100 Places to See After You Die

A Travel Guide to the Afterlife

By: Ken Jennings

Narrated by: Ken Jennings

Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins

Publisher's summary

From New York Times bestselling author, legendary Jeopardy! champion, and host Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring destinations to die for from literature, mythology, and pop culture ranging from Dante’s Inferno to Hadestown to NBC’s The Good Place.

Ever wonder which circles of Dante’s Inferno have the nicest accommodations? Where’s the best place to grab a bite to eat in the ancient Egyptian underworld? How does one dress like a local in the heavenly palace of Hinduism’s Lord Vishnu, or avoid the flesh-eating river serpents in the Klingon afterlife? What hidden treasures can be found off the beaten path in Hades, Valhalla, or NBC’s The Good Place? Find answers to all those questions and more about the world(s) to come in this eternally entertaining book from Ken Jennings.

100 Places to See After You Die is written in the style of iconic bestselling travel guides—but instead of recommending must-see destinations in Mexico, Thailand, or Rome, Jennings outlines journeys through the afterlife, as dreamed up over 5,000 years of human history by our greatest prophets, poets, mystics, artists, and TV showrunners.

This comprehensive index of 100 different afterlife destinations was meticulously researched from sources ranging from the Epic of Gilgamesh to modern-day pop songs, video games, and Simpsons episodes. Get ready for whatever post-mortal destiny awaits you, whether it’s an astral plane, a Hieronymus Bosch hellscape, or the baseball diamond from Field of Dreams.

Fascinating, funny, and irreverent, this light-hearted memento mori will help you create your very own bucket list—for after you’ve kicked the bucket.

©2022 Ken Jennings (P)2022 Simon & Schuster Audio

Ken’s podcast Omnibus is much better

First: I love Ken Jennings. Maphead and Brainiac were brilliant, and his Omnibus podcast is amazing. I had high hopes for this book after Planet Funny, which was weighed down a bit by its topic and not as tightly edited as previous work, but in the end there were some real flaws. I wouldn’t call them dealbreakers, but I would say to read on before deciding between the paper book and audio version.

First, it’s clear this is a great *pitch* for a book. What it is in reality is much less clear. I assume the paper book is meant to be flipped through. That’s harder to do in audio but not impossible — the chaptering is good and the chapters are short, and if you don’t care for one there is zero downside to skipping it.

In fact, for most people I’d recommend skipping the entire first section. The overview of ancient religions at the start is confusing, a mix of Ken’s trademark wit with the kind of sensitive topic of actual culture’s religious beliefs. He doesn’t say anything to get himself cancelled, but it is held back both as humor and actual history. The entire book is punched-up Wikipedia, and that actually is GREAT for the pop culture book and movie summaries that make up the second half of the book, but it falls apart when discussing indigenous deities you’ve never heard of, with conflicting traditions that require some hand waving.

I also assume the book graphics do a lot for the “travel book” part of the gimmick. I’ve never done an audio travel book, and the callouts and layout don’t really work for it.

That said, I really enjoyed a lot of the book and movie pop culture afterlife summaries that make up the second half of the book. The first half was hard to slog, the second half I kept wanting more. But I also couldn’t help but feel that they seemed like solo mini Omnibus episodes. Omnibus is Ken’s podcast with John Roderick, and — like Paul Bloom’s companion podcast with David Pizarro launched with his book Psych — the two voice discussion format is just much more engaging and compelling than the audiobook version itself. In that sense, I’d recommend especially the second half of this audiobook to anyone who has already listened to all the Omnibus episodes.

But I’d recommend the paper version to anyone who browses it and finds it worthwhile. I intend to browse it myself.

One final unfortunate note on the audio: Ken clearly had a pretty bad cold during the recording. It’s more noticeable on some chapters than others and you stop noticing it after a bit, but it does detract from the audio experience is well. I enjoy Ken’s voice on his podcast — admittedly the contrast with Roderick’s lower voice helps — but this was not his best performance. I wish they had been able to reschedule the recording sessions!

Hilarious and educational.

Admittedly, it's a bit long. Entertaining, without being offensive. Best for those who appreciate dry humor.

Ken Jennings Can Do Better

As a big fan of the only person who should host Jeopardy, I found this book mostly boring. It is a bad sign when you cannot wait for a book to end.

I suspect Ken has a better book in mind, and this one was for practice.

Whistling past the graveyard

A lighthearted look at the many absurd and weird takes on what happens when we die. Very clever writing and a good read, as you would expect from Ken Jennings. Best taken in small doses, like you might take in a podcast.

great listen!

I've been excited for this book for a while and I'm happy to say that it exceeded my expectations. ken did a great job at reading it. I enjoyed listening to his other book maphead but I think this is a lot better to listen to.

Best part of book, the title!

The best part of the book was the title! Perhaps if it had not been read by the author it might have been better.

Soporific (to use a Ken word)

Dull…dull…dull. I just couldn’t get through more than an hour of listening to this, even though I really like Ken generally and thought the topic sounded very interesting. It just put me (almost) to sleep, which is not good since I was driving home from work at this time. Should’ve waited until there were more reviews before I made the impulse purchase. Lesson learned!

Boring

I cannot recommend this book. If you want to hear mostly about hades in various religions, go for it.