Daryl Gregory: Pandemonium & The Devil's Alphabet

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Err
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Daryl Gregory: Pandemonium & The Devil's Alphabet

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Pandemonium: Pandemonium takes place in a reality where demonic possessions are commonplace. A demon takes control until it burns out or finds the host unsuitable and moves on to another. Gregory takes an entirely different approach to demonic possession in that his demons are Jungian archetypes. The story centers around Del Pierce who was possessed by the Hellion (think Dennis the Menace mischief) when he was five. He thought he was rid of the demon until a swimming accident at 14 caused him to feel as if the demon never left and was somehow trapped inside trying to get through. Therapy quieted the demon only to be woken by a recent car crash. The remainder of the novel focuses on Del's journey to rid himself once and for all of the demon.

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The Devil's Alphabet: Gregory's second novel takes place in the fictional small town of Switchcreek, Tenn. Fifteen years prior, a disease termed Transcription Divergence Syndrome (TDS) killed 1/3 of the population. While a few remained "untouched" by the disease, the remaining people turned into either giant, gray-skinned Argos; wine-skinned, feminine Betas; grotesquely obese Charlies. Paxton Martin, who was untouched, "left" the town when he was sixteen. He has returned 15 years later for a funeral of his childhood friend, a Beta named Jo Lynn. Paxton has had virtually no contact with the residents of the town in these fifteen years, including his Charlie father. While the death of Jo Lynn was ruled a suicide, Paxton thinks differently and searches for the truth.


I enjoyed both of Gregory's books aand hope he continues to write. Both books are classified as Fantasy and I feel that there a good element of Sci-Fi in each. Although Pandemonium is about demonic possession, forgot what you've seen in The Exorcist. These demons don't levitate their hosts out of the bed and such. Most of the time, they perform a task and move on. For example, The Captain only takes possession of soldiers that are about to die on the battlefield. The climax of this book comes quickly and I had to re-read the section to grasp what happened. The Devil's Alphabet was also a unique read. I can't talk too much about it without giving it away. All I'll say is that Gregory did a really good job of conveying what Paxton feels when he finds the truth surrounding Jo Lynn's death.
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