3.5
The Devil You Know
ByPublisher Description
The greatest philosopher of all time is offering to sell his soul to the Devil. All he wants is twenty more years to complete his life’s work. After that, he really doesn’t care.
But the assistant demon assigned to the case has his suspicions, because the philosopher is Saloninus–the greatest philosopher, yes, but also the greatest liar, trickster and cheat the world has yet known; the sort of man even the Father of Lies can’t trust.
He’s almost certainly up to something; but what?
"Parker generates a fair degree of suspense... an accomplished performance." -- Gary K. Wolfe (for Locus Magazine)
At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download the free Fable app
Stay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.
Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building tool
Rate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tags
Curate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesStay organized
Keep track of what you’re reading, what you’ve finished, and what’s next.Build a better TBR
Swipe, skip, and save with our smart list-building toolRate and review
Share your take with other readers with half stars, emojis, and tagsCurate your feed
Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities56 Reviews
3.5
Megan Rang
Created about 2 months agoShare
Report
“An elderly well known philosopher makes a deal with a demon for an additional 20 years of life. The demon doesn’t know the philosopher has something more sinister in mind.”Emily
Created 4 months agoShare
Report
Eol
Created 4 months agoShare
Report
glassesgirl79
Created 6 months agoShare
Report
““The Devil You Know” is a novella focusing on Saloninus, the greatest philosopher of all time and an assistant demon as the assistant attempts to fulfill a contact but instead ends up being a fooled by a mortal.
The novella begins with an unnamed narrator telling the reading that they don’t do evil when they’re not on duty similar to how prostitutes tend to not have sex on their days off. The narrator then shares with the reader what they do on a day off including reading a book, spending time with friends and going to the opera. The narrator shares that you don’t have to enjoy your work to be good at it and that his job doing evil actually offends him.
After a fellow demon shares with the narrator that more intellectuals are needed to keep balance in hell the narrator is surprised when a customer, Saloninus, requests to work with him by name despite the narrator working hard to remain obscure. Upon meeting Saloninus, the narrator asks for an autograph of a book he recently bought from a bookseller then remarks he’s a big fan of all the things Saloninus wrote, which consists of books as well as forged wills and promissory notes for gambling debts. Saloninus tells the narrator that he set out to prove that Gods, Devils, ghosts, and goblins are myths leading the narrator to asks why Saloninus would enter an agreement with something he believes to be a myth.
The narrator attempts to make sure that the seventy-seven-year-old Saloninus understands that by signing the contract, when he dies, he will go to hell which is unpleasant and is surprised when Saloninus laughs at him. The narrator attempts to tease out why Saloninus wants to sell his soul to the Devil but Saloninus is secretive to the narrator about purpose for wanting to sign the contact.
Saloninus shares with the reader his life before becoming a philosopher as a child of a farmer who worried about everything then dying while Saloninus was away at the Studium. Saloninus boasts of his skills as a forger and being a self-made man before alluding to the narrator past instances of humans besting and trapping demons before signing the contract presented to him by the narrator.
The narrator tells Saloninus that he is his case worker and that as his case worker, this provides him with access to certain supernatural powers. When the narrator knocks over his ink we’ll, Saloninus asks him to pick it up and at this point, I feel that Saloninus has probably quickly tricked the narrator somehow. Supernatural powers that the narrator provides to Saloninus including rejuvenation, removal of arthritis, sore back, immunity from homicide, accident, or misadventure and being able to fly from library to library.
Saloninus has the narrator fly him to all the kingdoms of the Earth and Saloninus is surprised by how considerate the narrator is towards him. To the narrator, there is no right or wrong, only difference perspectives.
After Saloninus tells the narrator to conjure him an army to attack Mysia, an often-attacked town, the narrator chooses to work with Alban, a human who often engages in battles. As the war progresses, the narrator tries to figure out Saloninus’ motive for starting war on Mysia and even Alban suspects that Saloninus is attempting to get rid of people to make those remaining more receptive to his great hypothesis.
Saloninus eventually shares with the reader his grand plan of selling his soul to mine gold which he believes that the narrator doesn’t know about. In reality, the narrator is well aware of the secret golden deposits but feels that Saloninus surely wouldn’t be stupid enough to trade his soul for gold when the can easily be given to him if he only asks for it.
