History is Written by the Victors (To Reign in Hell - Stephen Brust)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	To Reign in Hell - Stephen Brust
Date:	20/10/07 (77 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An interesting and imaginative take on an old but vague story, driven by entertaining dialogue.

Disadvantages: Lacks descriptiveness, which makes the whole thing a little confusing.

When he set out to expand upon the Christian Creation myth by incorporating apocryphal accounts of the war in heaven and the nature of hell, John Milton believed with unwavering arrogance that his ‘Paradise Lost’ would take a significant place in the literary canon, and the blind poet could have been confident that his epic would still inspire writers over three centuries later. Like many modern fantasies concerning the events that transpired before the Earth or humanity were created, Steven Brust’s novel ‘To Reign in Hell’ borrows heavily from Milton in terms of its premise (the war in Heaven, and its aftermath) and controversial sympathy for the traditionally ‘evil’ rebels, but differs significantly in its stripped-down, secularised take on the story.

Brust’s novel is classed as a fantasy and for the most part it is just that; the angels are a race birthed from the chaos surrounding Heaven, the Firstborn of which each possesses a striking ability more akin to a super-hero than a traditional deity. There is no omnipotent God who created all things, but rather Yaweh, who merely happened to be first born of the seven Firstborn, and who admits that while creation of Heaven and the angels almost certainly had something to do with him, his early memories are only vague and concern instinct more than rational thought or any form of plan. William Blake accused Milton of being ‘of the Devil’s party without knowing it’ due to the alleged sympathy he shows for the cause and suffering of his protagonist Satan in the early books of his poem, but Brust betters this by presenting Satan as an innocent and honourable figure who unwittingly finds himself as a symbol of the growing rebellion through tragic miscommunication and the deception of another. Conversely, while Yaweh is also duped by Abdiel (the novel’s true antagonist), he is shown to be an insecure and reluctant leader who ultimately reasons that self-confessed tyrannical rule is the only suitable method at his disposal, hence setting himself in his now-familiar role as Heaven’s ruler.

By ignoring religion and stripping the story down to its bare bones, Brust frees himself up to tackle a previously very vague story in whatever manner he sees fit, provided that the inevitable end conforms to Milton. This process of simplification extends to the individual angels involved, which Brust imagines as an increasing population numbering well over a thousand that is on the verge of becoming a populace rather than a small local community, something that dawns on Lilith when she articulates some of the previously unspoken problems in this earliest civilisation. Roughly a dozen angels feature prominently throughout, mostly of the prestigious first and second wave rather than the more humble and common third, and as there are no real rules regarding their exact names or characteristics in folklore, Brust writes them as he wishes. Even ones that are pretty well known, such as Lucifer and Mephistopheles, he disregards and changes as he sees fit, or makes into women for the sake of it. To ease matters, the issue of Satan’s numerous names in mythology is dealt with by making Satan and Lucifer different and distinct individuals, albeit ones who ultimately fall along the same path, and although the reader may find it a little hard to suspend their disbelief over the ‘obviously evil’ names of Belial, Beelzebub, Mephistopheles as opposed to the ‘obviously good’ Michael, Raphael and Ariel, it serves as another reminder of Heaven’s supreme and tragic innocence in all matters. Just because it would be insane to call a child Adolf today, doesn’t mean it wasn’t once a perfectly decent name (though still a bit of a silly one).

Brust’s tale is truly tragic as the reader sees an unstable but peaceful civilisation fall into disorder, war and division before their eyes, and just as ‘Paradise Lost’ was published partly in response to the English Revolution (and its ultimate failure), the crisis of ‘To Reign in Hell’ could act as a fitting metaphor for a number of situations at different points throughout history, particularly in regard to its ultimate message that facts and situations can be twisted and malformed to suit any individual’s purpose, as shown in the novel’s finest scenes. It’s certainly a very sad book, and the nefarious, conniving and murderous Abdiel is an interesting adversary in a similar manner to Milton’s Satan during his less prestigious moments in Eden in ‘Paradise Lost,’ acting on his apparently unique ability to think independently of the rest of the angelic host and to question the presumed order of things rather than follow blindly, but in doing so only causing destruction. The characterisation of this morality tale is fairly primitive but not to the point of being a disadvantage, as the cast is so weighty that each manages to achieve little outside a generalised profile to distinguish itself from the others. Some are more extremely diversified, particularly those who were mutated during the third wave into different forms: Belial is an enormous, fire-breathing dragon, Leviathan is now a sea monster, Ariel is an owl and Beelzebub is a dog who speaks in lofty Elizabethan English but still relieves himself on trees. In an interesting decision, most of the traditionally noble angels are presented as somewhat blind and easily led, but the character of those such as Michael is seen to change rather enjoyably as events unfold and awareness is raised that debate and free will can exist after all.

Even as each major player is profiled through the early chapters, Brust’s narrative is very light on actual description or in fact any narration at all beyond simple statements of the direction in which characters are walking, and an amusingly repetitive tendency for them to chew their lips while contemplating. The book is so dialogue heavy that it reads much like a play split into countless brief discussions between two or more characters before shifting to the next, and while this is perfect for establishing a sense of the characters without having to explicitly state their feelings (a chewed lip or five will satisfy for that), it does make many sections quite hard to follow if the reader is working through the book over a long period and has forgotten some of the pairings and alliances, as Brust largely avoids stating which character is speaking in each line. Fortunately, it’s very good dialogue and character-specific even outside of the gimmicks like Beelzebub, but the larger lack of description makes visualising any particular scene quite a challenge unless it’s one of the few that are intricately detailed, such as the awakening of Belial. Brust’s Heaven appears to be a large landmass, featuring fields, woods, mountains and seas, though once the reader gets beyond that to the realms of the Flux, things become a lot more complicated.

While Steven Brust’s acclaimed novel doesn’t have the same impact nor artistry as ‘Paradise Lost’ or the other classical works he pays homage to in the brief quotations that open each chapter (including Dante, Goethe and the Book of Job as well as more recent pop songs and poetry), his is a bold and enjoyable take on a story that has never been tackled in the appropriate depth. While some may take issue with his significant changes, particularly the reduction of Yaweh from an all-powerful God to a ‘mere’ Firstborn with powerful abilities, it was very likely the contradictions this omniscience entailed (as well as the foolish fear of being blasphemous to such an obviously made-up story and characters) that has caused lesser writers to veer away from these subjects over the centuries. It may not be exactly the same story, but Brust’s version makes a lot more sense and is ultimately more readable for it, though I did find that it became too much like a traditional swords and sorcery fantasy novel at some points, with the first battle in particular harking right back to genre staples like ‘Lord of the Rings.’ Nevertheless, the plot unfolds at a very satisfying and convincing rate, escalating gradually and horribly with each turn of the page.

At under 300 pages this isn’t especially heavy-going, though it does lose some of its appeal as it moves toward the conclusion – but I’m sure that these final pre-ordained events will be enough to keep readers flicking through. Some of the characters are a little too generic or theatrical, but others such as Yaweh (who is very much like the insecure God as portrayed throughout the Book of Genesis, at least as I read it), the noble Satan and the romantic Raphael keep it from being a mere allegory. It’s also pretty funny too, with some recurring jokes from the unlikely likes of Mephistopheles, and a regular running commentary from two marginal, unimportant angels Sith and Kyriel, whose pointless, often daft but always meaningful take on events unfolding before them is reminiscent of Tom Stoppard’s take on Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Either that, or those heckling blokes in the gallery from ‘The Muppet Show,’ take your pick: it doesn’t all have to be literary.

Summary: A modern re-telling of the war in Heaven and the true reason behind the Earth's creation (1984).