Customer Reviews

To Reign in Hell: A Novel

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2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

It's very appropriate that Roger Zelazny wrote the intro to this novel, as the novel itself uses a concept prevalent in Zelazny's works: that of pulling the myth out of a mythology and presenting it in another genre (such as Lord of Light, Creatures of Light and Darkness).

In TO REIGN IN HELL, Steven Brust tells the story of the revolt in Heaven from a fantasy perspective. This is the first book I've read by him, and I'm definitely impressed. He provides you with an answer for everything you were shushed for asking in Sunday school: "How was God formed from Chaos? How was Heaven created? What would cause a group of angels to rebel? Why would God let them rebel?" The outcome is the same, of course, but Brust's version of the story is great reading. All the expected (and a few unexpected) players are there, and Brust does a fantastic job of giving each of them very real personalities. The way he gives every character a distinct form of speech is brilliant, and he doesn't stumble once. An especially nice touch is the ongoing dialogue between two lesser angels, Sith and Kyriel, interspersed throughout chapters, which provides a "common man's" perspective on the events in the book.

The middle of the book does get a bit slow here and there, but the beginning and end are very well-written and will grab your attention.

Steven Brust is a phenomenal writer and if you have not read any of the Vlad Taltos series, I cannot recommend them highly enough to you. They are swashbuckling character studies of the finest regards. That said, "To Reign In Hell" is a fantastic story about the War in Heaven seen with a non-judgmental point of view. Devout Christians and Catholics may have some troubles, as to understand the text, a reader should put aside all preconcieved notions of the concepts of Good and Evil, God and the Devil and other Christian mythos. I am very glad to see "To Reign In Hell" brought back into print. I bought my copy, used, in a Minneapolis bookstore and found out a few months later that the scrawl in the front of it was an autograph from Brust. I am picking up another copy soon so I can afford to lend it out to friends. "To Reign In Hell" isn't Brust's best work by far, but it's also a marvelous read and well-worth your time if you can go into it with an open mind. If your concepts of religion are inflexible, read some of Brust's other material (I recommend starting with "The Book of Jhereg," a reprint of the first three Vlad Taltos books in one volume), but do not miss this terrific author. Brust is one of the greatest writers working today.

How to possibly describe this book. If you have not read it, I have to strongly urge you to get it. It is literaly one of the best books I have ever read. If you have read some of the other books written by Mr. Brust, then you know he is something of a talented story teller. But if you are expecting something similar to his Vlad series, or other fantasy, prepare to be amazed. The story is about the events prior to the creation of the Earth. The creation of the Angels, and the fall of Satan. Mr. Brust does an outstanding job of portraying all of the characters. After all, Satan was an Angel....there is no reason to suppose that he was born Evil, or in opposition to God. How did it happen. This book really makes you empathize with the various characters. I can not stress it enough, if you have not read this book....you are missing out on a wonderful experience.

The accomplishments here are nothing short of spectacular.

Imagine writing a book populated with some of the most well known characters in Western history: Yahweh, Jesus, Satan, Lucifer (yes, they are separate), and the archangels Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel. They all need unique personalities. If they're not, if they're retreads of biblical, Dante, Milton, or others, then the book fails.

Then imagine creating a reason for God to create the Cherubs, Seraph, Thrones, Dominions, Virtues, etc. Give all of them a purpose.

Imagine creating Heaven, giving essence to creation itself - a Big Bang, in effect.

Imagine giving reason for the Fall. Not just the reason given in The Book of Revelations, but a rewriting, of sorts, and one that absolutely has to make sense.

This should seem impossible. Only the greatest writers in history have succeeded when touching this material.

I'm not going to suggest that Steven Brust is one of the greatest writers in history, but I will emphatically state that he was unbelievably successful.

And he did his homework. He dug deep into Christian mythology (I'm saying mythology because many characters come from Dante, Milton, or others, and were never seen in the Bible), and must have spent hours upon hours plotting this novel.

It helps if you do your homework too. Luckily, I own a book called THE DICTIONARY OF ANGELS. You probably don't, so I'll help out a bit.

Regarding having distinct Satan and Lucifer characters: there is no biblical evidence that supports the two share identities. I won't go into the various proofs, just take my word for it. If you have doubts, Wikipedia does a fine job explaining the difference between the two.

