Somehow, Jay Bell's books are always more than I expect them to be after reading the blurb. This book one more example of how it doesn't matter what ideas you use, but the way you execute them. And here they were executed exceptionally well!

On a side (fangirling) note, one thing that particularly had me squealing in delight is when John went to Heaven and met Jace the pilot, and I realized that Jace the pilot is actually Jace, THE Jace from the Seasons series... and Samson was there too!, more so because I hadn't expected it.

Word of warning though, if you're looking for a romance to read, this is not the book you want.
But if you want an adventure, read this and you definitely won't be disappointed! ( )

I am absolutely stunned by this book. At first, the book went at a very slow pace and I wasn't too keen on the whole concept (I'm don't typically find fantasy books appealing for me). After a couple of chapters, however, the book really picked up and had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. It was a very cerebral read-lots of big words and concepts that made me think. Lots of history and mythology. I found myself teary-eyed at some parts and sobbing at the end. I thought the epilogue was great to show that he had found love and had moved on from the love he thought he had for Rimmon. I could truly feel that Scott was his everything. At first I wanted more. I know he mentioned he was his husband and I can assume they were together for 60 years. But I wanted to know just a little bit more. I want to know what his return was like. Did Scott see everything as John remembered? Were things the way John remembered? Was Rimmon there? Now I realize that by saying "everyone he had missed from this life and the other, welcoming him home again" answered everything I could have wondered about. Yes to all the questions I had. Although I wouldn't have said no to just a small glimpse of his return. After such big sobbing, I would have loved a happy feeling moment.


I really had a hard time deciding how to rate this book. I wish I could give 4.5 stars as I tend to give 5 stars to my favorites. The more I thought about this book and all that happened in it, the more I realized it is worth 5 stars just for the emotions, thoughts, and questions that this raised for me. It now sits on my favorites shelf. :-) ( )

With Hell’s Pawn, Jay Bell managed to have me up until the small hours of night since I didn’t want to close this book without knowing what was happening. And despite the theme of the story (Purgatory, Hell and Heaven), it was not at all scaring, so it was not a night with the scared in bed looking for the strange shadows in my room, but more an amused reader who was trying to understand where the author was headed.

First of all, I knew John Grey, the main character, was gay (he makes a comment right at the beginning of the story that let the reader know), but until ¼ of the book I did wonder if there would have been a love interest for him, since Dante, my most likely candidate, was clear was not the one. Second, again John is gay, but I really, really loved that Jay Bell didn’t stress this as the main reason for his quest through Purgatory, Hell and Heaven; on the contrary, the event that John is gay is almost insignificant, for his character and for the mission he has to accomplish he could have been gay, straight, lesbian, transgender, bisexual… whoever he wants, since sexuality was not the engine behind everything. By the way, if you were wondering, John being gay is not the reason why he is in Purgatory and not in Heaven.

When John arrives in Purgatory he finds an aseptic place, a temporary stop for people to redeem from their sins and go in Heaven or to fail on the mission and go down in Hell. The task seems easy enough, but the strange thing is that this Purgatory is overcrowded, by the way from people from every time and religion, and they all seem without “motivation”. More than the horror of living in Purgatory, John is pushed into action by the boredom, by the nightmare of not having stimulation for more than 1 week. At first, let be true, John is not exactly an hero, and I was wondering why he was the chosen one, why he was more suited to the task than Dante, a thief from the ‘80s or Jacobi, an heretic from the XVI century.

Dante and John manage to escape Purgatory and go to Hell (pun intended); the fact that Hell is way better than Purgatory and not so scaring at all was a nice surprise. John was always waiting for the downside of the place, but there is no one; on the contrary, here he meets Rimmon, an handsome incubus who joins Dante and John on their quest. Maybe the only downside is that, while Rimmon is not against the idea of having sex with John (he is an incubus after all), he is already in love with an angelic beauty, someone with whom John cannot compare.

Dante, John and Rimmon start a simil-Divina Commedia-journey, but in modern term, and so, other than the “catholic” afterlife places, they visit all the other religion, from the beginning of the existence of men on earth to today. They are more lucky than Dante Alighieri, their adventures are less scaring, and more or less, no one of the souls they meet are in pain, or suffering, apparently everyone is happy in their afterlife.

I think I understood the metaphor of this story, it’s not religion wronging people, it’s the rigid structure people built around religion; if you manage to get free of all the “tinsels” and go to the core of it, then you are good and safe.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1463513461/?tag=elimyrevandra-20

This book was really quite extraordinary. The theme of multiple pantheons dueling it out in the afterlife is not new, and is hard to do well. It requires skill to write in different voices, knowledge to do justice to the subtle differences and commonalities in the various religions, and imagination to come up with an original approach. The auction of Hell in Sandman's Season of Mists by Neil Gaiman is a wonderful example, and this book compares favorably with that work (and Gaiman is on of my idols, so this is the highest praise I can muster). The surprises and pacing of the revelations was well handled, and kept me guessing right up to the end. Even the romantic subplot left me in a completely different place than I was expecting to wind up. I heartily recommend this work to fans of comparative relgious fantasy and gay paranormal romance. Well done. ( )