A VERY FAST DESCENT INTO HELL
By: Dan CzirakyDate: Wednesday, April 26, 2000
It's the end of the world (yes, again) and things are pretty rotten. In fact, since the world's already gone to Hell, Theron Skoth, father of all demons, has gathered his vast brood upon an abandoned aircraft carrier to find a new home out among the stars. Only the demon Darius Kane is staying behind, because he made a promise to Ryder, the Grim One. Normally, Darius would think nothing of breaking a promise. He's a demon, after all! Yet, Darius is troubled by visions of his dead sister, Armida. Also, he wants to see just what sort of vengeance Ryder will extract from Father Phelan, the Hollow Priest.
As the world continues to crumble and the Wasted Lands expand in the aftermath of The Last War, Darius Kane stumbles upon Phelan, an immortal man with an immoral heart who just may be at the root of Earth's destruction. After all, his experiments into finding the secret of immortality were at the behest of Ryder, a being whole and complete when the Earth was still a cooling cinder. Ryder's love for the child Lucretia lead the Archeon to seek out Phelan, a man born immortal and with the power to sway believers with the most outrageous of lies. He commissioned Phelan to make Lucretia immortal, so he might not exist in loneliness anymore, shunned by mankind as he is. From this seemingly impossible task spring the actions and events that will ultimately see the death of our worldor will it? For, as long as there is hope and spirit, can a world truly die?
Drax, a film journalist best known for his contributions to The Phantom of the Movies' VIDEOSCOPE magazine (www.videoscopemag.com), has crafted an interesting combination of splatterpunk and dark fantasy with his debut novel. There are scenes of visceral violence and extreme gore, as well as scenes of intense emotion, pain, and insanity. Darius Kane is a fascinating creation, a character full of pain, doubt, and false confidence. Father Phelan, the immortal Hollow Priest, allows Drax to take all sorts of stabs at religion and faith, but they aren't just pot-shots. Many of the questions and doubts he raises are surely things readers have asked or felt themselves. Then, there is Ryder, a godlike being, a titan, who has roamed the Earth for endless millennia in search of a companion. His longings are torturous, but his solutions are ultimately self-destructive. Catherine, the lone human in our tale, starts out as one of Phelan's followers, but she recognizes the false priest for what he truly is, so he condemns her as a witch and sentences her to burn at the stake. Although he has no love for humans, Darius decides it will be 'fun' to free her. He later comes to understand her true nature and purpose, and will ultimately pit his life against her survival on more than one occasion.
A VERY FAST DESCENT INTO HELL might not be every fantasy or horror fan's cup of blood, but it does pack a nice, juicy punch for those tired of the same old D&D or VAMPIRE: THE MASQUERADE rehashes.
A VERY FAST DESCENT INTO HELL, by Simon Drax. Studio Phaedra (353 West 53rd Street, Suite 1E, New York, NY 10019), December 1999, 249 pp., $12.00
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