The Infernals is a sequel to his earlier book The Gates, which I fell in love with last year. The Gates was clever, funny and touching with humour that reminded me of Douglas Adams. The Infernals, a continuation of Samuel Johnson's story, is good but doesn't reach the same level of cleverness as the book that came before it.
So let's rewind:
A year has passed for Samuel Johnson since his encounters with the demons of hell and he has done everything he could to move past it. But unbeknowest to Samuel, the demon Mrs. Abernathy (formally known as Ba'al) is plotting revenge against him for foiling her previous plans. Samuel finds himself dragged to Hell where he encounters many of its denizens and a few of his old friends.
There are other characters who end up falling into hell with Samuel, two policemen and a band of Dwarves who just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Their stories, cute at some times do not hold up against Samuel's adventures.
The book started out fairly slow, but picked up when Samuel began to have encounters with demons, and I have to say that's where the book's real strength lies. The vibe kind of reminded me of the vibe in his other bok The Book of Lost Things (I'll talk about this book another day), which is more creepy then comedy. I was fascinated by the character's of Old Ram and the Old Oak, and I was interested in Connolly's portrayal of hell, but I don't want to go into anymore details and spoil the story for you.
Similar to The Gates, the chapter titles and the footnotes were clever or laugh out loud funny and offered either blunt insight into their chapters (in the case of the titles) or background information and comments on the narrative. My favourite footnote out of the entire book had to be number 42:
"Most people will spend their lives doing jobs that they don't particularly enjoy, and will eventually save up enough money to stop doing those jobs just in time to start dying instead. Don't be one of those people. There's a difference between living, and just surviving. Do something that you love, and find someone to love who loves that you love what you do.
It really is that simple. And that hard" (Connolly, 303)
In the end, this book doesn't hold up against Connolly's previous work, but it still is enjoyable. If you liked The Gates, I recommend you do read the sequel (which clearly sets up for a third book) and continue the story of young Samuel Johnson.
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