Fantasy novel about two magicians voluntarily traveling to hell to bring back the soul of their malicious professor as a sign of great power and a chance of a great carrier.
Post graduate students of Magick at Cambridge trying to rescue the soul of their professor, who was blown into the air because of a failed spell. Journey to hell was probably never that educative and boring at the same time as it was in this story…
As I started to read this book, I was fascinated how often Dante was mentioned, which could have been clear since the book is about Hell and Dante created a masterpiece about his visit down there. But, as you continue to read, at some point, it will get on your nerve. Not just the constant use of Dante, but also other authors and philosophers. It was more like a lecture, than a Dark Academia novel. There just another two things worth mentioning in good light and then I am done with the positive talk. First was the mentioning of Lembas Bread. A fan of Lord of the Rings will always be pleased to hear or read about it in other books. Just to feel the impact of J. R.R. Tolkien on the community. Second point, which came bit later on in the book was the bringing up of women status in society, in work field or in university environment. How hard it was for them to be taken seriously, not just as housewives, but as human beings able to make great findings. And that is probably all positive I can say about this novel.
The female main character, Alice, was around ninety-five percent of the time getting on my nerves. There was just too much about this character, that triggered me. First of all, she was bit fanatical, like when she mentioned, that because of her work and career she would amputate her own limb. Don´t get me wrong, I know that some people are obsessed with their work, but that does not mean I understand it. She had also too many prejudices, mainly towards Peter, because he came from a successful and rich family he must have been spoiled and ungrateful. When this kind of thoughts would have been in the beginning of the book, and then disappeared or changed, it would understandable. But she lost them nearly at the end of the book, after he sacrificed himself for her. Well, at least than she lost them. It would not surprise me, if she kept them even after that point of the book. As I continued to read, I realized that Alice has probably an obsession or a psychological problem towards her professor. Some of her motives I can understand, but honestly, you blow your professor into the air, you hate him, but you still sacrifice half of your remaining years to bring him back from Hell? Not to mention her confidence in her remaining years. How the hell could she just assume them? How could she be sure, she had not just ten remaining years, because a car would run her over? Ou, and the fact she kept repeating, she is the smartest and brightest star of all and yet, Elspeth and the Kripkes could figure out all of her tricks in few seconds. Always remember, there is no matter what a more brilliant person then you are. Bit of humility would suite Alice. Peter as the main male character was uninteresting, he was meek, not a person you would remember. Not bad, just plain as water. The author concentrated that much on the female character, that she forgot to give any personality to the male one, or any other character besides the „great” Alice. Besides his health issues, there was much to talk about.
About the story. The point was to find the soul of their professor in Hell and to bring him back. Was I the only one who had the feeling, that they weren´t looking through Hell for his soul at all? They were just walking around, haven´t looked under one stone, just walked around and got themselves into problems with the few monsters they encountered. What was then the point of it? The book started promising, but as it continued it was just worse. How can Hell be boring, when you have some of the greatest creatures there, like Cerberus. It´s sad, not to use the potential. It also lost the dynamic part, where I would not be able to let the book out of my hands, because of the many returns in the past to explain the whole background story. It was not about Hell and Katabasis, but tt did not disappoint with clichés. If we don´t consider her many prejudices towards Peter, the main cliffhanger in their relationship was the fact, that both of them understood some actions from the past wrong and could not talk about them as normal grown-ups. And the part, where she always loved him, and he always loved her, but both of them thought the other person would not return their feelings? The relationship development deserved more. The end was a complete catastrophe, one big happy ending, where the dictator professor will not return, dead Peter is alive again and both of them can return from Hell. Who would have thought that. I wouldn´t. I was ok with the fact, that Peter sacrificed himself for her. After this book, I am quite careful with author´s next book, since Babel has been sitting on my TBR shelf for a few months now.