Inferno!

Blogging is an interesting pastime. You never are quite sure what you should include in here. I mean, you never know who will be reading, and what might interest them. Hmph.

Well, I guess I’ll start with the books I’ve read in September. I’ve read eleven books, and a couple chapters of another one. I’ll give some ‘book reports’ over the next couple of days, and then add more as I read more books.

I re-read Inerno! by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. For anyone who has read Dante’s Inferno, this one is a nice companion piece that is significantly more readable. I did a little looking up of the Inferno! and I found a term I didn’t know: Bangsian. Apparently, Bangsian fantasy is the school of fantasy writing that sets the plot wholly or partially in the afterlife. It was named after a John Kendrick Banes, who wrote in the late 1800-early 1900s about the afterlives of famous people. I have also discovered I’m a fan of said genre. I mean, I’ve re-read Inferno! several times, as well as Farmer’s Riverworld series and Morris’s ‘In Hell’ series. Hm. Does that make me truly morbid?

I have to admit, I do like the point of view that Niven and Pournelle have with their version of Hell. I like the idea that souls can redeem themselves even in Hell, but then again, I am a pretty hopeful person.

Well, that’s enough for now.