To Reign In Hell

by Steven Brust

Vintage paperback

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Horror, Religion, Mythology, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

269 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 1984

About the author

Steven Karl Zoltán Brust (born November 23, 1955) is an American fantasy and science fiction author of Hungarian descent. He was a member of the writers' group The Scribblies, which included Emma Bull, Pamela Dean, Will Shetterly, Nate Bucklin, Kara Dalkey, and Patricia Wrede, and also belongs to the Pre-Joycean Fellowship.

http://us.macmillan.com/author/steven...

(Photo by David Dyer-Bennet)

Reviews

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before you pick this up, you should know that it's blasphemous. Seriously blasphemous. Personally, I loved that about it, but you might not (I'm looking at you, people that picketed Dogma, and you, people that think Harry Potter is the work of the devil). You've been warned.

In general, I enjoy different takes on creation and theology, from classics like John Milton's Paradise Lost and Dante Aligheri's Inferno to contemporary works such as Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett's Good Omens, Christopher Moore's Lamb, Tim Lahaye's Left Behind, and Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code.

So just reading the jacket cover of this, I knew it would interest me. It started out a little slow, and it was hard to relate to the characters in the beginning, but once the story got rolling, it was a compelling read, and it had a mind-blowing ending.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my all-time favorite literary genres/subjects is The Fall from Heaven; I eat that stuff up. So I was really excited about To Reign in Hell. But, honestly, I was disappointed in this book. There is a lot going for it, certainly - it's a very novel approach, and I like how Brust treated a lot of the characters. But, to parrot a review that I read online, I can't stand a plot that hinges on Big Misunderstandings that are based on people not talking to each other. And, yes, that's the root of a lot of Big Misunderstandings in real life, but ultimately it came down to a philosophical difference (to put it mildly), and I wish that the plot had focused on that more.

[Jon]

3 stars

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book influenced me so strongly as a teenager that decades later i'm obliged to retain the 5 star rating even though it's nowhere near as great a book as the others i've rated 5 stars. I've probably read it 4 times in my life, but i might never read it again.

I think i identified most with the Mephistopheles character, but boy did i get irritated at multiple instances with various major characters. If we can infer from Brust's characters what he thinks about human character, then we're mostly selfish and deceitful and petty and fearful.

Satan is handcuffed by doubt because of one bad break-up. Lucifer is led by the ring in his nose by the same woman who broke Satan's heart. Mephistopheles is clever and sneaky and sarcastic, but he's unwilling to commit to anything other than cynicism itself. Yaweh [Brust chose this alternate spelling] is an egotist. Yeshuah is psychotic (i was going to string together handfuls of adjectives, but when combined in one psyche, they boil down to simply psychotic). Lilith is powerhungry and emotionally fickle. Abdiel is plain evil because he's such a coward. Asmodai just likes to play with toys. Michael is a dopey strongman who knows he's not "smart" and therefore refuses to speak his mind even when the dumbest angel in heaven could understand that what's happening around him is wrong. I'm not sure what's wrong with Raphael, but she's inert. Beelzebub is faithful and true, but he is 100% sidekick—so he's loyal and that's the extent of his character.

Sounds like i don't like these characters, but that's only true of Abdiel, Yaweh, and Yeshuah—they are sickening types and i wanted them to fail.

As other reviews have pointed out, the entire story hinges on a series of misunderstandings and/or miscommunications, mostly orchestrated by the one rotten apple (who's able to deceive himself into believing he does these things with good intentions).

I think the framework of this novel over-relies on a couple ideas
a) we (humans) were created in God's image
b) the road to hell is paved with good intentions

Now for the good parts! Or, why i love this novel. It dares to paint "god" as human and Satan likewise. It dares to present a story that "explains" the human experience so tidily (i.e., our life on Earth mirrors what it was like as Heaven became populous enough for interpersonal conflict to arise). It dares to undermine several central tenets of Christianity: that God the Father is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, all-loving, the creator of everything, etc. It dares to re-tell Paradise Lost, which is—though antiquated and losing hold on the popular mind—a central literary idea in the Western English-speaking world.

In other words, Brust was bold and brave and i must give him credit for that. He also managed to tell a gripping story that is accessible to anybody.

++++++++++++++++++++
Sep '09: i discovered a bunch of my What Do I Read Next? reviews from the mid-90s when i was on a serious SF-canon reading tear (and, apparently, averse to capital letters).
++++++++++++++++++++

Plot Summary: the story behind the revolt of the angels led by satan and told (for the most part) from his perspective. heaven was created by yaweh and satan after they were "born" from the ultimate primordial ooze ("cacoastrum" or "the flux"), but this substance does not give up the fight; it has waged war—in "waves"—against their walls more than once; these battles have resulted in the fortification of heaven's solid defenses and in the creation of more and more beings called angels (hierarchized by what "wave" they came from); after the fourth(?) wave, a plan is devised by which a (more or less) permanent barrier against the flux can be constructed; this plan requires the life-threatening participation of every angel in heaven; these heavenly creatures are not as divine as we might expect them to be, though, and trouble is brewing, factions are formed, and civil war breaks out.

