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Hell and Earth (Promethean Age #4)

by Elizabeth Bear (Goodreads Author)

4.08 of 5 stars 4.08 · rating details · 238 ratings · 37 reviews

From the "talented" (Entertainment Weekly) award-winning author of Whiskey and Water and Blood and Iron.

Kit Marley and William Shakespeare are playwrights in the service of Queen Elizabeth, employed by the Prometheus Club. Their words, infused with magic, empower Her Majesty's rule. But some of the Prometheans, comprised of England's most influential men and mages, conspir...more

Paperback, 432 pages

Published August 5th 2008 by Roc Trade

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Aug 28, 2012 Callista rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arthurian, shakespearean, historical-fantasy, favourite-characters, four-star-novels

Wow...that was intense, almost breathtaking. As with Ink and Steel, I'm impressed with the author's word craft--what beautiful and delicious turns of phrase. These books have made me crave hearing Shakespearean language again. And I liked how the author played with various aspects of English history.
Kit's journey was harrowing, but satisfying. He was so amazingly courageous. Hoorah for revenge! As I said before, I like him a lot. Not in a book crush way, but like an old friend or favourite cousi...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Richard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Description: Kit Marley and William Shakespeare are playwrights in the service of Queen Elizabeth, employed by the Prometheus Club. Their words, infused with magic, empower Her Majesty's rule. But some of the Prometheans, comprised of England's most influential men and mages, conspire to usurp the Queen.

Able to walk in both worlds, Kit seeks allies to aid him in his mission to protect Elizabeth only to encounter enemies, mortal and monster, who will stop at nothing t...more Rating: 3.5* of five

The Book Description: Kit Marley and William Shakespeare are playwrights in the service of Queen Elizabeth, employed by the Prometheus Club. Their words, infused with magic, empower Her Majesty's rule. But some of the Prometheans, comprised of England's most influential men and mages, conspire to usurp the Queen.

Able to walk in both worlds, Kit seeks allies to aid him in his mission to protect Elizabeth only to encounter enemies, mortal and monster, who will stop at nothing to usher in a new age. But despite the might of his adversaries, Kit possesses more power than even he can possibly imagine.

My Review: I can't believe I so spectacularly failed to pay attention to the position this book occupies in a series! I am usually completely obsessive about reading series in order. I dislike intensely the feeling of not understanding why something is a climactic moment, when the structure so clearly says that it is...and then, going back to fill in the backstory, I run across the cliffhanger or set-up for the later climax and it's just completely ruined by foreknowledge.

Anyway. This is the fourth book of “The Promethean Age” series Bear wrote in an alternate England still touching the Faerie lands ruled by the Mebd (given to us by Shakespeare, our primary POV character, as Queen Mab). The reason for Queen Elizabeth I's greatness and enduring fame are given as her England's intertwined destiny with Faerie, and her own shadowing of the Mebd's rise to power.

Christopher Marlowe, Richard Baines, Ben Jonson, Thomas Walsingham and a host of other factual figures are used cleverly in this fictional story of intrigues resolved and debts of dishonor paid. It's a wonderful, creative beast stitched together like a Faerie bard's patchwork cloak from bits and snatches of fact and hints of facts gleaned by the careful between-the-lines reading of the author. The conspirators of the Gunpowder Plot, which was a Catholic effort to blow King James I and his family to Glory at the opening of a Parliamentary session, are revealed to have been making a Royal sacrifice, one that would spill Royal blood to sustain the order of the Universe as it was and therefore to prevent change from coming to the material world.

The dark machinations of the Prometheans are all in service of giving the world a vengeful, angry God that will enforce the power and influence of the Prometheans themselves and their evil legatees The poets and playwrights Shakespeare, Marlowe, Jonson et alii are allied against the Prometheans in these designs, gifted with the most extraordinary ability to write the world in the image they'd have it take. Their loyalty is to Elizabeth, Gloriana as she was then known to her world, the strongest Royal ruler England was ever to know. Their plays and poems are all calculated to give her reign the full force and power she needs to guide England through its rejection of world-straddling Catholicism and its dominion over Faerie.

