Review: "The Boy Who Killed Demons" by Dave Zeltserman

It is hard being a teenager. Even worse when you see a neighbor down the way mowing his lawn and the guy appears to you as a demon. Henry Dudlow was thirteen when his special talent became evident. A talent that he considers a curse and it is easy to see why. He sees demons. Not figuratively, but literally in the flesh and blood. Or at least in whatever they have body wise. Some of those who walk among us and appear to be human are actually demons in flaming red skin, yellow eyes, jaws full of glistening teeth, talons for hands, and more. They are among us and Henry Dudlow can see them.

It isn't like he can talk to anyone about what he sees as his parents, his teachers, and anyone else he told would think he was nuts. What he can do, because he is very smart, is to learn all he can about them so that he can eliminate them. One of the many problems he faces is the fact that the demons could figure out who he is before he is ready and do very bad things to him, his parents, and anyone he cares about. Hiding the fact that he can see them is one of the many challenges he faces.

Billed as a young adult novel, The Boy Who Killed Demons instead reads very much like an adult novel. Written in a journal style as the days and months pass, the book is Henry’s recounting of events and explanations for why he did what he did when he did it. Henry is smart, gifted even in some aspects, and experiences things at a level far above his age. The fight against the demons allows for nothing else and it is a battle that for the most part he experiences alone and shares with no one outside his journal. Those familiar with author Dave Zeltserman's numerous crime novels will detect a noir feel that runs the gamut of the book.

That being said this is a good book that features an interesting story line and a character that evolves over the length of the read. He frequently pushes boundaries in the course of learning how to go about dealing with, not only his ability to see demons, but the consequences of that talent and other actions. As result he does some very adult things that may not be legal and yet, with the fate of the world at stake, who is to judge?  Language is, at times, graphic though the occasions are few.

As far as the horror angle goes, it was not horrific at all. There are some moments of violence and references to ancient evil and what demons can do and are trying to do now, but it isn’t a horror novel. Much like his very good The Caretaker of Lorne Field that was much more mystery than horror, that is the case here with a novel that is much more science fiction or fantasy like than horror. Not matter how your personally would classify it The Boy Who Killed Demons is a good read.

The Boy Who Killed Demons

Dave Zeltserman

http://www.hardluckstories.com

Overlook Press

http://www.overlookpress.com  

October 2014

ISBN# 978-1468309607

Hardback (also available as an e-book)

288 Pages

$24.95

E-book review copy supplied by the author in exchange for my objective review.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2014

Guest Blog: "E-Books and The Future--FOLLOW UP" by Dave Zeltserman

For quite some time now I have asked Dave to do a follow-up piece to his original post “E-books and The Future” that first appeared here on September 1, 2010. If you have not read it, go to http://kevintipplescorner.blogspot.com/2010/09/guest-blog-e-books-and-future-by-dave.html before continuing on. We will be here when you get back.

Finally with the original post becoming very hot on the blog the last couple of days, Dave has contributed the below follow up post. Please join me in welcoming Dave back to Kevin's Corner with his latest piece on the issue…

 

It's been over 2 years since I've posted this and thought I'd follow up with mostly observations.

First, while still very early in all this, surprisingly I find my predictions pretty much on track, and maybe in another few years I'll be able to add Nostradamus to my name!

Observation 1:

Apple sold 15.4 million iPads during the last quarter of 2011. During a 4 day period in March of this year, Apple sold 3 million iPads. Amazon and B&N have recognized iPad's dominance and have moved quickly to sell their own iPad-like devices, Kindle Fire for $199 and the Nook Tablet also for $199. While the older Kindle and Nook models have dropped in price, they're clearly moving toward obsolescence, so the overall price of the Kindle and Nook have gone up, while iPad prices have dropped. So it's looking like my prediction that dedicated ereading devices will become obsolete in favor of multi-use iPad-like devices is well on the way of happening.

Whether Amazon and B&N can compete here with lower-priced iPad-type clones is to be determined.

Observation 2:

While I’m okay with reading short stories on my kindle, I don’t like reading novels on it and I’ve talked with other readers during my book events who feel the same.  My reason for this is two-part. While the liquid ink technology used is supposed to be good for the eyes (or at least not cause eye strain), my vision is not the best, and if I spend an hour reading on my kindle, it screws up my vision for the day. Conversely, I can spend hours reading a print book while using reading glasses without any issue. Besides that, I find that I never get as deeply into a book when reading on a kindle as I do print books, and after 150 pages or so,  a fatigue factor kicks in and I mostly lose interest in the book. This doesn’t happen with print books. And again, I’ve talked with other readers who experience the same, and like me, stick only to print books when reading for enjoyment. A year or so ago I read an article talking about how a high percentage of readers find they don’t like reading on an ebook device and end up sticking with print books, but since I can’t find that article, I won’t give the percentage that’s stuck in my head. Of course, that still leaves a high percentage of readers who are quite happy reading on these devices.

