"It's an ingenious idea... and well done." -- Philip D. Appleman, winner of the Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America, author of Darwin's Ark
"If you've read Phillip Jose Farmer's Riverworld or Niven and Pournelle's Inferno, you'll almost certainly like this fresh new work that offers a startlingly new perspective on the question `Why are we here?' The author tackles, successfully, what few would attempt -- a near perfect rewrite of the original Inferno, in terza rima, in a strictly modern rational frame intended to illuminate some basic philosophical arguments in a painless way in the middle of a story that is surprisingly readable and enjoyable. Going into it, I had serious doubts about a prose novel's worth of verse, but the verse never gets in the way of the story and somehow ends up being a fitting medium, adding just the right aura and rhythm to this fascinating work. The preface alone is worth the cost of the book. I strongly recommend it for those who like their reading to carry meaning as well as plot." -- Robert G. Brown, author of The Book Of Lilith
"What an impressive book! The verse is wonderful." -- Michael Martin, author of The Impossibility Of God and Atheism: A Philosophical Justification
"I enjoyed and appreciated every page. Your book was ingeniously conceived and masterfully executed and I can readily commend it to other secular readers." -- Harry Greenberger, President, New Orleans Secular Humanist Association
"It was a fantastic read. Very enjoyable and thought-provoking. I plan to recommend to educational activities like Camp Quest and AEU Society programs." -- Jason Torpy, President, Military Association of Atheists & Freethinkers
"FWIW, I think the book is phenomenal. If only because of the sheer amount of work that the author put in to the project, it deserves respect. But it's far far more than that. It is a serious parody of one of the most significant books of the last millennium - Dante's Inferno.
Dante Alighieri wrote Inferno as part of the Divine Comedy trilogy in the early 14th century, which turned out to be just the right time for it to have gotten some reputation in advance of the invention of the printing press that would replicate it for people throughout Europe.
Inferno visualised Hell - probably the most hateful of all the Christian concepts - for Christian societies, and his vision was the one that became, perhaps by default, the dogma of Catholic Hell and subsequently for most of Protestantism too.
Dante's Hell has 9 levels, or circles, with each harbouring 'sinners' who are deemed to have committed certain sins during their lifetime, and are punished for them in a manner that is appropriate to the sin. I think this is from where we get our phrase 'Divine Retribution' when we see someone suffering some misfortune that is related to some earlier misdoing.
The 9 levels are categorised into 2 principle parts - Upper Hell is where the first 6 circles are, and where people are punished for what one might consider lesser or passive sins, and Lower Hell is the final 3 circles, where the truly wicked get their comeuppance. Lower Hell is contained within the walls of Dis, the supposed capital of Hell.
The Divine Comedy, including Inferno, is written in Italian, which is why it is called a comedy. It is certainly not a reference to the book being in any way amusing! At the time it was written, books of law or scholarship were invariably written in Latin, so Dante's decision to write in Italian seems to imply that it was written for the 'common man' directly rather than via the ecclesiastical hierarchy of priests. Indeed, one of the odd things about the work is that, although it has evolved into being a core part of Catholic dogma, Dante himself seems to have been rather pissed off with the Catholic Church and its corrupt priesthood. Quite a few of the inmates of Dante's Hell are priests or bishops, and some are even Popes.
In The Infernova, Alenthony writes in an identical poetic style to that used by Dante. I am someone who has absolutely no clue and no talent when it comes to poetry, so the author's achievement in completing an entire book that rhymes is, in itself, awesome. The fact that it all fits together as an interesting and meaningful story is quite incredible.
Alenthony also keeps the structure of 'New Hell' identical to Dante's original, with the first 6 circles housing people who succumbed to various sorts of fallacious reasoning, and 'New Dis' containing 3 circles for those who were more active in subverting society for selfish ends.
My personal favourites are the 4th circle - which houses inmates dressed like scarecrows (i.e. straw men) and others who spend their days in constant vehement and derisory argument with one another (i.e. ad hominems) - and the first round of the 7th circle - where advertising executives and other bull-shitters implore one another to just hear them out for a minute or two, in between periods of being chased, eaten and excreted by a Minotaur.
Dante had a guide to act as interlocutor during his passage through Hell. He chose the Roman poet Virgil, who had dealt with similar concepts in his epic poem Aeneid. For similar reasons, Alenthony also has a guide taking him around New Hell, and he chooses Mark Twain - a noted satirist on religious nonsense, and someone whose work he clearly admires greatly.
A key ingredient of The Infernova is the reference to the Simulation Hypothesis at various points to explain how the author is having such a lucid dream. People of the future have developed technology to tap into the minds of people in the present, and introduce them to minds from the past.
Another new aspect is that whereas Dante follows the traditional religious path of people interred in Hell being there for eternity, The Infernova offers the much more humane treatment where the 'souls' are only in New Hell for as long as their pre-mortal 'crimes' justify. When their sentence is complete, they have the option to simply cease to exist, or to be re-simulated (or reincarnated, I suppose). Then again, it also stresses at various points that the 'souls' in New Hell are not real people - just an electronic rendering of them for the educational benefit and enlightenment of whoever happens to journey through.
In conclusion, I recommend this book to anyone with any literary interest, particularly in religious, atheist and/or historical literature. In my opinion, to get the most out of it, one needs a reasonable prior knowledge of logic and categories of logical failures, and/or at least an overview appreciation of Dante's Divine Comedy. When I first read it, I didn't really know too much about Inferno beyond everyday chit-chat, but I then did a bit of online research about it and re-read The Infernova, which enables one to appreciate its depth much more fully."
- Stuart, reader from London
There's no need to mince words: it's brilliant. Not only is the story and concept strikingly well researched and reasoned, the execution, in the form of Dantean rhyme from start to finish, is flawless. I'm capable of communicating my thoughts in prose well enough, but to organize them so well that they fit the tight structure of an epic poem is certainly beyond my skill level.
Mark Twain was an inspired choice as Virgil's replacement, I couldn't imagine a more perfect persona. The witty comments and sharp tongue are him to the smallest detail.
I found myself waiting in anticipation to find out who was going to be the celebrity inhabitant of each circle of Hell; some of the choices surprised me at first, but once the reasons for their incarceration were explained I often found myself laughing in agreement. (A small spoiler: Einstein doesn't make it to paradise.) The punishments were always perfect, poetic justice at its finest. The scene with the bullshitters being eaten and excreted by minotaurs was positively inspired.
I strongly recommend anyone who hasn't already read the book locate a copy.
-Kevin, reader from Ottowa
