Pale Demon

The Hollows, Book 9

By: Kim Harrison

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 17 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

Condemned and shunned for black magic, Rachel Morgan has three days to get to the annual witches' conference and clear her name, or be trapped in the demonic ever-after - forever after.

But a witch, an elf, a living vampire, anda pixy in one car, going across the country? Talk about a recipe for certain disaster, even without being the targets for assassination.

For after centuries of torment, a fearsome demon walks in the sunlight, freed at last to slay the innocent and devour their souls. But his ultimate goal is Rachel Morgan, and in the fight for survival that follows, even embracing her own demonic nature may not be enough to save her.

Listen to more in The Hollows series.

©2011 Kim Harrison (P)2011 HarperCollins Publishers

Great book - Lousy price.

Love this book, a great continuation of the series. But allas it may be one of the last audio book's I buy from Audible. If the 2 credit price becomes standard for popular books it will actually be cheaper to get them from I-tunes. Wake up Audible I buy from you to save money, and I renew for 24 credits at least 3 times a year.

A comment on Credits

This is a comment to Audible and the publishers on credits. Please note that I will NEVER pay two credits for a book unless it is exceedingly long. I bought this on sale. For the last book, I waited months until it was on sale, too. If these last two books had never gone on sale, I never would have listened. If two credits for popular books becomes the norm, I will cancel my membership. Just sayin'.

As to the book, Kim Harrison is amazing as usual! One of my favorite series.

Love the book. But charging two credits is bull

I have been waiting months for this book only to discover that if I want it I have to fork over two credits. Then I get an offer on my screen to buy three extra credits for 34.00. Yeah right!

Incredible Internal Consistency

A good book in any genre is internally consistent. It's a matter of editing and proofing. However, no one expects a series to be internally consistent. We're talking many years, sometimes a decade, of book after book. Kim Harrison is shockingly consistent throughout the series. Early in Pale

Demon, Rachel is attacked by an elf for the first time with what she calls "wild magic." The method of attack is kind of strange: Rachel is attacked by elves singing. This is book nine, and while I listen to this, I'm thinking of my favorite scene from the series in book three, Every Which Way But Dead, where Trent saves Rachel from hypothermia.

"The car picked up speed, and the sound seemed to lull me. I could relax, I thought as I felt the tingling of circulation in my limbs. I was in Trent’s car, wrapped in a blanket, and held in his arms. He wouldn’t let anything hurt me. He wasn’t singing, though, I mused. Shouldn’t he be singing?"

When I first listened to Every Which Way But Dead, that last sentence stuck out for me. Why singing? Now I know. Kim Harrison was able to foreshadow a magical element in Pale Demon 6 years and 6 books ago. This is something that needs to be celebrated.

On Narration:
If you are familiar with Carrie Vaughn's Kitty Norville series or the previous audiobooks in this series (with the exception of The Outlaw Demon Wails, which is narrated by Gigi Bermingham), you are well-acquainted with Marguerite Gavin's voice. If not, she has a strong radio-like voice, which has a sing-song quality to it. It takes about an hour to get used to the cadence that draws out the end of sentences, but once you do, it becomes part and parcel of the way you hear the story. She does fantastic accents and convincing male voices. Also, Marguerite Gavin sings certain parts of the book that require it, which is quite a bonus. She has a good singing voice and I don't suppose Kim Harrison actually had a song in mind when she wrote down what Trent sings.

Good book. On the 2 credit issue

The book is really good. One of the best ones in this series. The reader, for me is only OK, but not bad enough to keep me from listening.

I'm thinking the two credits is somehow a mistake OR, if it's the publishers are really requesting the two credits, it is the publishers yet again trying to keep the status quo of people purchasing new books in dead tree version by greatly increasing the price of audio over the dead tree version, much as they are setting ebook prices as only 1$ less than dead tree.

LOVED IT!

I love this series! I thought the action was intense, a little more so than in the previous books. There are moments, as said in previous reviews, where you lol and look around to see if anyone is looking at you do it! The characters really draw you in! I can't get enough of Al or Trent! I have to say the end did surprise me. You aren't used to Raechel trying the easy/safe way. Leaves you hanging until the next book...can't wait...a year....(sigh). As far as the credits go.... they must be crazy! If you do the 1 credit a month at 14.95 you are paying about 30 bucks for one book???!!! Cheaper to buy elsewhere. Good thing I got this book when it was on sale!

Road Trip Hell

This is my favorite in the series so far. You get to spend three days on a road trip with Jenks, Rachel, Ivy, and Trent Calamack as they face the biggest challenges so far.

A terrible evil is unleashed and causes battles so ugly that they still linger in my memory months later. Captivating, exciting, and heart pounding! It is a brilliant listen!!!!

Great listen, horrible price

If you have money and/or the credits to use, this is a great book in the series. Very dissapointed in the 2 credit issue. This book is not long enough to justify the extra costs.

I was bored. I wanted it to be over.

This is book 9. I feel like the author has nothing left to write about. It’s lots of conversation about very little. When bad guys appear, Rachel solves the problem by pulling on a ley line and using magic.

My biggest problem is I don’t like Rachel. She doesn’t show humility. She acts like a bratty snotty teenager. Most of the time she argues, gets angry, and threatens. There is a lot of “You did this? Well I’m going to do that to you.”

Trent enthrals two assassins so he can ask them who sent them. The enthral only lasts a couple of minutes. Rachel is furious and argues with Trent because his enthral used “black magic.” She wasted time instead of asking the assassins who sent them. Finally Jenks and Ivy interrupted Rachel’s rant and asked the assassins who sent them. I was not interested in watching Rachel do this.

The author used contrivances to create suspense which annoyed me. For example, someone tells Rachel to plead guilty, go to jail, don’t worry, I have a plan. But he doesn’t tell her the plan. So for a long time Rachel is worried and there is a lot of angst. I would rather just see how the trial and things worked out instead of someone saying “I have a plan, but I’m not going to tell you.”

More contrivance examples. Rachel rushes in yelling “they took him...they took him.” After a minute Trent gets out of the shower and says “took who?”

Rachel makes statements like “It didn’t work.” A minute later the reader hears that it did work.

The word clench was over used. I felt like it was used on every other page. There is teeth clenched, jaw clenched, gut clenched, fingers clenched, hands clenched, my heart seemed to clench, worry clenched my chest, we both clenched in pain, stomach clenched, clenched my eyes, my gut unclenched as it grew quiet.

I listened to the first 15 hours and couldn’t take any more. So I jumped to the last chapter and was glad to be out.

Genre: urban fantasy

Awesome

Character development, magic, action, comedy, drama, romance--these elements have been what keeps the storyline going and makes it so special for fans of this series. Harrison hits all of that in her writing. She addresses several particular issues when it comes to Rachel's relationships, as well as the relationships between the people around her. While I've been a card-carrying Trent and Rachel supporter since Book 1, there's attention given to her relationships with him, Pierce, Ivy, and Al too. Like any fan, of course I have certain hopes.
I really enjoyed this book and can't wait for the next one out. As usual Marguerite Gavin is a wonderful Narrator.