The Infernals

The sequel to John Connolly's YA novel, The Gates. In that one, young Samuel Johnson defeated an army of demons attempting to invade the Earth. This time, the leader of those demons drags Samuel (along with his dog Boswell, two policemen, a van full of miscreant dwarfs, and an ice cream truck) into Hell, where he finds himself at the center of a demonic civil war. It's a lot of fun, and often laugh-out-loud funny, in a way that's sometimes reminiscent of Terry Pratchett. I'm particularly fond of the scientific and historical footnotes, which often manage to be simultaneously educational and hilarious. Some of the more serious bits (including Dante-esque descriptions of souls in Hell) are a bit more hit and miss, and there were one or two small things that rubbed me the wrong way. ("Women don't tinker"? Really, Mr. Connolly? Really?) But overall, it was highly entertaining. ( )

I'd given the first book in this series (The Gates) three stars and concluded that it was a fun, fluffy diversion from Connolly's Charlie Parker books. I'd picked this sequel up at the library not being entirely committed to it, but now I'm glad that I read it. It was a lot of fun and very clever, and I enjoyed that all of the footnotes were science-y (in keeping with the theme of the Large Hadron Collider being responsible for Samuel Johnson's misadventures, I suppose). Overall, The Infernals was a better book than The Gates, and I'm looking forward to the inevitable next one. ( )

Great second book in the series. Love the writing style it's amazing. The title, the foot notes and the story are all amusing. The story reads quick and I enjoy how the characters are introduced and brought together. A must read I think for anyone who likes quick stories that have humor and a little fantasy with them. Makes you feel like you are reading a kids book all over again. ( )

I've thought about reading more Connolly ever since The Book of Lost Things. In Lost Things he treats fairy-tale motifs with terrifying realism. In The Infernals, he travels the opposite direction, treating the idea of Hell as a big joke.

The Infernals is the story of how Samuel Johnson is threatened by one of the arch devils of hell (who happens to wear a blonde wig and has started hanging curtains in 'her' lair). The whole problem started in the previous book in the series, The Gates, where the CERN Collider accidentally opens a rift between earth and hell. Fortunately, you don't have to read the first book in the series to follow this one.

Connolly's dry sense of humour imbues every line, including the chapter titles (e.g. Chapter 1: "In Which We Find Ourselves in Hell, but Only Temporarily, So It's Not All Bad News"). His wit particularly shines in the footnotes where he comments with wonderful sarcasm on the true stories that underlie some of the science fiction themes in the main text.

Despite his wickedly dry sense of humour, this book feels average. The characters are too flat to empathize with and the plot is too predictable to grab you. I place this in the same category as Terry Pratchett. Good for a laugh. ( )

Don't let the labels confuse you, this series may be mostly pitched at children but the humour and scarcasm make it very adult readable. The footnotes in particular were hilarious and I kept giggling as I read (which had the side effect of reading aloud to my husband occasionally). I reckon John Connolly had a blast writing this and it shows.

This time Samuel Johnson and his dog Boswell are sucked into hell with some other assorted characters and they have to find a way out before the demons catch them and make them suffer.

I love this series. ( )