Main Characters:
satan—regent of the south, leader of the rebellious angels
yaweh—lord of heaven (somewhat), creator of "the plan"
abdiel—the bad guy
beelzebub—archangel in form of a golden retriever, satan's right hand "man"
yeshuah—"son" of yaweh
lucifer—regent of the east, organizer of "the plan"
mephistopheles—troublemaking archangel, rebellious angel
lilith—one of only a few female angels, rebellious angel
michael—yaweh's right hand man, strongman
raphael—yaweh's left hand woman, healer
asmodai—archangel, architect of "the plan," rebellious angel
belial—fire-breathing dragon regent of the north, rebellious angel
leviathan—sea-serpent ruler of the west, rebellious angel

Locale: heaven

Time Period: before the beginning of time up to the beginning of time

Comments:
according to the copyright page it was originally published by Steel Dragon Press in 1984, but my version is the Ace Fantasy Books paperback version printed in 1985. i think it's out of print now.

a book entitled Inferno was published around the same time in paperback; it's a reworking of Dante's story, but in a modern fantasy novel way; not very good, but it's som'm that others might want to read next. (i feel like the bookstore clerk's worst nightmare: all i remember about the book is the title and what color the cover was.) [2009 note: websearching wasn't readily available to me in 1996 when i wrote this first review—i was using WordPerfect 5.1 for DOS !—but i found the link on Goodreads to the book i was thinking of and, incidentally, bought from the neighborhood drug store]

one of the best things about this novel is its humor, especially the jokes relating to the expectations and archetypes of christianity; for example: the christian big-g god (yaweh) is omnipotent and omniscient, but in this book he says things like "I wish there was something I could do for you," makes faulty assumptions, waffles about what to do, etc.; and satan is so moral that he has a hard time acting for fear of making mistakes; angels turn out to be as petty, vindictive, back-stabbing, and power-hungry as humans; life in heaven is not heavenly; in fact, existence is most aptly characterized by change/chaos/flux.

this is one of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy novels of all time and certainly the (pure) fantasy novel that i recommend the most to people who want to read such stuff.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, where to start? I have to say that I was expecting more out of this one. It just didn't really do it for me. The introduction by Zelazny only raised my expectations too, I must say. For him to say that he doubted that Brust could pull off what he set out to do, but found that he was wrong to doubt, and then decided it was good enough for him to write an intro for the story rather than just some cliched blurb for the back cover, that made a change to my expectations.

The beginning started out well with this line:

"Snow, tenderly caught by eddying breezes, swirled and spun in to and out of bright, lustrous shapes that gleamed against the emerald-blazoned black drape of sky and sparkled there for a moment, hanging, before settling gently to the soft, green-tufted plain with all the sickly sweetness of an over-written sentence."

Nice. I liked it, so far so good.

Now, before we go any further, I want to make it clear that I have never read the bible, Old or New Testaments. I'm not a religious person, but I'm pretty open-minded. I think you kind of have to be open-minded to read something like this and not have to hose yourself down in Holy water afterwards. If you're a believer, that is. But anyway, the point I'm making is that I'm not familiar with these characters on more than a "Hey, that name rings a bell!" basis. Yahweh, check. Satan/Lucifer/Beelzebub, check. Lilith (not the one from Frasier), uhh, I'll get back to you.

But my not being friends with these guys (and girls) on Facebook isn't super important here, as far as I know, because I don't think that these guys (just assume this to include girls too) are very true to their biblical representation. One of the angels, Harut, talked somewhat like a southern waitress: "What can I get for you, honey?" "Ok, honey, that's fine, just leave the tip on the counter." "Sure, honey, one pecan pie coming right up." I don't think that's how he'd've talked in the bible. I'm sure there would've been a lot more "ands", for one. ;)

Anyway, in the beginning beginning, there was nothing. There was chaos and raw energy and magic in two forms, cacoastrum which is destructive and illiaster which is formative. Through the magic of flashbacks, we're told that somehow, from the illiaster was created a consciousness and then form, then from that form created another and another until there were seven. Here we have Yahweh and the six Firstborn angels, Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan, Belial, Raphael and Michael. This was the first Wave. The second Wave hit, created some new angels, killed some new angels. Third Wave, same deal. With each Wave, the new angels created are weaker than the last round. This is where the story really begins.

So, Yahweh loves everybody. He has a plan to create a safe place for angels to live and be sheltered from the Waves that bring life and death with them. Satan is depicted as a generally good guy, Yahweh's oldest and best friend, but just a bit on the indecisive side. (I can understand that. I'm a Libra.) He's not sure whether the risks for going through with The Plan outweigh the benefits and he's not sure if it's right to push people to do it.

This is the crux of the story, the jumping off point for all of the misunderstandings and miscommunications and discord. This is helped along more than a little bit, though. I'll get to that.

