Escape from Hell

By: Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle

Narrated by: Tom Weiner

Length: 9 hrs and 23 mins

Publisher's summary

Allan Carpentier 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 famous poet and suicide, Sylvia Plath, Carpentier 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?

©2009 Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"This well-constructed tale will inspire many readers to seek out the original Divine Comedy." ( Publishers Weekly)

Despite the decades long delay, not a worthy successor to the original

The ending could have been less ambitious. It could have described more of the trilogy. Purgatorio, Paridicio. Maybe this is what I’m learning about “old mans wisdom”, in the last few years. They tend to be detached. And very ambiguous about larger issues.

Couldn't ask for more.

I never read this one. But to hear it read lent much understanding or should I say much better then reading it. Some day I'll read it. Until then I suspect I'll listen to it again.

Well done.

I enjoyed it more the second time around. I read this book about 10 years ago, and just revisited it by listening to the audiobook. The first time around, it wasn’t really what I had expected, as the story doesn’t flow quite the same way that the first one did. This book serves more to introduce uncommon interpretations of what is probably viewed as archaic sin. But it is informative, and fun, as the writers worked hard to bring levity to a very dark subject, sometimes moreso than most. This book does a much better job of educating the reader, or listener, of the layout, purpose, and imagined visual experience of Dante’s Inferno, than the first book did. I was surprised to have found that the writers had become more political, but it makes sense considering the cultural changes that had occurred between 1976 and the time this book was written. Check it out; it’s worth the trip.

Amusing, but novelty worn off

Way back when, I remember really, really liking Inferno. It was a good yarn, well written, amusing, quite a unique and imaginative premise. And so, even though I am generally leery of sequels, I bit and - having used up my credits for the month - bought it. For the most part, it was again amusing. But how many times can you do this? About half way through it started getting tiresome. I began to wonder how it could be that these two protagonists could possibly know about of, or have even met, every single one of these characters that come along? Out of all of Hell, they know EVERYONE that appears? C'mon. And the ending, well, I won't spoil it for everyone but I think it was pretty weak. Still, it had its moments.

Poor sequel

I love Niven's and Pournell's works ... well, generally I do. But I have to say that this book is a terrible disappointment. It is a sequel and really adds nothing to the original. It does not have multiple layers that unfold before you. It does not ask questions.

It is a very shallow 'formula' story. Sometimes it reads almost like a children's story - although the subject matter is not for children. Pseudo-spoiler alert. The entire book is a series of the same scene repeated ad nauseum : hero goes up to someone and says "follow me, I'll lead you out of here". That person responds, for some reason he can't leave, and then the hero moves on to a different person.

if you lived inferno, you'll love this

you're through it in 2 days. it was like visiting an old friend. the ending I wanted to hear from the first one.
was it worth of the 40 year wait? pretty much!

YOU COULD COME WITH ME

WHAT WAS YOUR SIN?
Actually I have several. Niven and Pournelle used this as a way to complain about modern problems. They hit everyone in New Orleans pretty hard. At first I thought too much so, and then the night I finished the book, the news had a story on the New Orleans Mayor, who had just been convicted of bribery and taking money on construction projects. They hammered hard on scientist that gave false evidence. They mentioned scientists in the 1970's who warned us about a coming Ice Age. They hinted that today's Global Warming Scientist might be scamming us. The talked about DDT and how it should have never been banned and the lives it cost to ban it. They talked about Silicon Breast Implants and how it was never proved they caused any harm. Lawyers got hit hard, etc...

Even though I agreed with a lot they had to say, the book had no plot as of course neither did Daunte's book. I would think two smart writers could visit Hell and have a plot. No character development here, today's readers need more.

I KNOW THE WAY OUT OF HELL

Best sequel since the New Testament

Again, LN & JP (God rest his soul, hopefully not in any of the bulgia’s) improve upon Dante’s work. This is a masterpiece of dark to light literate. I’m not sure Dante would be pleased but I’m sure he would be amused. Ice cream in hell for everyone!!

A bad joke from Niven

The first story I read from Niven was "What Good is a Glass Dagger", when I was 11. By the time, I truly enjoyed the story, the setting, characters, but one thing bothered me: the sense of humor of the author, manifested through the characters, was completely off. I attributed it to me being a kid and perhaps a poor translation to Portuguese.
25 years later I read "Playgrounds of the Mind", and again that nagging sensation that this guy takes every opportunity he can to sound funny and makes his characters laugh at his bad jokes hysterically. This time I was a grown man and read the story in English, but this was a collection of fragments of stories so maybe I was catching the joke in the middle or something of the sort.
This book is Niven's last joke on me. The entire book is about his alter ego, Alan Carpenter, walking Dante's Inferno and finding people that are relevant to Niven's life, and thus have no meaning to a broader audience, especially an international one, paying for their respective sins much in the way Niven sees they have sinned. Bad jokes all over, unlikable characters, there is no real underlying story or conclusion, and everything ends exactly where it started.
Not worth my monthly credit. I recommend listening to the sample first, and perhaps reading some extracts from Amazon "look inside" if you can.

More Than a Little Heavy Handed

The premise of the story was very interesting, but the delivery was terribly heavy handed. The story flowed well except when the authors strained to promote their politics, by setting up strawman versions of points of view that they oppose. Weiner's performance was very good and compensated somewhat for the story's shortcomings.