Quantum Demonology
Quantum Demonology
Author: Sheila Eggenberger
Desc: "If Faust were a 21st century metal-minded former punk with too much libido and a major attitude problem this would be her story." KIRKUS REVIEW In Eggenberger’s debut novel an aging heavy-metal music fan and aspiring writer sells her soul to the devil and finds there’s a lot more to life than good and evil. The novel’s unnamed Scandinavian narrator has long enjoyed the freedom of being an unattached self-described “nympho slut” and “metalhead.” However she struggles to find time to write between shifts at her day job and as she approaches her 47th birthday she begins to worry that her writing career may never take off the way she’d planned and that her steady stream of young one-night stands may soon dry up. One day as she steals a few hours to write in a Copenhagen coffee shop a dead ringer for her favorite metal musician approaches her. She recognizes him not as the rock icon he resembles but as the devil himself. He offers her the promise of the writing career—and love life—she’s always dreamed of in exchange for her soul but she’s reluctant. The devil is not accustomed to hearing “no ” and so he instead persuades her to help him destroy his wife the biblical Lilith before she destroys the world. As the tough-as-nails narrator’s sultry romance with the devil begins and her writing career skyrockets toward celebrity status she finds that the real world is a lot more nuanced than the one purported by so-called moralists. The novel has distinct well-developed feminist undertones and proves to be about much more than a powerful woman destroying another powerful woman. Fans of the long-esteemed feminist heroine Lilith may be disappointed to see her as the villain here but she proves to be an antagonist of Maleficent-esque proportions and readers may be torn between fearing and loving her character. Feminist readers may also be pleased to see that the tomboy narrator ultimately finds camaraderie with a well-researched group of legendary women including the Norse goddess Freya and her handmaiden Fulla. An engaging modern-day Faust for brainy rockers. Pub Date:Dec. 17th 2013 ISBN:978-0991105908 Page count:610pp Publisher:Nigel's Flight Program:Kirkus Indie Review Posted Online:Feb. 12th 2014