Here are 43 books that Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur fans have personally recommended if you like
Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur.
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I became a science journalist because I’ve been fascinated by the natural world around me for as long as I can remember. I also always loved imagining another world or realm, ever since I first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz series as a child. So when I was writing my blog, Gory Details, at National Geographic, I naturally started to get curious about places around the world that are linked to legends of otherworldly realms. Now, as an author, I’ve had the chance to explore these places for myself, and I hope readers will enjoy going on the journey with me!
I was astonished when I opened this book and saw all the gorgeous art depicting heavens, hells, and afterlives from around the world. The colors and printing are lush, and it’s incredible to see everything from brightly colored Islamic art showing magnificent gardens of paradise to ancient illustrated manuscripts of Valhalla and mind-bending medieval portraits of Christian hell.
I also love the full, yet concise, descriptions of every hell, underworld, purgatory, and heaven that humans around the world and throughout history have imagined. I learned so much about the different cultures and religions through their visions of the afterlife, and all alongside the art depicting it. I feel like I got an art history class as a bonus!
Packed with strange stories and spectacular illustrations, The Devil's Atlas leads you on an adventure through the afterlife, exploring the supernatural worlds of global cultures to form a fascinating traveler's guide quite unlike any other.
From the author of the critically acclaimed bestsellers The Phantom Atlas, The Sky Atlas, and The Madman's Library comes a unique and beautifully illustrated guide to the heavens, hells, and lands of the dead as imagined throughout history by cultures and religions around the world. Packed with colorful maps, paintings, and captivating stories, The Devil's Atlas is a compelling tour of the geography, history, and…
The Victorian mansion, Evenmere, is the mechanism that runs the universe.
The lamps must be lit, or the stars die. The clocks must be wound, or Time ceases. The Balance between Order and Chaos must be preserved, or Existence crumbles.
Appointed the Steward of Evenmere, Carter Anderson must learn the…
I became a science journalist because I’ve been fascinated by the natural world around me for as long as I can remember. I also always loved imagining another world or realm, ever since I first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz series as a child. So when I was writing my blog, Gory Details, at National Geographic, I naturally started to get curious about places around the world that are linked to legends of otherworldly realms. Now, as an author, I’ve had the chance to explore these places for myself, and I hope readers will enjoy going on the journey with me!
I was so surprised to learn from this book how little the Bible actually focuses on heaven and hell, given how much emphasis I heard about them growing up. This book is written by a historian and scholar of early Christianity, and I found his analysis of the history of thought on heaven and hell and modern ideas about the afterlife to be thoughtful and thorough.
This book really made me think about the Christian ideas of heaven and hell in a new way.
A New York Times bestselling historian of early Christianity takes on two of the most gripping questions of human existence: where did the ideas of heaven and hell come from and why do they endure?
What happens when we die? A recent Pew Research poll showed that 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven and 58% believe in a literal hell. Most people who hold these beliefs are Christian and assume they are the age-old teachings of the Bible. But eternal rewards and punishments are found nowhere in the Old Testament and are not what Jesus or his disciples…
I became a science journalist because I’ve been fascinated by the natural world around me for as long as I can remember. I also always loved imagining another world or realm, ever since I first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz series as a child. So when I was writing my blog, Gory Details, at National Geographic, I naturally started to get curious about places around the world that are linked to legends of otherworldly realms. Now, as an author, I’ve had the chance to explore these places for myself, and I hope readers will enjoy going on the journey with me!
I laughed out loud several times reading this guide to the afterlife; who knew Jeopardy Champion and host Ken Jennings was so funny? I really felt his sense of wonder and excitement come through as he explores the various forms of heaven, hell, purgatory, and underworld that people have described over the course of human history, including plenty from modern pop culture.
It’s all done with a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, like the “travel tips” for the newly dead who wakes up in an unexpected afterlife. It’s a light, fun read, and I liked that I could pick it up and read a short section at any time.
From New York Times bestselling author, legendary Jeopardy! champion, and host Ken Jennings comes a hilarious travel guide to the afterlife, exploring destinations to die for from literature, mythology, and pop culture ranging from Dante's Inferno to Hadestown to NBC's The Good Place.
Ever wonder which circles of Dante's Inferno have the nicest accommodations? Where's the best place to grab a bite to eat in the ancient Egyptian underworld? How does one dress like a local in the heavenly palace of Hinduism's Lord Vishnu, or avoid the flesh-eating river serpents in the Klingon afterlife? What hidden treasures can be found…
Magical realism meets the magic of Christmas in this mix of Jewish, New Testament, and Santa stories–all reenacted in an urban psychiatric hospital!
