Against the Demon World by D.M. Ritzlin
Avok Kur Storn is renowned throughout Cythera for his fearlessness and his unsurpassable swordsmanship. When a cult of Iljerists arrives, bent on converting the Cytherans to their vile creed of demon worship, Avok, naturally, will not stand for it. However, the high priest Arsk Felthor possesses unimaginable powers, and summons an unholy entity. Avok is captured and carried away to Uzz, the moon where demons dwell!
On Uzz, Avok is fated, it seems, to be nothing more than a pawn in a war between two factions of diabolical demons. One is led by the cunning and monstrous Nelgastrothos, the other by the seductive succubus Heltorya. Both sides wish to exploit Avok for their own purposes.
Will Avok be able to break the chains that bind him to the depraved realm of demons and return to his home world? And if he can, will he find his people in the grip of Felthor’s evil cult? His life—and soul—are at stake!
Release date: February 2, 2026
Trade Paperback: 9” x 6”, 204 pages, $19.99
Digital: $4.99
Reviews:
”The demon world of Uzz is wildly imaginative. Here are egg-headed snake monsters, demons like spiky monkeys, wasps the size of mantichores wielding weapons in their tails. Gorgeous demon women who bathe in the distilled tears of their prisoners? Yep, that too… I appreciated Dave’s small but steady injection of humor. Avok is an unwilling mediator in a fight between two bickering women, one a princess, the other a demoness, rife with petty jealousies and insecurities and sexual tension… If you like classic old-school muscular S&S, you’ll like Against the Demon World.” (Brian Murphy, The Silver Key)
"There are scenes in this story that I'll never get out of my brain... There's a lot of things that happen that you'll remember forever after you read it." (Jon Zaremba)
“Ritzlin avoids the drab blur of triteness that plagues modern high fantasy and haunts contemporary sword and sorcery… Reading Against the Demon World is a punk gesture--a deliberate act of genre-defiance that many, conditioned by the status-conscious prestige of the relevant and the relatable, will simply fail to grasp. Ritzlin writes in the tradition of Clark Ashton Smith, who famously declared, Neither the ethics nor the aesthetics of the ant-hill have any attraction for me. To read a Ritzlin novel--like reading a Clark Ashton Smith story--is to refuse to be bored, to refuse to navel-gaze.” (Jason Ray Carney, Spiral Tower)
“The brisk pacing of Against the Demon World is its greatest strength. The novel is a hair over 200 pages long, and there is zero wasted space. This is a book that refuses to sit still; there’s always something going on. Deadly combat, daring escapes, encounters with dangerous and strange wildlife (or dangerous and strange women!) crowd the narrative.” (Robin Marx, Grimdark Magazine)
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