City Infernal

City Infernal

book data

98 ratings, 3.64 average rating, 16 reviews (more data...)

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published

April 2002 by Leisure Books

binding

Mass Market Paperback, 366 pages

isbn

0843949880 (isbn13: 9780843949889)

description

WELCOME TO THE MEPHISTOPOLIS

Hell is a city.

It stretches, literally, without end-a labyrinth of smoke and waking nightmare. Just as endlessly, sewer

...more

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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 130)

All ratings | 5 stars (25) | 4 stars (29) | 3 stars (30) | 2 stars (12) | 1 star (2) | avg 3.64

all | this edition

Daniel

Daniel rated it:

11/30/08

I get it: Hell has become a city (named Mephistopolis - I guess creativity is lacking there) that thrives on pain and suffering and Satan is the big-daddy CEO who lives in the 666 tower in the center of town. Ok, then what?

I asked myself that question for nearly 400 pages, and the answers were few and mostly feeble. So I moved on to the sequel in hopes of better story, and discovered . . .

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Robert

Robert rated it:

01/22/08

bookshelves: cle-pub-lib, finished

Read in January, 2004

Edward Lee, City Infernal (Leisure, 2003)

Edward Lee has been around, it seems, just about forever as far as horror authors go. During the eighties, he was considered one of the rising stars, going so far as to get some of his stories in the then-groundbreaking Night Visions anthology (and "Doing Colfax" will never be erased from my memory). Then the horror market died. Lee, unlike many of his brethren, continued to publish in small specialty presses. Those books are now worth...more Edward Lee, City Infernal (Leisure, 2003)

Edward Lee has been around, it seems, just about forever as far as horror authors go. During the eighties, he was considered one of the rising stars, going so far as to get some of his stories in the then-groundbreaking Night Visions anthology (and "Doing Colfax" will never be erased from my memory). Then the horror market died. Lee, unlike many of his brethren, continued to publish in small specialty presses. Those books are now worth a small fortune. And he still continues to publish; his newest novel, as of this writing, is City Infernal. And a typical Edward Lee gut-churner it is.

Cassie and Lissa are identical twins who are enamored of the early nineties goth scene in DC. Lissa catches her boyfriend kissing Cassie, at which point she kills both him and herself. Their mother is long gone, so Cassie and her father are left on their own. A couple of years later, the two of them move out to the country. The house they move to just happens to be a gateway to hell, inhabited by three of hell's outcasts, Xeke, Via, and Hush. Through them, Cassie may finally get a chance to do what she's wanted to since the incident: apologize to her sister.

Okay, so extreme horror is no longer the shock that it was when Lee published "Doing Colfax," the characters have only a shade more depth than cardboard cutouts, and the whole thing is really kind of predictable (though he does throw in a few twists, some explicit and some implied, at the end that will catch the reader off-guard). So why, then, is Ed Lee's stuff such a fun read?

Good question, and one to which I really don't have an answer. City Infernal is more Ghouls than it is The Bighead; you're not going to find anything groundbreaking, and in the harsh light of day this will likely end up being considered one of Lee's minor novels rather than a piece of the classic Lee canon. But still, it's a ball. He creates the Mehistopolis, the major city in hell, as lovingly as China Mieville creates Perdido Street Station's New Crobuzon, and has just as much fun describing it. The Mephistopolis is what Dickens could have done with his place descriptions in A Tale of Two Cities if he hadn't been so stultifyingly verbose.

I will warn you, a good number of horror fans will probably be bored off their butts with this book. But as Adam Parfrey said of the music of NON, "to the chosen few, it is pure balm for the soul." *** ½ ...less

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Bob

Bob rated it:

10/17/08

Edward Lee always delivers energetic reads, but my favorites by far are his "Infernal" series. The stories are page-turners and his characters engrossing, but it's his depiction of Hell that keeps me coming back for more; it's fresh, vital and alarming at times. His descriptions of the architecture, the denizens (both demons and damned souls), the fashions, the guilds, the bureaucracy and so forth, are a gruesome delight.

Maybe some of my fondness comes from having imagined H...more

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Jesse

Jesse rated it:

12/14/08

Immature, crude, and not so scary but supremely fun!

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Spencer

Spencer added it

12/31/08

If hell was a city, this would be it.

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Berrimany

Berrimany rated it:

08/13/08

bookshelves: alex

Read in July, 2006

Another AWESOME book! it was great. The best book i've read perhaps. There is a second book continuing the story. I can't wait to read it. In this book, Hell is a city filled with horror. Evil and Atrocity are the status quo When Cassie's sister commits suicide, her life chances forever. Soon she discovers she can travel to hell itself. She goes, the only living person in hell, to find her sister, Lissa. It was gory, gross, and twisted. I loved it. I'd recommend it. I'll be reading it again....more

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Alan

Alan rated it:

11/26/08

Read in November, 2008

recommended to Alan by: Leisure
recommends it for: Everyone

I liked Infernal Angel better, but that's probably 'cause I read that first. I thought it was a smokin' book though.

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Camille

Camille rated it:

05/16/08

Read in May, 2008

This book was VERY interesting. It's not something that I recommend reading while you're eating if you're easily grossed out. And probably not a good idea to read it when you have to sleep alone, like I did. The ending wasn't as good as the rest of the book, which was a little disappointing. But overall, a very good book and very interesting!

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Bob

Bob rated it:

04/15/08

Read in January, 2004

This series, which is Lee's best selling, is my least favorite. There just seems to be too much going on, and I can't seem to comprehend it. Very complex for a horror novel. Lee's writing is good as always, but I think he is succeeding to reach a bigger audience by adding a lot more style to his prose.

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BeerDiablo

BeerDiablo rated it:

05/23/07

bookshelves: horror

Read in March, 2007

Excellent "world" developed by Edward Lee. This was the main feature of the book that was the most entertaining, a well-researched/thought out vision of hell.

Not as perverse as later books and more of a fantasy/quest style book. Not too many scary moments.

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Gavin

Gavin rated it:

03/28/07

bookshelves: extreme-horror

Has a copy to sell/swap — Read in July, 2004

recommends it for: teens getting into extreme horror

It is a bit of a teen novel but Lee does not dillute the content or the writing. It is about a teen girl who descends into Hell. Incredible dipiction of Hell. Great images. Great use of mythology as well! Recommended to all!

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Jon

Jon rated it:

10/30/07

bookshelves: horror

Read in January, 2004

Edward Lee. Nothing more really needs to be said. Raw, rough, and goes for the jugular. Lee's version of Hell. Read with Infernal Angel.

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Scott

Scott rated it:

08/04/07

This is the most original, wildest, and most fun depiction of Hell I've ever found in literature. Great, great story!

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Rob

Rob rated it:

04/15/08

Awesome read and truly an unimaginable world (hell)...Lee's vision and gory details make this book one to own

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Russell

Russell rated it:

01/20/08

Most imaginative vision of the landscape of hell that I've ever read.

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SFReader

SFReader rated it:

01/09/08

bookshelves: reviewed

http://www.sfreader.com/read_review.asp?...

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Derek

Derek added it

01/07/09

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01/07/09

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Michael

Michael is currently reading it

01/04/09

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Rob added it

01/01/09

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