Review #96 - I Am Demon · 4:30am Apr 25th, 2017
Welp, running a bit behind on this one. Anyway, I have a pretty good idea what recommendation I'm going to give this one already, but let's see how it changes as I review it, shall we? Oh, and I added some footnotes because why not?
I Am Demon by Aquaman
(Sex, Gore, Adventure, Dark)
I am Cold, swirling snow that turns ponies against each other, searing ice that freezes them solid. I am Survivor, the one the Friendfyre spell didn't catch, an exception that proves an impossible rule. I am Fear, Frustration, Anger, Hatred, every emotion my Creator has ever felt. I am her Future. I am her Past.
I am Demon, and Clover the Clever is my Master.[1]
Review
Alright, time to actually get around to reviewing this one. While I cannot fully describe with mere words what genre this is, I can say the closest thing is a dark adventure fic, with a scene or two of gory-ish stuff.[2] It's not really a typical adventure, though, it's more of a self-finding fic instead of artifact-finding. I did not, however, find anywhere that the sex tag could apply, so who knows why it's there. Now, I suppose I have to describe Clover the Clever[3], right? Well, Clover is fearful, hateful of Demon, mistrusting, oblivious, and is incredibly stupid for how crazy smart she is. She's also exceedingly unaccepting, always looking for another way instead of seeing reality. Not that that can't be a good thing, but in this case it's bad. Close to the end, she behaves like one who has been betrayed, and then basically turns her life around. And now for Demon[4], who, as far as I can tell, is curious about the world, unsure about people, protective of Clover, and really just lost. Not the type of lost where it[5] doesn't know where it is, but it doesn't know anything about the world. So, with characters out of the way, I can talk about what I liked. And that would be how wonderful the narrative is. Really, it is top class narrative. Demon's "voice" is also pretty great, but that falls mostly under narrative[6]. Another thing is how much the author was able to put into only 15k words. It feels like it's 25k words, at the least. Oh-so-much world-building, too.
Unfortunately, how much the author fit in so little space is also the greatest weakness. This is because, at times, I just wanted to skim over the boring parts of Demon and Clover hating each other. And then if I do, all of a sudden I missed something crucial to the plot and I'm left seeing Demon nearly kill some unicorn. Yeah, I think you can see how that would be a problem.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended. (This is because, as long as you don't skim whilst reading, you will be rewarded with a most wonderful of dark fics).
[1]You would not believe how hard it was to get the colors in the description to match up...
[2]While "stuff" and "things" are mostly self-banned in these reviews, I do believe it is the best possible word to use there.
[3]I'm tempted to call her CC, but I won't.
[4]Demon is such a fitting, but extremely odd name.
[5]Yes, "it." That is because it has no specified gender. So, if I called it by a gender, that is because I forgot not to.
[6]Seeing how Demon is the main character, and the story is set within his thoughts, I'd say Demon is the narrative.
Oh gosh, I remember this one all right. It would be hard to forget. I think it won the EqD "Outside Insight" contest back in 2014. It wouldn't have been my own choice for that (I'd have gone for Moonlight Palaver by Carabas) but it was definitely in my top ten and well worthy of being a prize-winner.