Saturday, August 6, 2011

Lucifer’s Lottery-Edward Lee

Lucifer’s Lottery
Edward Lee
Cemetery Dance, Sep 28 2011, $40.00
ISBN: 9781587672545

Chaste Hudson Hudson is a good person who plans to attend seminary school once he graduates from college. However his advisor suggests he live in the real world first. Obedient, he travels to Florida and works at a seafood restaurant, but residing in the secular world fails to change his mind of becoming a priest. A week before he is to report to the Seminary, Deaconesss Wilson arrives and informs Hudson he won the Senary lottery sponsored by Lucifer every 666 years since his fall from grace in 4652 BC.

Hudson declines, but the note his visitor left behind says if he is interested in learning more about the Senary he needs to go to 24651 Central in six days. Curious, Hudson goes to what was the Larkin House where a man killed his wife and child. A portal is opened and he talks to Howard who persuades the student to send his spirit into hell to find out what he would receive if he accepts the winnings. Hudson receives the grand tour of Mephislopolis, a megalopolis bigger than all the cities on earth. Hudson witnesses the perversity of the place so at tour’s end he still refuses to accept the winnings; he reconsiders when he is shown the rewards.

From the Pol Pot section of the city of the damned to the Corpus Peak made up of a billion dead demons, readers accompany Hudson on a tour of depravity as Mephislopolis owns the entreating story line. Lucifer the evil architect wants Hudson’s pure soul as a challenge to turn a true loyal believer from God with temptations that would have Job reconsidering. Hudson is more than a rhetoric believer as he performs good deeds, but ironically is not fully developed until he travels to the inferno. Edward Lee writes a hellish vision as the winner of Lucifer’s Lottery is tested.

Harriet Klausner

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