Escape from Hell (Inferno) - Softcover

Niven, Larry; Pournelle, Jerry

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076535540X ISBN 13: 9780765355409

Publisher: Tor Science Fiction, 2010

Synopsis

Allan Carpenter escaped from hell once but remained haunted by what he saw and endured.

He has now returned, on a mission to liberate those souls unfairly tortured and confined.

Partnering with the legendary poet and suicide, Sylvia Plath, Carpenter is a modern-day Christ who intends to harrow hell and free the damned.

But now that he's returned to this Dantesque Inferno, can he ever again leave?

About this title

About the Author:

Larry Niven is the award-winning author of the Ringworld series, along with many other science fiction masterpieces, and fantasy novels including the Magic Goes Away series. He has received the Nebula Award, five Hugos, four Locus Awards, two Ditmars, the Prometheus, and the Robert A. Heinlein Award, among other honors. He lives in Chatsworth, California.

Jerry Pournelle (1933-2017) was an essayist, journalist, and science fiction author. He had advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering, and political science. As a science fiction author, he is best known for his many collaborations with Larry Niven, including Inferno, Beowulf's Children and The Mote in God's Eye.

Pournelle was the first ever winner of the John W. Campbell Award for Best new Writer in 1973.

From Booklist:

In Inferno (1976), Niven and Pournelle updated Dante for the modern age, swapping medieval torments for more contemporary ones. At the end of the book, its protagonist, deceased sf writer Allen Carpenter, accompanied by Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, discovered a way out of hell’s nine circles but remained profoundly disturbed by the underworld’s unjust punishments. Now survivor’s guilt has driven Carpenter back to the damned’s domain to attempt a wholesale rescue of its tortured denizens. His sidekick this time is the poet Sylvia Path, with whom Carpenter shares an uncommon literary perspective on their surroundings. In their trek through hell’s darkest corners, the pair enlists the aid of such historic figures as J. Robert Oppenheimer, J. Edgar Hoover, and militant atheist Bertrand Russell. Satan, however, has other ideas. While the territory is perhaps too littered with celebrities in this installment, Niven and Pournelle’s further life experience helps them add gravitas to Carpenter’s philosophical contemplations. Meanwhile, their collaborative narrative magic is as compelling as ever. --Carl Hays

About this edition

• Publisher: Tor Science Fiction
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 076535540X
• ISBN 13: 9780765355409
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368