Escape From Hell

I return to book reviews as opposed to spitting into the hurricane of liberal abuse we are currently being immersed in. I finished the Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's follow up to Inferno called Escape From Hell. It had the same main character, an obscure Sci -Fi writer, Allen Carpentier, who ends up in Hell as the result of a convention prank. He has followed Benito Mussolini to the bowels of Hell where they parted ways. "Benny" has repented for his sins and is sincerely apologetic to the Lord for the atrocities he has committed. He is allowed to escape from Hell. To where we never find out. Our main character remains behind and as he starts back toward the ice plains of Hell, is blown up by an Islamic terrorist who is able to explode on command.

Allen materializes next to Sylvia Platt. I must admit that my literary knowledge is limited to knowing that she wrote something famous and committed suicide. I gleaned this from the book. She has been place in Hell as a tree that must be bleeding sap in order to communicate with anyone. Allen has to keep breaking branches off of Sylvia to continue his tale. Eventually, he gets one of the exploding terrorists to blow up next to Sylvia, freeing her from her foliage prison. The both start their descent into Hell.

I found the book to be little more than a continuation of first tale. Nothing really new. Having looked at the whole Dante's Hell concept, I find it to be lacking. Dante's Hell has levels where depending on your crime, your level of punishment is increased. So if you sin is coveting your neighbor's ass, you are punished differently than someone who committed genocide. A sin is a sin. All sins are a failure in the eye's of God. So why have tiers for sinners? Why not a giant pool of hot lava? I do not profess to know the mind of God so Hell is not within my human grasp. I do know that a little prayer, a little faith, and a request for forgiveness goes a long way. Thy will be done...

Icool

Cobb