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9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Lee's Hellish vision fades from red to gray in this sequel, May 21, 2004
In the prequel to this book, City Infernal, Edward Lee introduced us to his imaginative and chilling version of Hell, The Mephistopolis. A huge sprawling city, earthlike in its usage of power plants, garbage collection, restaurants, brothels, nightclubs, transportation, streets and alleys; yet Hellish in its brutal and grotesque mockery of these familiar urban scenes. We were introduced to Cassie and discovered that she is an Etheress, a living human able to walk through hell. In Infernal Angel, Lee continues his tale of Cassie's search for her sister, who is in hell because she committed suicide. But Lee's mastery of his vision of hell is much, much weaker in Angel; and the characters are more lacking than ever. The story picks up with a couple of short forays into hell with some side characters, which are pretty good, but then go into a lengthy repeat of City Infernal. This annoyed me, because I have already read the first book. I find no reason to repeat chapters when a shorter form of "catch-up dialogue" could be used. When we find Cassie again, she is in an asylum for the insane, under psychiatric care. Here she meets Angelese, an angel from the Order of the Seraphim, called a Caliginaut because they have their wings removed and can descend into Hell as spies. The addition of Angelese, in my opinion, was a mistake, because I found her flat, two dimensional, and annoying. Believe it or not, you are already 100 pages into the book without really going anywhere. But we have also just met a second new character, Walter, who is an Etheran, a male version of Cassie, and with him is his own version of a guide from hell called No-Name. Walter is more fleshed out than Angelese, but still too weak to capture my interest, and No-Name simply equaled No-Interest. You will be at least halfway through the book before Lee takes us back into the streets of the Mephistopolis, but again you will not find the treasure here that was present in City Infernal. There was no taste, no smell, no underlying currents of slime dripping wetly from severed limbs and broken souls. Instead, it consisted of broken, flash-in-the-pan descriptions and shallow skimmings of moments that perhaps should have been savored, but flew by in too few words; sacrificing substance and style for rapidly fired staccato scenes that never allow us to dive back into the squalor that we wished to live in once again. Angelese and Cassie "nectoport" everywhere, so hell is mostly seen from above with a few touch downs that are brief and overloaded with too many images; going for instant and shallow shock rather than the descriptive "sink your teeth into" grotesqueries available in the first book. The dialogue is flat and lifeless, Cassie does not really grow much, though she does hold a surprise for you, and Angelese was grating on my nerves every step of the way. Infernal Angel has the look, texture, and taste of a book that was simply produced as padding between City Infernal and a third book. Nothing is really resolved in Angel. So, if you REALLY liked City Infernal, pick this up used and skim it. Otherwise, I believe you could wait for the third book and still not miss a lot by skipping this piece of middle-puff. I'm sorry Edward, but you really are better than this.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Return to the infernal pits, June 24, 2004
I am an unabashed Edward Lee fan. Although I have only read a few of his novels, the smorgasbord of unsettling violence, intense erotica, and whiplash prose make his writings enormous fun for a dedicated horror fan. The biggest problem facing a potential reader is how to acquire many of his books and short stories. Nearly all of his old mass-market efforts are out of print, many other novels and collections are available only through wallet crushing small press editions, and the subject matter of a majority of his tales virtually insures much of his work will remain in obscurity. In other words, I am an Ed Lee fan insofar as my meager funds allow. It does appear a ray of hope is about to break on the horizon: Lee now writes novels for mass market Leisure press, and a few of his earlier works are starting to reappear in slightly more affordable trade paperbacks. "Infernal Angel" falls into the mass-market cheapie paperback category. The novel is a sequel to Lee's 2001 effort "City Infernal," a book that, just like this one, tones down the usual over the top gore and stomach churning seediness in an effort to pander to a general audience. No problem, though, since I will still take a watered down Ed Lee any day. Don't worry if you haven't read "City Infernal." Lee fills in the details about the first novel at the beginning of this one. You'll discover how Cassie and her twin sister Lissa separated, how Cassie learned she's an Etheress with special powers and abilities, and how she spends her time seeking out her deceased sister for forgiveness. "Infernal Angel" picks up about a month after the first novel ended, with Cassie now locked away in an asylum facing a murder charge over her father's untimely demise. She can still travel to Hell anytime she wishes, but in the meantime she spends her days trying to explain her unusual powers to shrinks. Unfortunately, Lucifer and his minions haven't forgotten about Cassie's wondrous powers. The Dark Prince, always plotting the downfall of God's little creatures, hatches a nefarious plot that could very well install him as supreme overlord of the human race. The plan, involving a place called the Atrocidome, time travel, and Cassie's special powers, might just work. Of course, our heroine knows nothing about any of this until she runs through the requisite number of trials and tribulations in Hell with Angelese, her Caliginaut angel guide from heaven. For Cassie, the importance of returning to Satan's domain revolves around her wish to reunite with Lissa and expunge her guilt over her hapless sister's untimely demise. In case his plans for Cassie turn sour, as all good plans hatched in the bowels of Hades usually do, Lucifer has a backup plan in the form of Walter. This geeky guy is a genius college student who thinks he cannot make any friends until he runs into the gorgeous Candice. Unfamiliar with how to handle women (do any of us ever figure out