... only two things live forever, the instruments of darkness and works of genius. Which, I now had disturbingly good reason to believe, might not be such separate categories as I’d once thought. [loc. 877]
A grimly cheerful novella about an exorcist, a couple of demons and a polymath with ambitious ideas: also extremely informative on the subject of casting massive bronze statues.
Our nameless narrator first encountered a demon before he was born: one particular demon, in fact, that periodically possesses other humans, until our narrator locates Him and drives Him out. Maybe that early experience is part of the reason he's the best at what he does. Exorcising a demon from a human isn't pleasant for either party, but the demons -- who are immortal -- suffer magnitudes more.
Curious statistic: in this Renaissance-adjacent world, the human population is fifteen million, and they are plagued by exactly 72, 936 demons, two of which feature in this story. There's the one that our narrator met in the womb, known as He, and a new one that he identifies as female. Both demons have plans involving Prosper of Schanz, a polymath genius who wants to make a bronze horse larger than anything that's ever been made -- and who also wants to tutor the young prince who will eventually ascend to the throne. A worthy conduit for demonic machinations ...
Morally grey, sometimes really quite unsettling, and often very funny. The opening scene is especially gory, but it's the narrative equivalent of an opening chord, rather than setting the tone throughout. This is classic Parker with its combination of practical engineering, lesser evils balanced against greater ones, and a narrator with an unhappily clear view of his own failings.
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