This is also where things start to go downhill for me. First, I fail to see why a whole NEW environment must be created in order to be safe. Why not shore up what you have? This is never explained, and seems to be a big plot hole. But OK, accepting that it's necessary, why then not just tell everybody why it's necessary? It's like some big Upper Echelon Secret. 'We'll get the peons to do the labor, but we won't tell them why.'

So Satan's not feeling the program and isn't sure if it's the right thing to do. Enter motiveless troublemaker to make trouble. Check. Troublemaker makes trouble, confuses matters, does what troublemakers have done since time immemorial. (Yeah, the book was this repetitive too.) OK, why doesn't the Big Man say to himself, "Hmm... I just don't get why my oldest and dearest friend would turn on me like this. It doesn't make sense. Let me go talk to him and find out what's going on." Right. No story then.

I'm not a big fan of the whole "It was all a big misunderstanding" plot device. It's sloppy. It's annoying. Because, if characters, or people for that matter, aren't willing to think for themselves and use common sense, they aren't good characters. Sure, everyone can be fooled, but this is over and over and over and over. And it comes to a point when I just no longer have the patience to stick by and accept that kind of foolishness. Especially not from someone who is supposed to be the omnipotent Creator of existence.

Overall, it just seemed that the "good guys" here, meaning Yahweh and his team, were too willing to see ill intentions when they are supposedly innocent of that kind of knowledge. Yahweh loved everybody, but the first time a friend doesn't show up at his doorstep on time, he's like "Why does he hate me?" Just too many holes in this one for me.

Speaking of Yahweh's love, I did quite enjoy seeing how he eventually morphed into the jealous vengeful God we're used to from the Old Testament stories... I would have liked to have seen more about this,actually. Brust's writing style here was very dialogue heavy, and very minimalist in everything else. A lot was left up to the reader to fill in. Especially during the fight scenes. For example, here's a fight scene between Michael and Satan:

"...If you don't mind, let's get on with it. I have things to do here, and I'm sure you do also." (Satan)
"Alright, try this then!" (Michael)
"Not bad. I see you've learned to aim so that you won't hit the -- eek -- ground if you miss."
"You can't keep retreating forever, you know."
"I suppose not. Tell me, Michael, will your -- eh -- will your sword save you from my emerald?"
"Find out, if you dare!"
"I will, if you'll give me a moment to -- uh -- here we go, then. There. Ah. I see your sword helped a bit, anyway, or you wouldn't still be alive. I'll be going now."
"I'll... get...you."
"No doubt, Michael, no doubt."

It works, although it reads like someone forgot to add the pictures from a too-staged Batman comic. But yeah, it works; I just like a bit more meat to my fightscenes. Bloody, gut-strewn messes. Not, "Oh, you're killing me. Please. Sto--". *yawn*

I will say that the end, (the very, very end) was good. I liked how the opposition was set up for it to be "God" vs. "Satan" on earth. Pretty clever there. But all in all, I was pretty let down by this one. =\

[sologdin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gloss on Milton demonstrates that Hell, contra Sartre, is a self-inflicted wound.

Setting is the formless chaos of Genesis 1, wherein cacoastrum, the toxic stuff of formless chaos is transformed into illiaster. Unchaotic, however, our ability to trace this name through its etymology, which might well be ‘shit of the stars,’ or so. Paracelsus otherwise derived the term ‘yliaster’ from hyle, matter, and astrum--for alchemists in search of the philosopher’s stone, this is prima materia.

“The flux creates the essence of order, which is illiaster, which was the staff of life before bread had the privilege” (11). Is it “Conscious? Sentient? Self-aware? Perhaps these things exist only for an instant, only to be lost before they can begin to understand” (12). But eventually one random formation of illiaster is born with “an instinct to survive,” so it “strives to hold itself together. And as it strives, cacoastrum and illiaster produce more illiaster, and consciousness produces more consciousness, and now there are two” (12). Thus are born Yaweh and Satan, who partner amid the flux of chaos and eventually through their labor produce Leviathan, Belial, Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael in the first wave of genesis.

If the language of this genesis, highlighting struggle and labor and consciousnesses, seems Hegelian, it’s probably something of which Marxist author is keenly aware. The Hegelian stuff is fairly plain: “Yaweh remembered the beginning--how the two of them had perceived each other, almost before each had perceived himself” (59). Despite his proclamation in a propaganda speech that “the beginning was when I came to be,” Yaweh “wasn’t really aware of the very beginning--he couldn’t remember when he had become aware of himself as such” (153).

Basic narrative is that, after the first wave, a second wave of lesser angels was produced by struggle against the cacoastrum (Gabriel, Lilith, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Asmodai, Abdiel, and a bunch of others); and then an even larger and lesser group was made in the third wave. Story opens with expectation of a fourth wave, wherein the first wavers debate whether the first wave has the right to coerce the third wave into fighting the cacoastrum in the imminent fourth wave. Satan is “unsure” whether the right to conscript exists (15-16). From Satan’s mere doubt springs the principle conflict, up to and including civil war. Actual rebellion arises, much like the consciousness of the principals, in mutual recognition with inchoate authority, as Yaweh was not the maximum leader initially, nor was Satan (and his eventual seven samurai) more rebellious than mere uncertainty might imply. Authority thereafter increased in direct relation to the increase in rebellion that it perceived from its center, mostly as part of a comedy of miscommunication, whereas peripheral rebellions coalesced as they perceived the enhancement of totalitarian authority, somewhat achieved through deliberate sabotage on the pro-totalitarian side.