how to do this?), Walter falls for the oldest trick in the book, namely doing Candice's homework while the young lady "acts" like she's his girlfriend. Walter's wealthy brother Owen tries to tell his clueless brother what's really going on, but the kid won't listen to reason. He contemplates taking his life when he finally discovers the truth, but a series of increasingly disturbing events and a heck of a revelation from brother Owen convince Walter he has a higher-or lower, as the case may be-purpose in life. Lee throws in the usual inventive cast of characters and ghastly experiences in Lucifer's city to entertain the reader. This time around, we get something called an Intestisaur, umbra-specters, Alexander the Great's main squeeze, and the usual wacky spells and incantations that make the underworld such a wonderful place to spend a few days. "Infernal Angel" has taken a lot of criticism from readers, and to some extent the book merits it. Lee's outing this time isn't as interesting as his first foray into the pits of darkness largely because the story doesn't spend as much time roaming the black alleyways and malefic pits of Satan's city. Most of the action takes place with Cassie in the asylum and Walter at school. There are lengthy segments of explanatory dialogue between Angelese and Cassie and between Walter and his own guide where nothing much happens. Moreover, complaints about the banal dialogue and paper-thin character development hold a lot of water. I particularly found Walter's character a source of great annoyance. Here's a guy who's supposed to be so smart and he can't figure out anything on his own. Too, we don't spend as much time in Hades as we would like. Actually, many of the problems I expressed about "City Infernal" pop up in spades here. Nonetheless, "Infernal Angel" is still an entertaining, imaginative read. I'm just happy for the chance to read another Edward Lee novel that only cost a few bucks. Personally, I prefer Lee's darker books, like "The Teratologist," "Bighead," and "Portrait of the Psychopath as a Young Woman" to these toned down works aimed at mass audiences, but I understand that an author like Lee must write books that will pay the bills. I'm hearing rumors that another book will soon emerge concerning the further exploits of Cassie and Lissa, but I'm not sure how that will be possible after reading the conclusion of "Infernal Angel." I heartily recommend Ed Lee's "Infernal Angel" if for no other reason than the book might inspire an intrepid few to seek out his harder to find grotesqueries. If you're ready to move past Stephen King, this novel could well serve as a bridge that will lead you to the nightmarish realms of extreme horror.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Where is the real sequel?, August 12, 2009
"Infernal Angel" is the third book in the Cassie Heydon/Mephistopolis trilogy. Now this is the second book published, but it is clear that this is the third book in a trilogy. The second book evidently never having been written, but Lee takes the time to summarize in detail what would have happened in that book, and summerizes what has happened in the prequel. Lee, who primarily a satirist, also keeps filling up the story with plenty of sarcastic jabs at religion, pop cultural, and serial killer idolization. As "Infernal Angel" opens, and there will be a few spoilers, both for this book and "City Infernal", the previously published book, Lucifer has opened up a Deadpass in the small town of Dannelleton to create havoc. As all Hell literary breaks loose, Lucifer sends fallen angel Zeihl to the nearby town of Laurel to steal an ancient text to help him create his own portal (Deadpass), that he can pass through.
Now Cassie is a lemon-haired Goth girl, who is a surviving suicide, a surviving twin of another suicide, and a virgin. All of which make her an Etheress, a unique being that can move between the worlds of the Hellplanes, and our own world, using a Deadpass, and remain corporal in both. In "City Infernal" Cassie was on a mission to find Lissa, her dead sister in the Hellplanes major city of Mephistopolis. In "Infernal Angel" we learn that in the unwritten second book Cassie and her friends Via and Hush were either captured or killed, that her father was killed, and her home of Blackwell Hall, the original Deadpass of the first novel was burned down by one of Lilith's subcarnation (succubus), to prevent Cassie from coming back to the Hellplanes.
Afterwards, Angelese, who is an angelic envoy's spirit, appears to Cassie. Angelese, can only communicate cryptically to Cassie, because if he doesn't, an Umbra-Specter will tear Angelese apart, although Angelese can regenerate. Besides if he talked any less cryptically we'd all know what the Hell was going on, you have to keep up the suspense somehow. It is Angelese that helps Cassie escape when Lucifer's minions storm the clinic to get her.
Meanwhile, Walter, disappointed in love, seduced by a toilet demon (don't ask) to kill himself, and has screwed it up. When he awakes, his twin brother Colin is there, and when Walter's better, he finds out what an Etherean is. He is a male version of Cassie, and to gain power in Mephistopolis, Colin commits suicide, leaving Walter to come to the Hellplanes himself. Walter and Cassie then start on two separate, but related journeys in Mephistopolis to bring down Lucifer, Cassie with her guide in Angelese, and Walter with his, a severed head named No-name.
Both go on their missions, each unknowingly dependant on the other. Cassie is much more knowledgeable this time around, and Walter takes Cassie's place as the newbie.
Since this is a sequel, gone is some of the wonder of this world, but there are still plenty of things to discover, including rivers of blood, McVeigh coins, and, finally, Cassie's sister Lissa! But, still, here as in "City Infernal" the journey is more than half the fun.
Mephistopolis is easily one of fantasy's best creations, but because of it's over-the-topness, it will be forgotten and be easily overlooked for something much more bland. Again, this is easily one of Lee's best commercial novels, and one of the best commercial horror novels of 2004, but it only gets four stars because Lee never wrote that second novel in the series. I really missed Via and Hush, and maybe we'll see Totty, the beautiful blond werewolf prostitute, in her own story someday.
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