Customer Reviews

Letters from Hades

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am hooked on Jeffrey Thomas, one of the most talented new writers I have come across in ages. His stories in both Punktown and Punktown Third Eye left me slavering for more.

Letters From Hades has satisfied that hunger. I enjoy well-written books that deal with an author's vision of what that fiery hell will be like, and Jeffrey Thomas lets you actually feel the despair and hopelessness that permeate The Great Below.

Written in the form of a diary, we follow our nameless protagonist as he learns the ropes in Hell. He awakens in hell after his suicide, and immediately sent off to the Avernus University, where he is forced to learn that every pain that lies before him is deserved, and that repentance is futile. After his crusifixion at graduation, he is set free to find his place in hell. And through his journeys, he keeps his diary.

Thomas's vision of hell is unique, with many different types of daemons; from eight foot tall skeletons with green fire coming out of their heads, to pale white, human like winged creatures.

He sets out for the city of Oblivion, making his way through and eerie purple forest, and past the Harvesters that plow through a field of human heads, and meets up with Chara along the way.

Chara is a near human demon, impaled to a tree and left to die. Our protagonist frees her in a burst of compassion, and unwittingly sets off a destructive trend in Oblivion. He also falls in love with Chara, a forbidden love that neither of them can deny.

With time running out and the revolution of damned against demon heating up, they must flee Oblivion and find a place where they can be together.

The story itself is very good, but you will find more than a simple tale in Letters From Hades. You will laugh as you witness a motorcycle gang of Angels descending into hell to participate in drive-by shootings of the Damned, you will shudder at the sight of the Black Cathedral as it materializes in your neighborhood, you will feel beauty as you watch a purple praying mantis crawling over purple leaves, and you will tremble in terror at the sight of the Torture Plants.

This is a fully fleshed out fantasy land of a dark and twisted nature, one that will leave you enriched for having walked its treacherous sands and traversed it's blacked pathways. Enjoy!

Jeffrey Thomas, Letters from Hades (Bedlam Press, 2003)

Despite the ambiguous way in which Thomas ends his narrative, it's entirely possible that the astute reader will turn the last page with one main question in his mind. Thomas' narrator muses, a few times, about the possibility of getting his manuscript back out of Hell and into the "real world." But no mechanisms for doing so are ever detailed. So how is the reader reading this manuscript?

This is a good thing. Thomas has done a fine job of suspension of disbelief in this exceptionally odd mix of Dante's Commedia and the first few acts of Romeo and Juliet (with intriguing dashes of A Clockwork Orange and The Dogs of War thrown in for good measure). The plot is simple: a man has committed suicide and gone to Hell where, after some basic schooling, he's left to fend for himself. He journeys around, sees things, gets involved in stuff, gets a job... a slice-of-life story, except that everyone in it is dead.

It's an amusing enough idea, and carried off with style, but what really sets Letters from Hades apart from so many other novels to be found out there in the wide world is that Thomas' narrator actually has a brain. He doesn't react to things like the typical horror-novel (anti-)hero. There's no quaking, screaming, falling down while running away from something nasty, or conveniently forgetting important facts when they're necessary. It's a travesty that such a sensible, pragmatic hero is such a rarity in the world of fiction, but at least when you run across such a character, you appreciate him all the more.

A fine piece of work, well worth your time. ****

Being an avid reader, I often find myself growing weary of the mainstream sort of stuff that comes out of New York and London, and will turn to smaller, independent presses and the lesser-known writers that they publish in the hopes of finding something new and intelligently written to appease my appetite. Often these books are costly and come only in limited editions, and often they disappoint. Intrigued by the premise of the story, I opted to shell out some dollars and give Mr. Thomas a chance. I sure am glad that I did.
"Letters From Hades" was new and different, and I thoroughly enjoyed the world that was created, and Mr. Thomas' attitude towards religion, as evidenced by who some of the denizens of Hell are. I had a good laugh at some of the sorts of people you'll find there, and what their "sins" were.
I can't think of much to say about the actual story that won't spoil it for future readers, so I'm just going to praise that it was well-written, and that I would look forward to reading future works by Jeffrey. Thomas. In fact, I'm going to start scouring the out-of-print market to see if I can find some of his earlier works. I only wish the book was longer; I finished it in one sitting. Hopefully the author will return to this Hell again for future projects. I highly recommend this to any reader looking for something new and enjoyable, and wish the author the best of luck in his writing future.

I'm a huge fan of all things end of the world. And this book does a great job of letting you experience someones visit to Hell. I have to admit that I had a really hard time putting this book down. It was done in just two sittings. The premise is that the main character dies and ends up in Hell. From there, it's his journey there and who he meets / befriends. I was really happy with the story and would definitely recommend it.

