Review: War Demons, Russell Newquist

The Devil went down to Georgia. He was looking for a soul to steal.

And this time, he isn't coming with a violin. He's prepared for war.

Welcome to War Demons, by Russell Newquist.

The story

Chapter one opens up with a swordfight with a demon, and ends with dropping a daisy cutter on it.

That irritated the sucker a little.

Fast forward a few years to our hero, Michael Alexander, who Jack Ryan-ed out of the military when his helicopter crashed. He and his buddy hid in a cave ... only to discover something in the cave that was colder than the dark... and hungry.

When Michael returns to Georgia, the thing that haunted him in the sandbox follows...

Ahem, "The Devil went down to Georgia...."

But when Michael starts to see his dead friend stalking him in the shadows, well, it's just some PTSD demons. Nothing to worry about, right?

Yeesh. When this guy is haunted by his past, he takes it literally.

The fun continues as the circle of crazy threatens to suck in the entire state. Black Ops commandos, Vatican operatives, a billionaire prepper (seriously, don't mess with the billionaire prepper), a moment of "I wanna bring the flamethrower" that I really believe (Down to "We got it from the Bureau of Land Management"). He gathers the magnificent seven, mounts up, and "We're gonna save the damsel from the dragon"....

Aaaaannnnnddddd it's only the halfway mark. Which made me wonder how the bloody blue Hell the rest of the book was going to go.

That was pretty much the point where things got worse, complete with a villain you really just want to run through with a stake, cut its head off and burn the body ... maybe in that order. It was such a deliciously evil sucker.

And then he had a couple of blackhawks and Apache attack helicopters fight a dragon.

And, it being Georgia, it ends at a football stadium.

Because of course it does. It's Georgia.

The characters

Honestly, War Demons was solidly authored and put together. 11% into the book, he's established most of the characters we're going to see throughout the novel, including the villains.

Yes, all of them.

What? You thought just a demon was going to be enough? Nah. We're going to have golems and vampires and zombies and warlocks and Jihadis, oh my. (Or, as I thought of it as I read it, "terrorists and demons? Challenge accepted.") Newquist also does a great job of sprinkling everyone's back story throughout the novel.

It's got a nice sense of humor. Up to and including a spook who picks his aliases out of a liquor cabinet.

The world

This is very "secret world" --it's our world, only with monsters lurking in the background. Despite that War Demons gives you just enough world building to keep the story going, it's clear that this is the tip of an iceberg that can sink an ocean liner. It's very much like Harry Dresden that way -- "Here's some lore, now duck!"

The politics

We have a SpecOps team fighting the forces of Hell, an apache gunship playing tag with a dragon, preppers to the rescue, and yes, we're on a mission from God.

... You could say that the politics are somewhat socially right-leaning.

The politics of War Demons is somewhere between "Guns, lots of Guns," and "Deus Vult."

Who is it for?

The back of War Demons describes it as "Jim Butcher's Harry Dresden collides with Larry Correia's Monster Hunter International in this supernatural thriller that goes straight to Hell!"

That tag isn't bluster.

In fact, it's fairly accurate. Personally, I think War Demons leans more on MHI than Harry Dresden. So much so that I'm willing to say up front that I would not be surprised if Russell ends up authoring an MHI spinoff novel. No, I'm not exaggerating. This is a story that could have been mistaken for a Monster Hunter International novel if Larry Correia used prayer as a weapon more often. But I will admit, there is a TON of Dresden-level action.

Why read it?

Because it's every day, average people fighting the forces of darkness with enough firepower to make the A-Team envious. It's just plain fun.