Some amusing quirks: Beelzebub speaks Elizabethan, and Ariel speaks only in rhyming verse. Abdiel is presented as a scheming loser (much contrary to Milton’s presentation), whereas the Mephistopheles is more Marvel than Marlowe. Yaweh presented as interested in the universal welfare, but increasingly totalitarian in achieving that end, including the creation of the traditional orders of angels (thrones, principalities, &c.)--in contrast to Satan as uncertain on whether proletarian third order might be conscripted (he is something of a Hamlet, one supposes). Yeshuah is created as an act of state propaganda, at a totalitarian rally, and is, as a presentation of doctrine, heretical to the extent that he is not co-eternal with YHWH (and is apparently homoiousios rather than homoousios--OH NOS arrianism! ). I suppose a close reading could draw out as many heresies here as Milton endorsed in the De Doctrina Christiana.

Hard for me not to like Brust; he’s charming as a writer, and has left politics.

Recommended for those who reject the law of heaven, persons who see that Yaweh will want to be worshipped whereas Satan will be content to be accepted, and readers whose essence of unity meets the essence of sundering, whereupon a transformation occurs and oneness becomes disjunction.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.0 to 4.5 stars. A fantastic retelling of the "Fall" of Lucifer from his point of view. An original, intelligent, and very enjoyable novel.

[Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

What do they say - history is written by the winners.

I loved loved loved this book about the battle in heaven. We've got it all - Mephistophles, Lucifer, Satan, Yahweh, Michael etc. etc. and if you're not pulling for the devil to kick gods ass by the end of this book then I don't know what book you're reading.

Steven Brust writes an amazing story with larger than life characters that you care about - it's a surprisingly short book that feels like the best of a 1000 page epic fantasy.

Highest possible recommendation.

[Kathryn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I initially rated this 4 stars but that is not sitting well. I love Brust's originality and his lack of fear to take such a well known story and shape it to his own ideals, which I think I actually agree with. But I thought maybe that was over done. I kept thinking, "really?!, are these characters supposed to be this stupid? Can they really not see what is going on?". The plot moves along due to miscommunications and near misses, by deceit and sheer ignorance. I guess that might have been intentional but it was just more than I could handle in many scenes. The world building is very well done.

The beginning was promising, the middle was exciting, and the ending kind of dropped off, which I found disappointing. Very few of the characters were likable in any regard. Mephistopheles, Satan, and Leviathan were the main characters that interested me. Most of the characters were quite despicable, childish, and dumb as dirt. Yet this book was unique and I am very happy to have read it. I look forward to discovering what else Brust has written.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon · Rating 2 out of 5]

2 1/2

I was mostly saddened as I read this book. I didn't really get a lot of the light-heartedness or humor that it's purported to have. Some have said that the ending seemed dark compared to the rest of the story, but I started being kind of depressed by what was happening as soon as Abdiel started meddling, and it just got progressively worse from there, and I had no hope for a happy ending, because we all know how this story ends. Though I was more pleased with the ending than I would've been had it gone a few other possible ways.

I was expecting a lot more wit and snarkiness. Instead of a waffling Satan, I think I was expecting a sort of Al Pacino in 'Devil's Advocate' or Lucifer from 'Sandman' and/or 'Lucifer'. Still a sympathetic character, but one who brazonly chooses rebellion, not one who's half-tricked and half-forced into it.

I did like that he distinguished between Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub since a lot of stories sort of conflate the names, and that always kind of irritates me. And Beelzebub was definitely one of my favorite characters, though it took me awhile to not get annoyed by his speech. I liked Ariel's poetry, too.

So, yeah, I was mostly sad... but I was also happy when Yeshua was destroyed, even though it was sort of noble, I guess - because he was almost as big a douche as Abdiel. I also sort of wish that the falling out happened more honestly, without all the behind-the-scenes machinations. Even if Satan wasn't a willing rebel, it would've been nice if he disagreed with Yahweh, and Yahweh pitched a fit, and then it dissolved from there. I would've preferred to have both sides be sort of wrong and sort of right on their own, without all the string-pulling. It sort of cheapened the story, somehow.

Oh, though I was glad that Michael stood on some sort of principle at the end, since he disagreed with Yahweh a lot but went along with it, anyway.

I was expecting a bit more wit, more snark, more sass... and mostly I was left feeling kind of sad and disheartened. That said, it was a quick read and a bit of a page-turner, so I can't say it was bad - it just wasn't what I'd bargained for.

[Chris Haught · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought about 3-stars for this, but it honestly had me too captivated for that. TRIH was well written, but not deeply written. The story never really reached its full potential to me. It could have been truly epic in scope, with the material Brust had to write from.

