Wixley is good at showing us disturbed and fantastical characters. The particularly loathsome Bishop Francis, his brutality disguised as "fake compassion", whips up mass hysteria through fear; after his bizarre metamorphosis, he gloats that "fear is a great thing" as his victims are "... transformed into hollowness, free of emotions and dreams, unable to see the beauty in a flower, a sunset, a human face." The horrid opponents to peace and justice keep coming: "Here was a magnificent beast, a black furred wolf-like creature" and "a creature of some height, neither man nor woman, a vision of shimmering blue-green ..." As the plague eats into the population, good people are pushed to the limits of their endurance. The exhausted Prime Minister has his work cut out!
The dreadful Francis is remorseless, devoid of emotional affect. After he slaughters the soldiers "like a farmer swiftly scything down the hay", he matter-of-factly tells his servant to "just sweep it all up".
This is the stuff of nightmares! Vividly described horrors. I told myself I must stop reading, but ... well, maybe later ... no, just a bit more. Aahhhhhh! It's over!In The Devil's Own Words
The horrid opponents to peace and justice keep coming: "Here was a magnificent beast, a black furred wolf-like creature" and "a creature of some height, neither man nor woman, a vision of shimmering blue-green ..." As the plague eats into the population, good people are pushed to the limits of their endurance. The exhausted Prime Minister has his work cut out!
The dreadful Francis is remorseless, devoid of emotional affect. After he slaughters the soldiers "like a farmer swiftly scything down the hay", he matter-of-factly tells his servant to "just sweep it all up".
This is the stuff of nightmares! Vividly described horrors. I told myself I must stop reading, but ... well, maybe later ... no, just a bit more. Aahhhhhh! It's over!In The Devil's Own Words