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Pandemonium |  | Author: Daryl Gregory
Publisher: Del Rey
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $8.04
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Seller: allnewbooks
Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 9985
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st Edition/1st Printing
Pages: 304
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.7
ISBN: 0345501160
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780345501165
ASIN: 0345501160
Publication Date: August 26, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
It is a world like our own in every respect . . . save one. In the 1950s, random acts of possession begin to occur. Ordinary men, women, and children are the targets of entities that seem to spring from the depths of the collective unconscious, pop-cultural avatars some call demons. There’s the Truth, implacable avenger of falsehood. The Captain, brave and self-sacrificing soldier. The Little Angel, whose kiss brings death, whether desired or not. And a string of others, ranging from the bizarre to the benign to the horrific.
As a boy, Del Pierce is possessed by the Hellion, an entity whose mischief-making can be deadly. With the help of Del’s family and a caring psychiatrist, the demon is exorcised . . . or is it? Years later, following a car accident, the Hellion is back, trapped inside Del’s head and clamoring to get out.
Del’s quest for help leads him to Valis, an entity possessing the science fiction writer formerly known as Philip K. Dick; to Mother Mariette, a nun who inspires decidedly unchaste feelings; and to the Human League, a secret society devoted to the extermination of demons. All believe that Del holds the key to the plague of possession–and its solution. But for Del, the cure may be worse than the disease.
“Look out, Lethem! Daryl Gregory mixes pop culture and pathos, flavoring it with Philip K. Dick. Pandemonium possesses every quality you want in a great novel, and the good news is it’s only his debut.”
–Charles Coleman Finlay, Hugo and Nebula Award-nominated author of The Prodigal Troll
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
 Beyond Linda Blair and Her Rotating Head July 25, 2010
Gary Griffiths (Los Altos Hills, CA United States)
First time author Daryl Gregory is nothing if not ambitious: "Pandemonium" is a complex and intelligent twist on a well worn theme: demonic possession. Set in a contemporary alternative reality, demonic possession is taken for granted and thousands of cases have been documented, classifying multiple demon perps - the Kamikaze, the Painter, the Little Angel...These demons are indestructible, traveling from human host-to-host with impunity, wrecking some havoc and moving on. Except for protagonist Del Pierce, a troubled 20-something who travels back to Chicago to visit his mom and older brother. Unlike the fun-and-run pattern of the typically demon, Del is apparently possessed at age five by a demon who decides to stick around, leading the desperate young man on a mostly futile search for a cure - or an exorcism.
Despite the fantasy, Gregory spins a credible and well-told story, weaving impressively researched pop psychology and some neat twisted history (an Eisenhower assassination, demons showing up at the OJ Simpson trial...) into a poignant and surprisingly sensitive tale. Gregory does a remarkable job developing an intriguing cast of characters and the relations between them, running a number of seemingly insignificant threads into a clever and satisfying climax with a neat, unexpected, but completed supported twist. Gregory shows great promise as an author - Stephen King with more soul, a less lyrical John Connolly - and "Pandemonium" is a stunning debut that should appeal to a wide swath of readers.
Character driven novel. Now with demons! June 13, 2010
Ian Kaplan (Livermore, CA)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This weeks issue of the New Yorker, a magazine I love, was their fiction issue, populated almost entirely by literary short stories. I didn't like a single one and in general I'm not a fan of the New Yorker's fiction. One of the hallmarks of literary fiction is supposed to be character. What is missing so often is a plot that drives the story forward. Pandemonium has both character and plot, mixed together in a somewhat strange novel by an author who seems to be a Philip K. Dick fan.
Pandemonium is written in the first person. I found the narrator, Del, somewhat sweet and sympathetic. He's struggling through a life that has dealt him a difficult hand. He has a devoted brother, Lew who loves him. Del is a bit of a loser. At one point in the book he says that the plot of his life is that Lew is supposed to be the brother who is successful while Del is the screw-up. Yet it is hard to hold this against Del because he's plagued by Demons.
The world of Pandemonium is very similar to ours, but the presence of Demons has altered the history, which is alluded to tangentially in the plot. There are, indeed, strange plot twists. Some reviewers have objected to these. Although we don't live in a world of demons, it's still a pretty strange world. The novel just throws demons into the mix. Given our world of people who claim, despite all evidence to the contrary, that President Obama was not born in the United States, I don't find some of the plot twists too much of a stretch, with the obvious exception of demons (then again, do we really know that Dick Cheney is of this world?)
About two thirds of the way through the novel, just as the Del, the narrator, starts to understand the underlying shape of his world, I did too. Yet the author does not do what many authors of similar novels do and come up with a happily ever after ending where everything is neatly wrapped up. This is one of those novels that I am still thinking of a day or two after I read it.
 Inconsistent June 11, 2010
The Good News
I'm very surprised by the high reviews of Pandemonium.
In short, while the book has moments of original brilliance, it is inconsistent, and at times, just weird. I guess other than faulting the author, I also fault the editor for not making some major edits to the plot and pace.
There were too many times in the book where I thought to myself, "I don't like this section of the plot, it's a strange way to move the story forward, and it could be better executed in a more interesting manner." There are times to be 'original' and times when originality make a book less satisfying.
Around page 150, with the scene of the 'Human League' at the Lake, I had this sudden urge to stop reading the book; the reviews kept me going but in retrospect it was a mistake.
I'd encourage the author to keep writing as he clearly has talent.....just needs more time in the oven.
AMAZING! May 28, 2010
Kari M. Layne (Las Vegas, NV)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is not my normal choice of reading material... I'm usually more of a romace novel and chick-lit with a little paranormal twist type of girl. However, lately Ive exhausted all the vampires, faries and werewovles I can handle. So, I stumbled across this book on amazon and thought... Demons? Why not! Well, I'm so glad I picked it up. It was amazing. It was not at all what I expected. The back of the book summary does not give this story justice. This book was an intellectual thriller that really makes you think. About half way through theres a major twist that just totally floored me! I found myself reading like crazy to get to the end! I loved it and will reccommend it to anyone. I think I'll be forcing this book on as many of many friends as possible so I can talk about it with them. Even if it doesn't sound like your thing, go pick up a copy, you won't be dissappointed!
Too Too Trendy May 22, 2010
Alyssa B. Goss
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
As had been said this book has a solid "idea" for the story. However the author gets so caught up in proving how much he knows about pop culture that he never actually gets around to telling said story. This book is short yet I still had to give up after 153 pages of pretty much nothing. Information might have been forth coming within the next 50 pages but I was just too sick of waiting for it.
The trouble with inserting too many pop culture references like this is you not only look like you're trying to drop names but you end up dating the work. This book is all ready dated and it's only two years old. Even Stephen King has this problem and he's a much better story teller. I have a feeling this book isn't going to hang on in the public memory.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
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