Lord Loss (Book One of The Demonata): Book 1

Product Information

When a parent turns up at school, unexpected, it means one of two things. Either somebody close to you has been seriously injured or died, or you're in trouble. It's been the biggest argument starter all my life. Mum and Dad don't put pressure on me to do well in school or at other games, but they press me all the time at chess. They make me read chess books and watch videotaped tournaments. We have long debates over meals and in Dad's study about legendary games and grandmasters, and how I can improve. They send me to tutors and keep entering me in competitions. I've argued with them about it - I'd rather spend my time watching and playing football - but they've always stood firm.

I want to ask them about it, but how? "Mum, Dad - have aliens taken over your bodies? Is somebody dead and you're too afraid to tell me? Have you all converted to Miseryism?" When I handed over my story to some of my relatives their reaction was not exactly of horror and panic. In my mind while writing it, I was expecting something like this: Other than his obvious demonic abilities, Lord Loss gained an obsession with chess, one of his only similarities to mankind, and has become very good at it. He can also travel between the Demonata's world and Earth, which no other Demon Master has accomplished without using a tunnel (though, Lord Loss is only able to do so because he once was a piece of the Kah-Gash). Despite this it turns out that he is actually one of the weaker Demon Masters, though he later becomes the strongest Demon Master after Grubbs, Bec and Kernel remake the universe. Lord Loss has also become very proficient at speaking English. He also has the ability to feed on a persons pain, which he needs the way a human needs food and water. (This is incorrect. See personality above)I trudge upstairs miserably, unable to see what all the aggro is about. It was a great joke. I laughed for hours when I thought of it. And all that hard work - chopping the rats up, mixing in some water to keep them fresh and make them gooey, getting up early, sneaking into her bathroom while she was asleep, carefully putting the guts in place - wasted! I can come downstairs for meals, and bathroom visits are allowed, but otherwise I'm a prisoner. I can't even go out at the weekends.

Your loss." Dad clears his throat. "The ballet's out of town and finishes quite late. It will be easier for us to stay in a hotel overnight." In Lord Loss, the title character is first seen killing the family of our protagonist, Grubbs, accompanied by Vein and Artery. Using his power to cure lycanthropy, a game of chess is instigated against him by Dervish. Dervish rushes to save Grubbs when he's threatened, then Grubbs takes his place and makes a bad game worse. But once he notices that Lord Loss is feeding off his misery and desperation, he puts on a disinterested façade and storms to victory. Because of Grubbs' insults to both the game of Chess and Lord Loss himself, Lord Loss vows to make the Gradys suffer, a vow that intensifies in venom as the series progresses. Forward. Kernel is taking an outdoor class(along with his friends and Art). And suddenly the Witch appears, She screams stuff about a demon thief(again) and then EXPLODES INTO MILLIONS OF BITESIZE CHUNKS. Sweet. A dead witch is better then a dead bitch. In writing this review, I shall have to be very careful not to spoil this book. In a word, this was fantastic. I truly enjoyed reading it. I had no idea what to expect and that's part of the fun, so I won't enlighten you about what this book is about. Mum heads upstairs. Dad sighs, walks to the counter, tears off several sheets of kitchen paper and mops up some of the guts and streaks of blood from the floor. After a couple of silent minutes of this, as I lie uncertainly by my upturned chair, he turns his steely gaze on me. Lots of sharp lines around his mouth and eyes - the sign that he's really angry, even angrier than he was about me smoking.

Plot Outline:

Grubbs Grady lives with his chess-obsessed parents and sister, Gret. After pulling a prank on her, he's grounded. But after a while, his parents end his grounding early, and he gets treated special. When his parents and Gret go out, he's knows something's going on. He sneaks out of his aunt's house, goes home and finds his parents and sister dead, horribly and gruesomely murdered. The killers? Demons. How long has he been smoking? That's what I want to know!" Mum's started referring to me in the third person since Dad arrived. I'm beneath direct mention. Then something happened... I won't say what it is to avoid spoiling anything... and i felt it was the most ridiculous thing I've ever read in a book, ridiculous and unrealistic. I had to keep reminding myself constantly that it was fiction with supernatural things happening so it was supposed to be unrealistic. I started wondering if this was a genre that could work for me... It didn't seem like it.

PLOT: Wonderfully created. The author knows exactly when to twist the tale, when you least expect it. The ending is perfect... I could not decide whether to find Demonata #2 Demon Thief a sequel or an entirely different story.This is a fast paced story of Kernel, a kid who can see lights and can move them and everyone thinks he’s mentally ill for that. The true reason of the lights is because he can open windows to different universes and access through them. That’s how he discovered the universe of demons, better known as The Demonata. Lord Loss also seems to have a sense of arrogance, particularly when it comes to his skill at chess, but at the same time he has shown signs of cowardice. While he claims he does not fear Beranabus, he is nonetheless unwilling to face the Demonata's deadliest enemy in direct combat. Furthermore, as he is actually one of the weaker Demon Master's, he has even been described as "pathetic" and even seems to realise this himself, although after the rest of the Demon Master's were wiped out by the Kah Gash, he stated that he was now the deadliest of all the surviving Demons. Yup. That guy after whom the book was named upon, and his two familiars Artery and Vein. HE ESCAPES THEM. I rated three rather than five as the story didn't addict or fully captivate me yet. It has the potential to and I'll definitely keep reading. She deserved it!" I cry. "She's done worse to me! She told Mum about me smoking - I know it was her! And remember the time she melted my lead soldiers? And cut up my comics? And - "