A rather interesting novel where magic is real, and a black magician summons all the demons of Hell to roam free on Earth, for a single night.
This novel surprised me, as it was chosen mostly because of its page count and because it wasn’t a space opera. I wanted to read something alongside Leviathan Wakes that I could focus on while other members of my book club catched up to me. In two more weeks I would be literally the last place to finish it, but still, at the time it was a good idea.
I was interested in reading a novel by James Blish named A Case of Conscience, since it’s apparently one of his best works, but the page count was a bit too high to read alongside something else, and I decided to read it as my main focus later on. I saw Black Easter on my Kobo in the same folder, it had a shorter page count, I saw it wasn’t a space opera, and I went for it.
The book itself starts with a note by Blish, stating that this work was trying to represent magic and demonology in a serious and viable way, instead of the romantiziced view shown by other books of the time.
I found this interesting since the book was published in the 1950s, and I honestly don’t know what were the works that was referrencing at the time. My guess is it was something similar to the movies where a girl falls in love with a werewolf or vampire, or the way astrology is used to find the ideal partner by some people. I didn’t bother looking up more about this but feel free to share if you know about the topic.
The story itself is rather interesting. In this world, sorcery is real, the spells and summonings of demons found on real grimoires from the medieval times, actually work. There are black magicians, and a Catholic order of white magicians too. Magic has real power in this world.
A rich arms dealer has decided to contract the best black magician in the business, specialized on murders, a task fulfilled by summoning demons, who take different appearances and posess different traits, the descriptions and names of those demons are like the kind of thing you would read in Revelations, multiple heads, of lions, goats, snakes; or taking on a human form, with exentric personalities or attractive traits. There are a couple of tests first where the black magician shows its skill, and after that, the real request is made: to unleash all the demons of Hell on Earth to roam free.
Pretty much everything related to how demons are summoned and how rituals are made is taken straight out of real texts and manuscripts from medieval times, the descriptions and the way the “experiments” are performed can honestly be compared to a normal science class, but instead of dealing with chemical reactions or physics, you deal with demonology, magic and symbols.
The characters have some interesting traits, and they kind of represent different views of how they perceive magic and their own desires. Some of them want to see their world burn because they are bored, others seek pleasure and lust, others just want to learn and acquire the knowledge of the Art and others want to use it for good.
The speculation and dialogue from the characters regarding theology, demonology, religion and humanity is rather interesting. With some talk about the problem of Evil, the contradiction between black magic existing and God’s Omnipotence, the downfall of mankind and its constant back and forth between spirituality and secularization, if the demons they see with their own eyes are not real and they are all just experiencing mass hysteria, among other things.
The writing style of this novel completely clashes with the previous works I’ve read, it is not an action-filled adventure after all, and it has aged a bit in some aspects, like how people talk; the spells and manuscripts quoted are usually old style English, with thou’s and thee’s everywhere. The narration has a rather serious tone, the description of the experiments and events don’t really have flare, it’s all very scientific, like a documentary even.
Despite this, I still enjoyed it. The writing was still really good, if a bit of an acquired taste. The story progressed rather nicely, and the topic at hand was enough to keep me reading until the end. I actually flew through the final pages of the book, the way it is described is honestly not what I expected, but it makes sense, and I somehow did not expect it to end as it did.
The book has a sequel novel titled The Day After Judgement, which I’ll probably read soon enough.
Overall, I really enjoyed it for what it is, it will probably not be in my top 5 of the year, but I appreciate what it is going for and respect it a lot. It made me think about things and it kept me entertained for a few hours, I’m glad I gave it a go, and I hope I read more from the author sometime soon.
