THE DEVIL’S INTERVENTION
What should a writer do when the fictional character on which they built their reputation has run out of literary rope? The obvious answer is to replace them with someone new, although that’s easier said than done. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thought he’d seen the last of Sherlock Holmes when he killed him off at the Reichenbach falls, until pressure from the public and his creditors forced him to bring the pipe smoking detective back from the dead! British science fiction author Derek E Pearson faced a similar though less dramatic challenge with Milla Carter, the kick ass heroine of his Body Holiday and Souls Asylum novels, who in the final book battled a deadly alien swarm.
After bringing Milla’s interplanetary adventures to an end, Pearson’s task was to replace her with a character who could match her ability to connect with the reader. Preacher Spindrift, a fallen angel with attitude, fulfils the brief. Like Milla he is compassionate, quick witted, and in possession of a black and white sense of “natural” justice, yet unlike her he is fated to eternally wander the earth. He can never stay anywhere long enough to have lasting friendships, only significant acquaintanceships, while his title is a provocative misnomer. Spindrift will never be a preacher as long as his “issues” with God remain unresolved, and although his first name is Satan his long-term purpose is to fight evil rather than encourage it. A larger than life figure requires a monumental sized drama to herald his arrival and in Gods’ Enemy the Texas town of Mule’s Ass is Spindrift’s stage.
The year is 1883 and panic has gripped the town’s citizens after the body of a young man is discovered face down in a mound of fire ants. The victim has been brutally murdered and sexually assaulted and it’s up to Sheriff Caleb Sawyer to track down the killer. However, Sawyer’s investigation will be anything but straightforward, although it’s Spindrift’s expertise that will turn its course. Forensics are crude and apart from the sparse evidence gathered from the crime scene, there’s little else to go on until the victim’s post-mortem turns up a horrifying development. The body was a conduit for the Sha-aneer, a hideous ancient creature that devours the flesh and souls of mankind. It is the enemy that stalks humanity, which is ignorant of its existence, and only Spindrift and Sawyer have what it takes to face down the threat. Can they destroy the Sha-aneer before it overruns a country, a continent, and the world?
In Gods’ Fool, the action shifts to 1917 where the first great allied tank battle is underway at Cambrai, France. Doctor Spindrift has enlisted as a surgeon, impressing everyone with his medical brilliance, yet he is ever watchful for his nemesis which isn’t slow to exploit the war’s chaos. Joined by his Texan ally Captain Colin Cahoon, Spindrift must destroy the Sha-aneer and find the link connecting it to a mysterious group of nuns, a louche police chief, and the disappearance of some local children. He’s also under considerable pressure to build a plausible cover story to explain these supernatural goings on to the sceptical military authorities!
Pearson’s narrative is intricate and imaginative, while the stories are rich with atmosphere, detail, and menace. Spindrift may be the hunter, but he is also the hunted. The Sha-aneer pursues him with the same ruthless calculation he uses against it and the battle to see which of the two will outwit the other is intensely gripping. However, the real strength of the story is its re-working of theology.
It’s not often that the devil is cast as a hero yet in this instance the accolade is deserved. Spindrift is a man of courage, not deceit, and his mission to save humanity is both a lonely and frustrating one. The Sha-aneer was earth’s first occupant, until it was usurped by the alien General Organism Development Systems (GODS). Its goal is to reclaim its territory and humanity’s destructive behaviour is the medium it exploits to fulfil that objective. Spindrift knows that as-long-as wars are fought and lives needlessly destroyed, he will be condemned to wander through time. He has every reason to feel bitter, but if anything he endures his fate with total selflessness and that magnifies the basic decency and compassion of his character.
The idea of bestowing the devil with the goodness humanity reveres is a provocative one, but then Pearson is a writer who isn’t afraid to play with controversy. He is encouraging his readers to think and ask the questions that are both obvious and uncomfortable. Why do we give blind, unswerving obedience to a higher power? Why can’t the devil be admired rather than feared? Why does the devil take the rap for everything that goes wrong in the world? Who is the greater evil, the devil or mankind? In Satan Spindrift, Pearson has constructed a towering, sympathetic character who matches the intelligence and fearlessness of Milla Carter.
Reviewed by Juliette Foster
© Archant Community Media Limited used under limited licence
Why not add Gods’ Fool and Gods’ Warrior to your Derek E. Pearson collection? Click the covers to find out more about these and other books by the author. Why not listen to Derek E Pearson reading an excerpt from his novel Slave Skins, or watch a video of him in conversation with Read2Write’s Juliette Foster.
