Kai Wren, AKA Lord Demon, made his name a thousand years ago, during the Demon Wars which forever changed the status quo between gods and demons. Since then, he mostly retired from (other-)worldly affairs and dedicated himself to his art – namely, the creation of magical bottles of many wonderous properties.
His quiet routine is shattered when his trusted human servant is murdered by scrub demons. While investigating, he gradually uncovers a plot that threatens all of demonkind.
One of Roger Zelazny’s last two novels, inspired by Chinese Mythology. Zelazny sadly passed away before finishing it, and it was completed by his friend Jane Lindskold.
Lord Demon provides examples of:
- Addled Addict: Devor is a very ancient, formerly respected demon, but his addiction to gambling and imbue pretty much ruined him.
- Arranged Marriage: Kai Wren is offered Spilling Moonbeams' hand in marriage. Both sides are free to refuse, but it's considered a very advantageous match. Since demons (supposedly) don't feel love anyway, this is probably very common.
- Becoming the Mask: The fu dogs Shiriki and Chamballa were originally sent by the gods to spy on Kai Wren, but quickly determined that their masters didn't care one lick about them and switched sides.
- Big Bad Friend: Viss of the Terrible Tongue to Kai Wren.
- Bigger on the Inside: Every one of Kai Wren's bottles contains a Small, Secluded World. They're a popular housing option for those who can afford it.
- The Blacksmith: Seven Fingers.
- Blood Knight: Viss of the Terrible Tongue. At some point Kai Wren arrives at her residence and realizes that all the paintings depicting battles on the walls are rendered in minute, sadistic detail, something he never noticed before.
- Broken Pedestal:
- Kai Wren discovers that his beloved mentor Viss betrayed him and has been manipulating him for a very long time, much to his heartbreak.
- A very mild version for Kai Wren on the part Spilling Moonbeams, who goes from hero-worshipping him to being slightly disappointed at his “too human” tendencies.
- Canis Major: The fu dogs. At some point the heroes encounter a newer batch of dogs bred by the gods, who are bigger, more monstrous, and a lot dumber than Shiriki and Chamballa.
- Cassandra Truth: Ba Wa tells Kai Wren right away that Tuvoon was responsible for O’Keefe’s murder, but Kai quickly dismisses it as soon as Viss tells him it’s not true. This turns out to be a catastrophic mistake on his part.
- Chekhov's Gun: The green-and-orange bottle from the first paragraph of the book plays a crucial part in the conclusion.
- Cool Old Guy:
- Li Piao, a human sorcerer who becomes Kai Wren's closest ally and friend.
- He of the Towers of Light is the demon version, being tens of thousands of years older than Li Piao. He and Li Piao seem to be getting along well by the end of the book.
- Cultured Badass: Like many a Zelazny protagonist, Kai Wren is a great warrior and also a renowned artist and man (demon) of culture.
- Deus ex Machina: The bottle that Kai Wren creates at the start of the book has the power to grant him any three wishes. At first, he doesn't want to use it, preferring to solve his problems the old fashioned way, but when the fight starts turning against him, he uses the first wish to boot his enemies to their home dimension, and the second to fix whatever is causing the birth of damaged demon babies.
- Elemental Plane: Some of the planes the protagonists pass through are like this, most memorably the Sock Plane (where all the lost socks go) and the Hanger Plane (which contains murderous coat hangers).
- The Fair Folk: Angus of the Hills is an Irish sidhe, although very benevolent for this trope – he seems to get on fine with the human population in his area of influence. The existence of Faerie Courts is alluded to.
- Fantastic Nuke: Theronic weapons are the fantastic equivalent of weapons prohibited by the Geneva Convention, as they directly destroy chi.
- Fatal Flaw: Kai Wren's seems to be his impulsiveness - he is used to being so powerful that he never really bothers to plan ahead or consider his actions, which causes him no end of trouble. This is partially remedied via Character Development, although he still concludes the book with asking a human woman he barely knows to marry him.
- Goth: Night Bride is mentioned as the demon variant, having bought into the image of demons as dark and evil. She’s not evil herself, just melodramatic.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Tuvoon is largely motivated by his envy of Kai Wren’s accomplishments.
