Gloss on Milton demonstrates that Hell, contra Sartre, is a self-inflicted wound.Setting is the formless chaos of Genesis 1, wherein cacoastrum, the toxic stuff of formless chaos is transformed into illiaster. Unchaotic, however, our ability to trace this name through its etymology, which might well be ‘shit of the stars,’ or so. Paracelsus otherwise derived the term ‘yliaster’ from hyle, matter, and astrum--for alchemists in search of the philosopher’s stone, this is prima materia. “The flux creates the essence of order, which is illiaster, which was the staff of life before bread had the privilege” (11). Is it “Conscious? Sentient? Self-aware? Perhaps these things exist only for an instant, only to be lost before they can begin to understand” (12). But eventually one random formation of illiaster is born with “an instinct to survive,” so it “strives to hold itself together. And as it strives, cacoastrum and illiaster produce more illiaster, and consciousness produces more consciousness, and now there are two” (12). Thus are born Yaweh and Satan, who partner amid the flux of chaos and eventually through their labor produce Leviathan, Belial, Michael, Lucifer, and Raphael in the first wave of genesis.If the language of this genesis, highlighting struggle and labor and consciousnesses, seems Hegelian, it’s probably something of which Marxist author is keenly aware. The Hegelian stuff is fairly plain: “Yaweh remembered the beginning--how the two of them had perceived each other, almost before each had perceived himself” (59). Despite his proclamation in a propaganda speech that “the beginning was when I came to be,” Yaweh “wasn’t really aware of the very beginning--he couldn’t remember when he had become aware of himself as such” (153). Basic narrative is that, after the first wave, a second wave of lesser angels was produced by struggle against the cacoastrum (Gabriel, Lilith, Mephistopheles, Beelzebub, Asmodai, Abdiel, and a bunch of others); and then an even larger and lesser group was made in the third wave. Story opens with expectation of a fourth wave, wherein the first wavers debate whether the first wave has the right to coerce the third wave into fighting the cacoastrum in the imminent fourth wave. Satan is “unsure” whether the right to conscript exists (15-16). From Satan’s mere doubt springs the principle conflict, up to and including civil war. Actual rebellion arises, much like the consciousness of the principals, in mutual recognition with inchoate authority, as Yaweh was not the maximum leader initially, nor was Satan (and his eventual seven samurai) more rebellious than mere uncertainty might imply. Authority thereafter increased in direct relation to the increase in rebellion that it perceived from its center, mostly as part of a comedy of miscommunication, whereas peripheral rebellions coalesced as they perceived the enhancement of totalitarian authority, somewhat achieved through deliberate sabotage on the pro-totalitarian side.Some amusing quirks: Beelzebub speaks Elizabethan, and Ariel speaks only in rhyming verse. Abdiel is presented as a scheming loser (much contrary to Milton’s presentation), whereas the Mephistopheles is more Marvel than Marlowe. Yaweh presented as interested in the universal welfare, but increasingly totalitarian in achieving that end, including the creation of the traditional orders of angels (thrones, principalities, &c.)--in contrast to Satan as uncertain on whether proletarian third order might be conscripted (he is something of a Hamlet, one supposes). Yeshuah is created as an act of state propaganda, at a totalitarian rally, and is, as a presentation of doctrine, heretical to the extent that he is not co-eternal with YHWH (and is apparently homoiousios rather than homoousios--OH NOS arrianism! ). I suppose a close reading could draw out as many heresies here as Milton endorsed in the De Doctrina Christiana.Hard for me not to like Brust; he’s charming as a writer, and has left politics.Recommended for those who reject the law of heaven, persons who see that Yaweh will want to be worshipped whereas Satan will be content to be accepted, and readers whose essence of unity meets the essence of sundering, whereupon a transformation occurs and oneness becomes disjunction.
