Comments on the "*** in Hell" series

>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant>
>Subject: cherryhlist
>Date: Thu, 4 Feb 93 9:39:47 GMT

Having just rummaged through my old bookcases at my parents', I came across two of the _Hell_ books. Has anyone else read these? What did you think? I found _Knights in Hell_ (?) the novel by Cherryh alone, to be quite good, if one of the oddest things she's ever written. [The Roman/classic contingent, led by Julius Caesar, decide to escape. Brutus can only remember up to a summer when he was 17, and can't understand why no one trusts him. Achilles is a copter pilot. Alexander finds redemption when he finds Bucephalus (in a scene which proves beyond all reasonable doubt that Cherryh has read and been influenced by Mary Renault). Machiavelli gets dragged along as the devil's liason officer, and the Americans are hiring out to the highest bidder]. Very strange stuff, that works in a strange sort of way. She's also got a story in each of the collections (the ones I have anyway).

			Lesley

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>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist -- inauspicious ages of characters?
>Date: Mon, 29 Mar 93 14:01:39 BST

I was re-reading some of Cherryh's "Hell" books recently, and came across Julius Caesar musing that 17 was obviuosly an (in)auspicious age for his sons (Brutus has turned up, amnesiac and 17, Caesarion is 17-with-an-attiude).
(...)

			Lesley

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>From: Lesley Grant <lgrant@maths.tcd.ie>
>Subject: cherryhlist -- Marcus Junius Brutus
>Date: Wed, 31 Mar 93 9:39:15 BST

It occurs to me that perhaps I should follow up my last post, to alleviate all the classical scholars out there who are crying "Brutus wasn't Caesar's son!" Cherryh is using the _Lives_ of Plutarch, which notes a rumour that Caesar advanced Brutus in political power, because he thought he could be his son. (This is thought unlikely, as Caesar would have had to have an affair with Brutus' mother when he was about 14. Unlikely, but not impossible). Cherryh uses this rumour as fact, making Brutus have a miserable childhood as a bastard in a patrician family.

			Lesley