Thanks for clarifying your thoughts. I see your point and after Kara’s experience towards the end of Mark of the Demon, I suspect – and hope – that her eyes are now officially opened to the true nature of demons and how to interact with them.

In some books it’s easy to hate the demons as much as the protagonist does. One good example is Jenna Black’s Morgan Kingsley series, where the demons, for the most part, act like scum. Rowland’s demons, though, they’re made of different layers. I was surprised at the amount of respect afforded to Kara with that first demon at the beginning of the book. So, yes, upon reflection, I see your point even more.

@Joonigrrl/Leslie

That sex scene certainly did make for a whoa kind of moment. I can see how it might cause some confusion. One aspect of a demon’s nature that seems to be consistent with a lot of urban fantasy is the lack of humanity in them, their utterly foreign sense of right and wrong. Yet I find myself having to constantly remind myself that I don’t need to romanticize the demon.

And then, it’s entirely possible Rowland’s demons might become more romanticized. I don’t personally see that happening, but it’s possible.

The thing about Rhyzkahl, Mr. Demon Lord, is that I never saw him as the hero of the book, or a protagonist. He is definitely one of the more interesting characters, but I'm wondering why he is being seen as a hero to others. Is it because of the sex between him and Kara?

I agree. I did not see him as the hero at all- particularly in light of the horrific nature of his actions the last time someone summoned him. However, with the sex scene right up front, I do think it created some uncertainty as to his role in this book- that, and the fact that we don’t find out the why of his actions re: Kara until the end. But yes, I agree, he’s not a hero/protagonist.

As for her moral unawareness, this stuck out to me as well, but the more the book went on the more I chalked it up to how she was raised and trained to believe in demons. Like most anything, we learn first by education of some sort, then the rest we learn through experience – something I felt was reflected in the book. We get to see Kara at the very beginning of her secret career as a summoner, so I didn't find it odd at all that she felt it OK to treat demons as she did and other summoners do. It wasn't an attractive quality, but then these characters have to be allowed to grow, too.

I understand your point, and think it’s a good one. But. It’s not so much that I thought it was odd that she didn’t seem to be bothered by the ethics of what she was doing, as that at no point did it even seem to cross her mind, much less make her think twice. There are a lot of things in books that I just kind of go along with, but this lack of awareness of how actions affect others is one of the things that really bothers me, much as it would in a person in real life. I liked the book enough to keep my eyes open for the next installment, but I also need for Kara to develop a conscience about what she’s doing, otherwise I don’t see much difference between her and any other generic bad guy.

To me, this book didn’t have a hero, just a heroine. I felt Kara held down those reins well enough. As for her moral unawareness, this stuck out to me as well, but the more the book went on the more I chalked it up to how she was raised and trained to believe in demons. Like most anything, we learn first by education of some sort, then the rest we learn through experience – something I felt was reflected in the book. We get to see Kara at the very beginning of her secret career as a summoner, so I didn’t find it odd at all that she felt it OK to treat demons as she did and other summoners do. It wasn’t an attractive quality, but then these characters have to be allowed to grow, too.

Create a powerful figure, use the demon mythology for a sense of danger and mystery, but put him in a beautiful human package so he appeals to our heroine and you've got the ultimate bad boy. I would have been more interested to see what you would have done had this character followed the same set of rules that you created for the other 12 levels of demons.

I think this is one of the reasons that I love Sunshine by Robin McKinley so much! Because she does such a great job of making the vampire protagonist such an ‘other’ and so incredibly frightening and unattractive. The reader ends up rooting for Sunshine and Val to get together in the end, but we know that their lives will never be compatible…and that there is no truly ‘happy’ ending possible.

I think the demon would be a difficult hero to make believable and attractive to the reader. I’m a little surprised at the growing trend for this type of protagonist.

Uh, yeah, so they don't like being ripped from their homes and enslaved against their will to do someone else's bidding. I wonder why they'd have such a problem with that. And while I found all this interesting, I kept expecting Kara to be more thoughtful about the wrongness or rightness of all this- and unfortunately, she was not.

This is exactly the problem I’m having with this book. I don’t need a hero or heroine to engage in endless navel-gazing, and I think moral ambiguity can make for wonderful drmatic tension in a book, but I do expect her to have some level of moral awareness. Kara just didn’t. I do wonder if events late in the book (trying to avoid spoilers, here) may open the door to her re-examining the ethics of what she is doing, but I have my doubts.

I’d be willing to give the next book a try, but Kara is going to have to show some really significant growth as a character, otherwise I’ll completely lose interest.

Great review, you definitely hit all the pros and cons.

Don’t you know by now that demons, especially sexy murderous one who gives you an orgasm in your basement knows everything about you! That is the norm. LOL.