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Hades #3
The Fall of Hades
"The Fall of Hades" is the shocking new novel and sequel to "Letters From Hades!"
A HELLISH TOUR DE FORCE OF THE IMAGINATION
A young woman emerges from a catatonic state to find herself naked and devoid of memory, a centuries-long prisoner of an apocalyptic battle between formerly human avenging Angels, rebel bands of the Damned, and monstrous Demons of every description. With only a sentient, talking gun for a companion, she sets out to explore a radically transfigured Hell, her own surprising past, and the bulletproof fierceness of the human spirit
"The Fall of Hades" is a shocking and subversive journey into a post-industrial cyber-inferno, from the author of "Beautiful Hell," "Voices from Hades," and the cult novel "Letters from Hades," about which Jeff VanderMeer said, "Jeffrey Thomas' visions of Hell...are as compelling and as beautifully horrific as any ever put down on paper."
A HELLISH TOUR DE FORCE OF THE IMAGINATION
A young woman emerges from a catatonic state to find herself naked and devoid of memory, a centuries-long prisoner of an apocalyptic battle between formerly human avenging Angels, rebel bands of the Damned, and monstrous Demons of every description. With only a sentient, talking gun for a companion, she sets out to explore a radically transfigured Hell, her own surprising past, and the bulletproof fierceness of the human spirit
"The Fall of Hades" is a shocking and subversive journey into a post-industrial cyber-inferno, from the author of "Beautiful Hell," "Voices from Hades," and the cult novel "Letters from Hades," about which Jeff VanderMeer said, "Jeffrey Thomas' visions of Hell...are as compelling and as beautifully horrific as any ever put down on paper."
178 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Jeffrey Thomas
250 books286 followersJeffrey Thomas is an American author of weird fiction, the creator of the acclaimed setting Punktown. Books in the Punktown universe include the short story collections Punktown, Voices from Punktown, Punktown: Shades of Grey (with his brother, Scott Thomas), and Ghosts of Punktown. Novels in that setting include Deadstock, Blue War, Monstrocity, Health Agent, Everybody Scream!, Red Cells, and The New God. Thomas’s other short story collections include The Unnamed Country, Gods of a Nameless Country, The Endless Fall, Haunted Worlds, Worship the Night, Thirteen Specimens, Nocturnal Emissions, Doomsdays, Terror Incognita, Unholy Dimensions, AAAIIIEEE!!!, Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood, Carrion Men, Voices from Hades, The Return of Enoch Coffin, and Entering Gosston. His other novels include The American, Boneland, Subject 11, Letters From Hades, The Fall of Hades, The Exploded Soul, The Nought, Thought Forms, Beyond the Door, Lost in Darkness, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers.
His work has been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). At NecronomiCon 2024 Thomas received the Robert Bloch Award for his contributions to weird fiction.
Though he considers Viet Nam his second home, Thomas lives in Massachusetts.
His work has been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). At NecronomiCon 2024 Thomas received the Robert Bloch Award for his contributions to weird fiction.
Though he considers Viet Nam his second home, Thomas lives in Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 29, 2012
It took a while to pick up on Mr. Thomas' style. He has a very popular library and fair amount of devotees. I could not understand why this book was as awkward as it seemed. The Fall of Hades was written so clunky on the grammatical side that it was very hard to read. The characters seemed unreal and flat, the run-on sentences and overuse of semi-colons Frankensteined paragraphs together on every page, and the dialogue was fake to a fault at times. Yet the premise and imagination were AMAZING. It was as if Mr. Thomas had this vision and then hired a US Army INTEL dick to write it for him. I was put off and fairly angry until the Demon Scientist scene. THEN it made sense.
Cthulhu.
Wow. I HAVE encountered this before and I had to sit back and 1) kick myself for being so hard on the writer, 2) admire his work for what it is. The Fall of Hades is written as if H.P. Lovecraft were still alive. Yes. And very well written within that particular style. If you have never read Lovecraft, it is hard to get through one of his stories. Run-ons, awkward dialogue, visions of unimagined horrors that will leave you with nightmares, and the whole work is usually riddle with holes from H.P.'s semi-colon gun on 3-round BURST. And it works. He scares the bejeezus out of you.
My hat's off to you, Mr. Thomas, for doing an extraordinary job in capturing Lovecraft's style and packing it with a millennial toy inside. I have to say that this started out a two and has definitely merited a four-star rating. My only suggestion is to slap a squiddy-headed fella in a trench coat on the cover somewhere so there is no doubt about what kinda spell we are getting into!
Thanks for the hard work!
Cthulhu.
Wow. I HAVE encountered this before and I had to sit back and 1) kick myself for being so hard on the writer, 2) admire his work for what it is. The Fall of Hades is written as if H.P. Lovecraft were still alive. Yes. And very well written within that particular style. If you have never read Lovecraft, it is hard to get through one of his stories. Run-ons, awkward dialogue, visions of unimagined horrors that will leave you with nightmares, and the whole work is usually riddle with holes from H.P.'s semi-colon gun on 3-round BURST. And it works. He scares the bejeezus out of you.
My hat's off to you, Mr. Thomas, for doing an extraordinary job in capturing Lovecraft's style and packing it with a millennial toy inside. I have to say that this started out a two and has definitely merited a four-star rating. My only suggestion is to slap a squiddy-headed fella in a trench coat on the cover somewhere so there is no doubt about what kinda spell we are getting into!
