The Infernals

by John Connolly
Fic Connolly, John

The Infernals is the sequel to the author's 2009 book, The Gates, and while it is possible to skip that one and pick this one up I would recommend it for two reasons. One is that it was a very fun book and the other is that while the author does recap and mention in brief what happens in the first novel a lot of the humor and heart would be missed. The obvious solution is to get both and have a fun time. I wasn't expecting there to be a sequel to The Gates but when I was looking over new releases I was pleasantly surprised and checked it out immediately.

I am a very big fan of British humor and there is a large hole left by Douglas Adams who wasn't nearly as prolific as I would have liked. John Connolly who started as a successful mystery writer and then branched off with what was almost a fantasy novel in The Book of Lost Things. All of his books at most bookstores though are still in mystery. I'm not a big mystery fan so I hope he continues to write more offbeat stories with loads of humor in them like this and The Gates.

The Gates was about a tween named Samuel Johnson and his dog, Boswell, who while trick-or-treating three days early witnesses a Satanic ritual that sets forth events that opens a portal to Hell. In the process of trying to defeat evil, Samuel and Boswell, befriend a demon named Nurd who helps them stop Satan and his army from taking over Earth. The Infernals takes place around a year after The Gates and has most of the community trying to forget that demons tried to invade their community. Samuel is trying to talk to a girl he likes and Nurd is cruising around in Hell in Samuel's dad's Aston Martin. The demons are not happy about being defeated and while they can not open a portal for them to leave Hell once again they can bring Samuel along with a group of angry dwarves and an ice cream truck and driver to Hell. Samuel has to once again be a hero.

The book is rather funny and some of the after affects on the demons who visited Earth are high points in the story. The book moves at a faster pace than its predecessor as it doesn't have to build up multiple story lines from scratch. I would recommend this to fans of Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett.