Time's Demon

Time's Demon by D.B. Jackson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Not only is this a solid continuation of the Islevale Cycle started with Time's Demon, but it progresses much further into the magical wildlife that inhabits this world.

Do you remember those awesomely wicked demon children who eat their victim's years from the previous book? The ones with a penchant for giving up their prey as long as they can chew on some good riddles?

Yeah, the type and the things they become are a BIG part of this book. :) I love it! Very odd vampires. Like SF but more like Fantasy as SF, and have a much wider cast of interesting characters introduced here.

This is kinda like a sequel but better. A lot more happens and it branches out in very cool directions. My sense of the world is so much broader even if my TIME sense is completely wonked out. :) I can't quite say if this is better or worse than the first one, but I have grown much more invested in finding out what will happen next.

What cool reveals!

No spoilers. Don't want to ruin it for anyone, but I think I like the character developments even more here than the first. :)

I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to NetGalley and Angry Robot Books.

Time's Demon is the second book in D.B. Jackson's The Islevale Cycle and follows Tobias Doljan and Mara who are stuck about fourteen years in the past and have now aged and must take care of the princess Sofya after an assassination which took the lives of her entire family. Being the last of her royal line, Tobias must protect the princess if she is ever to reclaim her legacy- while being essentially a teen in the body of a grown man.

This book contains a recap of what happened in the previous book which I find to be a really welcome and helpful thing to add in fantasy books. I really wish that more books have this feature besides the also very helpful glossary because fantasy books tend to be very dense when it comes to detail and it can get hard to remember certain events that happened. That said, I very much liked that this was present and it helped me a lot.

Time's Demon is considerably slower than the first book although there were still a lot of things happening here. I attribute the slowness to the fact that there's a lot of backstory concerning the villain here and I liked how this book actually fleshes out his character. In fact, through the course of this book, he becomes almost like a secondary protagonist as we learn of his motivations, his past life, his current life, etc. I like it when antagonists are given more depth and I think it was handled quite well here.

Meanwhile, Tobias and Mara now have to deal with having to become accustomed to their new life and adjust to growing up too quickly. They have a lot of years lost between the two of them, years that are crucial to growth and maturity so they really did have to grow up fast. In this book, they had to conceal their and Sofya's identities and play the part of a loving family. I think this part was pretty adorable and they do grow a lot here as characters.

I still do kind of side-eye Tobias and Mara's relationship because in my mind, they're kind of like children who has to play house or there will be deadly consequences. I still get whiplash because of how fast they have to grow up. I do understand that because of the consequences of time travel in this series, they cannot go back to being kids and are stuck as adults. Still, I can't shake off my discomfort although it does kind of make sense for them to fall in love.

Droe the time demon or Tirribin also gets a lot of screentime in this book. Due to her obsession with Tobias and the concept of love and desire, she strikes a deal which leads to her essentially transcending what she was before. She also exhibits a lot of character growth in this book, especially towards the end where she comes to terms with what she is and also where she stands with her emotions and stuff. I don't want to spoil anymore but I really enjoyed her character arc.

The negative thing that I can really say about this book is that it does feel like it suffers from second book syndrome where it serves to get the characters from one point to another. It's a lot of backstories getting told- flipping back and forth between past and present-day narration, Tobias and Mara avoiding been found and getting assassinated...and Droe. Still, it wasn't a bad to read about and I did enjoy it. I think it sets up the next book and I'm looking forward to reading about what's going to happen next.

Overall, I can recommend Time's Demon if you liked the first book. It expounds on a lot of character history, builds up the character arcs better, and expands the scope of the story more. I give this a 3.75 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.

4 / 5 stars

Originally reviewed on: https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/

Time’s Demon is the second in the Islevale Cycle, proceeding the events of Time’s Children. It began with a very unexpected character, at a very unexpected time. It ended with an unexpected result, following a series of rather unexpected events. At first I thought it marked a departure from the initial book, as neither Tobias nor Mara appeared for the first third or so. But then they did, and the story proceeded. In an unexpected, if not… unpredictable manner. Let me say plainly: I couldn’t predict the turns this story took. If I had (which, I tried; I always do), they would’ve been wrong. All in all, Time’s Demon was quite an entertaining read, though if one started into it hoping to immediately continue the adventure that had just left off, they would be disappointed.

This marks the tenth book I’ve read by David B. Coe, including 6 under the pseudonym of D. B. Jackson. So, there’s that. Cool, huh? Instead setting the scene this time, here’s the official blurb.

Fifteen year-old Tobias Doljan Walked back in time to prevent a war, but instead found himself trapped in an adult body, his king murdered and with an infant princess, Sofya, to protect. Now he has been joined by fellow Walker and Spanner, Mara, and together they must find a way to undo the timeline which orphaned the princess and destroyed their future. Arrayed against them are assassins who share their time-traveling powers, but have dark ambitions of their own, and the Tirribin demon, Droë, whose desperate quest for human love and Tobias leads her into alliances which threaten all of Islevale.

Time’s Demon presents another slow build, in some ways even more than that seen in the first. The hook is set and baited early on, as it was in the prior tale, but this is populated with different characters than before. Characters with their own wants and needs (and backstories), that were under utilized in the previous book. Again, it’s important to note that Tobias, Sofya and Mara will return—and that the heart of the story still very much revolves around then.

And yet, their story, while entertaining, furthers the overarching storyline very little. And so we exit Time’s Demon little further than when Time’s Children left off. That’s not to say the book accomplishes nothing. Instead, the storylines are pushed off to other characters—in particular Droë, a Tirribin notable in the first entry. Actually, her story was good enough in this that it distracted me from the lack of progression in Tobias and Mara’s tale. Until writing this review, even.

In my opinion, it was the characters of Time’s Children that made it such an entertaining read. Not only does Demon continue this trend, but builds upon it. In addition to Mara and Tobias’s backstory—as well as a new character I won’t spoil—Droë adds an unexpected element to the story. Until this book, demons (Tirribin, Belvora, Shonla, Arrokad) are viewed mostly as savage and conniving beasts, excepting maybe the rogue elements like Droë or Teelo, who still fed on humans, but occasionally interacted with them as well. Droë’s adventure wrecks this all. I mean, yeah, half the demons still eat people, but it turns out they are much more complex than I’d thought before. Additionally, the dynamic between Sofya and Tobias (and Mara) has changed—as the princess is now an infant—but not so much. It were her interactions with Tobias that sold the first book for me. While in this one her role is reduced somewhat (due to the influx of other characters’ POVs), she still represents an important member of the cast.

Time’s Demon capitalizes on the successes of Time’s Children with strong characters, immersive world-building and superior dialogue. While the expanded cast of characters did push some of my favorites from Book #1 aside for a third of the text, their arcs were more than entertaining enough to keep me ingrained. The second Islevale book does little to further the plot from the first, however (with the murdered royal family, walking back in time and such). And yet Droë’s adventure stole the show, giving anyone more than enough reason to read Time’s Demon. If you liked the first one, you’ll enjoy the second.

Time's Demon comes out May 28, 2019

Time's Demon is the second book in D.B. Jackson's "Ishevale Cycle," and the sequel to last year's "Time's Children" (which I reviewed here). While a fantasy series, it is centered in large part upon time travel based upon an interesting concept: that the magic that allows some people to time travel causes time travelers' bodies to age as much time as they travel back/forward in time. Throw in demons of multiple types, and you have a setting that is filled with potential and Time's Children definitely set-up a ton of potential....before ending prior to doing much with that potential. I was really interested to see if the follow-up would make good use of that legwork to build an interesting

Time's Demon thankfully does just that....mostly. Spending most of the book away from our main characters of the series, the book continues its interesting work with one set of antagonist characters, and does some really interesting things with the titular demon character, the Tirribin Droë. And the parts of the book that do feature the main characters does work, even if it's not as interesting as the stories of the rest of the cast. But like its predecessor, the book ends most of its storylines incredibly abruptly, which is far from satisfying. But it does so much before those endings that had me rapt in attention that I am definitely in for book 3, whenever that comes out.

---------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
Walkers Tobias and Mara have escaped Oaqamar's assassins and are now on the run with the infant princess Sofya onboard a ship. 15 years old in mine, though 29 in body, the two are awkwardly pretending to be married as they try to figure out their next move....before their pursuers catch up to them.

Meanwhile, Oaqamar agents Lenna and Orzili are trying to deal with the fallout from Tobias' escape and to figure out where he's gone. But all is not well between them. Lenna in particular finds herself trapped in this timeline, with the younger version of the man she loves 14 years in the future who seems now to want her instead of her younger self, and she just wishes to go back....but she can't seem to justify it while the mission is undone. But her actions and use of her Walker powers to move through time may have implications she might never have expected.

And then there's Droë, the Tirribin (Time Demon) who in the future seemed to fall in love with Tobias and helped Mara know to go back in the past to find him and try to fix the misfuture. Desperate to discover what love is, and why Tobias is such that she could feel such a human and un-Tirribin emotion, she journeys across Ishevale, making contact with multiple other types of demons who don't understand her wish....to learn what love and desire truly are. But when she finds one who can help her change to understand these feelings, the result will change her completely and create something new...something that could alter the situation in Ishevale for good.....
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In Time's Children, our main character was quite clearly Tobias, though the book would alternate perspectives to show the points of view of Orzili, Lenna, Mara, and Droë (and possibly others I'm missing) from time to time. Tobias is clearly the series' main character, but in Time's Demon he probably gets the least amount of screen time of any of the characters, with Droë essentially having the main focus and the most complete story arc in this book. But we essentially have five major story arcs here, told a few chapters at a time before switching perspectives to another character's arc: the arc of Cresten in the past (a new character to this book), Droë's arc as she tries to change herself to understand love, Orzili's arc as he tries to find Tobias, Lenna's arc as she tries to both do her duty and not find herself trapped with this alternate version of the man she loves, and of course Tobias and Mara's arc as they try to protect the infant princess. (There's a sixth character who sort of has an arc that ties in with Orzili's but she's far more minor).

So many of these arcs are really interesting and make good use of the particulars of the setting - especially the way time travel works and what it costs and the way demons work and interact with one another. Lenna's story arc is perhaps the strongest and most interesting, for the second book in a row (despite her being ostensibly an antagonist!) as she finds herself trapped between her duty and the feelings that she has to help this 14 year younger version of her husband and bothered by the attraction and desire this younger version has. It's a fascinating way of being trapped by her emotions and another's desires - made even trickier by the fact that she's aware how much even the younger Orzili is trying to prevent her from losing more years to further time travel. And the book takes her in a fascinating direction, leading to pretty incredible but fascinating time travel shenanigans I'm not going to spoil here which work rather well.

Droë's storyline might seem the most cliche - demon tries to learn what love is! - but the book plays it straight and executes it so well that it's hard not to be fascinated by it and want to see how it plays out. Droë is both growing up in the process - almost in a human fashion, but most definitely not in other ways and the dichotomy makes her just hard to not want to see more of as she goes through the process up to its conclusion. Her arc is really the only one of the bunch - more on this later - that has a proper conclusion, and it's rather satisfying.

As for the other three arcs, they're not quite as strong but they all do work to some extent. Tobias and Mara's storyline is fine, with the two of them being easy to root for - the awkwardness of them pretending to be married and the awkwardness of the idea of consummation given their internal and external ages is definitely done well and makes a rather interesting read for example. Orzili's arc and the related character's arc are done well, if unspectacular. And Cresten's prequel arc is interesting in how it quite clearly is building up to something given the known characters who show up in it even early on, but doesn't quite get anywhere by the end of this book.

That's really the big issue with this book, which was also an issue with the first book to a larger extent, in that Cresten and Lenna's arcs, and the others to a lesser extent (except for Droë's arc) basically just.....end without an ending in this book, with the arcs just never revisited after their last part in this book. This is especially annoying for those two characters - for Cresten because you'll guess what his importance is rather quickly in his storyline and yet other than that reveal, it's not quite clearly why the past events matter to the present/future stories; and for Lenna because her storyline and time travel phenomena are so interesting that I'd rather have some sort of revelation or conclusion of what's going on there than move on to some of the other characters. It's just not satisfying.
Still, with so many interesting things and characters going on in Time's Demon, I'm glad I continued with this series (and grateful to the publisher for the advance copy) and will be eagerly awaiting the next installment, where I hope we have some more satisfying, if even temporary, conclusions to the arcs.

