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So I’m in the mood for more Brimstone fic, and I remember that it was written up on ship_manifesto. Damn fine job of it, too- including lots of interesting recs. This story struck me as a good one to check out- nice and long and angsty, with a focus on Zeke and his own personal devil. It has a sequel, ‘Aftershocks’, and I’m going to talk about them together because I think the series reads best as a whole.
I really dug the beginning of this tale. It kicks off with Zeke in extremis. [READ MORE] Seems the wily detective wasn’t quite wily enough, and now he’s in the hands of some of the demons he hunts. As they wait for Ash to arrive, they amuse themselves by poking sharp pointy things into Zeke’s battered body. There’s only so much even the undead can take, and Zeke’s reached the point where returning to Hell is looking like a pretty good option. Now, who is about the last person he’d expect to show up and play the role of guardian angel? You guessed it- the ultimate evil himself steps up and gets Zeke out of the mess he’d gotten himself into. Unfortunately for Satan, even he must answer to a higher authority. As a consequence of his direct intervention into human affairs, Lucifer is cursed to live as that which he detests. In short, the devil is stripped of his powers and made mortal. He ain’t happy about it.
What follows is an interesting story, as Zeke continues his quest to rid the world of the hell demons, banters with the devil’s brothers (of both the good and evil variety), is tempted to kill the devil he knows in order to win back the woman he loves, and just generally has to put up with a very sulky Satan. The whole story, I quite liked. The pursuit of the ‘priest killing demon’ rang very true to canon. I also enjoyed the reappearance of Satan’s ‘good’ brother- i.e., Zeke’s real guardian angel. I loved that he was still concerned about his brother and wanted Zeke to look out for him. The addition of a new ‘Lord of Hell’ was also a good one. It just made sense that the devil’s minions wouldn’t rank real high on the loyalty scale. The ‘new’ devil also offered a nice contrast to Lucifer. Lastly, I’ll admit that I love the idea that Lucifer sees Zeke as something special- that he cares about him in ways he’d never admit, not even to himself. There’s a nice undercurrent of that throughout the story.
So, all in all, I quite enjoyed what was written. However, there’s one big issue that keeps this one out of the rec category. It just doesn’t quite seem finished. I want to know what happens next- because the status quo at the end cannot be maintained.
I’ll admit, part of this is the fact I like my Lucifer ‘large and in charge’. Now, I actually thought the more human devil in the story worked- because he was human. And I thought the author did a good job portraying how devastating that would be for him. It’s akin to another fall, and I bought into the idea that it was something that could scare the devil himself. But in the end, Lucifer isn’t human and I can’t imagine him staying that way. The pacing and plot of the story seemed to reach the point where it should be building to a last big climax, but it ended before it got there. It stops in the lull before the final storm. Ash is still out there, Lucifer’s still human, and Hell is still gunning for him. Dude! It can’t just end there. [HIDE]
Overall, a solid story with good, well actualized subplots, interesting characters, and an intriguing premise. However, it just didn’t seem to get the climax it deserved. I’ll be keeping an eye out- hopefully there will be one more story that wraps it all up.
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