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Heroes in Hell #1
Heroes in Hell : Son of the Morning; Newton Sleep; The Prince; A Walk in the Park; The Hand of Providence; Basileus; To Reign in Hell
The shared world premise of Heroes in Hell is that all the dead wind up together in Hell, where they pick up where they left off when still alive. In this first anthology it can be found the following
"Son of the Morning" short story by Chris Morris
"Newton Sleep" novelette by Gregory Benford
"The Prince" novella by C.J. Cherryh
"A Walk in the Park" novelette by Nancy Asire
"The Hand of Providence" novelette by David Drake
"Basileus" novelette by C.J. Cherryh and Janet Morris
"To Reign in Hell" novelette by Janet Morris
"Son of the Morning" short story by Chris Morris
"Newton Sleep" novelette by Gregory Benford
"The Prince" novella by C.J. Cherryh
"A Walk in the Park" novelette by Nancy Asire
"The Hand of Providence" novelette by David Drake
"Basileus" novelette by C.J. Cherryh and Janet Morris
"To Reign in Hell" novelette by Janet Morris
Unknown Binding
First published March 1, 1986
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About the author
Janet E. Morris
107 books378 followersJanet Ellen Morris (born May 25, 1946) is a United States author. She began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 20 novels, many co-authored with David Drake or her husband Chris Morris. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell. Most of her work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written several works of non-fiction.
Morris was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1980.
In 1995, Morris and her husband and frequent co-writer Christopher Morris founded M2 Tech. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems and software.
Morris was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1980.
In 1995, Morris and her husband and frequent co-writer Christopher Morris founded M2 Tech. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems and software.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
April 19, 2013
This book is a lot of fun. Julius Caesar has tanks and machine guns, his murderer shows up in Hell as a 17 yr-old-boy; seemingly everybody from every age (mythological all the way up to the future) is here: fighting, falling in love, and intriguing with the Authority. While I could have done without descriptions of the Welcome Woman's extra tongue (DON'T ASK), this collection read fluidly and nicely--was entertaining without being stupid, and tackles well themes/elements present in the 'Iliad,' 'Inferno,' and 'Paradise Lost.' If you like literary depictions of Hell, I recommend this collection.
February 19, 2014
How did this book happen? It's too stupid and too awesome to be real, but it is real. I intend to read the rest of them as soon as I can. Fabulous.
January 6, 2013
This was the first book in the series and it really caught my attention, so much so that I read seven of the following volumes. These books were cranked out at what I would say is a fairly rapid pace: this first volume came out in 1987 and volume 11 (the last one I read) came out in 1990. By volume 3 C.J. Cherryh was listed as a co-author although all volumes had multiple authors as they were generally short story/novella collections. I think the description on the front page of this volume is a good way to give you an idea of the setting for this series:
"Alexander the Great teams up with Julius Caesar and Achilles to refight the Trojan War, with Machiavelli as their intelligence officer and Cleopatra in charge of R&R. Che Guevara Ups the Revolution with the help of Isaac Newton, Hemingway and Confucious."
The conceit is that pretty much any and all famous historical figures have ended up in hell so you have people from a multitude of time periods all working together and against each other. One good example that I remember (which may or may not be in this particular volume) was Napoleon and Wellington having tea while the Viet Cong were shelling the park across the street with mortars.
From what I remember at the time these were entertaining reads, I was in my early 20s at the time and I'm not sure if I would still enjoy reading them again today simply due to all of the other science fiction and fantasy I've read in the meantime.
"Alexander the Great teams up with Julius Caesar and Achilles to refight the Trojan War, with Machiavelli as their intelligence officer and Cleopatra in charge of R&R. Che Guevara Ups the Revolution with the help of Isaac Newton, Hemingway and Confucious."
The conceit is that pretty much any and all famous historical figures have ended up in hell so you have people from a multitude of time periods all working together and against each other. One good example that I remember (which may or may not be in this particular volume) was Napoleon and Wellington having tea while the Viet Cong were shelling the park across the street with mortars.
From what I remember at the time these were entertaining reads, I was in my early 20s at the time and I'm not sure if I would still enjoy reading them again today simply due to all of the other science fiction and fantasy I've read in the meantime.
May 12, 2023
I can't remember how I ended up with this book (a thrift store, maybe?), but I remember seeing it a lot when I was a kid. I'm sure it was the nostalgia that made me buy it.