If you have a decent pain-threshold, Hell might not be such a bad place. According to Jeffrey Thomas's new book, "Letters from Hades", it's kinda like life. You get a job you hate, you pay rent, you watch out for demons who might for whatever reason imprison you in the torture plants until they're done with you. Just like the real world.

There are countless author interpretations of what Hell might be but I think Jeffrey Thomas's is one of the most interesting and definitely the only one I've ever seen that I might not mind being sent to.

Letters From Hades reminded me a lot of Gene Wolf's Shadow of the Torturer with a bit of Herman Hesse's Siddhartha thrown in. What starts as a story about life in Hell becomes a travelogue as the narrator must leave school and set out to make his place in his new world. We follow him on his journey which leads him to the immense city of Oblivion where he begins his new life. Jeffrey Thomas does a wonderful job of bringing us into this guy's life, making us see him as a person, not a character (however, throwing bits of "writer" info like his desire to be published, his hopes and plans once he finds Oblivion is home to a small press publisher in hell, and talk of his pile of rejection letters, other writers will see him as a writer first, then a person, and lastly a character), and Hell is no longer the backdrop for a story, its a complete world. We see the lava skies, the ash covered ground. We can almost feel the air closing in around us with Hell's heat. I'd read reviews of his book Punktown where his skill in bringing a setting to life was praised up one side and down the other. Now I see it was praise well-deserved.

Despite its pace and how long it takes to get to what we eventually see is the "real" story, Letters from Hades is an adventure story, one you won't soon forget as the story stays with you long after you put down the book.

Inspired by his short story "Coffee Break", Thomas has taken that story to a whole new level, creating a story that I can only imagine encompassed his entire life during the writing. This is one a writer becomes obsessed with, one they think about all day and night and can't wait to get the world out of their way so they can sit down and work. This is a horror novel any writer would be more than happy to put their name to. Great job, and now I'm definitely going to see what else from him I can get my hands on.

Well, at least it's not Jersey.

Thomas creates a hell that is the logical extent of some of the scarier preachers' teachings these days. Vividly imagined and pleasantly goth, in the beauty it creates from the worst horrors imaginable.

The plot itself is more or less straightforward- it's a travelogue, well sort of. It's the ideas and characters that make this a 5-star. Our hero puts a gun into his mouth and pulls the trigger, but unfortunately, he guessed wrong. He wakes up in hell, and his head promptly repairs itself. He travels, he meets people, he saves a hot demon chick, becomes the catalyst for a demon rebellion... you know, same old.

As always, fascinating, thought provoking, and great fun. Enjoy.

Hell is a vast wasteland in which you can "die" over and over again, only to regenerate and suffer again. Demons are there to torture you and roving bands of angels often cause even more pain than their demon counterparts as they hunt humans for sport. Letters from Hades is a man's diary of his time spent in Hell, where he rescues a beautiful demon and falls in love with her. This book is not for the squemish, as many of the inflicted tortures are described in excruciating (no pun intended) detail. However, the book is well-written, imaginative, and a great read.

This book is my definition of dark fantasy. It pulls you into a very imaginative version of hell that is as breathtaking as it is horrid. You really get an idea of what it would be like to live in hell, or at least Thomas' vision of hell, and every hidden corner of the underworld has something unique and creative that will linger in your mind for days. The story is a journal of one fallen soul, written on a book bound with another man's living flesh, and his journey from suicide to waking in hell to going to a school of the damned and then released into the wilds of hades. The part that is especially appealing is that there is no clear line between good and evil. Many of the damned seem to be good/innocent and many of the angels seem to be cruel/evil. Not to mention God Himself seems to be a dictator worse than Adolf Hitler.

It is an extremely fun read. I'd probably say it's even better than Matheson's "What Dreams May Come." Especially because the idea of hell being "pure evil" and heaven being "pure goodness" is kind of childish and uninteresting.

The highlight that probably tempted me to buy the book in the first place would have to be the love affair between the narrator and the female demon. What is a book set in Hades without one? It'll keep you reading.

Anyway, this book doesn't disappoint. From the purple forests of skeleton buffalo to the gigantic black iron buildings to the fields of human heads, "Letters From Hades" is a candy for your dreams and nightmares.

Letters from Hades is a great story. It is very well written and has beautiful illustrations. I highly recommend this book.

This was an interesting take on what it means to be in hell. The story was entertaining without being all fire and brimstone. The way the author writes it, hell is a lot like earth.