- Horrible Judge of Character: Kai Wren. To be fair, some of his bad judgement calls are a result of deliberate manipulation.
- Humanity Ensues: The crux of Kai Wren’s character arc. He goes from demon to human and back, but realizes he still retains some of his human perspective.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: While begging Kai Wren for a Mercy Kill after her ultimate defeat, Viss mentions that suicide is against her nature. It’s not clear whether this is true for all demons or only for her.
- Kryptonite Factor: Spirit swords are manufactured to resonate with a particular demon’s personal chi, thus being able to inflict deeper, more lasting damage than anything else.
- Long Game: It is speculated that Viss’ conspiracy goes back to the end of the Demon Wars, some thousand years before the events of the book.
- Love Makes You Dumb: Viss and Belcazzi deliberately invoked this by giving Kai Wren the capacity to love at all, which promptly caused him to fall in love with Viss and ignore danger signs until it was too late.
- Magic Knight: Kai Wren is the best warrior of his generation and also an extremely proficient magic-user.
- Maybe Ever After: Kai Wren and Plum. She declares it’s a bit early to accept a marriage proposal, but suggests dating for a while to see if things work out.
- Mercy Kill: Viss begs Kai Wren to finish her off after he bests her in their duel, as she sees him as the only one worthy of killing her and feels nothing but contempt for the other demons.
- My Beloved Smother: Viss holds Tuvoon on a very short leash, going so far as to magically preventing him from lying to her.
- New Child Left Behind: A rare maternal example. Spilling Moonbeams' mother died of wounds sustained in battle moments after the child’s birth. The grieving Seven Fingers became somewhat overprotective of her as a result.
- Oireland: Angus of the Hills, although he deliberately plays it up a bit (his brogue tends to mysteriously diminish when he's being serious). It's worth noting the Oliver O'Keefe's contemporary descendant George owns a pub and speaks fluent Gaelic (which is not regularly spoken by most of the modern Irish population).
- Order Versus Chaos: The main point of contention between gods and demons, who are otherwise implied to be more or less of the same species. This is described in “Ant and Grasshopper” terms: the gods prefer a structured, centralized society and planned development of resources, while demons tend to be more individualistic and creative.
- Our Demons Are Different: Powerful, immortal magical beings from a different plane of existence. While a bit alien by human standards, not evil (unless you believe god propaganda).
- Our Dragons Are Different: Eastern, of course. Depicted correctly as benevolent elemental spirits of mountains and rivers.
- Precious Puppy: Fluffinella is a sentient magic puppy, which doesn’t make her any less adorable.
- Red Baron: Kai Wren is nicknamed “Godslayer” for being the only demon to kill a god single-handedly during the wars.
- Remember the New Guy?: A variation happens when it is discovered that Belcazzi is the chief god behind the plot. Kai's first-person narration treats it as a very dramatic revelation, as the two are old enemies, but the readers have never heard of him before this point.
- Shape Shifter Mode Lock:
- Viss and her allies strand Kai Wren in human form for a while, making sure he doesn't have enough chi to change back.
- Wong Pang turns himself into a Pekingese midway through the book and doesn't change back, either because he likes it better or because he'd forgotten how. Nobody minds much, since he is very stupid and useless for a demon, but very bright and well-behaved for a dog.
- Shapeshifter Showdown: The ultimate duel between Kai Wren and Viss.
- Shout-Out: While forcibly hospitalized, Kai Wren reminisces on a book he once read about a guy in the same situation who broke out using his superhuman strength and healing powers. For readers of Zelazny, this may sound a bit familiar.
- Smug Snake:
- Tuvoon the Smoke Ghost is a smirking, vicious brat, but isn't very bright, is completely subservient to his mother, and every battle between him and Kai Wren ends with his humiliating defeat.
- Most of the minor gods encountered are also like this.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Poor Oliver O'Keefe gets one dialog in the first chapter (mostly about pizza) before he is brutally murdered.
- What Is This Thing You Call "Love"?: Demons allegedly can't truly feel it, except Kai Wren.
- Wound That Will Not Heal: Kai Wren inadvertently inflicts one on Tuvoon by using the latter's spirit sword.
