Customer Reviews

Inferno

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The publisher's review, listed above as the product description, isn't accurate. Carpentier wasn't pushed from his luxury apartment; he fell in a freak, drunken accident from a hotel window during a science fiction convention. He doesn't feel like he's landed a great opportunity for a book; he feels disgusted and dismayed at the human suffering around him. He isn't determined to meet Satan; he's determined to get out of there.

So, for a correct description, after his sudden death, science fiction writer Allen Carpentier finds himself along the shores of Hell, with a strange guide who wishes only to be known as Benito, a Hell visited once before by Dante Alighieri. This Hell has changed some, and Carpentier visits some places Dante missed, but where Dante mocked the denizens of Hell, and meekly followed as he was led, Carpentier shows pity and mercy to those he meets, and he's determined to take control of the situation he finds himself in. We're treated to a delightful cast of characters, some from history and others from an imagined future world. This is a masterwork from the pen of two great authors, and it is not to be missed.

For some reason this seems to be the only Niven/Pournelle collaboration not in widespread print. Indeed that's sad because this is probably one of the more distinctive of their collective musings, if still definitely having their mark on it. The title was no doubt easy to pick, in case you're wondering if the book has anything to do with that wacky long work of poetry by a certain Italian poet, you're absolutely right. A science fiction writer dies and for some strange reason gets sent to hell, which of course he then proceeds to break down into science fiction terms (figuring he must have gotten sent into the future . . . "Infernoland" I love it!) while events and settings around him defy all sense of logic and physics. It's a rollicking ride through the netheregions, the boys barely give you time to catch your breath as Carpentier attempts to replicate Dante's journey through the place to get the heck out of there. Along the way he runs into the twentieth century versions of sins, some of which you might disagree with, since a bunch are political in nature but I found most of them fairly funny and the authors don't hit you over the head with their social commentary. He also runs into some notorious historical figures and the identity of his guide is at first so seemingly obvious that you can't believe that they had the gall to actually include him in the book and then you wonder how come Carpenter doesn't realize until long after you do. A great companion to Dante's poem, it raises a few religious questions just to give you something to think about but overall it's a fun read.

Dante's Inferno had sinners chased through forests by evil hounds, and all the punitive mechinations available to the medieval mind hard at work. Niven and Pournelle added all the cruelties that humanity has created for itself since then. As a vain and self-centered science fiction author transits Hell in the company of a repentant Mussolini, the 'new cruelty' is hard at work.

Some sins are revisited, as a fashion model is punished for her obsession with her diet along with classic gluttons also being punished for their obsession with their diets, and a teacher who falsey diagnosed learning disabilities rather than work with slower students suffers in the ring reserved for practicioners of evil magic. Other punishments are revised, as Corvettes (the cars, not the ships) replace hell hounds, and bureaucratic, administrative perfection is required of the residents and enforced by demons. Truly a disturbing vision of eternal punishment.

Through all this, the underlying message is hope and the possibility of redemption, even for the worst offenders.

A brilliant XXth century interpretation of Dante, and well worth reading. Powerful prose and vivid imagery brings this one to life.

E.M. Van Court

The Niven and Pournelle duo has written a wide array of science fiction novels of dramatically variable quality. Therefore, I was not expecting much when I bought "Inferno," but I figured that--for such a brief work (way fewer than two hundred pages)--I really had nothing to lose. Boy, was I pleasantly surprised! What a wacky adventure! You see, after being chucked out the window of his luxury apartment, Carpentier "awakens" to find himself tucked into a bottle among the limitless detritus strewn about a sandy plain. He is extricated and helped to his feet by--of all things--the ghost of Benito Mussolini. Being rather derogatively classified by the judge of the dead, Carpentier reluctantly accepts not only his fate, but also--determined to see Satan and sort out the mess--Mussolini's offer to conduct him through the nine layers of Hell to the Master's abode. Our hero is exposed to a limitless variety of both psychological torments (like the team on the riverbank that frenetically builds a bridge while the team on the opposite bank equally frantically tears it down) and classic physical tortures. One wonders whether the authors actually read Dante or merely adopted what they needed from a more lightweight source, perhaps Blake's excerpted illustrations prepared in accompaniment thereto. Carpentier ultimately makes it through all nine layers and--well, I won't tell you the ending and spoil the story. Suffice it to say that those who were disappointed by putative N&P "classics" (like "Lucifer's Hammer," supposedly a spellbinding story of earth's destruction by a huge comet, but actually [up to page 350, where I nixed it] a deliverer of nothing but endless, distracting sexual escapades among various men and other men's wives [it reminded me of Benchley's "Jaws"--which I approached with some excitement at the age of twelve, just after seeing the movie--but which was profoundly disappointing when I discovered that it devoted all of ten pages to the shark hunt, expending the other three hundred plus pages on Hooper screwing Brody's wife and Brody screwing Quint's wife and Hooper's sister blowing the mayor and such]). No, this one is different: it's fun, it's witty, it's concise, it's wholly original. The entire narrative (told in the first person) is couched in Carpentier's continual, sarcastic debate with himself over whether he's really in Hell or on some alien world: he doesn't believe in Hell, but why would an alien be so disturbed by simony that he'd punish one guilty of it by locking him head-downward into a box and setting perpetual fire to the soles of his exposed feet? The story also brims with mythological references, particularly to the classic Greek and Roman traditions, that should delight the more erudite reader.

(I would have assigned four and one-half stars were I able--I mean, "King Lear" it ain't--but such gradations are not supported.)

