As everyone says, this book is not quite as good as the first in the series - which is something of a fumbled ball because Hell scenes are usually more entertaining than Heaven (Thanks Milton for the precedent!). Part of the problem is that Williams describes his Inferno quite literally. The book is a very visual experience. I think he's trying to humanise the environment (I'm guessing there is going to be some theological pay-off in the final book) - but it ends up de-sensitising the reader. A lot of this reads like a demonic dungeons and dragons campaign - so much so that the word "Level" made me think of game points rather than a location in the abyss.I think Williams heart is in the right place - he's attacking the toxic theology that came up with the nasty concept of hell - or for that matter Heaven, but I suspect he's too nice a guy to pull off a good hell book. Someone like Cormac McCarthy does hell really well - so well you feel like scrubbing your brain out with bleach after reading his books. Clive Barker has a seriously fucked up psycho-sexual imagination that invents some horridly unforgettable hellish moments. Iain Banks - who is one of the departed writers this series is dedicated to - did a great "virtual" hell book for the atheists, which managed to sidestep all those silly dancing angels on pins and address the icky cultural concepts for wanting a hell in the first place. Alas "Happy hour in Hell" doesn't come close. It's still an ok read for it's supernatural gumshoe detective speel - but it's basically a holiday book - for folk who like holiday reads in Very hot climates. A stupid angel and bad writing. The narration in the audiobook version is pretty damn good though - hence the 2 stars. The protagonist is dumb, sometimes gets the alignment of incentives between him and various deals demons offer him... all to get his beloved back of course. But he suddenly gets bouts of paranoia where he fucks it all up for no good reason ... except to add 20 pointless pages to the story. And there are a lot of these. Of his experience with pain and suffering... is not comical but annoying. Bobby dollar loses it, vomits, agonizes over all kinds of everyday pains and smells in hell. Sometimes it stays with him for a bit and sometimes it doesn't. But when tortured for eternities by various demons, he shrugs it off and walks away without any aftereffects. I loved Tad Williams earlier books on Otherland. Liked much less his Shadowmarch series. But the writing and story was so bad that I will not read another book in this series and will probably pass on future Tad Williams books for a few years. I am 30 pages or so from the end and I have no desire to find out how this one ends.
What do You think about Happy Hour In De Hel (2014)?
Barely liked this enough to get the 3rd one. Not super happy with that yet either.
—Jingting
Excellent! Tad never fails to BE AWESOME!!
—whitejared
