Escape from Hell [Mass Market Paperback]

My advice, if you enjoyed Niven/Pournelle's Inferno, is to just forget you heard there was a sequel. I had some misgivings going in, mostly because I felt the original didn't really leave any unresolved issues that would make a sequel worthwhile. Escape from Hell is an aimless, poorly thought out mishmash that neither explores any new ground nor builds on the original in any substantial way. And it's dull. Inferno worked as an adventure story, a thoughtful exploration of society's changing attitidue toward the concept of an afterlife, and social commentary. Escape from Hell works as none of these.

I'm very disappointed, because I'm a big fan of Niven and Pournelle, and Inferno is not only one of their best novels, but one of my favorite novels, period. Having said that, their history with sequels to their major works (e.g., The Gripping Hand, sequel to The Mote in God's Eye), is not good. The only reason I can come up with that Niven/Pournelle decided to write Escape from Hell, other than the money, of course, is that some people have croaked in the last 30 years that they wanted to place in some particular spot in Hell.

Do yourself a favor and pass.

My parents had a 1948 edition of the White translation of Dante's "The Divine Comedy," the one with the Doré engravings. Those engravings were dark, gruesome and vivid; they were fascinating to a teenager, and sucked me in to Dante's great work. And demonstrated to me that the first book of "The Divine Comedy," "Inferno," was by far the most interesting.

In 1976, Niven and Pournelle published their "Inferno," a modern re-working of the first book of Dante's opus. instead of Dante, the narrator was the fictional Alan Carpentier, nee Carpenter, a pedestrian science fiction writer. Dante's guide was Virgil, the great Roman poet. Carpenter's guide was, well, that's a surprise, but let's just say he was Italian also.

"Inferno" was interesting, but not great. In some ways, it also represented Niven's lamentable descent into travelogue instead of plot. You know, "Inferno on $5 A Day." But the novel also had some excellent moments, including the apparent ramblings of a mad psychiatrist, who turned out to understand the real purpose of Hell, or at least of Niven's modern Inferno. The novel was a complete work; there was no real need to go back. There was no need for a sequel.

But go back we did. In the overwrought title, "Escape from Hell," Niven and Pournelle revisit Alan Carpenter as he tries to put into effect the ideas he developed in "Inferno." They don't involve any escape from Hell; quite the opposite.

Again, the novel has its moments. The despairing would-be rescuer of souls reclines on the roots of a tree in the Wood of Suicides. And the tree turns out to hold the spirit of Sylvia Plath. The first half of the novel has Carpenter tell the story of his failures to Plath. Nice irony, especially if you've read Plath's poetry. But the back story device isn't successful; the dialog with Plath is much more interesting than Carpenter's earlier fumblings. Not until Plath is out of the tree and headed further into Hell does the story really pick up, and then gets even more badly bogged down in the complexities of papal encyclicals. (I couldn't make this up.)

And while I have a pretty good grasp of "The Divine Comedy," I sure couldn't figure out why are there exploding Arab terrorists roaming Hell? And can someone explain how Robert Oppenheimer's fate fits into the plot? Other than as a nuclear deus ex machina? And exactly what has happened, in Heaven, Earth or Hell, that is causing humans to supplant Dante's demons as the administrators of Hell? Why do a series of minor New Orleans political hacks become Princes of Hell? Why does Aimee Semple McPherson, 1930's woman radio evangelist, have a Harley in Hell? All of these are interesting images and ideas, but they float through the plot without being linked to any explanation. Niven and Pournelle used to bring us airtight plots. Not this time.

Three stars for the return of Nascar Oscar and Billy the Kid, but that's being generous. Read their earlier "Inferno;" it's pretty good. Anyone but collectors should skip the hardback "Escape from Hell" and wait for the paperback.

I read "Inferno" when I was junior in high school and loved it. It was a fantastic adventure story that took the classic story by Dante and brought it to life for the 2oth century. I've grown and matured since 1976 and Pournelle's and Niven's creation has evolved too in "Escape From Hell". This book is richer in character development and in it's philosophy. I avoided reading the list of characters at the beginning of the book so as to be surprised on discovering whom the authors placed in hell. There were some "laugh out loud moments", such as the discovery of the identity of "Pink Talon", as well as some profound moments that touched me. I read the book in two days and was throughly entertained. A highly recommended book!