- Paperback: 208 pages
- Publisher: Baen Books; New edition edition (25 Aug 1994)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1555940536
- ISBN-13: 978-1555940539
- Product Dimensions: 17 x 10.4 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 4,812,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
The Fallible Fiend is a fantasy novel written by L. Sprague de Camp, the third book of his Novarian series. It was first published as a two-part serial in the magazine Fantastic for December 1972 and February 1973, and subsequently expanded and revised for book publication. In its original form it won the 1973 British Fantasy Award for short story.
On the demonic Twelfth Plane the demon Zdim is drafted for a year's indentured servitude on the human Prime Plane, the demon society having an agreement to provide service to human sorcerers in return for supplies of iron, a raw material it desperately needs.
Zdim is duly summoned to the Prime Plane by the sorcerer Dr. Maldivius of Novaria. There he strives to do his duty, but his demonic literal-mindedness hampers him. Assigned to protect the Sibylline Sapphire from any trespassers, he promptly eats Maldivius' apprentice Grax when the latter intrudes.
Similar misadventures result in the disgusted Maldivius selling his contract, and the demon is passed from one master to another, from circus master Bagardo to the rich widow Roska of Ir, all the while doing his level best to figure out what the muddled humans truly wish of him.
Against all odds he becomes a hero when he recruits aid for the city-state of Ir after it discounts intelligence of an imminent invasion by the cannibal Paaluans. Returning to his home plane early and with extra iron, he resolves never again to leave the comforts of the Twelfth Plane - until he realizes how dull it is compared with the picturesque insanity of the human realm...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
This is a nice book in Sprague de Camp's inimitable style. Take the classic situation of a wizard summoning a demon - but from the demon's point of view. The eponymous fiend tries hard to make sense of a human world through a series of adventures and the readers' sympathies are with him all the way.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
6 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Set in Novaria
18 Feb 2001
Format:Mass Market Paperback
de Camp uses his common fantasy setting of Novaria for this book, and throws a typical plot twist by having a demon as the central character. Mind you, a demon in this sense is simply a being from another dimension, and Zdim happens to be a mild mannered, scholarly sort of being who (for instance) tries to trade off on his boyhood freindship with the magistrate to avoid the summons to serve on the human plane in exchange for iron. Zdim just wants to stay home, bite his wife, raise rabbages and help hatch the kidlings.
But he is denied a wavier and whence the adventure begins.
de Camp's one central grace for me is he writes about people. His villians will look at you and say, "Me, a villian? But you, dear sir, are far more a villian!" And they mean it, spouting viewpoints which are (in the villian's sense) perfectly logical (if not exactly moral). Culture clash is often the center of his stories. Take a demon skilled in logic and reason and throw him in with barbaric humans and you wind up with non stop exasperation and amazement at the duplicity involved. As Zdim points out, 'feindishly clever' is quiet a strange racial tag for the incessantly cunning and devious humans to come up with!
"I endeavor to give satisfaction," is perhaps the exasperated catch phrase of the de Camp books.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Typical DeCamp -- Who ever said all Demons are bad people
30 July 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After many years searching for a copy of this work, I finally came accross one a few months back. It is classic DeCamp. Who else would use a Fiend or Demon as the protagonist is a story and pull it off. How did he accomplish this you might ask? Simple, he does a wonderful job rationalizing its actions by creating a social structure in which it conforms to. By doing this he has created a Demon the reading can relate to. So when our hero is forced into enslavement in the human plane (which is much more caotic than his own) the comedic floodgates are open. As in most of DeCamp's works the humor mixed with great storytelling is unsurpassed. I recommend this work (if you can find it) to anyone who is in need for a little escapism which does not attempt to take itself too seriously.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
It's Just Fun.
29 Nov 2004
Format:Paperback
Whether it's SF or Fantasy, writing humorously is when de Camp is at his best. De Camp's use of language isn't what readers are use to anymore. He demands his readers' attention which isn't a bad thing at all. The language along with that `clash of cultures' theme helps bring out the humor.
Zdim is a demon, conjured by a wizard, into a world where he just doesn't want to be. He's also a lousy indentured servant. He thinks-too literally-for his own good. And throughout the story he never quite gets the hang of humans or the Primal Plane (or rather the 12th plan being that he knows he's from the Primal Plane). Of course, one misadventure leads to another.
The book is a short and fast read. That never goes wrong.
Zdim is a demon, conjured by a wizard, into a world where he just doesn't want to be. He's also a lousy indentured servant. He thinks-too literally-for his own good. And throughout the story he never quite gets the hang of humans or the Primal Plane (or rather the 12th plan being that he knows he's from the Primal Plane). Of course, one misadventure leads to another.
The book is a short and fast read. That never goes wrong.
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