Observation 3:

The bookstore landscape has changed dramatically. Borders is gone and B&N has become equally a Nook showcase as it is a bookstore. I don’t have the numbers for how many independent bookstores have closed,  but I’ve certainly seen announcements of closings of several highly respected stores. My wife and I were recently spending hours walking around Manhattan and it struck me during all that time that I only saw one bookstore.

What I have noticed with several bookstores that I frequent is that they’ve changed/evolved quite a bit over the last two years, morphing from what they were to something very different—in one case part bookstore/part gift shop,  in another case, significantly their extending café at the expense of the number of book titles sold, and in two other cases, selling more used books and mostly (bu not completely) dropping new titles. I’m not sure how prevalent this is countrywide, but that’s what I’ve been seeing locally.

Observation 4:

Readers of ebooks are diverging into 2 camps--those who are buying/reading ebooks from only the most recognizable bestselling authors, and those who are reading/downloading mostly free and cheap ebooks.

I expected this to happen, and I believe with the first camps readers are reacting to the confusion caused by 100s of thousands of self-published ebooks flooding Amazon's kindle store.

Observation 5:

Ebook prices are quickly moving to $0.

Amazon started their KDP Select program in January where in exchange for giving Amazon exclusivity of an ebook title for 3-months they'd allow the publisher/author to offer the ebook free for up to 5 days during this exclusive period (which can be started up again when the period ends), as well as taking part in their Prime borrow program. What they didn't tell authors (at least not many) is that they would give ebooks preferential treatment based on how many were given away free. In other words--early on if you gave away 30,000 ebooks, Amazon would position the title so that it might later sell somewhere between 5,000-10,000 copies. Authors I know who took advantage of this early did very well, and at least one author I know made $50,000 in January alone. Of course, this couldn't last, and from what I understand Amazon changed their algorithms in March and again in May so that both times there would be far less benefit to authors giving away their ebooks, to the point where now it's at best marginal. But that's not stopping desperate authors from trying these giveaways. The result of all this is 10s of millions of free ebooks have been given away, and this trend isn't stopping, even though the benefit to authors has mostly become negligible. The only thing slowing this down is that readers grabbing free ebooks have saturated their kindles with decades worth of reading and have become much more selective on what they download. When you factor in all of these free downloads with all other ebooks sold, it has significantly moved the average price of a downloaded ebook closer to $0, and this is only going to get worse.

Observation 6:

Ebooks for the most part do not sell because of word of mouth. It happens occasionally--look at 50 Shades of Gray, for example, but most of the self-published ebooks that have sold well on Amazon do so because Amazon made them sell well. Early on, Amazon was a bit like a casino that could be gamed--self-published authors who were savvy enough figured out how to trigger Amazons algorithm to cause a shitload of sales (which kept Amazon's algorithms generating even a larger shitload of sales). While I can only state this anecdotally because I don't want to embarrass the authors who took advantage of this, this is something I know as a fact. While Amazon closed a lot of these loopholes (and temporarily opened others with their KDP Select), Amazon still drives most of the sales for their bestselling ebooks with their direct marketing machine and favorable webpage placements.

Observation 7:

The rise of ebooks and the response of big publishing (namely, taking more of a blockbuster mentality) is driving many professional midlist authors to self-publishing ebooks, as they have little other choice.

Dave Zeltserman ©2012

http://smallcrimes-novel.blogspot.com/

Dave Zeltserman won the 2010 Shamus Award for 'Julius Katz' and is the acclaimed author of the 'man out of prison' crime trilogy: Small Crimes, Pariah and Killer, where Small Crimes was named by NPR as one of the best five crime and mystery novels of 2008, and both Small Crimes and Pariah (2009) were picked by the Washington Post as best books of the year. His recent The Caretaker of Lorne Field received a starred review from Publisher's Weekly, calling it a 'superb mix of humor and horror' and has been shortlisted by ALA for best horror novel of 2010. His book Outsourced (2011) was called 'a small gem of crime fiction' by Booklist and has been optioned by Impact Pictures and Constantin Film and is currently under development.

Guest Blog--E-Books and The Future by Dave Zeltserman

Please join me in welcome Dave to Kevin's Corner with his thoughts on E-books and the future of publishing.


There’s a lot of fear and loathing right now among authors and publishers regarding eBooks. Is this the beginning of the end for print books? The death of publishers? Will eBooks be a boon or the final stake in the heart for the midlist author? Nobody out there has a clue how all this is going to shake out. I certainly don’t, but I’m going to throw out some random thoughts on the subject and see where that leads. I’ll also be tossing out a few predictions. If I toss out enough, I’ll get lucky with one and will later proclaim myself the next Nostradamus!

