Book Review: Damoren by Seth Skorkowsky

In the same vein as SUPERNATURAL, HELLBOY, and BLADE comes…DÄMOREN.

A secret society of monster hunters. A holy revolver forged to eradicate demons. A possessed man with a tragic past. A rising evil bent on destroying them all. Matt Hollis is the current wielder of the holy weapon, Dämoren. With it, he stalks and destroys demons. A secret society called the Valducans has taken an interest in Matt’s activities. They see him as a reckless rogue—little more than a ‘cowboy’ corrupted by a monster—and a potential threat to their ancient order.

As knights and their sentient weapons begin dying, Matt teams up with other hunters of his kind such as Luiza, a woman with a conquistador blade; Allan, an Englishman with an Egyptian khopesh; Malcolm, a voodoo priest with a sanctified machete; and Takaira, a naginata-swinging Samurai. As the hunters become the hunted, they must learn to trust one another before a powerful demonic entity thrusts the world into a terrible and ageless darkness.

My Review:
Monster hunter Clay tracked a pack of Wendigos but was unable to stop them killing Matt's family and attacking the boy, infecting him with a demon that allows him speedy healing and other abilities. Instead of killing him, Clay's holy weapon chooses to spare Matt and Clay trains Matt as a monster hunter. Now Matt owns Damoren and is making his own way in the world, trying to save people from monsters. It brings him into contact with a holy order of hunters and their weapons, during a time of crisis with their enemies. The Valducans don't trust Matt because of his tainted blood but they must protect Damoren and he is reluctantly brought into the team.

This really was a totally different version of urban fantasy to my recent reads. I loved the idea that all these weapons picked an owner to work with, bonding with them and allowing them to use its power to kill monsters and protect people. The weapons whose owners have died wait until they find someone they want to bond with and then make it known. It was fun to read about these holy weapons having a sense of self and creating a firm bond with the chosen owner. Matt has bonded with Damoren, a holy revolver with special limited edition bullets and a knife blade. Having Matt know that he must gather the bullets and casings for re-use after every battle adds a new level of interest to these monster battles. The other weapons are from various countries and mythologies and I enjoyed seeing them and their owners.

The history of the Order was fascinating. Eight knights and their weapons were hired by the Pope to protect during the Crusades but all were ex-communicated for bringing in Muslims to the Order and protecting their holy weapons. Now weapons from around the world are under the protection of the Valducans but eighteen have gone missing, most of them destroyed, in just a few months. The Order are trying to get everyone to their safe retreat where the weapons are safe and from there, try to protect those that are still out in the real worlgetting to them before the monsters can destroy them. I really liked hearing about the Order and their work, and getting to see so many different hunters and their weapons. I liked the flashbacks to the story of Damoren too.

The characters are also interesting. Matt first comes into contact with Max and Allan. Max isn't exactly thrilled to be contacting Matt, knowing his history but the safety of the weapons is under threat from demon attacks with various species working together. Max feels he has to protect Damoren even if it means bringing Matt along. Allan was my favourite character and is of a better attitude to Matt, becoming his first real friend. I was also a big fan of Takaira. Malcolm is the love to hate guy who wants to always believe the worst in Matt but I like the way he evolves during the story. The hunters in general were an interesting group and although I was annoyed by how some of them treated Matt, I did understand why they were behaving that way so nit didn't lead me to hate any of them, which was good.

The action scenes are great because of the wide variety of monsters featured and the different scenarios that they find themselves in. They can fight from rural Canada, then be battling in compounds and museums in mainland Europe. There are Wendigos, vampires, werewolves, demons, lamia, ghouls. There should certainly be more wendigos in books as they totally fascinate me! It is varied and with everyone using different weapons in the same fight, it is entertaining to read. The action scenes are well written and I never got bored, even when there was a lull in the action as it was full of character development and lore to keep me interested. The more I read, the more interested I was in finding out more. 

It had exactly the right mix of action and information, a great range of characters and skills on display and a fascinating plot which brings in history and folklore. Although the weapons are 'holy', there is no heavy religious plot to overpower the paranormal elements. I thought there was enough history there to give depth to the story without boring the reader and enough monsters to shake a stick at for creature feature fans. Be ready for a few sad moments too-I got quite emotional over the fates of some characters! I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

Read August 2019
4 stars.