Customer Reviews

Infernal Angel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

"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.

While this book held my interest throughout, and had some fairly interesting plot twists, most of the book simply revolved around detailing the gruesomeness of hell. If you pay attention, you'll notice it takes a while for the story to go anywhere, and when it moves, it moves in small hitches. This was my first EL book, and I admit I liked it enough to give him another read.

If you liked City Infernal, then you definitely want to pick up this book. However, don't expect it to live up to its predecessor. First, the positive points, then the negative. There might be some spoilers in this, but I'll try not to give away too much.

Lee's writing continues to be gripping and visceral, and I felt that he did a little better job at character development in this one. I really enjoyed his portrayal of Lucifer and the other fallen angels. Walter was also a nice addition as a main character. The plot of this one was a little more involved, and I felt that Lee did a better job at giving the heroes a hard time rather than always presenting an easy fix to the problems they face. The book was exciting and keeps your interest, with one exception.

For the negative, we'll start with the one exception: For some reason, Lee feels the need to devote an entire chapter not only to recapping the first book, but to actually reciting word-for-word excerpts directly from the first book. Most people reading Infernal Angel will have probably read City Infernal first, and even if not, such an exact and lengthy retelling was not necessary. At the end of this chapter, Lee briefly mentions some of Cassie's exploits that took place between this book and the last. Although her exploits were extensive enough that I feel that Lee could have written a great book involving them rather than jumping immediately to the events of Infernal Angel, his description of the events between the books is not nearly so detailed as his description of the first book itself. I was also disappointed by the fact that Cassie and her father were defeated by exactly the same means attempted in the first book - couldn't Lee have come up with something a little different? I really don't understand why Lee felt the need to fill nearly an entire chapter with a word-for-word retelling of the first book. If you haven't read City Infernal, you won't be bored during this chapter, but if you have, you will.

Despite his lengthy recap, Lee does not offer any explanation as to what happened to Hush and Via. The revelation given in the first book that "Xeke" was really Cassie's sister's body being possessed by an enemy (presumably Lucifer) is dropped cold. How Lissa's body came into someone else's possession is not explained, and in fact, this is where a plot hole enters that I felt was rather major: if Lissa was under Lucifer's possession at the end of the first book, why is it revealed in the second that she is actually trapped in the building intended for "otherwise souls," those who would have gone to Heaven if they hadn't killed themselves. And if everyone who goes to Hell for committing suicide ends up sequested there, how is it that Via and Hush were running around free in Hell, when they claimed their only reason for being there was that they had killed themselves? And if suicide is a sin that lands you in Hell, doesn't that imply that Heaven is rejecting the suicidal? If that is the case, then why would destroying the building where the suicidal souls are kept really release them to Heaven? That just seems like a whole lot of contradiction to me.

Instead of Via and Hush, Cassie is now accompanied by an angel. I saw a few reviewers criticize Lee's use of character names that hinted at their purpose in the previous book, which didn't annoy me in the first volume. The name Via wasn't blatant enough, and I took Hush to be a nickname based on her muteness. However, I think a character named "Angelese" who happens to be an angel is just too much. Out of the presumably thousands of angels, the one that helps Cassie just happens to have a name that sounds almost exactly like angel? All the other angels in the book have Biblical sounding names. This point annoyed me so much that I had a hard time feeling anything but annoyance at every mention of Angelese.

Last but not least, although the characters find themselves in more difficult situations than in the first book, I felt that Lucifer was defeated much too easily (if temporarily) at the end. What I thought was only going to be the beginning of the climax of the book actually turned out to be the whole of it. It just seemed rather anticlimatic for a battle with the Prince of Darkness. Also, there is no real pay off at the end for the reader, in that although we know Lissa is rescued from her Hellish fate, we never get to witness a reunion.

Despite my harsh reviews of these points, I do think the book is worth reading and largely enjoyable. I just wish that Lee would make more of an effort not to contradict his own writing. Read this book if you liked the first, but don't expect it to hold to the same standards.

I enjoyed this book. Edward Lee is a really fun author to read and I'm searching out his books. I've read about 6 of them and Infernal Angel is not as interesting as the original novel City Infernal but still well worth reading. Some parts of it reminded me of THE BIG U.

"Infenal Angel" is just as good, if not better than its prequel "City Infernal". In the 1st book (City Infernal), the story focused mainly on Cassie and her "dead" friends adventures in hell, as they searched for Cassie's dead twin sister "Lissa", escaping danger around every corner, as they found themselves in the middle of an unholy war. Although the devil is mentioned in the book, there was only one short chapter in which he actually spoke,or had any action.
In "Infernal Angel" not only is the devil mentioned through out the book, but he also speaks and has action scenes in what seems like every chapter. The way he speaks and the things he does leaves chills in your spine as you read about how he came to be, and why one of his nicknames is "the master of lies". And the devil's final confrontation with Cassie at the end of the book, absolutly took my breath away, and made my heart pound as I read every word, constantly looking over my shoulder as I turned the pages.
Although it was a shame that "Infernal Angel", didn't include, and then go into more detail about what happend to "City Infernal's" lovable characters "Hush" and "Vita", the introduction of an angel from Heaven that comes to aid Cassie on her new adventure, "Angelese" brought a breath of fresh air, and alot of unexpected comedy and fearce drama scenes between "Angelese" and "Cassie". " Angelese" also answered the age old question...yes, some angels do say bad words. The other new character "Walter" became more and more annoying to read about, as examples of his "nerdy ways" and cowardness were stressed over and over throughout the book. But the reason it was stressed so much became clear in the end of the book,as he committed a brave, brave act...
In the 1st book "City Infernal", most of the action and story took place in hell. In this sequel "Infernal Angel, alot of the action and story takes place on earth, as the devil finds a way to place his kingdom of hell on earth for short periods of time, terrorizing and killing all humans in his way.
This was a wonderful book to read, a book that I would recommend to everyone. With its haunting and graphic details, a chilling story line about the devils plot to take over the earth once and for all, and a character in "Cassie" that you find yourself feeling attached to, this is a great book that will povide hours of scary reading.

