Damoren

Damoren by Seth Skorkowsky
My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars

*** in progress ***
When Matt Hollis, a lone demon hunter with a magical pistol, is approached to join the ancient order of Valducan knights, he warily accepts. Can the Valducans put aside their suspicions and accept Matt before they are overwhelmed by a demonic force bent on ridding the world of holy weapons?

I got this ARC from Ragnarok Publications, the fine folks responsible for the Dead West series.

Firstly, Damoren, a magical pistol with an equally magical bayonet attacked, was forged from a shattered magical sword, also called Damoren. Damoren's current wielder, Matt Hollis, is tainted by demon blood after a bullet fired by Damoren passed through a demon into him, giving him some cool abilities.

I really liked the mythology Skorkowsky established around the demons. Pretty much any monster you can think of was actually a human infected by a demon. Even dragons and vampires.

The story was pretty good. Matt has to overcome the mistrust of the rest of the Valducans and help them deal with a shit ton of demons. There's a lot of action and gore. Unfortunately, there's also a lot gun porn in this; long descriptions of weapons and lots of technical details.

Another thing I liked was the inclusion of excerpts from the Valducan's history interspersed with the regular chapters. Funny how I'm reading Carrie at the same time and it uses a similar technique.

It was a fun read and things got really tense in the last 20%. Since it's the first book in a series, I knew some people would live but if the first book is any indication, the story of the Valducan knights is going to be a bloody one with lots of casualties. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

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