The Demon Of Cliffside

The Demon of Cliffside is a completely different fantasy than you've ever read -- an anomaly that would not exist but for the indie publishing movement that empowers it.Indeed, one area where indie fantasy particularly excels is in bringing non-standard fantasy that's so beyond the pale of traditional fantasy that publishers would be hesitant to pick it up as a bad financial investment.This sort of money-first business model, correct as it may be for maximizing profits and minimizing loss on the behalf of the publishers, stifles creativity. And The Demon of Cliffside by Nathan Fierro is great example of what imaginative fantasy the indie marketplace can foster.This book is a fantastic fantasy adventure from a non-human perspective. You don't follow the story of a magnificent hero, a village boy come into his destiny, or an aging soldier. No, it's the tale of a lonely creature, a demon-like thing exiting long before the coming of man, that lives along a high cliff and comes down to walk among humans, using the hidden power of alchemy to travel disguised. It's a wildly different sort of fantasy, so far out there that you'd never see something like this published the traditional way. But it's a fantastically different sort of fantasy -- the most unique story on this list of best indie fantasy by far -- and then some.Pick this one up if you are hankering a taste for something completely and wildly different: a character-driven urban fantasy set in an alchempunk world that's about as far away from standard fantasy as Mars is from Earth (meaning of course, pretty fucking far). As a bonus, This is a stand-alone book, so you don't have to plow your way through a thousand pages just to get a proper ending.A good imaginatively strange book, but nevertheless an excellent, powerful read and an example of what beautiful oddities the indie marketplace can produce. Absolutely worth the 2 or so dollars you pay on Amazon.