First, eBooks are conceptually brilliant. Have one device replace 1000s of physical books, being able to buy books at the touch of a button, easily magnifying the text so those of us with declining eyesight can read without magnifying glasses. All this is great, but there are problems lurking in this. Right now the cost of eBook readers (Kindles, nooks, iPads, etc.) is between $139 and $829. This gets worse when you think that each reading member of the family will need a device. So the old paradigm was you buy a book and share it among family and friends; new paradigm, each family member has to buy an expensive eBook reader before they can share their books. This becomes even more problematic as eBook readers break, are lost or become obsolete. Think of it, you lose your eBook reader, you lose your library, at least until you replace it. You drop your eBook reader while on vacation, you lose your library and all the books you wanted to read. You might not even have to lose or break your eBook reader to lose your library. A glitch in their software might lose your library for you. Can’t happen? Hah! Happened to me and the tunes I bought for my iPod from Apple. And there’s little doubt that technology and the marketplace will march on and your eBook reader will at some point (probably a lot sooner than you ever imagined) become obsolete (think 8-track tapes, cassettes, etc.) and you will need to replace both your reader and library. Not going to happen? Ebook formats will always be supported by the next generation of eBook readers? If you believe that I’ve got some swamp land to sell you. Now some people are predicting that eBook reader prices are going to come down dramatically, which leads to my first two predictions.


(Prediction 1) Dedicated eBook readers, like Kindle and Nook, will try to lower their prices to gain marketshare, but they will go the way of the 8-track as consumers gravitate towards multifunction devices like iPads, which will not be lowering their prices substantially.

(Prediction 2) You think ADD is bad now, just wait until we have a generation of readers constantly interrupting their reading to check Facebook and email.


I can’t see the Kindle and Nook surviving, not when consumers can buy devices like an iPad which gives them also movies, games, and thousands of other applications, especially websurfing. Plus the iPad solves the biggest problem dedicated eReaders like the Kindle and Nook have now, mainly graphics, which children's picture books and textbooks need.

How are eBooks going to affect bookstores? I’ve read predictions that the tipping point is 25 percent, and bookstores can’t survive, and that this will happen by the end of 2011. Namely, once 25% of the book buyers have moved to eBooks, that will be the death of bookstores, and enough iPads will be given out as Christmas presents by 2011 that we’ll hit that 25% number. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but there’s no doubt that eBooks are putting pressure on bookstores. Amazon announced earlier that they’re selling more eBooks than hardcovers. For anyone who thought Amazon was stretching the truth, Harper just announced that for the first week of Laura Lippman’s latest book, they sold roughly 4800 ebooks compared to 4000 hardcovers. We’re in the midst of a recession, and this is not making it any easier for bookstores to survive. It would be a very sad cultural loss for bookstores to disappear, and as an author, it would be devastating. This leads to my next two predictions:


(Prediction 3) Large publishing is starting to diverge where they’ll be publishing in print only books for the large box stores, everything else will be digital only.

(Prediction 4) Small independent bookstores that can integrate themselves into their neighborhoods will survive and flourish, and will sell mostly books from small independent presses.


Over the last year I saw a statistic that the large box stores (Walmart, Target, Costco, etc.) sell 60% of all books. I don’t know if this is still true, but it sure seems as if the large publishers are rapidly increasing their blockbuster only mentality. With the chain stores struggling and the increasing pressure caused by eBooks, I see them only printing the so-called blockbusters that they can continue to sell to these box stores, and all other books will be put out only as digital with maybe small POD runs. On the other hand, the independent publishers will increasingly publish the books that these large houses ignore, and these are the books that will excite readers sick of the same old formulaic blockbusters being constantly recycled by the large houses. These more exciting independent press books will help allow smart independent bookstores to flourish during these uncertain times. But what about publishers in general? On the one hand they must love the distribution costs associated with eBooks ($0) as opposed to the high distribution costs associated with print books. But here’s the thing, if readers get sick of these large blockbusters, or stop buying them from box stores and instead buy them as eBooks, then these large publishers are dead. There’s no reason in that scenario for bestselling authors to cut them in. They’ll do it themselves. Which leads me to my next predictions.


(Prediction 5) The large publishers who continue to follow their current blockbuster only mentality will die.

(Prediction 6) The smaller, independent publishes who keep publishing the books they love instead of chasing after blockbusters like the big six, will flourish as they form a symbiotic relationship with like-minded small independent bookstores.


So this begs the question why wouldn’t the authors being published by the smaller houses do it themselves like the big boys will? Simple, the support by these publishers and small bookstores are critical to us smaller known authors. You look at the bestselling crime authors today, and few of them would’ve made it without small bookstores handselling them for years and developing them a readership. That’s what has been happening to me over the last few years as booksellerS who discover my books recommend them to their customers. This is going to be needed more than ever for writers in the eBook free-for-all that’s coming.


So these are some of my thoughts and predictions. While I think it’s clear things are going to be changing rapidly, I do see a glimmer of hope. Is #6 wishful thinking or an honest prediction? We’ll see.



Dave Zeltserman lives in the Boston area with his wife, Judy, and his short crime fiction has been published in many venues. His third novel, Small Crimes, was named by NPR as one of the 5 best crime and mystery novels of 2008. His novel, Pariah, was named by the Washington Post as one of the best books of 2009. Killer, the 3rd book in his 'man out of prison' noir trilogy was published in the US this May. His most recent book, The Caretaker of Lorne Field, is out now, which Publisher's Weekly in a starred review calls "a superb mix of humor and horror" and Newsdays calls "a delicisious horror-ish novel". His upcoming novel, Outsourced, is currently in development by Impact Pictures and Constantin Film.