Love in the Afterlife
Posted
by Joe Bonadonna
In Lovers in Hell,
Erra the Babylonian God of Mayhem and Pestilence, and his Seven Sibitti
warriors continue punishing the innocent and guilty alike. And Satan continues
with his scheme to destroy all hope as the Damned face the finality of
Obliteration as people disappear and what they know, and what they knew, goes
with them. Since love fosters hope, this volume is about lost loves, lost hope,
lost opportunity, and the plight of those whose lovers have been Obliterated or
want Obliteration. Some damned souls hope to avoid the purge by fleeing to the
nether Hells, where Judges reside who might save them. Others, wracked by fear
of loss, go into hiding.
The plagues are evolving, the floods have left a new
coastline to explore, and many displaced souls wander about, lost, confused and
frightened. Lovers may have been separated in the disasters or shunted to parts
of Hell where they know no one, and lovers may have been torn apart by plagues
or purges or human error. Oblivion is transitory, but Obliteration is forever:
Obliteration erases not only who you are but who you ever were. Obliteration is meant to show those Above
(ie: Heaven) that Satan is on the case, making hell more hellish.
But as someone once sang, only fools fall in love, and hell
is filled with fools. Our damned lovers include: Christopher Marlowe and Will
Shakespeare, Napoleon and Wellington, Orpheus and Eurydice, Hatshepsut and
Senenmut, Abelard and Heloise, Helen and Penelope, Saint Teresa and Satan’s
Reaper, Madge Kendall and the Elephant Man, and many more . . . all of whom pay
a hellish price for indulging their affections.
Shakespeare said “To be wise and love exceeds man’s might,”
and in Lovers in Hell, the Damned
exceed all bounds as they search for their true loves, punish the perfidious,
and avoid getting caught up in Satan’s snares. In ten stories of misery and
madness, hell’s most loveless seek to slake the thirst that can never be
quenched, and find true love amid the lies of ages. This edition features stories
by Janet Morris and Christopher Morris, Nancy Asire, Joe Bonadonna, S.E.
Lindberg, Michael E. Dellert, Michael H. Hanson, A.L. Butcher, and Andrew P.
Weston.
Lovers
in Hell, Volume 22 in the Heroes in Hell Saga, is published by Perseid Press. Book design: Christopher Morris. Cover artwork and design: Roy Mauritsen. Cover painting: The Fall of the Rebel Angels by Charles Le Brun (1619 - 1690.) Lovers in Hell is available in PRINT and KINDLE editions.