Pandemonium

Starred review from July 7, 2008
Believable characters, a multilayered plot and smooth prose define Gregory's darkly ambitious debut novel. In this fascinating alternative time line, thousands of demon possessions have been carefully recorded by scientists each year since the 1950s. Each case is always the same: a recognizable, named “strain of the disorder” possesses a person, wreaks havoc and then jumps on to its next victim. Del Pierce's case is unique: when the Hellion possessed him at the age of five, it never left. Now an unhappy 20-something, Del undertakes a dangerous quest to exorcise the Hellion as it fights him for control. The trim prose keeps the pace intense and the action red hot through some emotionally disturbing scenes and heavy backstory. Absorbing psychological discussions of possession abound, from Jungian archetypes to the eye of Shiva. Readers will delve deeply into Gregory's highly original demon-infested reality and hope for a sequel.

Starred review from August 15, 2008
In Gregory's alternate world, the 1950s saw the emergence of a new phenomenon in which ordinary people began to be possessednot by demons from Hell but by archetypes straight from the collective unconsciousness. Among these are the Kamikaze, who drives its hosts to spectacular acts of suicide or assassination; the Truth, who destroys liars; and the Little Angel, a young girl in a nightgown, who visits the dying and whose kiss speeds them to their inevitable end. Since he was five, Del Pierce has been possessed by the Hellion, a creature part Dennis the Menace, part total destructive mayhem. To all appearances, Del is now free of the "demon," and his family simply believes that he has been mentally ill. But Del knows that the Hellion is still trapped within his body, always on the edge of breaking his host's eroding control. Rising sf/fantasy star Gregory, winner of the Asimov's Reader's Award for his novelette "Second Person, Present Tense," demonstrates his skill at full-length storytelling in a debut novel that breaks new ground while paying homage to some of the genre's most iconoclastic authors, A.E. Van Vogt and Philip K. Dick. Most libraries should introduce sf fans to this bright new voice of the 21st century.

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