Escape from Hell (Inferno)

It's a difficult book to put down, one that you'll find yourself trying to make time to continue reading it. What else is there to say? Pournelle and Niven are two masters providing us a book with a fascinating plot and characters that get under your skin. This is one to read, put on the shelf, and read again later because it's that good.

Escape from hell was long coming but is a very worthy successor to Larry Niven's inferno. Our Hero Allen Carpenter (or Carpentier) finds himself again going from top to bottom encountering people from New Orleans levee boards to Ground Zero. This time Allen is in the Benito role trying to lead people out of hell. He finds himself with companions; the primary two being an attorney from the big easy who died recently (our time) , and a famous Poet from New England who died back in 1963. Unlike Benito who had a base faith Allen has to deal with his own uncertainly about what God actually wants that at one point drives him to despair. We again see a troop of historical figures, quite a few who died since the publication of inferno and a few who predated it. The book's handling of radical Islam, Katrina and its aftermath and 9/11 are very good. The one weakness is the primary plot driver of the story is that the Catholic Church changed doctrine in terms of non-Catholics and salvation/damnation. That is not the case (Fr. Leonard Feeney not withstanding). In terms of the story it is a good tool in terms of theology it's wrong but as the authors point out "This is, of course a fantasy novel, not a treatise of theology and salvation." As a fantasy novel it is first rate, as a treatise of theology and salvation well (other than the pre-VII Feeneyism)frankly it's not bad and I've seen a whole lot worse by people who are supposed to know better. Either way you will enjoy it. Buy it.

Niven and Pournelle's Inferno actually informed some of my theology of Hell. This book reinforces that. Not only is the book a good read, it is full of good speculative theology about the nature of sin and heaven and hell. It is a good story of the difference between man's justice and God's justice. I strongly recommend that anyone who likes Niven and Pournelle or is interested in Theodicy or Theology read this book!

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!

I very much enjoyed the first book, "Inferno". When I first read it, part of the fun was spotting who was who. Niven and Pournelle peel a bit of the vinyl back and reveal the characters up front. That's the bad part. The good part is that they re-visit Hell and delve in a fictional way into its raison d'etre. The idea of two scifi authors taking on the Christian 'Problem of Pain' alone is a novelty. But what makes the book worthwhile is that they do a good job of it. The major problem I have with Niven-Pournelle is that they do not write enough. Heaven only knows when we'll see another book by them.