Customer Reviews

HEROES IN HELL

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is red meat for fans of genre fiction-- in these shared-world stories, we see how various historical figures deal with being consigned to Hell. Oddly, it's very like our current existence (with some nasty differences), and we get to find out how Ernest Hemingway, Julius Caesar, Dante, Che Guevara and countless other greater and lesser lights deal with this "second life." If you liked Philip Jose Farmer's "Riverworld" novels (beginning with "To Your Scattered Bodies Go"), in which everyone who ever lived is resurrected along a million-mile river, you'll like this as well. It's well written and thought-provoking. And if you like it, there's another volume called "Rebels in Hell," featuring the really superior Robert Silverberg novelette "Gilgamesh in Hell." Genre fans will enjoy the byplay between HP Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, and King Gilgamesh...

There are very few books I still re-read, but the Hell series comprises most of the list. Solidly grounded in historical research, these stories and novels are gripping, amusing, and full of adventure, camaraderie and cleverness.

Achilles as a crazed helicopter pilot? Dante as hacker supreme? Hatshepsut the ultimate technogeek double agent? The portrayals of historical figures come to life, and the life of Agustus's household, the core of the series, is a place any fun, smart person yearns to live, like Heinlein's Boondock, or Xavier's school, or Hogwarts -

I picked up this book at a used book sale because the title and cover caught my attention. I bought the book because the synopsis intrigued me. When I read the book, I laughed--I became absorbed. I could see the individual parts leading somewhere. Suddenly I was on the last page, and still wanted to read more. I'm can't wait to find other books in the series.

When I was thirteen, my brother and I spotted this book on the shelf at a drugstore and thought it must be just the coolest book ever! Dead bad guys battling it out in Hell? Who could ask for anything more? Twelve years later, after receiving this book as a gag trip-down-Memory-Lane gift, I am asking for EVERYTHING more! Normally a short story collection that uses a central theme is somehow connected and works towards a final goal or resolution, but this group of tales does neither. The main characters, all once great leaders and/or "heroes" in life, are in this book static and one-dimensional, never giving the reader any impression that they are included for any purpose other than to lend their famous names. This was a wasted premise, a painful book to read, and ultimately unfulfilling.

Even at thirteen, I would have been disappointed.....

Shared universes are a long-established concept in science fiction, but what if the shared universe was the sum of *this* one's history?

Heroes In Hell - where everyone of any historical significance goes to Hell; Machiavelli and Dante living in the household of Augustus Caesar and Cleopatra, who carries a 25th-century disruptor pistol - is a very, very entertaining and innovative take on that concept. The short stories are linked in a way that implies heavy advance planning - they stand alone, but an overarching plot gives them context.

The authors - all of them highly competent professionals in their own right - know their history, and they know how to write good stories. There's a lot of little easter eggs for those who know their history, but it's highly readable and very, very entertaining even with a layman's education.

Janet Morris's best-selling 'Heroes in Hell' begins here. The series contains a Hugo-Award winner and several Nebula Award finalists. The stories and novels stretch over eleven volumes, including several novels such as 'The Little Helliad' by Chris and Janet Morris, and 'The Gates of Hell' by C.J. Cherryh and Janet Morris, two of my personal favorites. The premise of the series is that those remembered by history achieved their goals only by breaking the rules that govern the afterlife.

So they're all here: the depraved, the heroic, the embittered and the idealistic. And there's an angel, sent to help them, ministering to the damned. Here also are those who think they can break out of hell, and those who have accrued power and done pretty much the same things that sent them to hell in the first place: they don't want to leave. And the Devil...well, he's an American-style bureaucrat, with the sexiest woman who ever lived as his personal assistant.

Dozens of talented writers turned their hands to these stories and novels. Characters you'll love and characters you'll hate are here: anybody who was anybody, in fact, ended up in Morris's hell.

Historical fantasy that will make you shudder and make you laugh and make you crave more of the same.

This was enjoyable for me. I would recommend it for a rainy day or a long trip. Definately worth reading.

This is the first volume of a series of shared world anthology books begun in 1986 and scheduled for re-release. In hell, various factions try to either escape or take over Satan's domain with the expected chances of success. Each writer brings a fresh perspective using primarily historical figures, although some beings (such as the Undertaker and the Welcome Woman) are fictional yet important parts of the milieu. Often humorous and surprisingly thought provoking, I highly recommend this book - as well as the entire series it spawns - to any and all fans of fantasy fiction. And, if you like this book, watch for this summer's release of Lawyers in Hell, the first book in the rebirth of the series.