Brust also does a terrific job with the character of Jesus and the relationship between father and son.
I'm going to quote Wikipedia because they do a better job explaining the theory of creation than I could, and indeed, after I read theirs, I understood better what Brust was writing about. It was fairly complex. "In the beginning, there was cacoastrum, the stuff of chaos. As the flux shaped itself, it occasionally created illiaster, the fabric of order. A being of illiaster was spontaneously created, imbued with self-preservation, and this being fought against the cacoastrum. In the struggle, six more beings were created, and together, the seven created a vast hollow orb that temporarily sealed out the chaos. These were the Firstborn: Yaweh, Satan, Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, Leviathan and Belial.
During the Second Wave, the walls of Heaven collapsed, and the Firstborn fought again, rebuilding their stronghold, and in the process, hundreds of archangels were created. This happened yet again, and the ordinary angels were created."
It helps to have information about some of the angels:

(Disclaimer: I am not Christian, and do not believe in either angels or demons. This list is merely composed to help those who don't have access to other materials reference some angels and demons from the book.)

Bath Kol: Never identified as a character, only in passing reference to a supposed relationship with either Kyriel or Sith. "An angel, often spoken of as female, whose name means "heavenly voice." the angel is said among the Syrians to have the voice heard by Cain asking "Where is thy brother, Abel?" after Cain murdered his brother. Bat Qol is also said to have visited the famous second-century A.D. rabbi Simion ben Yohai (the supposed of the Jewish mystical work the Zohar) while he was imprisoned. in the sense of Bat-Kol, the angel can represent the divine voice that announces the will of God."

Kyriel: One of the 28 angels governing the 28 mansions of the moon.

Sith: Angel of an hour (6 to 7 o'clock); a regent ruling a planet.

Leviathan: In the book, the Regent of the West. In the Enoch parables, Leviathan is the primitive female sea-dragon and monster of evil, associated with Behemoth (who is not referenced in this book).

Ariel: The name has many implications, but Shakespeare saw Ariel as a sprite, and to Milton Ariel is a rebel angel, overcome by the seraph Abdiel in the first day of fighting in heaven.

Abdiel: According to Milton, the angel who overcomes Ariel in the first day of fighting in heaven. Brust takes Abdiel and runs with him.

Mephistopheles: Derived from the Hebrew "mephiz", meaning destroyer, and "tophel", meaning liar. One of the fallen archangels, and one of the 7 great princesof Hell.

Michael: One could write for hours. For brevity's sake: he ranks as the greatest of angels, whether in Jewish, Christian, or Islamic writings, secular or religious. He is chief of the order of virtues, chief of archangels, prince of the presence, angel of repentance, righteousness, mercy and sanctification, and conqueror of Satan. Archangel.

Belial: A great fallen angel. From Milton, "Belial came last; than whom a Spirit more lewd/Fell not from Heav'n, or more gross to love/Vice it self."

Asmodai: In Milton, spelled Asmadai. One of the 2 potent thrones. Uriel and Raphael are credited with vanquishing Asmadai. In the book, Asmodai is a builder of sorts, a blacksmith. Asmodeus, a name closely related to Asmodai, is credited with being the inventor of carousels, music, dancing, drama. There may be no connection.

Uriel: Like Michael, one could write for hours. He is one of the leading angels in noncanonical lore, and ranked variously as a seraph, cherub, regent of the sun, flame of God, angel of the presence (remember that Michael is prince of the presence), presider over Hades, etc. Archangel. A patron angel of literature and music.

Raphael: The name seems to mean "God has healed". One of the princes of the presence and regent of the sun. This archangel is extremely healing to all living beings. Raphael grants joy, healing, love, miracles and grace. Archangel.

This certainly isn't an all-encompassing list, but it should be enough to get you started. You don't need to know what Milton, the Bible, or Dante said about any of these entities to fully enjoy the novel, but Brust has some good tongue-in-cheek fun that you would miss out on otherwise.

for re-printing this literary classic. The cover alone is worth the price. This is the story of the revolt of angels. Satan's fall from heaven, along with all of his co-conspiritors. Each character is wonderfully drawn out and the plot is tight and fast. While reading,you get this horrible feeling of helplessness. For we all know how the story ends, yet we hope against hope that there is someway to change it. That is the bueaty of this work. It makes us question our beliefs and want to change the unchangeable. Its not the point of wheither it really happened this way or not - the point is that it COULD of happened this way. And that gives this work a serious/important tone. Which is not to say that its not funny. Quite the contrary, I found myself laughing out loud in places. But the serious tone makes the last third of book down right scary and tagic. I felt like I was tied down to the middle of a street with a bull dozer coming at my from three blocks away at three miles an hour. It also made me scared to death to go to heaven. At least the devil doesn't sugar-coat his wrong doings. Required reading for those interested in theology or just looking for an important book to break up all of the light beach reads this summer.

To Reign in Hell is deft and subtle in weaving a tale of conflict among friends -- the Firstborn of Heaven. Satan and Yaweh, archangels, and lesser angelic minions populate an Eden like Heaven. Conflict comes among them unbidden and grows. The heroes are not necessarily whom you expect from among familiar names. The basic premise of the book is pure genius, executed with dialog that infers far more and features some wonderful phrasing and playful language. I'm Catholic and an avid science fiction/fantasy reader. I rate few books worth as much thought or moral contemplation. When you are through you can ask yourself would you choose Heaven, Hell or Earth? At minimum you should ask Brust's question, how some of the angels come to fall from Heaven?

To Reign in Hell is engaging and thought provoking long after you finish. Highly recommended even though it offers more challenge and less resolution than many longer tales.

As usual, at least for fantasy novels, the reactions to this book seem to range from "The best I ever read!" to "Complete drivel!" with little space between (unless you count "Satanism! Burn! Burn!"). The fact is that this is NOT Brust's best work. The strong characterization in the Vlad Taltos books are less strong here. The plotting is at once more convoluted than strictly necessary and not terribly interesting to untangle. The dialogue is good, but not his best. Et cetera. It's a solid book and a fun read, in the Zelazny/Gaiman let's-mess-with-God(s) mode, but it's not as strong as either of those notables in, say, Lord of Light, Sandman, Good Omens, or the first Amber chronicles. It does, however, compare favorably with Piers Anthony's execrable Incarnations of Immortality.

Given the title, I'm surprised none of the reviewers I've read have noticed that this is not so much a prequel to Genesis as to Paradise Lost. FYI, the title is a direct quote from Milton, and the events of the book lead up to the events (and to the odd slant on Satan)in Paradise Lost. It has about the same relationship to scripture as Niven and Pournelle's Inferno; it's based on a text that's based on the Bible.

But then, who in his right mind reads Milton anymore?

Admittedly, I'll give Stephen Brust kudos for tackling an ambitious project: a telling of the Angelic Fall that is both novel and original. I also found it mildly ironic that the most sympathetic characters in this book are the ones traditionally considered "bad" - Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, etc. - and the characters traditionally considered good" - Yahweh, etc. - come off poorly. That alone should tell you if this book is for you, and I suspect accounts for much of the 1-star reviews: there is a high probability that TRIH will offend the religiously sensible/closed minded. Of course, there are other reasons not to like it, which is where my griping comes in.

For starters, I didn't care for Brust's prose at all. I found his writing style dry, repetitive, and descriptively spartain. His dialogue seemed especially weak: characters speak in almost monosyllable sentences, and again there is a heavy redundancy. For some reason, Beelzebub spoke Shakespearian English, which especially grated on me.

Of course, one can dislike an author's prose yet still like his plots - several of my favorite authors actually fall into this category! Unfortunately, his handling of the plot was my other major stumbling block. To justify that would require my delving into spoilers - something I refuse to do in a review - so please pardon my vagueness. Suffice it to say that key aspects (such as the nature of creation, Waves, etc.) struck me as internally inconsistent. Maybe I missed something, but there is just too much in this novel that is left unexplained. This left me feeling disenfranchised at first, and cheated by the end.

My other main problem was that much of the plot conflict relied on one conniving angel whose motives I never did fully grasp. Without giving too much away, he's able to do a "Jedi Mind Trick" to cause a lot of misunderstanding that just snowballs out of control. This seemed a weak convenience, especially since there were enough opportunities presented throughout where the misunderstandings could very easily have been cleared up. Obviously that would have stopped the novel in its tracks, but it still felt forced and contrived to me.

All in all, TRIH had some potential but just didn't live up to it. If you're interested in speculative theological fiction and have a lower threshold for contrivance and weak writing than I do, then *maybe* give it a go. It's a fairly quick read, so you'll know within 50 pages if it's for you or not.

For the longest time after I read "To Reign...", I didn't know exactly what to think of it. My first impression was this: "This guy is taking angelic biblical figures and turning them into Marvel comics characters...Lucifer has his wand, Yaweh has the ability to see any physical place in Heaven, Asmodai can forge any physical item, Raphael has healing powers, Michael has his sword, etc." But the story is so damn good that I find myself thinking "damn, it may have actually happened this way!".

Here's the premise: In the beginning, there was Chaos...a maelstrom of "coacostrum" with life forms randomly forming and then quickly being destroyed and reformed into myriads of other mindless forms. By chance, one such form acquires consciousness and reason and developes the urge to survive. This individual was Yaweh (God, Jehovah, Providence, Jove, etc.) and he finds himself fighting to preserve the existence of other beings forming around him. These struggles result in the creation of a substance called "illiaster", or raw life-force, a building block of permanent being that can be manipulated or controlled by those skillful enough. Yaweh saves six other beings (Satan, Michael, Raphael, others) and, from pure illiaster, they form a haven/shelter from the violent maelstrom of Chaos and they call this place Heaven.

But the walls of Heaven are not totally impervious to the howling might of chaos, and the wall is broken on a couple occasions by the force of deadly entropy. The struggles of the second "wave" result in the creation of numerous lesser angels (Beelzebub, Ariel, etc.), as do the struggles against the third "wave".

A long time passes without any coacostrum waves. Yaweh conceives a plan...the angels will build an even stronger haven, but in order to do this, thousands of angels will have to leave Heaven and face raw coacostrum, a force that can severely deform or totally destroy them. Yaweh, out of love, believes that the few should take risks to insure the safety of the many...not all of the angels are thrilled with this prospect, so the root of the struggle here is a conflict between the instinct for self preservation and the concern for the general welfare of one's fellow creatures. Satan is enthusiastic about "the plan" at first, but he begins to have reservations when he realizes that he may be pressured by Yaweh to force unwilling angels to participate in the new, impervious Heaven's creation. Other angels (Asmodai, Lillith, Leviathan, Mephistopheles, Belial, etc.) also share Satan's reservations. Meanwhile, a scheming, power hungry angel named Abdiel begins a series of intrigues that will ultimately result in a War in Heaven between the Plan and Anti-Plan factions...

Brust never really takes sides here...Satan's party at times comes across as totally reasonable in their sentiments, but, at the same time, Yaweh's Plan also makes sense (permanent security can only be gained through sacrifice). So, this is more of a Republican vs. Democrat struggle than an all-out war between good and evil (and, for this very reason, even lax Christians will probably hate this book...Lucifer really isn't EVIL here!)

I won't give away too much of the story's plot, but let's just say that about half of Heaven's angels end up building their own Paradise after they are ejected from Heaven after the Fourth Wave and the War...Yaweh's Plan is executed as Satan's crew build Hell and plot Yaweh's overthrow.

In short: If you like thought provoking fantasy/speculative fiction, you should definitely read this book... but if you dig those dreadful Lahaye/Jenkins books and you think Harry Potter is satanic, "To Reign In Hell" will not be to your liking.

I don't read a whole lot of either fiction or science-fiction anymore, but this early book by Brust is a surprisingly good tale of the battle that raged in Heaven between the original archangels (such as Michael and Mephistopheles) and their descendents and the evil forces of chaos that threaten to destroy heaven and the universe. Brust avoids all of the pitfalls such a religious drama could fall prey to (such as excessive preachiness or getting too involved with the fine points of the theology), a notable feat in itself in a book like this. The different archangels and lesser angels also come alive as individuals and personalities themselves, one of the most charming aspects of the story, although I don't know if there was a real scholarly basis for these characterizations or not. For example, Michael is portrayed as one of the inherently most powerful archangels in terms of his ability to resist the deadly iliaster (you'll have to read the novel) although he's not necessarily the smartest angel around. Brust keeps the action moving throughout without getting bogged down in the occasional politics and intrigues or the theology, although there are some funny revelations there about that. Apparently angels envy humans, who, although we aren't one-thousandth as strong and powerful as they are--nevertheless we have souls--which the angels oddly enough do not. This makes us lowly humans the angels' spiritual superiors and masters in heaven in God's eyes, which they don't like one bit. Very funny, although again, I don't know if there is a real theological basis for this or not. Overall, a good read and a very unusual if not unique book from the standpoint of the story line. Brust pulls this outrageously different novel off in style.