Book Review: Letters from Hades [Jeffrey Thomas]

RATING: Brilliant! Loved it!

Loving the cover art!

A man wakes up in Hell after committing suicide. He is sent to Avernus University to learn the ways of the Damned before being set free to roam around Hell. Our hero is given a flesh covered notebook with a blinking eye in school, but he decides to keep this notebook after his graduation to record his journey, and also as a silent traveling companion.

Our hero travels through different landscapes such as forests, deserts, arctic areas, all of which features different inhabitants, different punishments, all richly detailed. The main city is an urbanized version of Dante's Inferno with elements of Amsterdam and New York thrown into it.

Of course, Hell could not exist without a Heaven, now could it? As if the Damned don’t have enough on their hands dealing with the Demons, all hell – or heaven, rather- breaks loose in Hell when the Angels descend and make mayhem (with God’s consent, of course) by turning Hell into their own, perverted playground.

On one hand, Letters from Hades is a guidebook/travelogue to Jeffrey Thomas' version of Hell- which is definitely something to marvel about. He's created an intricately detailed world that breathes, cries, and bleeds. On the other hand, Letters from Hades is a discourse on concepts of good and evil, right and wrong, and on grabbing life by the reins and actually living it.

An epic power struggle. Unlikely alliances. Throw in a female Demon and forbidden love into the mix, and you get one hell of a good yarn which I give full marks. Whimsical, yet tightly knitted it's almost believable. Stands out. An enjoyable read.