Reader Laura Hicks gives Julie Kenner’s Carpe Demon a light and airy read. She was clearly more impressed with the comic aspects of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom than the more serious ones. The story was a bit silly, would it have been better with a more serious reader? AudioFile seemed to think so. I think a good reader can improve a book, but in the end, it still comes down to the written words they are reading.
I always liked Buffy The Vampire Slayer-I was not a fan of the movie, but the television series. I loved the whole set up in the beginning. One Slayer-One Watcher-Vampires beware. There seemed to be a large organization in place, even though there was only one Slayer at a time, for some totally baffling reason. Lots of things in Buffy were fun and it didn’t matter that most of it made next to no sense at all.
Carpe Demon-the Adventures of Demon-Hunter Soccer Mom is the story of Buffy as older married woman with two kids. There are plenty of silly things that makes absolutely no sense here as well-you kill a demon by puncturing it’s left eye for example-but as with Buffy the details don’t really matter. There is enough of the feeling of Buffy and the Council of Watcher to feel right at home in this Universe with Hunters and a Vatican Lead world wide order of Demon Hunters.
Of course, it isn’t Buffy The Soccor Mom, but it’s hard not imagine a movie starring Sarah Mechelle Geller as the slightly out of shape and forced out of retirement Hunter. There is a Big Bad moving into the overly cute named San Diablo, California. The retired Hunter with a three year old son and a teenager daughter has to deal with the sudden intrusion of her old life when a Demon crashes through her kitchen window one night. There are twists and turns as everyone might be a demon and how can she stop the Really Bad Demon from getting his slimy paws on the power to bring forth his demon hordes?
Carpe Demon tends to wander a bit. I could have lived without the trails and tribulations of getting a daycare for Timmy-though I have to admit that reader Laura Hicks did an amazing job of capturing that totally annoying sound of a three year’s voice. I understand why some animals eat their young. The kids and the Minivan and the play dates are all a part of the story-the challenges that the hot little teenage Hunter never had to worry about while she was traveling the world killing demons, vampires, and assorted baddies.
There were a lot of funny bits and I enjoyed Capre Demon quite a lot. The reader Laura Hicks, in addition to the usual duties of adding a bit of character by changing voices for the men, women, and kids in the story, was also called on to make the occasional Demon Voice. When the Demon speaks the voice is dramatically different from the normal voice we have become used to hearing. It is deep and threatening and, of course, evil. So I have to wonder if she got someone to do the demon voice for her, or if she used a synthesizer of some sort. The Cyclons in the original Battlestar Gallatica were an electronic voice synth trick-and one that I really liked. I liked the Demon voice here as well.
In the the tradition of all modern writers Julie Kenner has a whole series of Demon-Hunter books. Carpe Demon just happened to be one I found on my library shelf. They have cutesy title and seem to be more Buffy saves the world stuff. Good to know that someone is still out saving the world.
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