him, and he has to deal with them, sacrifice them to his dark lord, and escape the cops. All of two paragraphs are devoted to what should be a big deal in this character’s life, especially since he’s sacrificing them in lieu of the only mortal he truly cares about. Another demon spends a lot of time (and paragraphs) getting a human minion, and then trying to recruit more. After all the build-up and effort to it trying to get more followers we’re casually told it killed its most recently recruited minions, end of story there. At times I found myself very disappointed by this shotgun method to coverage.
Finally, my last complaint with this book is something I never thought I would complain about, namely continuity. I’m a fanboy when it comes to continuity, I freely admit it. I like things to make sense and be consistent from book to book in a series, be it a comic or an RPG. I like it when a story references or connects to a previously published tale, especially when it comes to having a story told from the point of view of other characters involved. Unfortunately the connections to this book with others from White Wolf are rather painful, and the reader may have no idea where to go to get the other information, or even that there is another place to get the information.
At one point in the tale Hasmed/Ciullo is sent to California on a task. In this book all we know is he went there and came back; the only way to find out what happened (and we’re not told this in the book anywhere) is in a story in Lucifer’s Shadow. If I had read this book without reading Lucifer’s Shadow I would have been confused by this sudden jump in the story, and either attributed to the writer a desire to leave it as a mystery for later, or them being very sloppy on their part. Luckily I’d read the connecting story, but other readers may not be so fortunate.
The other connection relates to a story from the Hunter: Fall from Grace sourcebook; I’m sure people who like to complain that Hunter RPG books are mostly fiction anthologies masquerading as game books will love that. Having read Fall from Grace I enjoyed the connection and it made sense to me why the demon involved in the tale acted as he did, as I knew from FFG what his opponent was like and the kind of power he had at his disposal. Reading the portion of Ashes and Angel’s Wings involving this story I think that I would have been confused as to why the demon protagonist backed down so easily, both in terms of physical battle and in pursuit of the strange truth revealed to him. If I’d just read this book I’d have been wondering “why isn’t he investigating this? After everything we’ve learned about this demon earlier in this book I can’t see why he’d back down like this, even after the ass-whupping handed to him.”
To be honest, there may be even more such connections that I’m missing, as there’s one or two other bits that are written in the same manner. For those people without the resources and knowledge to get these other books, I can see some problems in their enjoyment of the book.
Still, despite my problems with it, I do recommend Ashes & Angel’s Wings. It’s an interesting and well-written read, worthy of a place in your collection. Now if only the cover art depicted the main character as the dumpy, middle-aged loser he’s supposed to be...
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