Frustrating and brilliant.Like Zelazny, who wrote the foreword to this book, I didn't think Brust could handle it. A story about Satan's rebellion against God? There were so many ways this book could fail. It didn't. It held together with a kind of chaotic intricacy, a huge mess of a plot that somehow holds itself together by virtue of its author's skill and ends with a gratifying finale.Brust doesn't take any sides here. This book is not a thinly veiled postmodernist attempt to destabilize Christian theological norms, or an attempt at trendy irony by painting Satan as a protagonist. It is a meditation on humanity, and its cast is aggressively human in every possible way. Satan kind but marred by indecision and a tendency toward philosophical meandering. Yaweh loving but blinded by his own love. Raphael kind but passive. Michael strong but lacking vision. Zaphkiel a visionary but lacking purpose. Abdiel a massive bastard.There is a real honesty to this book, and I respect that. The characters here are honest. The narrator does not smirk at the reader. There is good and bad in everyone. To that end, Brust's novel--and I hesitate to give it any real label--draws some inspiration from Neoplatonism. Angels are not two-dimensional embodiments of virtue with a natural predilection for playing harps, but archetypes for human beings. They're super-human, saturated in humanity, with all the feelings and passions of you and I, but magnified. The plot itself is structured like a tragedy of circumstances, almost Greek in its tragedy, driven by epic levels of hamartia in its characters. No one is without fault (save perhaps for Harut, whom I love), not even Satan. And no one is truly wrong, not even Yaweh. It is a meditation on law and chaos rather than good and evil. On bad things from good intentions and good things from selfishness. I had one issue with the book which kept me from giving it a full five stars: the presence of a kind of mind-control device central to the plot. Can you have a Deus Ex Machina in a story like this without being (intentionally or otherwise) ironic? Either way, it felt like a cop-out to me.Nonetheless, I enjoyed this book. I was frustrated with it at times. Frustrated because--God, how could these characters be so stupid? How could they not see? But then I realized Brust was taking me along for the ride. Frustration and gratification are intermingled here. This is not a book about atheism and theism. This is not a book about Satan and God and Jesus. This is a book about order and chaos, about the Gods of Iliaster who slay the Titans of Cacoastrum. Chaos creates order by rebelling against itself; order resists the encroachment and chaos and grows, but in doing so, sows the seeds of its own disunity. Entropy destroys order and the cycle recapiculates. Saturn devours his children, who then break free of him. Heaven emerges from the primordial chaos, only to break apart, and then rebuild itself.It is eschatology and creation myth. Recommended.
What do You think about To Reign In Hell (2000)?
I haven't enjoyed a book as I did this one in a long time. I will try to do the book justice, but if you really want a compelling review to read the book, read the foreword by Roger Zelazny. This was a weighty topic presented with human (erm...angelic?) characters that were extremely relatable with real emotions, faults and motivations. The writing was engaging, the dialog sharp, and it was surprisingly hilarious (just read the book's opening sentence: "Snow, tenderly caught by eddying breezes, swirled and spun in to and out of bright, lustrous shapes that gleamed against the emerald-blazoned black drape of sky and sparkled there for a moment, hanging, before settling gently to the soft, green-tufted plain with all the sickly sweetness of an over-written sentence." Bahahaha). The book managed to be sarcastic, irreverent, blasphemous, heartbreaking, infuriating, endearing, all over the course of less that 300 pages. Very highly recommended.
—Steve Steidle
The way Brust spins the premise of this novel is quite interesting. The best part of the story is undeniably the beginning, where the angels are united against the "flux" and working to overcome it with the Plan. Those early chapters fly by very quickly. But then the story sort of loses itself in flimsy, unbelievable misunderstandings that escalate into silliness with terrible consequences. It was a little hard to take some of the events in the ending seriously. The characters were very compelling, but hardly fleshed out enough (the plot sort of takes over), and often we get their motivations by the narrator telling us, rather than by us putting the pieces together through dialogue and action. Then there are huge, key scenes that are completely skipped over in favor of hinting that they happened, which slows down the pacing of the story at the end. Truthfully, it's a story with a strong premise, fast-paced writing, and a very engaging beginning hook, but it unfortunately falls a little flat at the end.
—Faine
A re-imagining of the fall, but Brust paints Yaweh as Stalin, while Satan is more like Trotsky. And given Brust's politics, that makes Satan the doomed hero. There's much that is clever and likable here, but it wasn't profound, nor (and much worse) was it a lot of fun. There were some wonderful moments, and Brust leans very heavily on history having been written by the side of the winners.The main problem I had is that none of the characters were very interesting. But I think that's also a problem with the source material, so I don't count that too much against this fanfic. Milton had similar problems, and managed only to make Satan interesting, and his take on this stuff was much less fun while, in my opinion, not being much more profound.Brust also leans very hard on two devices that I don't like. One is having conflict rise from a failure to communicate. And the other is the device of having characters meet to make plans, and then hiding the plans from the reader. Both appear here in abundance.I loved the idea that Satan's pride stemmed from his refusal to lie in the service of Yaweh. And I enjoyed the blasphemous portrayals of Yaweh and Yeshua. But, for me, this is the worst of the standalone books that I've read by Brust. It was still good, but if it had been the first thing of his I had read, I doubt I would have ever made it to the really good stuff.
—Duffy Pratt
