The Demon's Lexicon

Wow! The action started right there on page one and never let up for a moment. Though it was YA, there was little of the usual teen angst (and what little there was was very relevant to the plot.) The main protagonist, Nick, reminded me a lot of Swordspoint's Richard St Vier in his single-minded devotion to the protection of his older brother.

I see now that this is the first part of a series, which is good, because there was a "Wait, what? moment in the final confrontation which would have been very sloppy writing if this wasn't, and there was no sloppy writing in this novel at all - all very crisp and to-the-point. Very enjoyable.