Road Max – Zacharias

One day you conclude that your whole life is useless. And then a person who offers to break out of everyday life appears nearby since you have been chosen for a great mission. Only now you will have to serve not on earth, but in the other world, and it is not at all an angel to take on the role. If you are ready to leave your usual life forever and go on an excursion to literally hell, and then stay there forever - feel free to agree

A kind of “reinterpretation” of Dante’s divine comedy, from the perspective of a man who left reality in order to become a demon. The hero goes through all the circles of hell, where he observes punishments for sinners for various sins and ultimately receives the power of a demon. Moreover, from his very birth he was not an ordinary person, but a new incarnation of one of the demons of the past. After an excursion about all the circles of hell and meeting the local owners, the hero receives magical powers and artifacts that will allow him to do what he was actually born to do - take the necessary souls to hell in particularly difficult cases. After all, sometimes, it turns out, both representatives of hell and heaven can lay claim to the same soul. This is where the time comes for a kind of “demon for special assignments”, which our hero has become. And the rest of the time he simply lives in one of the circles of hell with the soul of his dead wife and communicates with his demon friends.

The mechanics of the action of hell, heaven, the system of punishment of souls and subsequent rebirth are described in sufficient detail - everything is extremely logical. There is no division between good and evil - both sides simply carry out their work according to the original plan. There is no eternal suffering - just for a certain time the soul finds itself in not the most pleasant conditions, which will depend on exactly how it sinned in a past life. And along with the punishment, the energy necessary for the existence of the world is generated, which is used by demons. And then, after the lesson has been learned, the soul is sent for rebirth, so that in a new life it does not make the mistakes of the previous incarnation. On the one hand, with this order of things, there should be constantly fewer sinners, but on the other hand, the population is constantly growing, and there are a lot of types of sins.

If the first half of the book can arouse interest, since it is there that an “excursion” through the circles of hell is held, along with clarifying the structure of the world, then the plot sags greatly after that. We can say that there is no plot at all - there is a demon who periodically visits the earth, takes the necessary soul, and returns again to rest. There are no plot twists, everything is predetermined, everything moves along the lines. There can be no question of any self-thinking: you need to kill your former friends - please, everything for the highest justice. The hero, despite his high capabilities, practically does not stand out in any way, and their use occurs several times throughout the book. Moreover, the hero does not face any special difficulties - no difficult battles, no combinations to outplay the angels in the fight for the desired soul. The hero simply teleports, inspires those around him with everything they need, and simultaneously destroys his opponent on the other side with one blow and takes the soul. This is downright boring to watch. Moreover, it is repeatedly mentioned that everything is going according to the initially set plan, and in a circle, and more than once. Those. There simply cannot be any surprises. Moreover, the hero is not only happy with everything, but also constantly admires the existing order of things, the omniscience of higher beings, and is proud of his place in the world. And even the transition of his “antipode” to the side of hell is arranged boringly and is not a surprise either for the hero or for the higher entities - let me remind you that everything is predetermined and moves in strict accordance with the original plan

Despite the fairly well-thought-out world, reading the book as fiction is downright boring. But as a more modern version of the classic “divine comedy,” the book may find its reader

Thoughtful world

Detailed and logical explanation of the mechanics of the cycle of souls, hell, heaven and its inhabitants

boring and crumpled description of battles in the real world - there are only a few of them in the entire book, and minimal attention is paid to them, although in theory this is the basis of the hero’s existence

Almost complete absence of plot twists - just description of a piece of life of one of the demons

A completely weak-willed hero who only does what he was created for, while simultaneously praising the perfection of the existing order of things