This is a neat premise of a story (bring in historical figures from throughout time and have them work together), but the idea that they're in Hell never really gels. There are a couple of places where it becomes clear the characters are in Satan's domain, but for the most part, it's just an excuse to bring all of the characters together. I feel like there could have been a different means to bring them together that would have suited the story better.
Since it's an anthology, it's a mixed bag, but I did like David Drake's writing style the best.
This is a neat premise of a story (bring in historical figures from throughout time and have them work together), but the idea that they're in Hell never really gels. There are a couple of places where it becomes clear the characters are in Satan's domain, but for the most part, it's just an excuse to bring all of the characters together. I feel like there could have been a different means to bring them together that would have suited the story better.
Since it's an anthology, it's a mixed bag, but I did like David Drake's writing style the best.
November 26, 2007
What if...there were heroes in hell? What would they do? How heroic would they be? These answers and a hell lot more in Heroes in Hell!
November 18, 2014
The seminal work that started it all - excellent and the humor is subtle and tongue in cheek.
April 24, 2023
This book is almost philosophical enough, but it is so determined to show the philosophy and not tell the philosophy that it can be missed. I am addicted to morality sometimes; I could not read this book without reading for scraps of it. This story has this draw because it has its inherent divide between the damned and the saved. There is a comment at one point that Hell gets a lot of suicides. It is never stated why any soul in particular fell. Some think they know; most do not. There are none of the saved in the story; this is 100% a cast of the unsaved.
This gives the story something that is gruesomely fascinating, which is the dearth of heroes. It is about history's "heroes", but none of those depicted are good people. They are doomed to eternal conflict and they are jailed chiefly by their own natures. They are nearly all duplicitous, many of them are willing to inflict tortures upon others, and they are nearly all willing to kill. This is no spoiler, it seems to be very basic to the story. I said I find it fascinating, because in this the book shows morality without telling a word of it. The prose is unflinchingly in favor of violence at almost all points, but it never stops describing hell. To admire that world and agree with its precepts is not tenable.
Here I am delving into a speculation that I feel I possibly shouldn't post here, but as I have nobody else to talk about the book with, I shall indulge. It seems to me that the intensity of the torment suffered by each character is actually matched to their villainy. The setting seems to have a supernaturally karmic nature which presents the semblance of a shared world while actually tuning itself to each and every character. There is a character of surpassing evil who discovers a horrible fate in which others disbelieve. There is also a least evil person in the book, who performs a truly altruistic deed at one point and seems rewarded for it.
Beyond that, I discovered exactly one editing mistake in the entire book, which is spectacular compared to many of the books I read. I also found exactly one mangled run-on sentence that seemed to have gotten confused between its start and its ending point. That would be an abominable flaw if it was characteristic of a story, but once is easily forgiven.
There were various things that struck me as flaws in the stories. Most of them annoyed me briefly, and would be specified here had they proved memorable. They did not. The one "flaw" that I do remember quite clearly, I will not specify. It paid off spectacularly in the conclusion of its particular story.
I have one final qualm that I think explains the entirety of why this work is three stars to me. I would rate this more highly if I were rating it per its underlying quality. To my tastes in particular, I would rather have read about random people whose cruelty, duplicity, or militancy caused them to rise and reign in hell. I wasn't grabbed by the basic pretension of writing about famous historical figures interacting.
This gives the story something that is gruesomely fascinating, which is the dearth of heroes. It is about history's "heroes", but none of those depicted are good people. They are doomed to eternal conflict and they are jailed chiefly by their own natures. They are nearly all duplicitous, many of them are willing to inflict tortures upon others, and they are nearly all willing to kill. This is no spoiler, it seems to be very basic to the story. I said I find it fascinating, because in this the book shows morality without telling a word of it. The prose is unflinchingly in favor of violence at almost all points, but it never stops describing hell. To admire that world and agree with its precepts is not tenable.
Here I am delving into a speculation that I feel I possibly shouldn't post here, but as I have nobody else to talk about the book with, I shall indulge. It seems to me that the intensity of the torment suffered by each character is actually matched to their villainy. The setting seems to have a supernaturally karmic nature which presents the semblance of a shared world while actually tuning itself to each and every character. There is a character of surpassing evil who discovers a horrible fate in which others disbelieve. There is also a least evil person in the book, who performs a truly altruistic deed at one point and seems rewarded for it.
Beyond that, I discovered exactly one editing mistake in the entire book, which is spectacular compared to many of the books I read. I also found exactly one mangled run-on sentence that seemed to have gotten confused between its start and its ending point. That would be an abominable flaw if it was characteristic of a story, but once is easily forgiven.
There were various things that struck me as flaws in the stories. Most of them annoyed me briefly, and would be specified here had they proved memorable. They did not. The one "flaw" that I do remember quite clearly, I will not specify. It paid off spectacularly in the conclusion of its particular story.
I have one final qualm that I think explains the entirety of why this work is three stars to me. I would rate this more highly if I were rating it per its underlying quality. To my tastes in particular, I would rather have read about random people whose cruelty, duplicity, or militancy caused them to rise and reign in hell. I wasn't grabbed by the basic pretension of writing about famous historical figures interacting.
May 13, 2023
This was an easy read but it seemed there was a lot of bland filler conversation in a few of the stories/chapters. I remember reading a few of these books when I was a teenager some time ago and liking them a lot, this one I had never read before. It reminded me that I absolutely hate C.J. Cherryh's writing, which constantly spins its wheels and never gets anywhere until near the end. A bit strange I guess that I'm reading this series of books in which she has a not-insignificant part. However, I did like some of the stories here. These are the first two: Son of the Morning and Newton Sleep, the latter having the same flaws as some of the later stories but here it serves as an introduction to hell's rules which then get repeated ad nauseam in every other story; and The Hand of Providence and To Reign in Hell.
Would I recommend this book? Maybe, the first two stories are fascinating and sufficiently gruesome and informational respectively and there are a couple of others that are fantastical and somewhat gory. I guess if you're in for a Bangsian fantasy with plenty of gory fantasy violence, then I would recommend this one, otherwise not so much.
November 15, 2012
An interesting premise and, honestly, a pretty fantastically illustrated cover got me to pick this book up at the used book store, but it never fully lived up to its potential, nor did I pick up on anything setup-wise that would entice me check out the other eleven or so volumes in the ongoing series. Ah, well!
As always, I went into a little more detail on my blog: Parenthetical Asides. (Note: also contains substantial reflection on another book I finished reading recently, The Night Eternal)
As always, I went into a little more detail on my blog: Parenthetical Asides. (Note: also contains substantial reflection on another book I finished reading recently, The Night Eternal)
July 17, 2008
Intresting book; a series of writers took ideas for chapters and wrote them individually. Therefore, the book reads more like a collection of stories and yet is, itself, a novel.
The plot is simple: a revolution in hell. Satan must fight back against revolutionary leaders (Che, etc) who are trying to create a 'new' Hell.
The plot is simple: a revolution in hell. Satan must fight back against revolutionary leaders (Che, etc) who are trying to create a 'new' Hell.
April 3, 2014
Love this series: the historical characters, the rough edges, the anguished Devil, the intrigue, mystery, and dystopia. I want to get electronic copies of these.
September 15, 2017
Maybe my expectations for this book were just too high. Based on the title, cover art, and synopsis on the back, I expected a creative new take on Hell (maybe something akin to Milton's Hell in Paradise Lost, or Dante's Inferno, or even the bureaucratic feeling from The Screwtape Letters). Nope! Instead, Hell is just a dreary version of Earth where you repeatedly die (wow, no way I could ever come up with something so "creative!"). We don't even get the promised heroes of Hell. Instead, we follow around some nobody we don't care about for awhile as he has occasional brushes with the big names. Whoop whoop. The real clincher, though, was that women serve no purpose in Hell other than for grotesque sex. Thanks a lot. And again, how creative.
Maybe the book gets better after page 66. But I'm fine with not knowing; the beginning has certainly not led me to expect anything worth reading.
Maybe the book gets better after page 66. But I'm fine with not knowing; the beginning has certainly not led me to expect anything worth reading.
July 31, 2012
I have started and stopped reading this book several times. I start it on breaks, reread some bits, and then give it up when I have to go back to academics, so I haven't gotten to the end yet. Fortunately, this one is more a collection of short stories than anything. I was pretty amused in the sections that involved Greeks and Romans (go figure) but less amused when other historical figures took center stage. I found a book in this series at a used book store and became hooked in the first few pages when Achilles was flying in a helicopter and using a machine gun. I then started collecting all of the books in the series. One day, I will read them all, because they are truly ridiculous in the best way possible.
March 2, 2017
I don't really remember why I started reading these-- probably CJ Cherryh. The writing is good, but unless you like combat opera, well *shrug*. yeah, if your dream is to see a war with all the fighters of history in it, it's your jive. Not really mine: basically, the premise is: Hell is War.
January 28, 2008
A great series! Just how would fameous historical figures interact with one another if they found themselves in Hell?
August 9, 2016
I picked this first one up on a whim just because it looked interesting, and it was. For pure entertainment, it was good. Nothing monumental though. I read the second and third for the same reason.
