Customer Reviews

Rebels In Hell

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

 

 

I like the review below: "I was a very compelling book."

I too feel that I am a very compelling book, but wish now to talk about "Rebels in Hell," the second volume in the shared-world short story collection taking place in HELL! This can be read without reading the first collection of stories, "Heroes in Hell," though it's useful to know what comes before. The stories are loosely linked, and their charm comes mostly from the authors' choices of protagonists: Robert Silverberg's "Gilgamesh in Hell" is the standout, and the best in the book: see how HP Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard deal with the "2/3s god" Gilgamesh. There's another volume of stories if you care for this one: "Crusaders in Hell." All three are good reads and entertaining to fans with a knowledge of history and literature (or just an interest in them).

It's a great read for the simple fact of situations that might very well be just that. Maybe there are different levels of hell, different "rewards" for earthly "deeds". People from all times competing to be number one; Ceasar, Alexander, Napoleon, etc. Maybe Hell is that way. Anyway, it;s great, imaginative, entertaining read. My personal favorite, "There are no fighter pilots down in hell".

Second in the longrunning Heroes In Hell series, Rebels In Hell consists of nine linked short stories (although a couple of them push novella-length). Most are by established, well-known authors - David Drake, CJ Cherryh, Nancy Asire and others - who deliver as they always have. Drake's is as solid and cynically realistic as his work always is, and the second of Asire's stories about odd-couple neighbors Wellington and Napoleon is twistedly entertaining.

But three of them really stand out. There's Robert Silverberg's 'Gilgamesh In The Outback' - tightly-plotted, meticulously researched, brilliantly written. Won the 1987 Hugo for Best Novella. Thoroughly deserved to, for all the right reasons. Worth the price of this book in itself.

Martin Caidin was the guy who coined the term 'cyborg' and conceived the TV series 'The Six Million Dollar Man.' He was also an experienced pilot, and nobody alive or dead writes a dogfight like he does. 'There Are No Fighter Pilots Down In Hell' contains three of his best. And when it comes to air combat, 'Caidin's best' is really saying something.

Janet Morris' biography doesn't say anything about having worked extensively in espionage or special ops... but I suppose it wouldn't. Certainly she writes, in 'Graveyard Shift', as though from serious first-hand experience. The story has a hard, readable realism that LeCarre would envy; my only complaint was that it was too short.

Most short-story collections are lucky to have a single standout entry; Rebels In Hell has three. You want this book.

I was a very compelling book