This seemed more like a social comedy. It wasn't slapstick silly humor, though there was the occasional subtle joke that had me laughing. It was written to be very dialogue-heavy, and the shifting scenes made it a quick read.

I wasn't disappointed that it wasn't more epic. It was quite enjoyable and compelling the way it was. The characters were drawn pretty well, though could have been explored more deeply in a longer work.

There were some scenes and even some characters that I never really understood the need for. And the ending was, after so much of the book was about anticipating what was to come, very abrupt. The climax of this book was one that I was looking forward to from the beginning, and it left me sort of blah. It wasn't bad; the last few pages worked just find. It just seemed to go from the final battle to the aftermath with hardly a breath. That after it took Satan 3/4 of the book to decide what to do...about anything.

But that little criticsm aside, TRIH was a very enjoyable read. It's a keeper, one that I might pick up again some years down the road if I want a good not-overly-serious look at the War in Heaven.

[Chris Gousopoulos · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting retelling of the war in heaven and the final division between God's Angels and Satan's Fallen ones. I did not find this book blasphemous, as some people say. It was not religious but mostly a fantasy reading. I thought of it mostly as satirical and a bit realistic. Ambition, misunderstanding and silliness(the biggest flaw of the book for me) led to division and conflict. There was a good mix of caricatures and iconic characters and I enjoyed reading the thoughts and banters of plenty of them. Mostly Mephistopheles who was really interesting in his mysterious and witty ways. An easy and fast reading with good dialogues and some interesting and sarcastic commenting on belief and society.

[Greg Heath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps my favorite novel of all time, Steven Brust's "To Reign in Hell" is a novel that humanizes what is quite possibly the most reviled figure in literary and popular history - the Devil, himself. Set just prior to the events that will lead to the war in heaven and subsequent fall of Satan, the story opens with an ominous tone: there is a wave of flux energy coming soon, dubbed the Fourth Wave, that will tear down the walls of heaven and simultaneously create and destroy life indiscriminately as it has done thrice before. To prepare for this, the firstborn angel, Yaweh, seeks council with his fellow first-wave angel Satan (the secondborn). He proposes a plan to stave off the coming disaster, a plan that involves creating a bigger Heaven with protective shielding - Earth. The problem with this, though, is that its construction will cost the lives of many angels; so, too, however, will the coming Fourth Wave. Yaweh entrusts Satan with charging the angels of heaven to do his bidding, to lay down their lives for the betterment of heaven. Satan questions the morality of this, but before he is able to give a proper response to this plan, a devious, self-serving angel spins a web of lies around the two of them that escalates into an all out war.

It is this bold notion that the war in heaven could, in fact, be the result of a simple misunderstanding that lends "To Reign in Hell" its success in humanizing Satan and his fallen angels. One can't help but empathize with Satan and the other first-born skeptics (one of whom - Lucifer - can be loosely interpreted on a critical level as a spin on the typical suave, slick-haired mustachioed Old Nick). Though perhaps even more importantly, Yaweh is given equally sympathetic handling. Instead of simply flipping the roles or giving Satan a more robust, likable character, Brust has gone to great lengths to ensure that both sides of the argument have their fair representation. In reading, though, one comes to acknowledge that Yaweh's actions - though his character is depicted here as sympathetic and remorseful - are the obvious catalyst for what follows. As such, readers are somewhat biased and are set up to cheer for Satan and his ragtag gang of rebels, though one could argue that this is only fair in context, given that any typical representation of this subject would obviously favor Yaweh in a similar light.

As a writer, there is a wealth of knowledge to be gleaned in reading "To Reign in Hell." Brust has drawn heavily from Christian mythology and Milton's "Paradise Lost" in populating heaven and characterizing its many denizens, and the payoffs of his research and clear influences shine through in the meticulous detail and loving attention to the language and world of the angels of heaven. This is a great example of how to approach a large-scale war in a fantasy setting without making it feel like two faceless entities running smack-dab at each other, two clearly-defined opposing heads towering over a sea of faceless troops, or simply delving into page upon page of small army detail to give the grunts a voice. No, Brust has done all of these things and none of them at the same time, balancing the sense of a vast army and impending war with the intimacy and understanding of a personal conflict, showing no overt favoritism in tone and never quite dulling the intensity between the two head figures - God & Satan. Wholeheartedly recommended, as a writer and a reader. This one is a pure joy to experience.

[David · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring, juvenile, prurient, unimaginative, flat characters, predictable plotting, lifeless prose.

But, on the other hand, this work is stacked up against Dante, Goethe, Milton, Blake, and a galaxy of lesser writers that have all taken Xtian myth into new and interesting environments. To even try your hand at this takes moxie.

That it fails miserably is almost to be expected...but then it is just genre fiction...which is never meant to be literary or thought provoking in any significant manner.

But still...it is not a book that I would recommend to anyone who wants a good story, interesting characters, thought-provoking ideas, etc.