This book is one of the most amazing books Ive had the pleasure to read, not often the science fiction fan, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle put a fun and informative new age twist on a amazing piece of italian liturature, ie Dante's Inferno, not only does this book make its own powerful impression about our own imaginations, it also inspires us to pick up the original, and have a better understanding for the basics in it. The adventures of our poor missplaced hero Allen Carpentier (not Carpenter, mind you) and his education through the many ironic and over appropriatly tourturous stages of Hell. I rarely read books twice, this one i have read more then 37 times, it is a keeper, make sure to have at least 3 hours time on your hands, assuming you are a fairly speedy reader, because you wont be able to put this one down!

Science fiction tends to treat religion as a dangerous bully pulpit, a regrettable necessity, or background color, if at all.Some authors, such as Harlan Ellison in his excellent "Deathbird Stories",present a wry, circumspect view of humanity as actually having many 'gods'(e.g. Greed), every one of which dies as soon as belief in them dies.
But Niven and Pournelle have tried here to put a technically savvy protagonist into the thick of it, who tries to make sense of the parameters that seem to govern entrance into, and existence within Hell. Carpentier postulates a being named Big Juju (he resists the name "God" or "Satan") who has mastered physical law on a scale so massive that it seems to be Biblical, but only 'seems' to. But he ultimately relents, and discovers that it is all about getting people's attention.
As one other reviewer pointed out, this novel doesn't just "explore the concept" - it offers a possible explanation of why humans would be damned to infinite punishment for doing things that are tiny in comparison.
A techie gets an abject lesson in spirituality, and the premise of the book is summed up beautifully by Carpentier in a single succinct statement, near the end of the story: "Hell is the violent ward in a hospital for the theologically insane."
Does our protagonist become religious? By the end of this book, he certainly becomes stronger and more selfless. Can't wait for the sequel!

"Inferno" has been justly regognized as a classic. The hero, Allen Carpentier (a minor sci-fi writer) accidentally falls out of an 8th story window and wakes up in a place that seems to be modeled on the Hell of Dante Aligheri's poetic epic "Divine Comedy." His guide, Benito (whose true identity is one of the author's little surprises) leads Carpentier through all the circles of this alleged hell. At first he assumes he has been kidnapped by aliens and is imprisoned in some sort of fiendish Disneyland. But it doesn't give too much of the story away to reveal that he is in the actual, real hell, which Dante saw in a vision. Niven and Pournelle have a lot of fun revealing their candidates for hell--environmentalists and developers, liberals and conservatives (Kurt Vonnegut ends up in the circle reserved for Creators of False Religions.) But as Carpentier and Benito plot their escape serious issues emerge. It seems the tortures of the damned are extremely painful and very real. What kind of God would create such a place? Even if you accept Hell as a metaphor rather than a literal reality (as man traditions do), what about the hells on earth we create for ourselves? Do we sentence ourselves, because God can't violate our free will? What do Carpentier and Benito have to learn in order to escape from Hell? "Inferno" lives up to its reputation as morally informed, gripping speculative fiction, like Mary Doria Russell's "The Sparrow."

One of the best collaborations between Niven and Pournelle, INFERNO is a wicked satire of modern society as it would be viewed through the eyes of Dante Alighieri. A science fiction writer named Allen Carpentier dies at a convention party and finds himself in Hell, and in trying to escape is taken on a tour of the Inferno which becomes a commentary on the morals and hypocrisy of 20th century America. Niven and Purnelle truly shine in this novel, and it is a damn shame that it has been out-of-print for nearly a decade. Want to read it? Contact the publisher and ask them to reprint the book--and while you're at it, ask about a possible hardcover edition...

In their Inferno, Niven and Pournelle do a masterful job of updating Dante Alighieri's book.

To appreciate this book fully, the reader should first read Dante's Divine Comedy, or at least its middle section, Inferno.

The authors find many modern equivalents of the Renaissance-era evils cited by Dante. Naturally their punishments are somewhat more modern. Instead of being chased by wild dogs, the modern violent wasters are chased by turbocharged bulldozers. The misers and spendthrifts are natural enemies; Niven and Pournelle leave some of them to Dante's original fate, but they also come up with new ways to pit the Boosters and the Earth First types against each other.

The protagonist and his escort meet Billy the Kid, Jesse James, Boss Tweed, and many other characters. Readers will recognize a certain Twentieth-Century political figure long before the main character does.

The authors make a few mistakes. Phlegethon, the lake of boiling blood, is identified in different parts of the book as Phlegyas and as Acheron. (Wrong on both counts!) They have the gate in the walls of Dis being torn down by Jesus Christ, while Dante specifies that the destroyed gate was the main gate of Hell (the one with "All Hope Abandon..." on it). I hope these errors are fixed before they reprint the book.

But these are minor items. The book makes a fascinating read, and it is very hard to put down. If you ever see this book in a second-hand store, a garage sale, or a swap meet, BUY IT! You won't regret it.

A guest at the annual convention of science fictions writers chug-a-lugs a quart of sour mash and falls from a hotel balcony. So begins a late Twentieth Century jaunt through Hell, characters updated and guided by none other than Benito Mussolini. Il Duce is something of an anti-hero in comparison to Dante's Virgil but hey, it's the 20th Century. See the do-gooder who outlawed diet cola, a mass of adipose sitting moveless on the plane of jars. Imagine the disgust of the protagonist upon learning that Vonnegut has been mis-assigned to the portion of the Nether World reserved for writers of science fiction.

One of the earliest, if not the first collaboration of these two brilliant writers. Possibly somewhat dated at the turn of the century but boomers will enjoy it.