Synopsis:
Multi-award winning series, published in more than 10 countries, movie rights optioned!
Welcome to a world like no other!
Philip is a good boy, a really good boy, who accidentally gets sent to Hell to become the Devil’s heir. The Devil, Lucifer, is dying and desperately in need of a successor, but there’s been a mistake and Philip is the wrong boy.
Lucifer has no other choice than to begin the difficult task of training Philip in the ways of evil. Philip is terrible at being bad, but when he falls in love with the she-devil Satina and experiences the powerful forces of love and jealousy, the task becomes much easier.
Philip finds both friends and enemies in this odd, gloomy underworld–but who can he trust, when he discovers an evil-minded plot against the dark throne?
The Great Devil War is a gripping and humorous tale about good and evil seen from a different perspective, making the reader laugh and think. It’s filled with biblical and historical characters and set in a world beyond your wildest dreams. Or nightmares …
Buy Link https://amzn.to/2pcbFlT
My Review
What a fun book this was to read. We meet Philip who is all things good, he does his homework on time, never lies, helps his mum because he wants to and not to get something in return. So how did he end up in hell as the Devil’s Apprentice?
I loved the descriptions of hell, we would automatically think that everyone down there would be bad. But there is love, humour and friendship. All of these things Philip get’s to experience. There is a lot of intrigue as well, why is the Devil ill? He’s immortal, just what has happened? Will Philip manage to work it out or will he even want to?
Characters
The story is told from Philip’s point of view. He goes on quite the journey and gets to explore facets of his personality that he’s never known were there. You keep asking yourself whether he’ll lose himself in hell?
There is a vast array of other characters as well, Satina the she-devil who Philip develops quite the crush on. Flux and Aziel, two demons that certainly live up to their nature. Lucifax the Devil’s cat, he talks, I do love a talking cat.
My one niggle with these characters is they never seem to get fully fleshed out. I would love to have seen some more interactions with them. However, this is Philip’s story so perhaps in further books we will see them again.
Good vs Evil
Is it really that simple? Can one survive without the other? This is such an interesting concept. There is a conversation that Lucifer and Philip have about this and it really got me thinking.
‘Without darkness there would be no light. Without night there would be no day. And without evil, then there would be no good.’
There are parts of this book that make you think beyond the story and I really enjoyed that.
Content Warning
I’m not one to usually do content warnings but I feel it is necessary here. I will try to be as sensitive as possible. There is a brief passage about suicides and what happens to the people who have gone down that path. It is no more than a page long, however, I felt uncomfortable reading it and suicide hasn’t touch my life directly. This is a book aimed at older children and young teenagers, personally if this is something they have experienced, I would think very hard about letting them read it.
Final Thoughts
Overall I really enjoyed this book. It’s very absorbing and I read it in one sitting. It has excellent pacing and short chapters which is ideal for younger readers. I’m very much looking forward to reading the next books.
My thanks to Kelly for inviting me onto the blog tour and to the publishers for a copy of the book.
Author Bio:
I was born in Denmark on a dark and stormy night in November 1976. I began writing when I was a teenager. My first book was a really awful horror novel titled Nidhug’s Slaves. It didn’t get published. Luckily.
During the next 7 years, I wrote nearly 20 novels–all of which were rejected–while working as a school teacher. The rest of the time I spent writing.
In 2000 I published my debut fantasy book, ”The Battle of Caïssa”, and that’s when things really took off. Since then I’ve published more than thirty-five books for teens and young adults in genres ranging from fantasy to horror and science fiction.
My books have been translated into more than 15 languages and my series about the superhero Antboy has been turned into three movies.
A musical of The Devil’s Apprentice opened in the fall 2018 and the movie rights for the series have also been optioned.
I live in Copenhagen with my wife, two boys, a dog named Milo and spiders in the basement.
[…] book in The Great Devil War. I reviewed the first book, The Devils Apprentice, you can read that here. I would highly recommend reading them in order for maximum […]