iHorror: Demon Hunter by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore

9/10

This decide your own destiny book is written by the same authors who write the iHero series of novels. In iHorror's Demon Hunter the reader is the demon hunter "destined to fight horror wherever you find it". The setting tells you that "there is a dark, unseen world around us, of supernatural horrors beyond our imagination." These demons are able to come into our world and threaten our existence. In the iHorror world you can decide how the story progresses after each terrifying page as the page numbers you decide on will take you either to safety, a clue to what you are looking for, or danger. Admittedly, most of the time the reader will be led to danger, but that's part of the fun with these fighting fantasy novels.

As the demon hunter, the reader protects the human world from demons in all their guises; vampires, werewolves, zombies, and before now they have always defeated them, but now they are in Japan, they will be met with a new breed of demon, and these are many and fierce, so they know to meet up with master Shoki, a retired demon hunter who is also an expert in the demons that live in Japan and more importantly, how to defeat them.

The life of a demon hunter might be one fraught with peril, but bear in mind that he/she is an expert in the martial arts; Jujitsu, Wing Chun, and Tae Kwondo and have enough weapons to be able to fight them off. Each of the weapons are essential if the reader is to destroy the different demons around; sai daggers, mankiri chain weapons, Korean fighting fan, shurikens, katakana, lay sword, deer horn knife, pair of ninjaro short swords and ash hanbo quarter staff. The reader has to be careful which weapons they choose though, as only certain ones will work on the demons, and they could easily find themselves back at the beginning again. As each weapon is for a specific demon, there are just as many demons in Japan as would be expected; nukekubi, shikome, hibagori, shinigami, kappa, kanesh, and hashik. They are deadly and dangerous and they all want to kill you.

Readers of other fighting fantasy books might enjoy this kind of interaction as young adults are more familiar with virtual reality, video games and online interactive gaming. The 2 Steves have created a riveting read for all ages to get into - this is a real taste of Japan that can't be matched.