NOT RECOMMENDED!!! :(

Of course there will be those, teenagers mostly (if only emotionally) that will embrace this book and that's great. I hope they find something compelling to inspire them, normally it will be those fed up with saccharine Xtianity, but I would recommend John Milton's Paradise Lost and Wiliam Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell as a good place to begin...but be prepared these are complex and occasionally opaque works that require a serious investment in grey matter to get to the heart of what is going on. Oh yes, before I forget, do not forget to read J.W. Von Goethe's Faust....now that's a freaky riff on desire.

But I always enjoy transgressive works that attack society's central beliefs and tweak the noses of our sacred cows. Hambugers anyone?? :)

[ambyr · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story here is too thin to do much to shroud the scaffolding of Brust's politics. Add a pile of misunderstandings grown from people failing to speak with each other (my least favorite kind of plot) and a focus on Christian mythology (a subject of no interest to me), and you get a book that just doesn't do much for me, however smooth the writing.

[J.W. Griebel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rating: 5 stars

Why? It made me think. Seldom do I find a book that makes me think, and allows me to picture heaven in the following way:



(Pictured center: Yaweh)


To Reign in Hell took a fictional story we thought we knew, and turned it on its head.

Err... wait, you're saying the bible wasn't fictional? Excuse me then while I go part that ocean over there so that talking, burning bush can get to the other side without getting its leaves wet--whereupon it will still be held in higher esteem than any woman, despite the fact it is a fucking bush.

Anyway:

Brust reversed the roles of Satan and God somewhat; Satan the unintended martyr (without the death part), and God the power-hungry, self-created-image-obsessed, morally-bastardized angel who may or may not have come first and accidentally created the other angels.

I imagine, if he did, it went something rather like this:



Let there be angels!

This novel made me consider not religion, but people and the things we do that are terrible and wrong, telling ourselves all the while that we act for the greater good--the lies, the wars, the deaths, the betrayals; all of the "justified" evils.

I loved this novel. I truly did. It may be joining my "favorites" shelf very soon.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brust is a writer primarily of fantasy and wow is he good. While telling a good story is always foremost, he also seems to enjoy challenging himself and doing things that are interesting. His Vlad Taltos series, about an assassin, is what he's known for, but To Reign in Hell is actually a re-telling of the story of the Fall, of the creation of everything and how Satan got kicked out. Not to give away too much, but in this version it's not really Satan's fault.

[Zedsdead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the world Brust has built.

First there was only the Flux, an infinitely violent perfect chaos. In time the chaos produced a sentient form that fought to survive: Yaweh. Yaweh's struggle against the Flux produced Belial, Satan, Leviathan, Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, and together they formed a safe space called Heaven. After a time the Flux broke through and the seven Firstborn were forced to fight again; this Second Wave produced hundreds of archangels and they created a larger Heaven to house everyone. The Third Wave maimed two of the Firstborn and consumed many archangels but created thousands of angels.

Now, in the peacetime before the inevitable Fourth Wave, Yaweh conceives of a great Plan: the construction of a stable, permanent safe haven with room for all future beings. Earth. But that means forcing the hosts of Heaven to go out into the Flux, at the cost of many lives. Some Firstborn resist this plan, and the perfect love and harmony that had always been is sundered.
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I first read this as a teenager and to that good Baptist boy, it was shockingly transgressive. It taught me about considering the source. About the importance of testing my assumptions, because what I knew for a fact would sometimes turn out to be wrong. It taught me that if I want to be correct--or as close to correct as reasonably possible--I'd have to never stop testing my beliefs. To Reign in Hell wasn't the only contributor to this upending of my comfortable, simplistic, terrible worldview, but it was important.


The story is ultimately about the nature of power and the tension between safety and freedom. Yaweh seizes power for the good of his beloved angels; He is initially a benevolent and reluctant dictator, but to maintain control He must take harsher and crueler measures until He is at last functionally fascist. Satan, Lucifer, and the others see the value in the Plan itself but cannot sanction the deceit, manipulation, and coercion required to implement it. And so beings that love each other find themselves funneled into war.

It's a tragedy fraught with critical lessons. And while I think it ends on a bit of a squib, I have immense fondness for it.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the biblical fanfiction I was looking for. I knew I was going to like Satan going in, but Mephistopheles winning me over was an unexpected surprise.

[Keary Birch · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took a while to get going but eventually a good read. What really happened in Heaven and how Yahweh and Satan ended up toe to toe.

[??????? · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frustrating and brilliant.

Like Zelazny, who wrote the foreword to this book, I didn't think Brust could handle it. A story about Satan's rebellion against God? There were so many ways this book could fail. It didn't. It held together with a kind of chaotic intricacy, a huge mess of a plot that somehow holds itself together by virtue of its author's skill and ends with a gratifying finale.

Brust doesn't take any sides here. This book is not a thinly veiled postmodernist attempt to destabilize Christian theological norms, or an attempt at trendy irony by painting Satan as a protagonist. It is a meditation on humanity, and its cast is aggressively human in every possible way. Satan kind but marred by indecision and a tendency toward philosophical meandering. Yaweh loving but blinded by his own love. Raphael kind but passive. Michael strong but lacking vision. Zaphkiel a visionary but lacking purpose. Abdiel a massive bastard.

