Gates of Hell

(1) Bayou (Sentinel)

By D L Witherspoon
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 8th March 2000 (5)
Tags: Novella
(255K)

First in the Gates of Hell series, though this follows on from the first few stories in the Supernatural series, so you could consider it part of that series too. Wow. Up and down, darkness and light, sadness and suffering, love and justice. What a ride!

Addendum: this story was nominated in the 2000 Cascade Times Awards in the Scary/Horror category.

(2) Reckoning (Sentinel)

By D L Witherspoon
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 9th March 2000 (1)
Tags: Novella
(201K)

Second in the Gates of Hell series. This one has a touch of crossover with Millennium. This one is definitely more "out there" than the previous one; enter the minions of Hell, and the battle is no longer just on this plane. A bit Hollywood-ish in places, but I guess that's the legacy of all those horror films that I haven't seen. The supporting characters, particularly Alicia, T'Dette and Flip (all actually introduced in the previous story) are very enjoyable. Good.

(3) Lilith (Sentinel)

By D L Witherspoon
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 9th March 2000 (2)
Tags: Novel
(330K)

Third in the Gates of Hell series. This one has a touch of crossover with Buffy (and Millennium at the end). Very dark and intense, just as the author said. One could have long arguments about the metaphysics but that just shows that it's a thoughtful story also. This was feeling more like an episode of Buffy or Millennium - it's moved into their "zone", so to speak, with their themes, their atmosphere, their tone - and I'm okay with that. It's changed "channels", so to speak, and is no longer halfway between, which is what I felt with the previous story.

Addendum: nominated for favourite horror/scary story in the 2001 Cascade Times Awards.

(4) Inferno (Sentinel/Friday the Thirteenth)

By D L Witherspoon
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 9th March 2000 (3)
Tags: Novel
(372K)

Fourth in the Gates of Hell series. As well as the characters from Friday the Thirteenth as guests, there are a couple of other cameos (including the continuing interest of certain parties from Millennium). What next - Charmed? Actually The Sandman would probably fit the dark tone better.

This was a long one! And sufficiently fitting to the spirit of Dante's Inferno. Jim has changed a lot, but no? Had to. I liked the Jim & Blair interaction on the way down, the mixture of serious and not so - and Blair's reaction to the wood of suicides was notable. There were some delightful bits - particularly the identity of the other two souls in Hell - yay! Writing-wise, this still has point-of-view problems, though it's probably that I'm noticing them more since the first time I noticed it made me more aware of the problem.

And what sinister things are planned next? How on earth could one top a journey to Hell and back?

(5) Angels We Have Heard On High (Sentinel/Touched By An Angel)

By D L Witherspoon
Reviewed by Kathryn A on 1st January 2002
Tags: Short Story
(20K)

Since I really liked the Gates of Hell alternative universe series, I pounced on this story as soon as I heard it announced, even though I knew it was just going to be a short one, since the size was also mentioned in the announcement. It was merely an incident. Though there were some good points, it lost me at the point where the Angels started saying things related to September 11th which flatly contradicted certain events which had happened in the Bible. This rather bothered me, considering these are supposed to be Angels. Not that I should really be surprised -- that kind of thing appears to happen in the actual TBAA series itself (which is why I could never stick with it). Can't really blame the author for this if she's not a Christian, but it did stop me from enjoying the story. Other people may not bat an eyelid at it -- but they might not like the pontificating that the angels do anyway. (If you want to know the specifics of what bothered me, ask me privately.)