Customer Reviews

Road to Hell

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

 

 

I couldn't put this book down. Angel is a wonderful character who gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "growth spurts". The use of mythology really pulls this book together. And I think the development of Max/Beast in this book surpasses that of their first appearance (I believe it was anyway) in The Beast That Was Max. Seeing this killer caring for his child, and knowing what he's done and what he will do -- it's hard to humanize a character of this nature, yet Houarner does it beautifully. Hard to imagine, but I rooted for Max--the murderer-rapist--and this is quite an achievement for the writer.

I was also impressed with how the author handled the backstory from Beast That Was Max, in a letter to his son. Unique approach that worked very well.

Exciting, fast-paced. Marvelous book!!

For those of you who came in late, ROAD TO HELL is the fifth installment in Houarner's "Max the Assassin" saga. Progeny of the Indian death goddess Kali, Max is a killer supreme, an assassin powered by an inner "Beast," an entity that enables him to kill with efficiency and impunity.

Max made his first appearance in Houarner's 1996 collection, PAINFREAK, which contained three short stories that provide much of his backstory. The first, "The Beast That Was Max", dealt with Max's changing relationship with the mystical twins, Keuer and Alioune, and his sacrifice of the Beast; the second, "Angel of Death," chronicled his struggle to regain the Beast; the third, "Demons of Blood and Passion," focused on the twins, establishing them as the daughters of a Vietnamese dragon goddess and an African god.

Houarner followed these pieces with a novella entitled "Truth and Consequences in the Heart of Destruction", which appeared in the 1997 collection INSIDE THE WORKS. Here, the ghosts of Max's myriad victims conspire to kill him by literally impregnating him with a soulless life form. The balance of the story relates Max's efforts to save both his child and himself while fending off the attacks of his former employers, who have come to perceive him as a liability. The novella concludes with a bloodbath involving both Max's friends and enemies, during which his child is born.

ROAD TO HELL finds Max and the twins dealing with the trials and tribulations of parenthood. The child, whom Max names Angel, presents quite a quandary: not only does he never sleep, he also never stops eating, a fact which is painfully obvious to his "aunts", Keuer and Alioune, who are breast feeding him. The trio soon discovers the reason for his hunger--it turns out Angel is growing at a fantastic rate, many times faster than normal (he reaches adulthood in a matter of weeks). Adding to the discord produced by the new "baby," Max discovers his ex-employers are still gunning for him, a discovery that prompts the strange family to flee the US for Africa. There, they engage in yet another apocalyptic conflict, a battle so furious it may require Max to make the ultimate sacrifice to save his family and friends.

On the surface, ROAD TO HELL is a horror novel, steeped in violence, gore, and the supernatural--Death follows Max like an acolyte, feasting on the carnage he creates. But, to my mind the book is also grappling with the issues of fatherhood and parental responsibility--at its heart, it is a book about family ties and obligations. Like many new fathers, Max struggles with his inner demons while trying to understand the emotions, both positive and negative, his child arouses in him. Add to the mix his (admittedly unique) job pressures and personal issues, and ROAD TO HELL can be read as a metaphor for sacrifices and rewards of fatherhood, and for the pain of letting your children grow away from you. This subtext grounds the more fantastic action, lending credibility to some of Houarner's more outrageous scenes.

There's much to like about this book--Houarner's prose shines, and he displays a truly wild imagination (in his introduction, Brian Hodge refers to it as Houarner's tendency to "color outside the lines")--but readers should be warned that ROAD TO HELL isn't a "stand alone" novel. As intriguing as it is, the book is bound to confuse newcomers, who won't understand the references to past adventures. Not to worry though--I'm told that Max's previous adventures are being gathered together in a single volume, tentatively titled THE BEAST THAT WAS MAX. I also understand the new novel will include a prequel of sorts, a 40,000-word novella which will further explain Max's relationship with the twins. I don't know if it's feasible, but it seems logical to make the new book even more of an omnibus edition by also including THE ROAD TO HELL--although its final scene screams sequel, it seems a more natural ending point for a novel than the one contained in "Truth and Consequences in the Heart of Destruction". Of course, there's nothing to prevent you from searching out the other stories in their previous incarnations, an effort that I promise you'll find worthwhile.

It was a pleasure to read a book with the depth of characters and story that Road To Hell gives. Having read the first book (The Beast That Was Max) I couldn't wait to see what other trouble Max and the girls would get in and what it would cost for them to get out. Houarner delivers in a book full of action and tension that doesn't take the easy path--everything has a cost in real life and in his fiction. Really enjoyed the journey through Max's hell and the redemption he seeks for himself and his son.

If you're the type who likes to skim through books for the "good parts" and knock out a book (or more) a day, then this is not for you. If you like books that explore the psychological foundations of their characters through the use of unusual settings, mythic tropes, and occasionally rich language, then take the time to read this book. This isn't James Joyce by any means, but it does challenge the imagination as well as the comfort level of the reader drawn to read horror by watching endless slasher movies and looking for the same level of story in books. Yeah, sometimes the sentences are a little long, and the names are not all Anglo-Saxon, and it doesn't takeplace in a mall or suburbia. But if you're tired of that kind of stuff, and you're not afraid of an occasional thought, give this one a try.

After finishing the book I take back my original comment. The book reedemed itself to me after finishing the initial build up. There were a lot of brutal vivid scenes that cut into my fevered brain like a butcher slicing through a tendon on a swinging cattle carcass. The ending was a growing nightmare of claustraphobia, impending doom and bloody gore. I would definitely recommend this book now. A disembowling experience of epic preportions. Gerard is possibly one of the finest poets of gore and mayhem to grace this century.

I couldn't put this book down. Angel is a wonderful character who gives a whole new meaning to the phrase "growth spurts". The use of mythology really pulls this book together. And I think the development of Max/Beast in this book surpasses that of their first appearance (I believe it was anyway) in The Beast That Was Max. Seeing this killer caring for his child, and knowing what he's done and what he will do -- it's hard to humanize a character of this nature, yet Houarner does it beautifully. Hard to imagine, but I rooted for Max--the murderer-rapist--and this is quite an achievement for the writer.

I was also impressed with how the author handled the backstory from Beast That Was Max, in a letter to his son. Unique approach that worked very well.

Exciting, fast-paced. Marvelous book!!

This is my first Max book and it was great. This the fourth book with Max (Pain Freak, Inside the Works, The beast that was Max)and although I have not read the first three it was not hard to pick up the story and get into all the players. This is a horror, adventure, action, spy book and they all blend well. Try this book, you will like it. If you can find the hard cover (limited to 100) it's worth it. It's signed and has leather cover boards and silk book marker, really a great looking book.

I like the idea behind this book: Max, a hired killer who also rapes and kills women during his off hours gives birth to a child planted in him by the vengeful ghosts of the women he has hurt. The child is to be born without a soul and its purpose is to kill Max completing the ghosts vengeance. However, the child is given a soul by the psychotic twin companions of Max and is now a creature capable of love and feelings, but is still not normal and growing at an expedited rate. The people who used to employ Max are now after him to kill him. This all sounds good and should have been enjoyable, but wasn't.

The book is well written from a technical standpoint, but plotwise, very little actually happens and what does is confusing and written too obliquely to completely engage you. There are times when the scene changes so rapidly your not sure where the characters are anymore. There are times when you don't know who is saying particular lines of dialog. For killers, the characters of Max and the twins are not very interesting, basically cardboard people going through the motions. I had to force myself to finish this book as it was a dull ride on the road to hell.

Really enjoyed "The Beast Called Max", couldnt put it down but I'm having a really hard time even finishing this book. There doesnt seem to be much of anytning happening in this book, a lot of the exciting action sequences that made the first book move so quickly have been taken out. I'm already more then halfway through the book and nothing much has happened besides describing how Max is getting more human feelings, blah, blah, blah. The meeting with Kali was pretty interesting but thats about it and I hate to say it but even the twins are pretty subdued in this book. I definitely wouldn't recommend this book but please try other Gerard Houarner books, he is a excellent writer and I think maybe he just got bored of this character and ran out of ideas, not recommended.

Gerard Houarner, Road to Hell (Leisure, 1999)

I struggled through the first fifty pages of Road to Hell, then considered tossing it to the dustbunnies. But then I read a number of reviews that said "it gets better." So I struggled with it while not reading other things for another four months. It may get better, but I finally came to the conclusion that I wasn't willing to put in the time to get there. I quit at about page 130.

Road to Hell is a confused mess, to put it bluntly. It looks as if an editor took certain sections of the book, tossed the pages into the air, and started swinging with a meat cleaver. Sometimes the book will stay in the same moment for twenty pages, at other times it goes through weeks in the space of a page, with no delimiters of any kind to tell you time has gone forward. Suddenly, you're in a different setting, wondering "how on earth did I get here?" The characters are flat and uninspired (casualties of "tell, don't show" syndrome). The action is confusing most of the time, and when it isn't it feels as if it were written by someone who was scientifically observing, rather than actually feeling it. Simply put, I couldn't find a single redeeming quality about the book that made me want to read any farther. And with so many books sitting and waiting for me to get to them, I decided it wasn't worth the trouble. (zero)