There is a real honesty to this book, and I respect that. The characters here are honest. The narrator does not smirk at the reader. There is good and bad in everyone.

To that end, Brust's novel--and I hesitate to give it any real label--draws some inspiration from Neoplatonism. Angels are not two-dimensional embodiments of virtue with a natural predilection for playing harps, but archetypes for human beings. They're super-human, saturated in humanity, with all the feelings and passions of you and I, but magnified.

The plot itself is structured like a tragedy of circumstances, almost Greek in its tragedy, driven by epic levels of hamartia in its characters. No one is without fault (save perhaps for Harut, whom I love), not even Satan. And no one is truly wrong, not even Yaweh. It is a meditation on law and chaos rather than good and evil. On bad things from good intentions and good things from selfishness.

I had one issue with the book which kept me from giving it a full five stars: the presence of a kind of mind-control device central to the plot. Can you have a Deus Ex Machina in a story like this without being (intentionally or otherwise) ironic? Either way, it felt like a cop-out to me.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book. I was frustrated with it at times. Frustrated because--God, how could these characters be so stupid? How could they not see? But then I realized Brust was taking me along for the ride. Frustration and gratification are intermingled here.

This is not a book about atheism and theism. This is not a book about Satan and God and Jesus.

This is a book about order and chaos, about the Gods of Iliaster who slay the Titans of Cacoastrum. Chaos creates order by rebelling against itself; order resists the encroachment and chaos and grows, but in doing so, sows the seeds of its own disunity. Entropy destroys order and the cycle recapiculates. Saturn devours his children, who then break free of him. Heaven emerges from the primordial chaos, only to break apart, and then rebuild itself.

It is eschatology and creation myth. Recommended.

[Christina · Rating 2 out of 5]

"To Reign in Hell" is like the movie "Jawbreaker" - or even better, "Saved" with Mandy Moore - in heaven.

Heaven is apparently a great big box floating in space with "cacoastrum" (choas, though I can't ignore how much the first part of that word sounds like "caca") all around it - sort of what high school feels like when you're 15 or 16. Occasionally the cacoastrum breaks in, and some angels die and some new angels are created.

Yaweh, Satan, Lucifer and Lilith are the cool student council kids of the book. The archangel Michael is the big, dumb jock who just does what the cool kids tell him to. Raphael is the nice, pretty chick who goes along with Yaweh because she doesn't know what else to do. Mephistopheles is that creepy, nerdy kid who listens in on everyone's conversations and knows way too much. And so on...

Yaweh wants to protect the angels from the cacoastrum for ever, and begins planning to build the universe. He knows some of the other kids won't go along with it because they could die in the process. So he asks his best friend, Satan, to make sure they do. Satan isn't keen on the idea, but he knows his friend has good intentions. So he goes home to think about it.

Rumors about "The Plan" and Satan's supposed opposition start floating all over heaven. Yaweh and Satan hear them, but never talk to each other. Instead they send emissaries to relay messages and investigate, and sometimes the emissaries don't make it to their destination.

Yaweh declares himself student council president ("Lord of Lords"), which ticks off the other cool kids. Raphael and Michael go along with it, even though Michael really wants to punch Yaweh in the face. And Lucifer, Lilith and Satan decide Yaweh is a big jerk and they're going to fight him.

And so it goes.

And you've read "The Bible," "Paradise Lost," etc. You know how this book ends.

It drags a little in places. But the interesting twist (Yaweh's a big, fat liar and Satan is all about the truth) and the witty repartee between characters make it fun to read.

[Mitch]

No stars for this one.

Occasionally I run across a book I dislike so much it goes into the recycled paper bin instead of to a friend or to a secondhand bookstore.

This is odd, because I've really enjoyed several other books by Stephen Brust. Additionally, I loved "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny, who wrote an enthusiastic review of this book and whose work it occasionally resembles.

Right in the face of all that, 'To Reign in Hell' was awesomely awful.

So...very...much of it was consumed with characters running around looking for one another. This plot wandering was incredibly boring. It was repeated over and over because Steven wouldn't let his characters make decisions on pressing issues, let alone actually DO anything for at least a hundred horrible pages.

Add to this his deliberate distortion of characters. Once again, we see Satan, Lucifer and Beelzebub painted as heroes, while God (Yahweh) and Jesus (Yeshuah) are evil. Yahweh's character is weak, easily tricked, deceitful, full of pride, hypocritical, and not nearly sorry enough that he 'has to' order others to their deaths.

Look as you will, you won't find a single pure, good character in Steven's Heaven.

Everyone there resemble Greek gods or today's superheroes; each has some limited superpower and human character flaws- in other words, they are just souped up people, wandering around without a great storyline.

This book badly needs a Redeemer.

[Duffy Pratt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A re-imagining of the fall, but Brust paints Yaweh as Stalin, while Satan is more like Trotsky. And given Brust's politics, that makes Satan the doomed hero. There's much that is clever and likable here, but it wasn't profound, nor (and much worse) was it a lot of fun. There were some wonderful moments, and Brust leans very heavily on history having been written by the side of the winners.