As the novella progresses, Saloninus decides that with the gold in Mysia, he tells the narrator that he wants to turn it into a genuine pirate kingdom. As the narrator begins to get a feeling that Saloninus has somehow tricked him but finds nothing unusual in their contract.
The narrator laments of the lack of creativity and artists in Mysia as well as the only books in the city either bring written by Saloninus or commentaries, rejections, or defenses of his books. After a year of being Saloninus’ servant in Mysia, Saloninus requests the narrator to gather the world’s greatest living painters, sculptors, and architects so he can be a patron of the arts. After the narrator updates Saloninus on the arrival of the creatives, it is revealed that Saloninus intentionally had the narrator procure the artists to make the narrator happy. The narrator is shocked when Saloninus says that he views the narrator as a decent individual who’s not a bad person but just happens to work for Evil. The narrator is told by Saloninus that he is the reason that an ideal society has been created by deciding to bring women to Mysia as companions for the bad men and creative geniuses.
When given the choice of letting the nation grow or to confess his actions to his superiors and throw himself at their mercy. As the narrator attempts to undo the damage he’s done by bringing women to the town, him and Saloninus have verbal conflict before the reader learns of Saloninus’ attempt to use alchemy to turn metal into gold and his ability to misdirect all, including Devils.
When the narrator discovers Saloninus performing alchemy, he tells him that it’s a dark art and say that he has to report the experiment to his superiors. The narrator shares that the two worst things a person who has sold his soul to the devil can do is alchemy or necromancy. Over time, Saloninus lulls the narrator into a false sense of security and leads him to believe that they are friends which alarms that narrator.
Saloninus eventually asks the narrator to perform necromancy by bringing his dead wife back from the dead. When the narrator asks Saloninus why it is so vital to bring his wife back from the dead, he convinces the bar other his wife didn’t die by instead took a young portion and Saloninus set the narrator on a mission to find the youthful woman.
Upon not finding Saloninus’ wife, the narrator finally decides to report Saloninus’ behavior to his superiors only to be told that in the event that Saloninus has somehow found a way to make himself immortal, the narrator is bound to be his servant for life. Soon the narrator plans to work with Divisional Command to break his contract with Saloninus as unbeknownst to the narrator, he has his own plan to stop his still unknown plan.
The narrator worries when Saloninus says he’s planning to blown himself up to see if her is immortal or not as an experiment. After hearing Saloninus’ plan, the narrator believes that Saloninus is lying and is act planning to raise an army of immortals to conquer the world before attempting to storm Heaven. After being failed by his superiors, the narrator decides to work to keep Saloninus in his place as a mortal. When the narrator confronts Saloninus about his plan to raise an immortal army, threaten to blow up the Earth, and besiege Heaven, he is surprised when Saloninus doesn’t deny the plan to either become a godhead or burn in hellfire.
The narrator attempts to make a deal to burn Saloninus’ contract in exchange for all of his alchemy equipment. In the end, Saloninus agrees to burning his contract with the guarantee of keeping his youth of being twenty-five years old and Mysia, having fifty to sixty years of natural life before quietly dying and going to paradise. As Saloninus tears up the contract, he confesses to the narrator that the contract was invalid anyway since Saloninus did not actually sign his name.
The novella ends with the narrator feeling conflicted by Saloninus’ confession and feels love and hate towards him. No longer committed to Saloninus’ as his servant, the narrator leaves Mysia while Saloninus shares with the reader how he was able to set up various schemes to retrieve his soul from enteral damnation.
As I finished this novella, I felt confused at times while reading the novella since the chapters are unlabeled and also that the reader is unsure of who the narrator is at times as well as which of the two character in the novel can really be trusted.”
Norman Jackson
Created 7 months agoShare
Report
Start a Book Club
Start a public or private book club with this book on the Fable app today!FAQ
Do I have to buy the ebook to participate in a book club?
Why can’t I buy the ebook on the app?
How is Fable’s reader different from Kindle?
Do you sell physical books too?
Are book clubs free to join on Fable?
How do I start a book club with this book on Fable?
Save to a list
0
/30
0
/100
Private List