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September 1, 2013Hell Book 1
December 30, 2023
A fun premise that has obvious applications for interesting storytelling. I enjoyed Nancy Asire's "A Walk in the Park" with its unlikely Napoleon and Wellington neighbor situation. Most of the rest of the stories feel like they're just dipping their toes in the water, setting up the rules of the setting. I'll be interested to see where they take things in the subsequent volumes, but this feels more like a prequel than a first installment.
August 22, 2018
C.J. Cherryh's "The Prince" is one of the best short stories/novellas I have ever read. Period. It may be the story which started me on the road to recognizing Cherryh as one of my Top Five authors, perhaps even Top Three.
Read
June 11, 2019This SEEMED like a lot of fun and what I would normally read in terms of absurd pulp (set in hell, one of my fav places)... but it wasn't really that funny or entertaining, and I just couldn't dedicate myself to it. So DNF and given away.
I might have just been in a sour mood tbh.
I might have just been in a sour mood tbh.
December 18, 2020
Pretty amazing. Read in one day. Its super funny. Reminds me of the hell in south park
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2023
An odd book to rate. 3 stars just for the nostalgia, but it was super uneven like a lot of interwoven collections tend to do be. A strong beginning and end brought it over the top to 4.
Read
July 7, 2019Digging back to a book that I first read back in the 80's. At one time I was keeping up with the whole series, then stopped. Part of re-reading it is curious to see what I found interesting about it and how well it holds up.
The overall scope is almost everyone goes to Hell before they can move on to wherever God is. Some books in the series are collections of short stories and novelettes, while others are full novels. This book starts off as a collection.
Son of the Morning: Short Story by Chris Morris
3 Out of 5
Not bad to open the collection and to introduce you to the series/concept. It is brief and does help to convey what the Devil is has to deal with. Even though it is from the 80's does not feel to dated.
Newton Sleep: Novelette by Gregory Benford
3 Out of 5
If you thought the series would be about only historical people, this helps to introduce what a normal person sees when arriving in Hell. You get a better understanding than Son of the Morning. The first half deals with the person original torment, before they are able to explore a small portion of Hell. It expands a sub-plot from Son of the Morning. Not bad overall, though very questionable demon, the Welcome Lady, during the torment scene. Even though the story ties her into the torments, they could have done it without the character. Reading it now, it distracts from the story.
The overall scope is almost everyone goes to Hell before they can move on to wherever God is. Some books in the series are collections of short stories and novelettes, while others are full novels. This book starts off as a collection.
Son of the Morning: Short Story by Chris Morris
3 Out of 5
Not bad to open the collection and to introduce you to the series/concept. It is brief and does help to convey what the Devil is has to deal with. Even though it is from the 80's does not feel to dated.
Newton Sleep: Novelette by Gregory Benford
3 Out of 5
If you thought the series would be about only historical people, this helps to introduce what a normal person sees when arriving in Hell. You get a better understanding than Son of the Morning. The first half deals with the person original torment, before they are able to explore a small portion of Hell. It expands a sub-plot from Son of the Morning. Not bad overall, though very questionable demon, the Welcome Lady, during the torment scene. Even though the story ties her into the torments, they could have done it without the character. Reading it now, it distracts from the story.
February 6, 2013
Shared world anthology with some great ideas, the central premise being that there is always some religion that says you're going to the bad place. Therefore, everyone is here. Wellington and Napoleon as neighbours, Julius Caesar now with modern weaponry, assorted Popes, Gilgamesh, Lincoln, Hitler, they're all here. I made it to the 5th volume before I got bored and moved on to other things.
November 26, 2018
Great series. As good the fifth time around as I remembered. As I read, I keep wondering how accurate the history is and find myself Googling the characters and their histories to see just how much research went into all the backgrounds of these historical characters. Feels like I am repeating history classes or upgrading my knowledge base.
July 9, 2016
Really enjoyable and original stories - I've been aware of the series for ages but just hadn't read any until now. Love the idea..and even in the 80's, computers (even in hell) are both a blessing and curse!
May 7, 2007
A fun series of what ifs that has Napoleon fighting the Viet Cong and Robert E. Howard hanging with Lovecraft.
December 30, 2020
I approve of the idea of shared world anthologies, but this one just didn't work.
June 29, 2013
A fun "what if" story of all history's great generals, now banished to hell, and trying to start a revolution against Satan.
December 28, 2013
I have the series, read books one and two. Looking forward to getting time to finish them all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews