Sunday Story Ratings #02: To Reign in Hell

[aesmael]

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

To Reign in Hell by Steven Brust

Originally published 1984; this edition date unknown, prob. 2000

Publisher: Orb

 

M

(H, D, V, S)

Supernatural Themes

Minor Drug Use

Violence

Sexual References

 

Representations

Gender:

Gender, or at least sex is presented as at least somewhat volitional for angels and a recent invention. However, the majority of angels present as male because Lilith, the inventor of sex, presents as female. Which suggests a certain innate desirability of femininity that crosses lines of identity.

Sex:

As gender

Race & Ethnicity:

The angels present themselves with a variety of ethnic markers (not described with reference to nations or geographical regions).

Disability, Physical Diversity and Health:

The angels present themselves with a variety of humanoid and non-humanoid forms. Non-humanoid forms seem mostly to have been assumed as a matter of necessity for survival. Numerous angels have suffered some form of impairment or diminishment as of the beginning of the story due to what can euphemistically be described as a harsh natural environment. When they have the freedom to do so, many angels seem to enjoy self-modification for convenience or aesthetic pleasure.

(as a note, found it difficult to decide between assigning an M or PG because there isn't much on-screen to 'earn' the higher rating, and what is there perhaps is mitigated by the angels not bleeding and dying in the same way as humans are accustomed to, making the effect perhaps more stylised and less visceral. finally went with the higher rating because of a couple of specific scenes and the intense emotional tone of the story.)

(as a further note, been wondering how coniferous_you would find the story given the divergence of its portrayal from Paradise Lost, particularly of Abdiel)

Comments

[jessie_c]

I didn't find it as enjoyable as I had hoped. I really like Brust's Taltos stories, so I had kind of hoped for the narrative style he uses there. In the end it was kind of forgettable, which is a sad commentary on a book.

[aesmael]

First thing of his I've read (except a short Taltos story posted on Tor.com a while back, despite having had the book since ~2005), but I liked it well enough to order The Book of Jhereg afterward. Am looking forward to it. Did find it rather strongly emotional actually.

[coniferous_you]

Although I haven't read this one, it has been recommended to me one other time by a fellow classmate who acknowledged my undying love of Milton's work.

I like Milton's Abdiel because of his unshakeable conviction; plus, his level of contrariness is literally epic in scope and I admire that too.
But I think different authors are going to view him in different ways, if they bother at all. Milton conceived Abdiel as the lone dissenting voice among a crowd of many, but Abdiel could equally be seen as a pretentious jerk among the rebels, if someone was writing a pro-Miltonic Satan point of view (and not just accidentally writing a sympathetic Satan, like Milton did).

For the sake of the verse as it was written in that time, it was okay with me that the angels were male (it was even explained that they could change into anything at will to accommodate the listener and that they were really just pure energy; Book 7: Milton on Angel Sex), but I like to think they'd mess around with something like that if they played with humans more than just in Milton's works.