I'm not sure if this is deliberate or not, given the number of SF/Fantasy authors who turn out to be gaming junkies at heart. She looks a bit old for the curve, but hey, so does Ron. :P
In her latest novel,
Paladin of Souls, Lois McMaster Bujold introduces a demon-cosmology which reads like a Sorcerer campaign.
- Possession of a demon automatically makes one a sorcerer... but does not imply skill.
- Depending on their relative wills, sometimes the human is in control, sometimes the demon is.
- In this setting all demons seem to be Parasite types, and always intangible.
- A good-natured "PC" ends up involuntarily with a demon... and starts to toy with power against all advice.
- A fascinating method of banishment is stipulated, which works very well with the themes of the book: A dying human with a strong enough will can "hold on to" the demon and carry it away with them. Nothing else seems to work.[/list:u]I'm not even done reading it, but I have read enough to recommend it highly to Sorcerer fans. The preceding novel, The Curse of Chalion, is also highly deserving. Gems like:
Quote"The gods don't write letters of instruction, you know. Not even to their saints. I've suggested it, in my prayers. Sat by the hour with the ink drying on my quill, entirely at His service. And what does He send instead? An overexcited crow with a one-word vocabulary."
Quote(To a new-made saint, from an older one...) "You are the tool, not the work. Expect to be valued accordingly."
- Eric
Good call! I'll be picking these up.
Best,
Ron
Yeah, IMHO Bujold's work is some of the best use of religion in a fantasy novel - if you want to see what it feels like to be a cleric or paladin (and why the difference between this and demonic possession is a matter of which heresy you subscribe to), there's no better fantasy I know. Gene Wolfe's Long Sun (e.g. Calde of the Long Sun) does the same for his brand of sf-that-reads-like fantasy, tho.
Oh, and the Miles/Barrayar series that Bujold is famous for rocks on toast too (SF by way of Jane Austen/Patrick O'Brian).