 Grim ideas abound in this novel, which push it past its pulpy title. My favourite was the Hand of Glory: cut the hand off a criminal as they hang and turn it into a candle. Bad things happen (which is a massive understatement). Fawkes endures a hard time throughout the novel, but he still makes for a likeable and engaging protagonist. Guy Fawkes – Demon Hunter by Benjamin Langley A Horror Book Review by David Watkins On Bonfire Night, an old man runs into the flames to recover an effigy of Guy Fawkes. Why would he risk his life to defend the reputation of one of history’s most notorious figures? It’s time to forget everything you think you know about Guy Fawkes! The title says it all – this is the life of Guy Fawkes, but reimagined! Bar a brief moment in the present day, used as a framing device, this is set in 1500s England and focuses on the early life of Guy Fawkes. I was expecting a fun, irreverent read, changing Guy Fawkes into a misunderstood hero, something similar to Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter but this is definitely not that. Langley has woven fact into fiction here – key events from Fawkes’ life are looked at through a horror lens and changed. As a young boy, Fawkes sees a floating skull that talks to him and tells him he has a calling as he can see things normal people can’t. He seems to accept this a bit more readily than I would, but then he is very young when this happens. When he starts school, he’s punished immediately for not paying attention and meets his first friend Kit Wright. They get into the usual scrapes for school kids, get beaten by their teachers and the prefects. As someone with an overactive imagination, plus an insight into the ‘other’ world, Fawkes begins to suspect one of the prefect is not what he appears…. I won’t spoil how things unravel from there. The pace is high through most of the novel, with many set pieces. A highlight is a demon attack on a farmhouse which is full of icky details and actually makes you worry about the fate of the supporting cast. Obviously Fawkes will survive, but what about the rest? If you know a lot about the real-life Fawkes then some of these passages may not work for you, but for me, I knew very little and so I was invested in seeing his friends survive. Grim ideas abound in this novel, which push it past its pulpy title. My favourite was the Hand of Glory: cut the hand off a criminal as they hang and turn it into a candle. Bad things happen (which is a massive understatement). Fawkes endures a hard time throughout the novel, but he still makes for a likeable and engaging protagonist. The early part of the novel does suffer from some info dumps and long passages of exposition which made it initially difficult to get into, but once the demon blood starts flowing, it rattles along and is bloody good fun. There are two more novels proposed in this series, and I’m already looking forward to reading them. Guy Fawkes: Demon Hunter: A Clangour of Bells Paperback |
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