It's a very frustrating read at first because the book is written in faux-Shakespeearean English, with “thee” and “thou” and “sitteth” heaved around with seeming randomness. The effort I made to read past this stylistic tic was too much, and I would have abandoned ship early on, except I love the story itself. As I slogged on, I realized Bear isn't being random in her use of the old-fashioned English forms. She's pointing up, subtly and nicely (in the oldest sense of that word), the shift that Shakespeare and Marlowe were leading into modern forms of English I shifted from tooth-gritted impatience to a mellower judgment, followed closely by a respectful half-awe at the subtlety of this device and its deployment. Oh, well done, I found myself thinking many times as Lucifer and angel Mehiel and Marlowe would converse Will Shakespeare and Kit Marlowe, here lovers of the most passionate sort, are the only characters who never use anything but the familiar “thee” to each other. It's exactly right for them. It's so quiet that it might easily go unremarked, but if you read this series, be on the lookout for this trope. It will add something good and large to your appreciation of the writing.

Homosexuality. Big topic. I am on record as finding the modern desire to “out” people in history as “gay” before such an identity existed as absurd. These men, though, aren't gay in the modern identity sense They're in love with each other, and the married one (Shakespeare) is deeply and lastingly troubled by his infidelity to his wife with Marlowe. They reach an accommodation, one reached by many, many people caught in that situation before and since, of acknowledging their love, not acting on it. Cold comfort for the spouse of the one, terrible pain for all, and nothing to be done about it. Well, that's the nature of marriage, isn't it? Making choices, sticking to them as best one can, cobbling together the most workable solution for all the parties. It's a ringingly true part of this writer's repertoire to explore the love and the passion and the needs of people in ordinary situations. She's done so in every one of her books that I've read, and it's a good reason to try her books out if you haven't yet.

I remain annoyed that I know the end of the story before I've read the beginning. I wish like fury I'd started at the start and only reached this point after going where Bear wanted me to go first. But, unless something very weird has happened here, I'd recommend that you go read the books in their proper order: Blood and Iron, Whiskey and Water, Ink and Steel, and lastly Hell and Earth. The ending is one helluva (pardon, please, the pun after you read the books) bang that is really worth the buck.(less)

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Oct 03, 2011 Ben Babcock rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: from-library, 2011-read, all-things-shakespeare, british-historical, alternate-history, fantasy, not-my-cup-of-tea, mythology-remix, 2011-worst10

So this appears to be the last book, at least for now, of Elizabeth Bear’s Promethean Age series. The series is actually two loose duologies: Blood and Iron and Whiskey and Water are set in the modern day; Ink and Steel and this book are part of the Stratford Man duology, set in a Faerie-infested Elizabethan England. As my previous reviews of books in this series make clear, I am incredibly ambivalent. Bear’s commitment to detail is obvious, but the sheer intricacy and convoluted nature of her...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Rebecca rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, historical-fiction

Similarly to how Ink and Steel set up premises better than Blood and Iron did, Hell and Earth wraps up to a better conclusion than Whiskey and Water.

Bear's ambition is matched only by that of her characters, who plan to save the universe by rewriting the nature of God himself. It's heady stuff, and for the most part, she pulls it off. Plus, there are some great character moments, such as Essex's comeuppance and resolution. Lucifer is one of the most interesting and complex takes on the character...more

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Aug 11, 2012 Laura Navarre rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, literary-fiction, historical-fantasy, literary-fantasy

I read this sequel to INK AND STEEL purely for inspiration. There aren't many Tudor paranormal novels out there, and it's the only series I know that blends Tudor historical fiction, fallen angels, Arthurian legend and the Fae, like my own MAGICK trilogy. (MAGICK BY MOONRISE is coming in March 2013 from Harlequin/Carina, yay!) This makes Bear's duology an incredibly fresh and imaginative work.

Set in late Elizabethan England and the early Stuart period, HELL AND EARTH centers around the fictional...more

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Feb 28, 2012 heidi rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, paper

Oh. My. God. These are not the books for you if you are intolerant of literary wankery. I would also like to point out that I suspect they will make more sense if you have a grounding in the changing nature of God. If you do love literary fiction, this is an excellent example of the genre.

Oh, the heartbreaking beauty of this book. I devoured it in a day. Which, given that it's a 400-pg book and it was a work day, you can see that I did pretty much nothing else. And political intrigue! And delici...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Alytha rated it 5 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I finished Elizabeth Bear's The Stratford Man (composed of the two novels Ink and Steel, and Hell and Earth) today.

