The Damnation Game - A Damn Good Game

I first read The Damnation Game in 1988; it's one of the few hardcover books I ever paid full price for. That's because just browsing through the book in the bookstore made me want to read it so badly, I just had to have it. Thirty bucks!! That would be at least forty dollars in today's money. And still worth every penny.

The story has a very simple plot. An individual, who goes by the title "The Last European" (he calls himself that, and others adopt it), has the power both to raise the dead to life, and to take life from others for himself, thus becoming immortal. He's lived for several hundred years, and views human beings as game pieces, which he manipulates, over decades, to raise or lower the fortunes of those he controls. He has made some men incredibly wealthy, and at the beginning of the book, you meet just such an individual, Joseph Whitehead, who has realized his time has come, and his chips are being called in.

Naturally, he doesn't want to give up everything he's learned to enjoy; the money, the prestige, the power. He tries to stop The Last European from collecting his due, and that's essentially the rest of the story. Obviously, the specifics of the story are more complicated, and that's one of the things that makes the book such a great read. The characters in the book, especially The Last European, are superbly drawn. You get to see the Last European's humble beginnings as an artillery sergeant in the early 1800s, how he learned to refine his powers and his ability to manipulate human beings, and how he came to know Whitehead. The bond between them is especially intimate, and that makes its sundering an especially nasty process.

Of course, both Whitehead and The Last European recruit members to their cause, and the cat's paws they both use only add to the richness of the story. Whitehead's loyals are people at the two extremes of the character spectrum, from the perverted and oily Ottoway, to the upstanding and honest Bill Tye. The Last European, on the other hand, prefers to recruit the deceased, namely, one Anthony Breer, formerly (when living) a child molester, and now known after resurrection as The Razor Eater. The battle between The Last European and Whitehead is complete, total and without quarter, and at its end, only ruin is the victor.

Please read The Damnation Game for its superb characterization, excellent plot, and imaginative rendering. Unlike other books, this only gets better with each reading.