Delusion's Master by Tanith Lee

Nothing good can last forever, and sequels or series tend to degrade exponentially as they go on. I was quite let down by this book, after the glories of Night's Master and Death's Master. It's quite good, but it's just not that good. I was happy that the demon prince Azhrarn is still at the centre of the tale, but he was much less interesting in this book. He was delightfully wicked in the first book, but in this one he falls in love randomly with a completely colourless priestess (who might be a magical sun-child, but is also extremely boring) and decides to produce a child, whom he doesn't care about. I kept thinking of this book as an Onion headline, like 'In a Development That Surprises No One, Demon Prince Turns Out to be Terrible Father'. Most of all, I was annoyed that Azhrarn wasn't being evil enough, while Chuz (the lord of insanity) is too straightfowardly evil. My disappointment isn't going to stop me going straight for the next book, in the hope that there will be an improvement, but I have the distinct feeling that this is going to be like watching those shows that you love for the first season, and wondering what the hell you're doing still watching them five series later.