Although published in two volumes, this is actually very much a single story, written in a 5-act structure, like a Renaissance play (acts 1-3 in the first volume, acts 4 and 5 in the second one)
Unsurprisingly, one of the main characters of the books is one Will Shakespeare of Stratford, but the main theme of the books is the fight of a group of English poets and magicians to sustain...more I finished Elizabeth Bear's The Stratford Man (composed of the two novels Ink and Steel, and Hell and Earth) today.

Although published in two volumes, this is actually very much a single story, written in a 5-act structure, like a Renaissance play (acts 1-3 in the first volume, acts 4 and 5 in the second one)
Unsurprisingly, one of the main characters of the books is one Will Shakespeare of Stratford, but the main theme of the books is the fight of a group of English poets and magicians to sustain Queen Elizabeth I's reign against a rival group of mages, supposed to be in league with Lucider, through introducing strengthening magic into their work.
After Will's friend and fellow poet Christofer Marley (or Marlow, or Marlin...) is murdered, Will is recruited to take his place. However, he is lacking in magic, so support has to be gotten from Faerie, as Elizabeth and her counterpart, the Mebd, Queen of Faerie, are linked through stories. (Mebd is apparently pronounced Maeve. Gotta love Irish...).
Meanwhile, Kit Marley awakes in Faerie, missing one eye, but otherwise alive, and is introduced into the court of the Mebd and her sister Morgan le Fey, and especially her son Murchaud (court being a euphemism in that case).
From here on, the chapters alternate between Will's and Kit's point-of-view, and depict their struggles, in London and in Faerie, to save the reign of their Queens.

I really like Bear's Promethean novels, as they depict a really interesting, intricate and vivid picture of Faerie, and in this case, of Elizabethan England. The style is lush and sensual, sex is frequent, but almost always the grapgic description ends with the foreplay, which saves the books from becoming teenie-fare monster-soft-porn. I must admit that I found Kit's chapters a lot more interesting than Will's, in general.
I really like Faeries done in this style, hinting at danger, fascination, and endless time. I guess the depiction is quite similar to the one in the Dresden Files, if a good bit more favourably disposed towards the Faeries...

I like the premise that there is power in stories, and that all stories are true. This means, on the one hand, that the plays that Will and his company perform can sway the political situation in favour of Elizabeth, and that they can positively influence her health. On the other hand, the Fae are very much subject to stories told about them, to such an extend that they physically change in relation to them. For example, Morgan's appearance changes from dark-haired and swarthy to red-haired and fair as her legends become more and more associated with Elizabeth. (It is said that she was blonde, and a goddess once, before her story changed)

The problem I had with these books is keeping people straight. English nobility have the annoying habit of having a name completely different from their title, so if they're referred to alternately by both (and their first names), it's rather hard to keep track of them. The fact that they're all called either Thomas or Robert doesn't help either. So sometimes I wasn't really sure what side a certain person was on.
Bear provides a dramatis personae at the beginning of the first volume though.

Definetely recommended, if you like good historical/magical fiction :)
7.5/10(less)

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Feb 23, 2011 Tim Hicks rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

4.5 stars really. Although to be accurate, maybe 5.5 stars with some quibbles that bring it back down to just below 5.

Don't even think of reading this until you've read "Ink & Steel" - the two form one story.

Bring some knowledge on British history, Faerie, and Lucifer, and bring a large dose of flexibility about sexual preferences.

This is a complex and fascinating story.

I didn't really care for how some of the plot threads were resolved. Richard Baines, for one: big setup, weak resolution...more

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Aug 01, 2010 Starling rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical, paranormal

I'm reviewing this book and Ink and Steel together. Basically the two books are a single story.

These two books are a prequel to the books about the Promethian Age that are set in modern times. These two books are set during the life of William Shakespeare.

In the first book Faerie and England are linked through their two Queens. The poets and play writers of the era are using their language and their poetry to magically shore up Elizabeth I's life and reign. In the second book, it is the reign of...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Jeremy Preacher rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical, mall-elves

All of the reversals, betrayals, unexpected good fortune, and tragic love a girl could ask for. The Stratford Man as a whole turns out to be a thoughtful exploration of love and loyalty and the nature of storytelling, and comes out to a perfectly satisfying conclusion.

