The Demon King
Chris Bunch
Warner Books/Warner Aspect
0-446-67327-7
1998
US$12.99

You started as a lowly soldier and in a sweeping civil war you've been 
apointed the leader of the nation's army.  Now your job is to keep the 
peace, keep the borders, and never fail your Emperor.  What could go wrong?

Just about everything does for our hero Damastes in Chris Bunch's sequel to 
his epic fantasy _The Seer King_.  Although the battleworn hero of Numantia 
tries his best to stay out of trouble, the Emperor Tenedos seems intent on 
dragging his whole nation into war with Maisir, a gigantic country to the 
north.  Maisir greatly resembles the Soviet Union---King Bairan is a cross 
between the Czar and Joseph Stalin, with the former's regal splendor and 
the latter's ruthlessness in war.  What happens when you get involved in a 
land war with General Winter?  Just ask the ghosts of all those French and 
German soldiers.

Damastes also seems to have read European history but is too loyal to his 
Emperor to stand up to him.  His marriage with the heiress Maran Agramonte 
collapses (despite some rather graphic sex scenes including a totally 
gratuitous addition of another woman) reflecting the creeping social 
disorder in Numantia.  Damastes heads north to broker a last-minute peace 
with King Bairan, and battles and even more graphic sex ensue.

Bunch has continued to write a great war yarn---I had trouble putting it 
down and I could smell the death and fear as million-man armies rumbled 
from place to place across unforgiving plains.  Unfortunately, I've read 
all about Hitler and Napoleon, and as such the book blazingly telegraphs 
what's going to happen.  In epic fantasy, I suppose it's OK to portend the 
future, but I didn't feel like there were many surprises.  Damastes keeps 
pondering on his "mysterious" fortune-teller's message which, in context 
with what is happening to him and what he knows, is as subtle as a bullhorn 
in a library.
  
When Tenedos's actions stop making sense, they are later brought into 
focus, but Damastes's marital failure seems artificial.  Bunch had written of 
their love far too convincingly in the first book to have them throw it 
away now; he couldn't get me to buy that they could ever hate one another.  
I'm expecting that they get back together because their excuse for breaking 
up was, well, lame.  One might bring up the term "idiot-plot"---the 
problems in the story revolve around intelligent people being too stupid 
to notice the mistakes they're making.

Again, war is well-drawn.  Bunch can paint battles in three pages more 
convincingly than all the millions of dollars and extras that they used in 
"Braveheart."  Military fantasy fans will be satisfied that there are no 
elves and flying horses, only the screams of both the good and evil dying, 
with a few pyrotechnic spells here and there thrown in for spice.

Overall, this is a solid followup to _The Seer King_, but I hope the next 
book will spend more time on the relationships among the characters and 
convince me of their motivations.  It would be a shame for a series with 
such creativity and freshness about it to slowly fade into a predictable 
conclusion.  This was good, solid, interesting, fast-paced, certainly 
enjoyable, but not worth reading the first book just to read this one.  
Let's have the end of the saga!