One has to give to Edward Lee credit for almost singlehandedly created the tongue-in-cheek horror genre. His horror manages to be both over the top and downright silly at the same time. Where else could you find Sartre and nymphomaniac werewolves within pages of each other. Lee combines a vividly gross imagination with the intriguing plot idea of Mephistopolis, Lucifer's vast and terrible city of the damned.

Cassie Heydon, heroine of the City Infernal, is an etheress, with powers in hell that rival Satan's own. On Earth, however, she is locked up in an insane asylum undergoing evaluation as the suspected killer of her father. Lucifer never rests, though, and he wants Cassie - not for her gothish good looks, but as an ingredient in a recipe to establish hell on earth. The only thing keeping Cassie in one piece is Angeline - a caliginaut - one of the angels who spy on Hell for the powers-that-be.

A new character in this book is Walter Grey, a college student with an unfortunately high level of geekiness. With his love life in tatters, Walter is on the verge of suicide. But his destiny isn't to enter hell as one of the damned, but as an etherean - the male counterpart to Cassie. But rather than a half-crazy angel as a tour guide, Walter has a a head without a name for company. But in many ways Walter is like Cassie, indecisive and short on self-confidence.

For Satan, one of these two is the key to final dominion. Yet he seems doomed by their own ineptness to always just miss capturing them. Etherean and Etheress, following separate paths, must make the tough decisions that will either foil Satan's plot or ring in the apocalypse. All of this told in Edward Lee's inimitable and chaotic style.

After reading City Infernal, I was reluctant to pry open the covers of this one, but I did and was quite surprised. It was a much better read than City, though I think Lee could have toned it down a bit on the vast variety of species that lurk in the city of Hell. Too many to keep track of and they only confuse the reader, in my opinion. But Lee also has one of the most inventive minds in the horror field. For the gore lovers out there, this book contains scenes sick enough to curl your stomach. Like when Cassie has to eat a creature's large eye to see what it has seen. I nearly gagged, but man, I loved it.
After all of the plot strands come together in the end, you are not disappointed. Satan's plan, which I won't reveal, is very disturbing. Will Cassie and her angel spoil his plot, or will there be another book in the series? I know the answer, but I'm not telling. Read the book. I think you'll like it.

It was with great anticipation that I awaited this sequel's release. City Infernal, although not great prose, was a fantastic read with a highly inventive concept. Apparently Lee is planning to make this a trilogy. Let's just hope the third instalment ends up being better than this one.

Almost the entire first half of the novel takes place on earth. Cassie is now trapped in a psych ward. Her house was burned down along with her father in it and authorities believe that she's the one who committed this act of arson so that she could inherit her father's wealth. No one believes Cassie's story that it was Lucifer and his demons so that they could destroy the deadpass in her house that allows her to channel herself to hell's city, the Mephistopolis. While in the ward, Cassie receives visits from an angel by the name of Angelese who helps Cassie get back into hell so that she may use her etheress powers to overturn Lucifer's forces and also so Cassie can be reunited with her dead sister.

The above plot summary was a very abbreviated version of the initial events. Really, the action doesn't veer towards the Mephistopolis until at least halfway through the point of this 340 page novel. It's a VERY slow start in which several new characters are introduced, most notably Walter who is an Etherean, the male version of an Etheress. Admittedly, Lee draws this character extremely well. Walter is a hopeless geek with no social acumen whatsoever and Lee does a masterful job of making us feel his inner pain. It's too bad Lee was never as successful drawing out Cassie's character, who still to this point seems as empty psychologically and personality wise as a hollow shell. It's almost as though Cassie is presented in a distant 3rd person narrative and we as readers are unable to feel anything for her.

Once the novel finally starts taking place in the Mephistopolis, again it takes forever for anything to happen. The pace and the action does pick up after a while but it seems a little too late. Similar to City Infernal, descriptions of the Mephistopolis and its sights abound. The problem is, we've already been described in extensive detail in the first novel the atrocities of the Mephistopolis so why go into mind-numbing detail again? It's not that the same things are described, there are new sites described but it all seems rather arbitrary. It feels as though Lee is just making all these things up on the spot. The gore level is quite low in this novel which will surely disappoint regular readers of Lee's novels. I understand that in no way is this series meant to be as graphic as the author's other works but there's less gore in this novel than even City Infernal.

It saddens me to give this a mediocre star rating since I'm a big fan of Lee's work. Infernal Angel is not a total washout, it is quite entertaining, it just didn't move me the way the first novel did. In a way, this entire novel feels like a setup for much more grandiose things to happen in the series' 3rd entry. Infernal Angel does finish with a bang so I'll still be eagerly awaiting the final novel of this trilogy.