Innocent in the Afterlife

by Irene Soldatos

Pope Innocent XIV drops dead three days into the job. But the afterlife, much like his reign, proves a bit of a disappointment. First, his guide, winged hat aside, is practically naked and thinks everything’s a bit of a joke. The Lord God calls him goy and tells him to bugger off; and come the day of Judgement his judges turn out to be human, and not even remotely saintly.

Then there’s the culture shock. The only three-in-one deity around is a she, and she’s terrifying. Not to mention all those divine birthday parties – none of which is for Jesus, despite it being December, because, apparently, He was born in August. But the worst part of all is that, despite his best efforts to explain, no one seems to want to understand that there’s nothing quite so evil in the world, as condoms.

ebook

First published March 1, 2013

About the author

Irene is based in the UK and Greece. She was born in Greece, but grew up in England. Then she went to Greece. Then England again. Then Germany. Now she’s back in England -- but can frequently also be found in Greece. She gets about. She has a B.A. in English and a Master’s and Ph.D. in Musicology.

Reviews

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a short, witty and punchy cautionary tale. I found myself grinning as one by one the pillars of Innocent’s faith crumble into dust. I particularly liked the God of Abraham, too wrapped up in his smiting to care much about anything else. How else would the God of Abraham behave? And why would Innocent’s RC version be any different?
Some of the accents I found a bit impenetrable, but I enjoyed saying the phonetically spelt words out loud to get the meaning. No question of skipping over the Chinese, for example; every quip was worth reading
This is a story that should please the irreligious, especially those of us the Church persists in referring to as lapsed Catholics. We snigger to ourselves and say, stupid bugger, we could have told ya!

[Tina Rath · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cheerful comic fantasy sharply written and guaranteed to cheer you up.

[Aliki Ekaterini Chapple · Rating 4 out of 5]

A witty irreverent take on what happens after death and the nature of morality.

[Donovan Sotam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story that follows a recently deceased Pope in the afterlife. A satire that will make you re-think the classic Christian/religious views of the after life.

What I really enjoyed was the great characters and mythological references. Some of the characters had accents which is something that a lot of people don't enjoy reading, still I found them very well written (which isn't easy) and enjoyable, however I'm somewhat biased towards written accents (love Pratchett's accents in books).

Wish there was a bit more story to it, than just deconstructing the religious beliefs on the afterlife. But that's what you get sometimes in short stories. Still, it's a very good and short read with lots of witty humour and a lot of interesting references.

Was undecided between a 3 and a 4 star, but decided to go for the 4, because this will probably get some negative reviews from the religous fanatics.

So, if you like religious satire and/or fantasy humour, go ahead and grab a copy. I did it and I don't repent. (See what i did there?)