For as long human beings have been aware of their souls, they’ve tried to gamble them away to the forces of the underworld. In return for untold riches, absolutely power, or perhaps even spicy infernal love we’ve attempted to commune with dark entities to slake our dark desires. While the texts on this list won’t help you summon a demon (you’ll need a bonafide grimoire for that) they’ll certainly provide examples of why tampering with the Inferno’s denizens is a dismally bad idea. These are 10 best fantasy books about demons, and a PSA against making deals with them.
Between Two Fires
The demons of Christopher Buehlman’s Between Two Fires are not the sweet talkin’ double dealers that you might find at a country crossroads at midnight. These inferno spawn might as well have stepped out of a Hieronymus Bosch painting. As if medieval Europe wasn’t bad enough, the Dark Ages have gotten even darker now that there’s a war raging in Heaven, and God is nowhere to be found. As the creatures of Hell raise just that all across the countryside, a disgraced French knight named Thomas finds a little girl who may possess the divine power to cleanse the world from evil – or she’s delusional and they’re all gonna die. Better go on The Last of Us style surrogate daddy/daughter quest to deliver her to the church and find out!
The Winternight Trilogy
While demons are generally an unpleasant bunch, Katherine Arden’s The Winternight Trilogy gives these dark spirits the infernal sex appeal no human can resist. Set in the chilly wilderness of medieval Russia, the first book in the series introduces us to Vasya – a peasant girl with the ability to see spirits. Some of these otherworldly beings are rather easy on the eyes, and Vasya soon finds herself falling for a frost demon going through a bit of family drama. His brother is an evil bear spirit currently attempting to corrupt the minds of Christian Orthodox missionaries and spread a gospel of death in the form of an eternal winter. It’s a messy situation, but hey, we all have baggage. Vasya is down to work through it.
Kill Six Billion Demons
Tom Parkinson-Morgan’s Kill Six Billion Demons is the greatest graphic novel you’ve never heard of. It’s the story of a barista named Alison Ruth, who is spirited away from her dorm room by a runaway god and transported to Heaven. This Heaven is not all clouds and harps, it’s a corpse city that’s being picked clean by all manner of aliens, godlings, and dark spirits. Lucky for Allison, her kidnapper left her a gift – the powers of a god sealed away in a spiritual gemstone implanted directly into her forehead. In order to master her newfound spiritual abilities, she’ll have to learn divine kung fu from a transgender angel made of stone – all the while trying not to fall in love with a street-savvy demoness currently writing a fanfic about her life. She succeeds at former, and fails miserably at the latter.
Berserk
Kentaro Muira’s Berserk is a seminal work of dark fantasy that inspired the demon haunted Dark Souls video game series. Set in a crapsack world reminiscent of medieval Europe, the plot revolves around a battle hardened mercenary named Guts who slays the devouring forces of darkness with a sword the size of a four door sedan. He’s cutting a swath through demonkind in order to strike back at the archdemon responsible for making his life a literal hell. When this archdemon was still a human, he and Guts used to be best of friends – but that was before he sacrificed his comrades to the flesh eating forces of the abyss in exchange for supernatural power. While the comic is still ongoing (and has been for decades) the completed Golden Age arc remains one of the most breath taking and emotionally devastating stories ever told in manga.
The Dresden Files
Jim Butcher’s urban fantasy epic The Dresden Files revolves around a smart mouthed sorcerer named Harry Dresden, who advertises his magical services in the yellow pages. One of his most frequent requests? Evil entity removal. Ghosts, vampires, fae and demons all play part in Harry Dresden’s daily routine, but their dark powers grow as the series goes on. The lesser soldiers of Hell present in the first books are nothing compared to the mid-series archdemons and fallen angels. And once the Lovecraftian monsters rear their impossible to look at without going mad heads, the metaphysical sh*t really hits the fan. Lucky for Harry, demons love to make deals, and he’ll flesh out a few Faustian bargains in order to pull a fast one on the forces of Perdition.
The Coldfire Trilogy
The Coldfire Trilogy is C.S. Friedman’s love letter to sci-fi and fantasy, in an envelope addressed to demon lovers like you. The faraway planet of Erna is just like our big blue home – except for the fact that it’s host to a supernatural energy field called “The Fae” which causes humanity’s deepest fears (like demons) to manifest in the physical world! In the first book of the trilogy, a Dungeons and Dragons-esque party of adventurers strike out for Erna’s demon haunted eastern continent in order to heal the mind of a woman who had her memories stolen by the forces of darkness. In doing so, they’ll need to become intimately acquainted with that darkness – maybe a little bit too acquainted for the liking of the Church that is attempting to regain holy control of the planet.
Up Jumps The Devil
Michael Poore’s Up Jumps The Devil is a detailed look into the life of Prince of Darkness himself. Since falling from Heaven ages ago, the one time tempter of humanity Lucifer has taken up a new name and occupation. He’s now John Scratch, one of the world’s most prolific musicians. A cultural trendsetter, John has mentored scores of artists and birthed entirely new genres of music, all in an attempt to tease greatness out of a mundane world. The Christians got it wrong, John actually loves humanity, and is trying to make the world a better place in order to convince an angelic ex-lover to leave Heaven. Some people may think he’s the anathema of all that is holy, but this devil is really just a hopeless romantic at heart.
Gods of Jade and Shadow
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the story of Casiopea Tun, a young woman stuck taking care of her wealthy grandfather in Jazz Age Mexico – until she finds a mysterious book in grandad’s room that houses a literal god of death. While the Mayan god Hun-Kamé may be free from his cramped former living quarters, he’s now tethered to Casiopea after a fragment of his power became embedded within her. The handsome god sweet talks Casiopea into embarking on quest across Mexico, where she’ll have to square up against the forces of underworld in order to seat Hun-Kamé back on his chthonic throne. While the underworld’s denizens aren’t demons in a typical Judeo-Christian sense, they’re still scary as actual Hell. Fight giant bat monsters? I’d rather not, but poor Casiopea must.
The Exorcist
While William Blatty’s screenplay for The Exorcist was destined to become the pinnacle of cinematic horror, I’d make a bet with a devil that the original novel is scarier. After a famous actor’s daughter begins showing signs of spiritual sickness, a pair of Catholic priests are dispatched to confirm if it’s real deal demonic possession. The novel forgoes genre staple blood and gore to create a subtle atmosphere of dread and wrongness. Little girls like Reagan shouldn’t be able to speak Latin! Or twist their limbs at those angles! Or levitate inches off the ground! The Exorcist is a stunning work of low fantasy horror, and features arguably the scariest depiction of a demon in all of literature – one who would take a little girl’s soul hostage in order to kill a man’s faith in God.
The Black Jewels Trilogy
The Black Jewels Trilogy by Anne Bishop is set in world run by witches, which sounds amazing on paper, but not when you realize that these dark witches have established a brutal caste system that forces people become pleasure slaves for the forces of evil. An ancient prophecy foretells of the coming of a witch so powerful that she is destined to become queen of the Dark Kingdom, but what the prophecy neglected to mention is that the witch queen will take the form of a young, sweet little girl who is totally ignorant of her abilities. Lucky for her, she’s gained the protection of three magical men who will keep her safe from those who would do her harm. One of her spiritual bodyguards is the High Lord of Hell himself, the literal devil, who will do everything in his infernal power to shield his little ward from the wicked. In a place called the Dark Kingdom, you can bet that something wicked this way comes every minute.
(Featured Image: Warner Bros.)
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