So, I’m not sure if my prayers for books actually funnel towards D.B. Jackson, but he has melded everything I love into one series and I absolutely cannot wait for the next one. Time travel + epic fantasy = perfection. And he has achieved it.

I’m mostly going to keep this review short and sweet. This book is a wonderful follow up from Time’s Children, and I think does a great job of setting up the next book. I love the world-building in this series so much—it’s comprehensive and clearly complicated, and the best thing is that it doesn’t overpower the narrative. This book definitely did a great job of adding more about the world, and rounding out some of the information about the demons. Additionally, and I’ll be brief on this so no spoilers, but I love the character arcs in this book, especially for Dröe.

Overall, this is great book for anyone who loves high or epic fantasy, and wants to read something with a new twist (seriously, I love the time travel aspect of this series).

Time’s Demon is a riveting sequel to my favorite fantasy novel of 2018, Time’s Children. The new addition to the Islevale series goes beyond the initial excitement of time travel, magical abilities and the intrigue of war to dive deeper into the dark mysteries of this masterfully created world. Gone are the trappings of youth, the thrill of joining the big leagues to use magic in new and forbidden ways. The deeds have been done, our main characters have travelled back an unimaginable distance, and the ramifications of their actions are continuing to unfold.

FASCINATING DEMONS & BEINGS GALORE

I was elated to get an expansive background on the many beings roaming the shores and seas of Islevale. All were introduced briefly in the first book, but we get to know them deeply. Jackson gives us a chance to form relationships with these characters, to see them as more than demons who haunt humans and take what they want without regard for human life. In reality, they are bound to a strict code, living in respect of the other Ancients who roam the lands. In the Tirribin, we see beings who have never been allowed to mature, who are governed by their own childish notions about respect and the value of life. In the Arrokad, we see deep knowledge and power, mixed with a propensity to deceive at every turn. Some are kinder than others but, overall, it’s clear deception is their primary game. I find the Shonla particularly fascinating. These demons roam about the seas as clouds, descending on unsuspecting ships and stealing screams from sailors. While initially presented as terrifying beings, they have a soft side, occasionally preferring song to fear. The Belvora, or winged bird-like demons, remain as questionable as ever, living up to the short-sighted connotations of the word demon. Overall, the story is rich with backstory and insight into the inner-workings of this much deeper society.

HIGHER STAKES
The initial escape is long gone and Time’s Demon takes us into the long game. Tobias and Mara are on the run, constantly under attack from humans and demons alike. It’s a tricky game, as they quickly discover, and the ensuing suspense gives rise to any number of intense situations. Their part of the story keeps the overall narrative flowing, adding an underlying fear that the infant princess won’t make it to her eventual throne. Love is also thrown into the mix, pairing Tobias and Mara into a deeper connection than either may have expected. This increases the stakes and the suspense masterfully.

A LOOK INTO THE PAST
The addition of our villain’s backstory provided a surprising layer to the story. We see how he came to be the Spanner he is today. It’s hard not to sympathize with him after seeing his unguarded past. We see his early struggles, the slow building of his skills, and the eventual surprise that sends him along the path to the super assassin he becomes.

THE PERILS OF TIME TRAVEL
The most brilliant addition comes in the form of deep conversation about time travel and the implications on various timelines. Whereas the first book offered false hope about fixing a future, the second shows that, no matter how hard one works, that timeline is lost. It’s a common acceptance among many time travel narratives, but the first book left a sliver of hope that the picturesque future from whence our protagonist came could be restored to its former glory. We see the perils in the story of Lenna, the Spanner who set the altered future in motion. Her mistake of poorly timed travel creates a paradox that’s as confusing as it is fascinating. We see the two versions of herself battling for acceptance, one’s mind going quickly, the other trying to plan her escape back to her time. Overall, we see time travel as the danger that it is. To a new Walker, it may seem glamorous and exciting. To an artificially aged Walker, the dangers are all too real.