On locked ward 5C4, Josh, a patient with many similarities to Jesus, is hospitalized concurrently with Nick, a patient with many similarities to Santa. The two argue…
I became a science journalist because I’ve been fascinated by the natural world around me for as long as I can remember. I also always loved imagining another world or realm, ever since I first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Wizard of Oz series as a child. So when I was writing my blog, Gory Details, at National Geographic, I naturally started to get curious about places around the world that are linked to legends of otherworldly realms. Now, as an author, I’ve had the chance to explore these places for myself, and I hope readers will enjoy going on the journey with me!
When I needed a concise overview of the history of hell, from Egyptian Duat to modern-day versions of Christian hell and all the many other versions around the world, this book gave me just what I needed. The tone and language are lighthearted, which keeps the subject interesting without getting too dark or depressing.
I liked how the authors break down hell into its common components, asking questions like “Where is hell?” and “Who’s in charge?” and giving a sense of how people have answered these questions in different places and times. I walked away feeling like we were all connected through this shared history of curiosity about the afterlife.
So much of our culture and our fiction comes from taking older stories and ideas and reworking, blending, and adapting them into new forms. This cultural mixture has gifted us with some of the greatest works of English literature, and I’ve always been surprised and delighted to discover what people can pull out of older works and make. It’s why my first novels have followed the theme, and why I will always have time to check out a new story that builds on older ideas to create something new.
Jenna Moran is an under-appreciated author who combines whimsy and darkness in equal measure, created worlds that are at once familiar and strange. This bittersweet picture book is her at her finest, accompanied by glorious artwork by Elizabeth Sherry as she tells the story of a picture-book world attacked by an invasion of terrible, otherworldly things—Ordinary Objects.
Earth is full. Now, when there's a new ordinary thing, it doesn't have anywhere to go. A plague of blankets, chairs, and other horrors unleashes itself upon the picture-book realm. Warning: content is fearsome.
"O.O
that is a very creepy children's book.
O.O" - C.E. Murphy, author of the Walker Papers series, The Negotiator Trilogy, and the Inheritor's Cycle.
As a frequent writer of science fiction, I focus not on real or imagined science, on aliens or other worlds, but on the impacts those things have on individuals, groups, and societies. Similarly, as a reader, I enjoy visiting places, cultures, and ideas with which I am unfamiliar, particularly when unveiled with elevated artistic expression. In my writing, often in the Star Trekuniverse, I attempt to avoid feeding the perception that media-tie-in writing is less-than, instead working to weave complex tales exploring the human condition. I don’t know if my reading tastes follow from my writing, or if the converse is true, but the two go hand in hand.
I generally don’t enjoy works of fiction that feature writers as their main characters. The process of writing, while influenced by life, is nevertheless a solitary process, difficult to capture in an interesting and meaningful way. William Goldman manages to do that, mostly by focusing on the backstory of story, on the flow and emotions of existence that contribute not only to the tales a writer tells, but their need to do so. The Color of Lightfeels both fantastical and real, steeped in preposterous events and genuine emotion, in a way that traces both the artistic process and the vagaries of life.
A Duke with rigid opinions, a Lady whose beliefs conflict with his, a long disputed parcel of land, a conniving neighbour, a desperate collaboration, a failure of trust, a love found despite it all.
Alexander Cavendish, Duke of Ravensworth, returned from war to find that his father and brother had…
Like most people, I started to think about the end of the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead of learning how to bake sourdough bread, I read stories and made art about the apocalypse. The true and catastrophic experiences of people throughout history interested me so much that the project turned into a book. My background in printmaking and illustration has formed my approach to visualizing narrative scenes using crisp black and white linocut prints. My current position as a studio art professor has given me practice in providing information concisely. I try to entertain as much as inform.
Big plans for the afterlife? Go prepared. Martin Olson’sEncyclopaedia of Hell and its sequel Encyclopaedia of Heaven can answer all your questions about God, the Devil, and whatever mess we’re currently stuck in. Every page is uniquely designed, entertaining, and beautifully illustrated. To remind you not to take the End so seriously, it satirizes the hell out of our world. Like my favorite things in life, it manages to be both dark and funny.
A tour de force of darkness, Encyclopaedia of Hell is a manual of Earth written by Lord Satan for his invading hordes of demons, complete with hundreds of unpleasant illustrations, diagrams, and a comprehensive and utterly repulsive dictionary of Earth terms.