The main problem I had is that none of the characters were very interesting. But I think that's also a problem with the source material, so I don't count that too much against this fanfic. Milton had similar problems, and managed only to make Satan interesting, and his take on this stuff was much less fun while, in my opinion, not being much more profound.

Brust also leans very hard on two devices that I don't like. One is having conflict rise from a failure to communicate. And the other is the device of having characters meet to make plans, and then hiding the plans from the reader. Both appear here in abundance.

I loved the idea that Satan's pride stemmed from his refusal to lie in the service of Yaweh. And I enjoyed the blasphemous portrayals of Yaweh and Yeshua. But, for me, this is the worst of the standalone books that I've read by Brust. It was still good, but if it had been the first thing of his I had read, I doubt I would have ever made it to the really good stuff.

[William · Rating 1 out of 5]

Abandoned at 30%. Naïve and silly. I simply don't understand the plot and motivations of the major characters and how anyone could be quite this obtuse. Maybe angels hadn't invented problem solving or critical thinking skills quite yet?

Why is Abdiel fomenting discord amongst the factions? Is it 'The Plan'? He wants to be in charge? Does he hate someone somewhere? None of that is ever explored, his motivation for stirring shit up is a mystery and problem for me.

Second, why is 'The Plan' a big secret? You could lose some angels in the process? You're already getting your ass kicked during each wave anyway, right? Just call a meeting and explain what's going on and what you want to do.

Third, if the first wave is in charge and running things, why don't they all get together to meet and discuss things? Especially when you're oldest friend(s) inexplicably turns hostile? Just go and talk to them for crying out loud!

What really is the issue for me is none of this makes sense. Yahweh seems like a good dude, not a crazy overbearing dictator or anything. Satan and Lucifer seem like good dudes. People have PTSD over the Wave fights, but that's it. None of it makes any sense and it's driving me crazy.

[Malum · Rating 1 out of 5]

Add this to Wayne Barlowe's God's Demon to prove that, if your name isn't Milton, you should steer clear from writing bible fan fiction.
Where Barlow's book was simply boring, however, this one was just plain awful. Filled with 50 cent words and weird phrases that Brust seems to have just cobbled together or used awkwardly, it just drips with the feeling that Brust was trying way too hard (and failing even harder) to write something that felt epic and poetic. A real chore to get through, although some of the writing is so bad it's actually unintentionally hilarious in places.

On a side note, it's worth mentioning that I listened to the audio version of this and it's some of the worst narration I have ever listned to (I don't factor in terrible narration into book ratings, but this narrator didn't help save it, either). The narrator gave every character a unique voice, which is good, but I think he ran out of voices pretty quickly. When you have primordial angels sounding like cowboys and Riff Raff from Rocky Horror, you know there is a problem.

[Laurence · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Yahweh would want to be worshipped, Satan would be content with being accepted."

Hugely ambitious.
Yahweh elevates his own position from 1st born angel and claims himself God above all, while Satan begins a civil war based on the deception of Abdiel.

Yahweh as benevolent lord bordering on totalitarian dictator is fantastic.

Aside from the central premise what really carries this book for me is the language. The dialogue although not copying Dante or Milton fits well without being dangerously dense, verbose or distractingly flowery. A very difficult balance. Our characters are larger than life, inhuman, ethereal, powerful and yet somewhat naive, just as they should be.

I agree with another review that it is a shame that the rift between Satan and Yahweh is largely from manipulation of Abdiel rather than an actual philosophical difference of opinion.

[Ron · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trite, sophomoric. It's been done and by better authors.

Good premise: new twist on a (very) old story--you know, turn everything in the original on its head--but it didn't work. Folks who like turning classics inside out (almost a modern genre in itself) may like it. Trades on a well-known "cast" but bends the characters in totally new--and unlikely--directions. Milton ought to feel ripped off.

Technically, it's hard to understand what Zelazny found as "consummate grace and genuine artistry." Isn't. Hard to read. Sometimes easy to get lost in the dialogue; other times there are too many tags. Clunky. Never had a feel for the place.

Brust tried too hard to stick him with a one, but . . .

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

When I saw this book, I immediately bought it because the concept seem like a "can't lose" proposition. It started OK, but then just got slower and slower. I kept thinking, "Put this turkey down. But no, what if it gets better?" So I kept reading. Well, guess what? It never gets better.

The primary action in the story appears to be shrugging. It is by far the most prevalent verb. The word shrug is probably used about 80 times (I'm being conservative in my estimate). And that that about sums it up. Lot's of pointless dialog between chatty demons, lots of indecision, and tons of shrugging. Epic conflict between Heaven and Hell? Not here, my friends. Tedium? By the boat load. Spend your hard-earned dollars elsewhere.

[Flint · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing. The heavy use of simplistic dialogue really irked me. It made the "war in heaven" seem like a case of telephone gone awry. The setting was practically nonexistent. The characters all seemed to be naive, like children.