Devil’s Playthings|ARC Review

Marc Jasper is just going about his repetitive and mostly boring life in the spotlight as a Familiar of one of the most powerful daemons in the business of magic, Lazael, when a certain mystery strikes. A doctoral student approaches him with some stats of kidnapping cases that indicate that they all might be connected. And they involve magic.

Marc, being the “face of magic,” accepts to help through his influence.

The world-building . . . is interesting, I’d grant it that. Magic came to the world when daemons arrived, and humans over the years mutated to keep up with their magical surroundings, acquiring themselves some magical abilities. Also, this is set in the near future. With holograms and portals to hover cars and all kinds of AI systems.

But what’s really cool is seeing our current issues – environmental, business, social – through a futuristic lens. Probably my favourite part. Seeing Marc interact with other social groups with their own individual interests, for PR mostly, intrigued me quite a lot.

The mystery is simple and decently engaging. The characters have to get together and trust each other to get through the case. The trio didn’t impress me much initially, but they gradually grew on me and I liked seeing their dynamic and quite enjoyed their grudging interactions. Ryan especially was fun to read about, even though I was bored through his individual point of view chapters.

‘We need to figure out how to stop him.’

‘Just drop the car on him. He’ll stop,’ Ryan offered up.

‘Great idea, Ryan,’ Sarah said caustically. ‘Just forget that there’s a little girl in there.’

‘I didn’t say drop us on the trunk.’ When they all just looked at him, he said, ‘Well, where else would he put her?’

When Marc cocked his head thoughtfully, Sarah threw up her hands.

‘Marc, you can’t be considering this . . .’

Although this was a short read, it still dragged. Descriptions were unnecessarily long, which could’ve been solved with a bit of editing, I suppose. The dialogue flowed nicely enough, though, for the most part.

I liked some business and ethical aspects covered in a futuristic light, and was sort of engaged with the mystery, but the read mostly wasn’t for me. If magical/futuristic earth appeals to you, though, I recommend giving it a go.

This released on 2nd April, but I’m posting my review late. As usual.