Reading Challenge

A couple days ago, Seak posted this over at his blog:

Feeling Challengy?

I was thinking not too long ago about what if I just grabbed a random book from the bookstore and tried it out. One whose author I've never heard of before and maybe just because the cover strikes me in a certain way.

Hence a challenge.

So, we're trying to find those "diamonds in the rough". And while we know this won't work out best for everyone, as a collective, maybe we can find some really good stuff that no one has read.

Consider yourself challenged.

A bunch of other bloggers are participating, including a couple of the dudes from Speculative Book Review as well as some awesome blogging ladies:

Simcha from SFF Chat

Melissa from My World...in words and pages

Amanda from Floor to Ceiling Books

Oh yeah, and then there's me.

Selecting the perfect book for the challenge was a challenge in and of itself. I was looking for a somewhat specific, yet random blend of sweet cover, slim page count, and, fingers crossed, a female author. My search led me to this little gem: Here Be Demons by Esther Friesner.


Here's the blurb from the back: The road to hell is paved with bad intentions...but intentions alone are not enough. Hell hates a failure, and the archdemon Atamar has just not been pulling his weight in the competitive world of bad deeds, rotten behavior, and corruption of mortal souls. So he and his team of junior demons have been put on probation - thrown out of the comforts of Hell into the realm of the living. They wont be allowed back in until they've collected a fat bonus of innocent souls, fully corrupted and ready to drag down to the Devil himself.

Unfortunately Atamar has landed in the desert, miles from the nearest known sin - until a team of American archeology students arrives for a summer dig. And when the gleeful demons descend to do their worst, they discover that their idea of bad deeds is sadly out of date - at least when the youth of America is involved!

Should be interesting!