The Heroes in
Hell Shared Universe
As
some of you already know, Heroes in Hell is a series of
shared world fantasy books, within the genre Bangsian fantasy, created and
edited by Janet Morris and written by her, Chris Morris, C. J. Cherryh and
others. The first 12 books in the series were published by Baen Books between
1986 and 1989, and stories from the series include Hugo Award winners and
Nebula nominees.
The series was resurrected in 2011 by Janet Morris with the thirteenth book and
eighth anthology in the series, Lawyers in Hell, followed by five more
anthologies and two novels between 2012 and 2015.
What’s the
background?
The shared world premise of Heroes in Hell (also
called The Damned Saga) is that all the dead wind up together in Hell,
where they pick up where they left off when still alive. The Encyclopedia of Fantasy
states "In the long series of shared world adventures begun with Heroes
in Hell, Hell becomes an arena in which all the interesting and most
despicable people in history can come together to continue the relentless
pursuit of their various ends. As you can imagine, this sets the scene for
limitless violent adventures, involving tales of morality, poignant
consequences and frequent echoes of infernal comedy.
How does the
concept work?
Very simply – and this will be a greatly simplified
version – there are rules to follow. Various characters belong to certain authors who use them in their own stories
regularly. I can refer to and even involve
those other people in my own series (The Undertaker is a good example) but if I
do, I can’t permanently alter his persona, style, nor do anything to him
involving his longterm disposition. Place names are often set, and expect to
see an antithesis on famous landmarks and locations. The Hexcalibur Hotel, for example, is a renowned institution in New
Hell. Every hotel contains a Dante –
as opposed to a bible – and there are many ingenious little ways in which an
infernal slant is incorporated into various storylines. Well known institutions
like the Fiendish Bureau of Investigation can be found too. Do you begin to see
the converse parallel? Hell is a lot like the world the condemned soul left
behind, but there’s enough of a difference through these subtle references to
remind them (and the reader) that this is a menacing reality they now inhabit.
However, that ominous undertone is often delivered with a tinge of dark humor.
So, accepting these constraints, an author nevertheless gets a great degree of
freedom to develop their own storyline – and this as much of a challenge as it
is great fun because each contributor has their own distinctive style. If
you’re already connoisseur of the anthologies, (See list at the end of this
article) you’ll know what I’m talking about.
In Hell Bound,
my own character, Daemon Grim – the Reaper – is involved in the pursuit of a
whole host of other individuals I devised, along with those who have been
established for a long time. But how to juggle the developing plot so it fits
with the overall theme?
Aha – you’ll need to see for yourself, and note what
others have already recognized about this latest addition to an ever expanding
playground in which you can lose yourself for hours.
And never forget
In hell, everyone can hear you scream.
******
Heroes in Hell Universe.
Heroes in Hell
The Gates of Hell
Rebels in Hell
Kings in Hell
Crusaders in Hell
Legions of Hell
Angels in Hell
Masters
in Hell
The Little Helliad
War in Hell
Prophets in Hell
Explorers
in Hell
And
exclusively from Perseid Press
Lawyers in Hell
Rogues in Hell
Bridge Over Hell
Dreamers in Hell
Poets in Hell
Doctors in Hell
Hell Bound
Press the Perseid Press Link to find out more about the Heroes
in Hell Universe.