Since the customs and mores of humanity are alien and inconceivable to demons, Satan wrote this strangely poetic military handbook for the enlightenment and edification of his demon armies. A masterpiece expressing Satan's hatred for humanity and himself, the Encyclopaedia includes "Techniques of Stalking and Eating Humans," "Methods of Canning Human Pus," and "Dicing and Slicing Orphaned Children."
For me, writing space opera was obvious because it's what I like to read. There's so much scope for human and non-human societies out there, complete with the history of how they were created, and the inevitable cut-and-thrust of politics. If the book also has a love story– where do I pay my money? I do like the science in my science fiction to be convincing, though. My background as a computer programmer helps with that and I'm often grateful for my history degree when coming up with convincing empires and events.
The Star King is one of the first science fiction romances I read. It has everything I want in a space opera – politics, fast-paced action, danger, drama, angst, all mixed up with a great love story. I fell in love with the characters, especially the dishy alien alpha male. And I particularly like that the romance is between two mature people with life experience.
An alien king, an Earth woman. Fated mates—Or is fate stacked against them?
Rom B’Kah is fighting for the survival of his people when a beautiful and mysterious warrior from Earth saves his life. When she vanishes without a trace, he vows to find her again.
Years after battlefield trauma sends her life into a tailspin, Jas Hamilton has given up on love. When a galactic empire makes first contact with Earth, she sets out to reclaim her lost sense of adventure—and finds it in the arms of the golden-eyed alien warrior she’s spent a lifetime trying to forget.
As a child, I spent summers looking for adders on the Common and winters walking through snowstorms pretending to be a Hobbit in Tolkien's Middle Earth. My travels and studies taught me the importance of respecting different cultures and our planet. Glasgow Libraries gave me my first storytelling work in 1992, and I have a Master's degree in Scottish Folklore. I live in Scotland, sharing stories through writing and storytelling. Having collected hundreds of traditional folktales about our ancestors' wisdom and folly, I co-authored my first book, Dancing With Trees, Eco-Tales from the British Isles, to reflect our need to understand nature's wisdom and help us live sustainably on Earth.
A comprehensive natural world storytelling collection comprising ten chapters, organised by themes such as Earth, Fire, Water, Plants, Animals, and Stewardship.
A page of 'Lessons' at the end of every chapter helps you explore the environmental meaning within the stories. Plus an 'Activities' section at the end of the book. The stories are from over forty countries, retold sensitively by Caduto, an ecologist and master storyteller.
Amongst my favourite stories are: Earth Words from France, about a secret language hidden in fern roots and what is lost when we become separated from nature; The First Bats from Guatemala and Mexico, a funny tale which can be adapted to any place on Earth that has bats, and The Seven Sisters an Aboriginal story which introduces the origin of the Pleiades constellation.
It is April 1st, 2038. Day 60 of China's blockade of the rebel island of Taiwan.
The US government has agreed to provide Taiwan with a weapons system so advanced that it can disrupt the balance of power in the region. But what pilot would be crazy enough to run…
I grew up a fan of all things sci-fi, Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, and so on. But the older I got, the pickier I got, wanting more depth in character, creative stories and fun, but believable action. I read classic sci-fi like iRobot, Starship Troopers, and Enders Game, to name a few. I did find some contemporary authors I liked like Marco Kloos, Detmare Wehr, and Rebecca Branch, but they were needles in a haystack. So, instead of complaining that there were not enough good books out there, I started writing my own. A decade later I have 8 published titles and more on the way.
This book is a little more Space Opera than Sci-fi as it focuses more on the adventure than the impossibility of the technology. It takes place thousands of years in the future when man kinds had spread out across the galaxy and forgotten about Earth, for the most part. The characters are not deep, and the story relies more on action than complexity, but it’s fun. It moves from one event to another, the main character is a bit of a rogue that you can’t help but like and his female counterpart is smarter, faster, and deadlier than he will every be, so it's good she is on his side. One of the reasons I like these books (10 book series with some spin-offs) is because it is very different from my style. If my books were Angus Steaks, these would be an Ice-cream Sunday.
They say the Earth is just a myth. Something to tell your children when you put them to sleep, the lost homeworld of humanity. Everyone knows it isn't real, though. It can't be.
But when Captain Jace Hughes encounters a nun with a mysterious piece of cargo and a bold secret, he soon discovers that everything he thought he knew about Earth is wrong. So very, very wrong.
Climb aboard The Renegade Star and assemble a crew, follow the clues, uncover the truth, and most importantly, try to stay alive.
Experience the beginning of a sprawling galactic tale in this…