There are some particularly good bits regarding Lucifer - his motives, his methods, and his philosophy, presented wrapped in some rather stunning language and imagery. The Elizabethan idiom throughout worked really well for me - i...more

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Jan 05, 2013 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, historical-romance, paranormal

The sequel to Ink and Steel, Hell and Earth is really the concluding section to book 1. I was in two minds whether to read this as aspects of the #1 annoyed me, particularly with respect to style and editing. For me #1 didn't really take off until Act 3. So I was holding my breath when I started this...and then was totally blown away: I would give Hell and Earth a 6* if I could. Unlike #1, archaisms are restricted mainly to speech and editing is much tighter allowing for a much more focused narr...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Catherine Mustread rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, 1600s, england, sci-fi-fantasy, plays, historical

Complex historical mystery/fantasy involving Shakespeare, Kit Marlowe, Lucifer, British royalty, the Faerie World and more in this second in the Stratford series and last of the Promethean series. I found this slow moving at the beginning but worth the struggle of continuing. Perhaps would have been easier had I read the first two books of the Promethean Age series before reading the two in the Stratford Man series which are the prequels to the first two of the Promethean series.

Tied in nicely...more

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Jan 22, 2010 Julie Achterhoff rated it 4 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jan 08, 2011 Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

William Shakespeare is free from Hell thanks to the love of their mutual lives, the now-Changeling Christopher Marlowe. Kit has lost much, including his name, and William's palsy is a slow death sentence, but both figures, in Faerie and on Earth, cannot rest on their laurels. Elizabeth is dying, and there are those who wish to use her death and the life of her successor to change not only the destiny of England, but the destiny of all realms.

For William Shakespeare and, even more so, Kit Marlow...more William Shakespeare is free from Hell thanks to the love of their mutual lives, the now-Changeling Christopher Marlowe. Kit has lost much, including his name, and William's palsy is a slow death sentence, but both figures, in Faerie and on Earth, cannot rest on their laurels. Elizabeth is dying, and there are those who wish to use her death and the life of her successor to change not only the destiny of England, but the destiny of all realms.

For William Shakespeare and, even more so, Kit Marlowe is more powerful than he knows, and his untapped power, if harnessed properly, could be used to topple more than James I and the Mebd. Much, much more. The Nature of God itself is up for grabs, if that power is used properly...

The narrative of Hell and Earth is the second half of the "play" that begins in Ink and Steel and Elizabeth Bear wastes no time in plunging us back into her 16th century world. The shadowy plots and plans of the Prometheans who oppose Kit and Will slowly reveal themselves, and their plans are both monstrous and breathtaking indeed. Throw in an audacious and unapologetic attempt to coil in everything from the date of Elizabeth's death to the Guy Fawkes plot to the writing of the King James Bible, and I have found that Hell and Earth, along with Ink and Steel functions as much as a secret history as well as a historical fictional fantasy. In an afterword, Bear mentions that Shakespeare and Marlowe did this very same thing in their own plays, cutting history to suit a narrative end. She makes no apologies.

And so shouldn't the reader. Even beyond Faerie and Hell, Hell and Earth shows an Elizabethan England that is in a fictionalized past, and in this second volume, I started to really grok that in a way that I didn't really internalize in the first volume, Ink and Steel. Treat the books in the same way one might treat Henry V, and

The writing is crisp, vital, and has the ring of veracity. Well drawn characters that never feel like they are 21st century individuals wearing period garb, Bear populates her narrative with complex and conflicted people who are true to their life and times.

Again, though, don't start here. Start with Ink and Steel and immerse yourself in Bear's vision of 16th century England seen through two of its greatest playwrights, plus the nature of God, secret conspiracies,two Queens, Hell, and the Faerie realms.

Highly recommended.(less)

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Dec 01, 2009 Shiraz rated it 2 of 5 stars

The second act, so to speak, of Ink and Steel. We've moved on from Marlowe/Shakepseare action to Marlowe/Lucifer action with extra angels and faeries thrown in for fun. To give her credit, her theatre history is good and well researched. On the other hand the whole thing is convoluted and doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I'm not sure I have the patience to try the modern day books in the series to see if any of it ever does make sense.

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Nov 15, 2011 Lee McIlmoyle rated it 5 of 5 stars

My review HERE should give you some idea of what this second volume of The Stratford Man duology by the inimitable Elizabeth Bear is about.

If you're not interested in making with the clicky, let's just say that, if I knew you personally, and your house had just burned down, taking all of your books with it, and if I showed up after you had found a new place to stay, and I knew you a) liked stories about Shakespeare, b) liked stories about Queen Elizabeth, c) liked stories about the sinister Fae...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Kris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, fantasy

Hell and Earth continues the story begun in Ink and Steel (the first part of the Stratford Man). It lacks the handy guide to the characters that was in the first book, which is more of a problem if you're starting with this one. I wouldn't recommend you do that, though. It was written as one story and only split into two books because of the length, so starting with the second book is like opening a book to the middle and starting there. Unsurprisingly, since it really is all one story, I enjoye...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Jasmine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Probably would have been better if I hadn't been sick when reading it. So it would have been 3 stars, but I gave it 4 because of that. Also because I'm looking forward to rereading it.

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Apr 13, 2012 Mhoira Tennison added it

I enjoyed the Ink and Steel and Hell and Earth series. It was interesting because it was a murder mystery. The main character is murdered and is conjured up and solves his own murder. I would recommend the series to everyone.

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Jan 17, 2009 Lynne rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: EVERYONE

Shelves: science-fiction-and-fantasy, gender-and-sexuality, hoity-toity

This book (and it's companion, Ink and Steel), was JUST. BLOODY. BRILLIANT. Will Shakespeare, Kit Marlowe, and the Fey in the Elizabethan Court. Derring-do, adventure, magic, love, and poetry.

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Dec 07, 2008 Nick Fagerlund rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-series

(Somehow missed adding this when I finished it.)

I liked this subseries all right. I expect to like it better on re-read.

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Mar 14, 2010 Just_ann_now rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, women-of-genre

The world of faerie, Arthurian legends, Elizabethan history, Shakespeare, fluid sexuality, gorgeous language and imagery, and some sizzling M/M romance to rival Kushner's.

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Jul 18, 2012 Keziah Horne rated it 4 of 5 stars

I haven't been so sad to leave an imagined world for a very long time. Having read all the Promethean Age books, I must say that this is my favourite. Elizabeth Bear's writing is always lush and tactile - she makes reading a true experience.

I very, very rarely re-read books - but I can't wait to start the Stratford Man series again!

(Also, thanks to this book I am now in love with Kit Marley AND Will Shakespeare.)

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Nov 07, 2012 Jordan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: sci-fi-fantasy

I accidentally read the last book first so... I gotta go read the other ones now.

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Aug 28, 2009 Kathy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Except that love comes in different forms. Likes Anne Shakespeares' forgiveness and understanding of her relationship with Will and Kit. How to survive coming back from hell. All this before the first one hundred pages.

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Jan 08, 2010 Lynn Calvin added it

Amazon preorder

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Sep 27, 2011 Kate O'Hanlon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, signed-by-author, lgbt, elizabethan-culture-and-politics

Sleep now. Review later.

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Aug 03, 2009 Warren Rochelle added it

very cool reimagining of Elizabethan England

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Oct 07, 2008 Cynthia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Very satisfying read, as I've come to expect from Bear. While the intrigues could have been explained a bit more (especially on the fae side), I felt a kinship with the characters who were never quite certain as to what was going on. There was much less angst about who might be doing whom in this volume than in the last, which was a relief.

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May 21, 2009 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars

I sincerely hope that Elizabeth Bear gets (and wants) to write more Promethean Age books - they are my favorite of her works, and the further we get into the series, the more I like them.

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About Elizabeth Bear

Elizabeth Bear was born on the same day as Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, but in a different year. This, coupled with a childhood tendency to read the dictionary for fun, led her inevitably to penury, intransigence, the mispronunciation of common English words, and the writing of speculative fiction.

She lives in Massachusetts with a Giant Ridiculous Dog. Her partner, acclaimed fantasy author Scott Lynch...more

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Hell and Earth (Promethean Age #4)

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