Thanks for the hard work!
December 10, 2017
A Great Addition to the Hades Family
It is a frightening few millenniums in Hades. The occupants are dealing with a Civil War in an environment that is a cross between the Wild West and the Spanish Inquisition. ( Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! ) In this lovely environment: God is having a severe case of conscience, a nuclear apocalypse hits earth, overflowing Hades, giving greater power to the Civil War, the sky - a roiling layer of red hot magma, literally covers the first top of Hades, trapping everyone fighting the war - Angels, Demons and Damned Humans. Just a good old fashioned shoot-em-up with Strange Tech and Demonic flair. And to think, it all started over the love of a Damned Human and a Demon... Dan & Chara
Make sure to read LETTERS FROM HELL first. Great Thumping Read!
It is a frightening few millenniums in Hades. The occupants are dealing with a Civil War in an environment that is a cross between the Wild West and the Spanish Inquisition. ( Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! ) In this lovely environment: God is having a severe case of conscience, a nuclear apocalypse hits earth, overflowing Hades, giving greater power to the Civil War, the sky - a roiling layer of red hot magma, literally covers the first top of Hades, trapping everyone fighting the war - Angels, Demons and Damned Humans. Just a good old fashioned shoot-em-up with Strange Tech and Demonic flair. And to think, it all started over the love of a Damned Human and a Demon... Dan & Chara
Make sure to read LETTERS FROM HELL first. Great Thumping Read!
January 9, 2019
A Hell Of A Ride
Yes. I’m ashamed of that.
Thomas has crafted a beautiful, terrible eschatology here, crafting a Hades at once familiar and brand new. The damned souls driving the story are the biggest surprise—you feel for them as they do their best to make a better eternity. High marks.
Yes. I’m ashamed of that.
Thomas has crafted a beautiful, terrible eschatology here, crafting a Hades at once familiar and brand new. The damned souls driving the story are the biggest surprise—you feel for them as they do their best to make a better eternity. High marks.
June 3, 2018
Started off great. Suddenly, it started to go down hill. Way to many characters to keep track of. Not quite sure about all the stories and where the author was going with them. I really enjoyed the first one so I was looking forward this one. Oh well.
August 4, 2024
The Hades Series
This is book 3 of the Hades series by Jeffrey Thomas, a series that compares favorably with Edward Lee's "Infernal" four-parter. Imaginative set pieces and exquisite torments set the tales and vignettes in a plausible version of Eternal Damnation, where a perverted variation of free will keeps an illusion of hope alive.
This is book 3 of the Hades series by Jeffrey Thomas, a series that compares favorably with Edward Lee's "Infernal" four-parter. Imaginative set pieces and exquisite torments set the tales and vignettes in a plausible version of Eternal Damnation, where a perverted variation of free will keeps an illusion of hope alive.
July 9, 2015
When I first started THE FALL OF HADES, I wasn't too sure about the book. It struck me as derivative of Edward Lee's CITY INFERNAL. At the same time, I was not extremely engaged. However, my curiosity was piqued.
A woman who later becomes known as V wakes up and finds herself trapped in a concrete block. A concrete block that after endless years has started crumbling away and allows her to escape. She finds out from a talking gun that she was part of a war between Angels and Demons and that she is in the devastated remains of Hell. That sentence alone was enough to make me wonder where the rest of the story was going.
There were a few parts at the beginning of the book where V is wandering through Hell describing the atrocities she sees that seemed semi-pointless. But they also turned out to set the mood for the rest of the book which was more interesting. In total, I would say that the story grew on me and became a good read. It also had a great ending that fit very nicely with the world that was established and the lessons being learned by the characters. Others might have seen it coming but for me it ended up a nice surprise that I figured out only shortly before it was revealed. One more thing, while this book is a sequel to LETTERS FROM HADES!, I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having read it. There was probably back story that would have made me feel more "in the know" but I didn't feel left out. Maybe if I didn't have so many other books to read I might find and read LETTERS FROM HADES! but I don't really see it happening.
A woman who later becomes known as V wakes up and finds herself trapped in a concrete block. A concrete block that after endless years has started crumbling away and allows her to escape. She finds out from a talking gun that she was part of a war between Angels and Demons and that she is in the devastated remains of Hell. That sentence alone was enough to make me wonder where the rest of the story was going.
There were a few parts at the beginning of the book where V is wandering through Hell describing the atrocities she sees that seemed semi-pointless. But they also turned out to set the mood for the rest of the book which was more interesting. In total, I would say that the story grew on me and became a good read. It also had a great ending that fit very nicely with the world that was established and the lessons being learned by the characters. Others might have seen it coming but for me it ended up a nice surprise that I figured out only shortly before it was revealed. One more thing, while this book is a sequel to LETTERS FROM HADES!, I didn't feel like I was missing anything by not having read it. There was probably back story that would have made me feel more "in the know" but I didn't feel left out. Maybe if I didn't have so many other books to read I might find and read LETTERS FROM HADES! but I don't really see it happening.
February 22, 2016
Entertaining finish to a fun series of books.
April 26, 2014
The premise is good. But it is more a series of difficulties to overcome than a story.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews