"Legions of Hell" redirects here. For the military force in the Venezuelan Wars of Independence, see José Tomás Boves.
Heroes in Hell
Heroes in Hell, the first book in the series
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 Lawyers in Hell Rogues in Hell Bridge Over Hell Dreamers in Hell Poets in Hell Doctors in Hell Hell Bound Pirates in Hell Hell Hounds Lovers in Hell Hell Gate Mystics in Hell Liars in Hell
Heroes in Hell is a series of shared worldfantasy 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 one Hugo Award winner and Nebula nominee ("Gilgamesh in the Outback" by Robert Silverberg from Rebels in Hell), as well as one other Nebula Award nominee. The series was resurrected in 2011 by Janet Morris with the thirteenth book and eighth anthology in the series, Lawyers in Hell, followed by eight more anthologies and four novels between 2012 and 2022.
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.[1] Robert W. Cape Jr., in Classical Traditions in Science Fiction (Oxford University Press),[2] wrote "...in the popular Heroes in Hell series, Julius Caesar intrigues in the underworld with Alexander the Great, Machiavelli, and other historical rulers. Death has not changed their natures, and their political and military machinations seem similar to those of rulers at the end of the Cold War." 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 people in history can come together to continue the relentless pursuit of their various ends."[3]Brian Stableford commented that the series "adapted the backcloth of Dantean fantasy as a stage for violent adventures with ironic echoes of infernal comedy".[4]
Reception
Science fiction and fantasy author Orson Scott Card compared the success of Heroes in Hell with other shared worlds like Thieves' World, Wild Cards and Liavek, and said that this "almost guarantees that shared worlds will be around for many years to come".[5] The webzine SF Site discussed the popularity of shared worlds in the 1980s and listed Heroes in Hell as a "significant example" of one of them.[6]Library Journal called Heroes in Hell "a garden of infernal delights."[7]
Author Janet Morris created a unique underworld saga in her 1984 book, Heroes in Hell, a witty novel that declares "Nobody who is anybody went to heaven." The collection of infernal vignettes features everyone from the legendary hero GILGAMESH to actor James Dean in the great below, with the likes of Caesar and Mao Zedong thrown in for color. Trapped in the abyss of fire, the villains continue vying for power and position in the underworld to the delight of SATAN, their new overseer. Heroes was published with a companion novel, Gates of Hell.
She later describes the entire series within the same book.[8]
Innovative and clever, the Damned Saga weaves myth, legend, fact, and fantasy into a fascinating tapestry of underworld lore. The Heroes series also testifies to the immense popularity hell enjoys even in this modern age of literature.
Books in the series
There are nine novels in the series and sixteen anthologies of short fiction. Janet Morris edited all sixteen anthologies. Portions of Legions of Hell first appeared in stories published in Heroes in Hell, The Gates of Hell, Rebels in Hell, Kings in Hell and Crusaders in Hell.
"The Adjudication of Hetty Green" by Allan Gilbreath – First Runner Up Darrell Award for Best Midsouth Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror Short Story 2012 [15]
Robert Lynn Asprin was an American science fiction and fantasy author and active fan, known best for his humorous series MythAdventures and Phule's Company.
Carolyn Janice Cherry, better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award–winning novels Downbelow Station (1981) and Cyteen (1988), both set in her Alliance–Union universe, and her Foreigner series. She is known for worldbuilding, depicting fictional realms with great realism supported by vast research in history, language, psychology, and archeology.
Elizabeth Moon is an American science fiction and fantasy writer. Her other writing includes newspaper columns and opinion pieces. Her novel The Speed of Dark won the 2003 Nebula Award. Prior to her writing career, she served in the United States Marine Corps.
Michael Shea was an American fantasy, horror, and science fiction author. His novel Nifft the Lean won the World Fantasy Award, as did his novella Growlimb.
Thieves' World is a shared world fantasy series created by Robert Lynn Asprin in 1978. The original series comprised twelve anthologies, including stories by science fiction authors Poul Anderson, John Brunner, Andrew J. Offutt, C. J. Cherryh, Janet Morris, and Chris Morris.
Michael Z. Williamson is an American military science fiction and military fiction author best known for his libertarian-themed Freehold series published by Baen Books. Between 2004 and 2016, Williamson published eight Freehold novels, exploring military and political themes as well as first contact with alien beings. This was followed by the Forged in Blood (2017) and Freehold: Resistance (2019) anthologies, consisting of short stories taking place in the Freehold universe, some by Williamson and some by other authors, including Larry Correia, Tony Daniel, Tom Kratman and Brad R. Torgersen.
Dave Freer is a South African–born, Australian-based science fiction author writing mostly humorous or alternate history novels.
The Collected Short Fiction of C. J. Cherryh is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories, novelettes and novella written by American author C. J. Cherryh between 1977 and 2004. It was first published by DAW Books in 2004. This collection includes the contents of two previous Cherryh collections, Sunfall (1981) and Visible Light (1986), all of the stories from Glass and Amber (1987), stories originally published in other collections and magazines, and one story written specifically for this collection ("MasKs"). Cherryh's 1978 Hugo Award winning story, "Cassandra" is also included.
Merovingen Nights is a series of shared universe science fiction books set in writer C. J. Cherryh's Alliance–Union universe. There are eight books in the series: a novel by Cherryh, Angel with the Sword, and seven short fiction anthologies which Cherryh edited. The books were published by DAW Books between 1985 and 1991.
American writer C. J. Cherryh's career began with publication of her first books in 1976, Gate of Ivrel and Brothers of Earth. She has been a prolific science fiction and fantasy author since then, publishing over 80 novels, short-story compilations, with continuing production as her blog attests. Cherryh has received the Hugo and Locus Awards for some of her novels.
The Sword of Knowledge is a trilogy of shared world fantasy novels credited to the authors C. J. Cherryh, Leslie Fish, Nancy Asire, and Mercedes Lackey. The three novels in the series were all published by Baen Books in 1989: A Dirge for Sabis, Wizard Spawn, and Reap the Whirlwind. The books were first released as a complete trilogy in an omnibus edition in 1995.
Janet Ellen Morris is an American author of fiction and nonfiction, best known for her fantasy and science fiction and her authorship of a non-lethal weapons concept for the U.S. military.
Gilgamesh in the Outback is a science fiction novella by American writer Robert Silverberg, a sequel to his historical novel Gilgamesh the King as well as a story in the shared universe series Heroes in Hell. It won the Hugo Award for Best Novella in 1987 and was also nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novella in 1986. Originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction, it was then printed in Rebels in Hell before being incorporated into Silverberg's novel To the Land of the Living. Real-life writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft feature as characters in the novella.
Nancy Asire was an American fantasy and science fiction author, best known for her Twilight's Kingdoms fantasy trilogy and her contributions to the shared universe series Heroes in Hell, Sword of Knowledge and Merovingen Nights.
This is a list of books by Mercedes Lackey, arranged by collection.
The Sacred Band of Stepsons is a fictional ancient cavalry unit created by Janet Morris and based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite strike force of paired lovers and friends that flourished during the fourth century BC in ancient Greece. The Sacred Band of Stepsons series of fantasy novels and stories take place in a myth-like milieu that mixes historical places such as Nisibis, Mygdonia and Chaeronea; warriors such as Theagenes ; gods such as Enlil, Maat and Harmonia; philosophers such as Heraclitus and Thales; cavalry tactics and customs such as homosexuality in the militaries of ancient Greece with those that exist only in fantasy. The exploits of the Stepsons are chronicled in eleven short stories and nine novels. In a fantasy context, this series explores the difficulties facing war-fighters in personal relationships and the enduring questions surrounding the military's historical mixing of homosexuals and heterosexuals in combat.
Heroes in Hell is an anthology book and the first volume of its namesake series, created by American writer Janet Morris. The book placed eighth in the annual Locus Poll for Best Anthology in 1987. "Newton Sleep" by Gregory Benford, originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, received a Nebula Award nomination in 1986, as well as placing 16th in its category in the Locus Poll.
This is the complete list of works by military science fiction and space opera author David Weber.
This is complete list of works by American science fiction and historical fiction author Eric Flint.
Christopher Ruocchio is an American space opera and fantasy writer and an assistant editor at Baen Books. He is best known for his Sun Eater series, the first of which earned him the 2019 Manly Wade Wellman Award. The second book in the series, Howling Dark, was nominated for a 2020 Dragon Award. He has co-edited four genre anthologies, and authored a Thor story for Avengers #750.
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