I rather suspect that a few people out there are shaking their heads in despair because with a huge pile of good books to chose from for my next read I have opted for one about rock ‘n’ roll elves and a sexy cyborg. Well, yes I have, but it is also a book by Justina Robson. And you know, while the characters are still who they are, and “serious” literary SF readers are likely to turn their noses up just because of that, the Quantum Gravity series is getting to be more and more like what we’ve always expected from Justina. I’ll have more to say about it when I’ve finished it, but in view of the “current situation” here in California I wanted to share this little quote on the difference between “demons” and “devils”:

A devil has no form outside its host except its ghost trace. They have no lives of their own. They are part of the undead realm, but also part of Zoomenon, a form of elemental negativity. Unlife. Where a mind is struck with self-hatred, where it would rather be moral than gentle, or right than compassionate… there you will find a devil at work.

As you may see, no demon could be possessed by such a creature and function as a demon in any way. Demons are pro-life. Devils enjoy withering life where they may, and most of all they enjoy withering it when they encourage the host to spread the contagion and seed devils in the minds of others. Evangelism is their modus and moralising their watchword. Hell is the making of devils, and escape the work of demons. Elves and humans are frequently infested, and spread the infection to their descendants and associates without attempt to stem the plague. The more devilment in the world, the more miserable it is.

Yay, go Justina! But before you all celebrate too much, bear in mind that evangelism and moralising are often as much the tools of socialists and environmentalists as of the religious.