A review by lezreadalot
The Devil You Know by K.J. Parker

4.0

Consider mortality. Man that is born of woman hath but a short time to live, and awareness of this crucial brevity tends to concentrate his mind. Immortals are under no such constraint.

4.5 stars. I don't often like books that I feel are just being clever for cleverness' sake, but this, I have to admit, was very good. After a couple of middling to okay reads, it was very nice to feel mentally locked in for the entire journey of this book, even though it was a pretty short one. Basically: a philosopher sells his soul to a devil, and then he starts getting Up To Something. That's all I want to say about the plot, because discovering where we were going with these two amoral, intelligent characters was extremely interesting. They both suck so bad, and that made them even more fascinating. I didn't realise reading about theories and moralities and such would be so interesting to me, but it really was, especially in this high fantasy world that had so many similarities to our own. And I loved the subtle humour; Parker writes with insight and wit that's hard to resist.

Listened to the audiobook as read by Will Damron, who's definitely one of my favourites. I do kinda wish that there had been two narrators, because I would sometimes get confused when the POV switched from the demon to the philosopher, but otherwise, great performance. I know this works as a standalone, but now I'm curious to read the other books in the series.

I give you the superman; man is something to be overcome.