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From: jim@randvax.UUCP (Jim Gillogly)
Newsgroups: net.sf-lovers
Subject: Re: To Reign in Hell [SPOILER]
Message-ID: <2464@randvax.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 5-May-85 13:53:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: randvax.2464
Posted: Sun May  5 13:53:07 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 10-May-85 03:02:50 EDT
Organization: Gillogly Software
Lines: 34

In article <184@hyper.UUCP> brust@hyper.UUCP (Steven Brust) writes:
>                                                   Yaweh
> was drivin by love, Abdiel by fear, Satan by indecision,
> and Beelzebub by loyalty.  If there was anyone in the
> entire book who really knew what was going on, it was
> Lilith, but she was too lacking in self-confidence to
> take the necessary steps.

Second-guessing the author is a losing proposition, I suppose, but hallowed
by long tradition in English classes.  So: I would have said that Abdiel was
driven (at the beginning) by ambition rather than fear, and kept that
motivation all the way until he was discovered by all and sundry to have
invented evil.  Although basically a coward, I would say that his
confrontation with Satan at the Southern Keep was not the action of a
fearful being.

Also, wouldn't you say that Mephistopheles (my favorite character, I think)
knew even more about what was going on than Lilith?

Let me reiterate my high praise for this book:  I found the characterizations
and motivations very credible.  As long as it says spoiler in the title, let
me also say that the final confrontation between Yaweh and Satan was
incredibly impressive.  I'm a big fan of the Regency Romance, where everybody
wanders around under false pretences, and when finally when everybody *really*
knows what everybody else meant by their actions they all make up and live
happily ever after.  However, to have the truth come out but still not make
any difference to the outcome requires a great deal of artistry.  Further,
there is an inevitability about the ending:  I was left with the feeling that
even if Abdiel hadn't been doing the dirt throughout, the natural course of
events would have ended in a similar result.
-- 
	Jim Gillogly
	{decvax, vortex}!randvax!jim
	jim@rand-unix.arpa