Demon Fare

Spawnstertown Chronicles #1

by Cory Dale, Karen Duvall

In an alternate history New York City—one hundred and fifty years after an earthquake from hell nearly destroyed the planet—the twenty-first century clings to an industrial age. Steam engines rule, and demon-powered technology is the up and coming thing. Henry Paine, a half-demon taxi driver, is the go-to guy for just the right demon to possess your machine and automate any mechanical gizmo with or without an engine. The creatures are tame as pets. Or at least they have been… until now.

Wanda Snow is an exorcist who grudgingly admits to having a few drops of demon blood herself. She's come to New York to rid the city of demonic vermin as well as any other demons that get in her way. Wanda and Henry are naturally at odds, but the two are forced to become partners in a mutual goal to round up the rogue demons biting the Big Apple and take down the sinister tyrant who started it all.

256 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2014

Reviews

[Karen Voitik · Rating 3 out of 5]

>Review - Demon Fare

>I received this book from the author and from Paranormal Romance and Authors that Rock. I am an independent reviewer. This is the first book in the Spawnstertown Chronicles and sets up the plot for the series.

>This story takes place in a post apocalyptic New York City. I'm not really sure what caused the apocalypse, but the surviving humans were tempted by sperm filled hot springs. These hot springs resulted in demon-hybrid babies, labeled "Hellspawn". The Hellspawn look human until their teens. Their human parents either killed them or cast them out, so different communities began to appear. Henry is a Hellspawn who reunited with his family years later. He is 150 and his niece is in her 80's! More demons have arrived on Earth, but as pets, slaves or helpers. Henry has a demon Vox inhabiting his cab. Reminded me of the old tv shoe Night Rider, only Kit is named Mystic in this story.

>Henry meets mostly human, Wanda, who wants to exorcize the demons, not realizing they are not an enemy. A nasty Hellspawn, Jasper, infects some of the demons, causing them to kill humans. He intends to take over the world. Henry, Wanda and Henry's family must heal the demon suits, stop Jasper and save humanity.

>The story did not have enough backstory to explain what the apocalypse was caused by or why the humans were so negative to the demons. The author jumps right in with these new creatures and their ways of life, but it couldn't get the sense they could exist amongst humans on Earth. If the story stayed all demon it would have flowed better. We get a small reason for the creation of the Hellspawn, the sperm water, but no explanation as to how that all happened. The Hellspawn were the top tier of the demons, they could talk, think & act like humans, but the lesser demons inhabited small appliances and made your morning coffee? The story was a bit silly.

> This book is for an adult audience. It was good young adult sci if, and then out of the blue the slight innuendo would get more explicit. The story didn't really know what audience it wanted to appeal to.

[Maghon Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fun steam punk/dystopian story. It's actually a little urban fantasy too, so can we just say it's a little mash up of genres and it's very cool, and leave it up to you to read it and like it :) LOL I did. I've never been to New York, I'm a southern Louisiana girl, who lives in the country, so I dunno if I'd really wanna do big cities. But I love the feel of this apocalyptic left overs in New York. I enjoyed the world building for this world. And I dunno if I'll ever be able to think of hot springs in a clean way again. LOL You see, when the big hellish earthquake almost destroyed it all, the survivors we just trying to survive. In this survival, they found hot springs, which happen to have demon "things" in them, which then lead to lovely little demon hybrid babies, whom are called "hellspawn". I know it sounds complicated but I am trying to keep things from being spoiled, don't let my simplicity run you away LOL.

So we have some major players here. Henry, whom is a hellspawn, hasn't been with his family for a long time. He finally finds them years later, where he meets Wanda. Wanda is an exorcist, she wants all demons gone. And Jasper wants to take over the world, so he's getting hellspawn to kill humans. Now, not only does Wanda and Henry have to stop Jasper, but help heal those hellspawns as well from Jaspers taint.

I would have liked maybe a few more explanations on a few things, but that's just me and my curiosity, and need for those type of things LOL But I really enjoyed the story, and I look forward to seeing where this will go, since this is the first story of the series. I know the first books of a series are sometimes the hardest, trying to world build, and get characters into their flow without serious amounts of info dumps. So with that, I liked the writing style, and I want more!! 4.5 DEMON PAWS!!