Demon Rider

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Tobias Longdirk, sharing his body with his home village's hob, has been chased across Europe by demons, and now must make his way through a Spain devastated by war, in the company of a seemingly mad knight and his retainer.

Review
I enjoyed this second volume in the Longdirk series, but at times the road story seemed a bit of a trudge. Duncan brings in a version of Don Quijote, and while he does it well, it initially felt a bit random, and I questioned its inclusion. In the end, Quijote (or Don Ramon, as he's known here) becomes quite central, and I assume the chance to play with him was part of Duncan's impetus for writing the book.

That aside, Duncan does find ways to develop the demonic possession theme with a few interesting twists. Tobias himself doesn't change much, and at times verges on stagnant, but overall interesting things happen to him (and Hamish), and the story moves smoothly. Not the strongest of Duncan's books, but not the worst, and a decent middle book in the trilogy.