Letters From Hades

by Jeffrey Thomas

A man awakens in Hell where he is schooled in the ways of the damned. And once educated, he is released to wander Hell on his own. He journeys from one city to the next, dodging demon patrols and avenging angels hunting the damned for sport. Along the way to the city of Oblivion, he discovers a band of rebellious damned have left a tortured and beautiful demon to rot. He rescues her and sets in motion a series of events that could lead to the final battle between Heaven and Hell, angel and demon, demon and damned. Letters From Hades is a travelogue of Hell—a world not that far from the very world we live in now. It is a story of rebellion, a story of love and a story of hope and rebirth set in a beautifully dark and textured world brought to brilliant life by Jeffrey Thomas, the acclaimed author of Punktown.

Includes the novella Beautiful Hell!
A writer named Frank Lyre finds himself damned to an afterlife where demons and angels are equally sadistic and conflicted, where torturers become seducers, where Jesus likes to sit for a pleasant chat, and where God is not only going through monstrous changes to His body, but a personal crisis that might forever change His vision of creation. Beautiful Hell is a sequel of sorts to Letters From Hades, but stands on its own as a harrowing study of damnation and regeneration, physical passion and emotional pain, faith and rebellion, and the conflict between the spirit and the flesh.

Genres: Horror

272 pages, Paperback

First published December 14, 2022

About the author

Jeffrey Thomas is an American author of weird fiction, the creator of the acclaimed setting Punktown. Books in the Punktown universe include the short story collections Punktown, Voices from Punktown, Punktown: Shades of Grey (with his brother, Scott Thomas), and Ghosts of Punktown. Novels in that setting include Deadstock, Blue War, Monstrocity, Health Agent, Everybody Scream!, Red Cells, and The New God. Thomas’s other short story collections include The Unnamed Country, Gods of a Nameless Country, The Endless Fall, Haunted Worlds, Worship the Night, Thirteen Specimens, Nocturnal Emissions, Doomsdays, Terror Incognita, Unholy Dimensions, AAAIIIEEE!!!, Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood, Carrion Men, Voices from Hades, The Return of Enoch Coffin, and Entering Gosston. His other novels include The American, Boneland, Subject 11, Letters From Hades, The Fall of Hades, The Exploded Soul, The Nought, Thought Forms, Beyond the Door, Lost in Darkness, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers.

His work has been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). At NecronomiCon 2024 Thomas received the Robert Bloch Award for his contributions to weird fiction.

Though he considers Viet Nam his second home, Thomas lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Dylan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Traveling without a specific destination—like backpacking across the country, hopping on trains, walking through cities, or even hitching rides with people you like— sounds like a pleasure. Well, that's what he's doing, except he is in Hell, and it's not quite like that. The landscape is surreal, filled with millions of lost and like-minded souls, vile demons, and hostile angels that will indiscriminately cut you down; there is no map or Let's Go travel guide to assist him, only his journal and backpack.

Ever since reading A Short Stay In Hell, which everyone should read, I've had a kick out of reading books that take place in Hell; this novel did it. I am good for a while. The first half was outstanding; it started out as an On the Road-like travelogue and then ended up getting into a civil war story between angels, demons, and the damned. Not bad, but it kind of lost my interest, and the demons were way too nice to the main character. Still, a fantastic concept for Hell, it had a steampunk and DIY, punk rock vibe to it, an entertaining read.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

An unusual story, but not bad. The book is divided into two parts, the first (and in my opinion better) is about one of the Dammed writing a notes about his stay in hell. The second is about a friend (apparently you can have friends and even lovers in hell) who does some editing and publishing said notes into a book. The unusual parts is that demons are bad, but so are angels, who routinely visit to cause mayhem, and hell is run sorta like Los Angeles, only not as dirty. The author takes a few too many shots at christianity, and God for my tastes.

[Moon Light Amethyst]

Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/5aKrUXQSG2...