The Lost Kings
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Lost Kings | |
| Author | Andrew Reimann |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Horror novel, Supernatural Thriller, Detective Fiction |
| Publisher | Mass Market |
| Publication date | January 2008 |
| Media type | Print Paperback |
| Pages | 465 pp |
| ISBN | ISBN 978-1434358158 |
The Lost Kings is a 2008 supernatural thriller about souls recreating societies in the afterlife. It is set in the present-day fictional city of Dis, located in Hell. While the setting is loosely based on the Divine Comedy by Dante, the characters of The Lost Kings are able to exist freely and the novel rarely focuses on demonic forces or fallen angels. This aligns with a major theme of the novel as the characters produce their own prisons rather than being subjugated by an external force.[1]
The book follows the development of two major characters as they fight against a soul who threatens to destroy the only city of Hell, a man who claims to be the former Jack the Ripper of the Whitechapel murders.
Contents |
[edit] Plot Summary
The Lost Kings is a third-person narrative that concentrates on several major themes. One of the main characters is John McAllister, a judge working close with the Dysian government, who convinced he is an innocent soul sent to Dis by a higher power to exact revenge for the killing of his wife by Jack the Ripper. When the terrorist begins kidnapping prominent members of the Law, it is soon revealed that he has the power to destroy the consciousness of souls, placing them in a state of eternal nightmares. John McAllister is fixed on following the kidnapper anywhere, from the black swamps of the River Styx to shadowy underworld of Dis. The secondary narrative follows Leo Meriden, an inspector who spends his existence drunk with thieves and finds his aspirations in Hell without direction. When he is accused of the kidnappings, Leo’s existence is threatened with a fate worse than death. McAllister alone knows of Leo’s innocence, but time wears thin for both men as the city becomes driven to madness.[2]
The events of The Lost Kings span a half year in Hell. The characters in the book have lived a much longer existence, ranging from the few years Leo has spent in eternity to other souls that have lived in Dis before the Ancient World.
The Lost Kings is divided into five sections:
- Prologue – The Shadow of Dis
- Part 1 – The Shores of Bohemia
- Part 2 – The Dreams of the Damned
- Part 3 – The Two Lost Kings of Dis
- Epilogue – The Cathedral Montereggione
[edit] Explanation of the novel's title
The title is most likely referring to the two main characters, both who seem to allude to Shakespearian kings. McAllister has connections to Macbeth in his quest for power over the Law of the city and his common dealings with three crones that profess to see the future. Leo Meriden, who is commonly referred by the narrator as Leontes, has been condemned to Dis for killing his wife, Hermione, both the names of major characters of The Winter’s Tale. This is suggestive that like King Leontes of the Winter's Tale, Leontes of The Lost Kings carries a heavy guilt over what he has done to his family.[3] One should also note the use of “The Shores of Bohemia,” which likely refer to Shakespeare’s fictive coastline in the play.
[edit] Characters
- Leo Meriden – The novel’s protagonist and an inspector of the Dysian government. He killed his wife decades before his death, which resulted in his sentence to the Inferno. He fades in and out of Dis, compelled to torment himself as a wandering soul.
- John McAllister – An antihero of the plot who is a prominent judge of the city. He lived in the Victorian Age in Scotland, but spent some time in London where his wife was murdered around the time of the Whitechapel killings. When Jack the Ripper emerges after hiding in Dis for centuries, McAllister becomes obsessed with his capture.
- Cado Mentula– A thief who owns a major pub in the East Districts of Dis. Bearing some resemblance to the Falstaff of Henry IV, part I, Cado constantly schemes ways to manipulate the Law while staying out of danger. He leads a band of miscreants who are often keeping themselves drunk.
- Hermione – Leo’s wife.
- Perdita – Leo’s unborn daughter, who comes to give Leo advice when he is in his most tormented state.
- Erro, Epistle, Ferrum, and Scules– the four regulars who are often seen at Cado’s pub. They are only seen leaving his establishment when their leader has contrived an idea to keep the pub up and running, which happens several times throughout the novel. Not much is told of their background apart from the fact that they lived about the same time as Cado.
- Slouchy – A Lotus Eater who tends the Cado’s pub as the bartender.
- Don Guines Pedro- one of the lords of Avarice, who ends up loaning McAllister a vast sum of money with the speculation of his ability to control merchants throughout Hell. Bears some resemblance to Shylock from The Merchant of Venice though his name is that of a major character in Don Quixote.
- High Judge Demetrius – one of the seven rulers of Dis for the last few hundred years. He shares McAllister’s obsession with trying to find the kidnapper, but is wary of the Judge’s ambition.
- The Zémstvo- the name given to the collective High Judges of Dis. Likely an allusion to the court system in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina.
- The Danaids- women older than written history, who perpetually attempt to alter the fate of souls. While they are similar to the three witches of Macbeth, their reference to the Greek legend of Danaus, or the forty-nine sisters condemned to Hell for killing their husbands, is revealed early in the book.
- Jack
[edit] Settings
- The River Styx – where the story begins and the closest the book comes to mirroring a setting of Dante’s Divine Comedy. The swamp is filled with angry souls who know only violence.
- Avarnus- the land of greed is filled with mining camps, sugar and rubber plantations, and gambling houses. The higher estates of these towns are called accountants.
- Dis- a major city of the novel, which has taken on a modern look of black skyscrapers while retaining cobblestone walkways and candle-lit streetlights. This is the city where the murderers of the mortal world are condemned to, regardless whether the nature of the murder was violent or accidental. Dis had been run by kings for centuries until a new government concentrating on the establishment of an infallible law overran the monarchies. The order of the city is dependent on the citizens’ feelings of security, which are destroyed when a terrorist discovers a way to submit souls to a state of eternal sleep.
- The Sol’s Arms- Cado Mentula’s local, which is mainly concerned with drunkenness, jokes, and arguments of philosophy. A pub of the same name as one constantly mentioned in Charles Dickens's Bleak House.
- The Ivory Tower- the center of the Law, which becomes a place constantly under attack by mobs and gangs.
- The Cathedral Montereggione- the building which marks the exact middle of Dis and contains a pathway to lower Hell, where souls are no longer free to create their own fates. The Cathedral stands as a barrier, preventing demons from entering the city. The Danaïds have been known to use the building as a home for extended periods of time. The Montereggione is a building mentioned by Dante, although it is closer to the lowest circle of Hell rather than Dis.
- Lotophagi- the land of gluttony beyond the lands of Avernus, where the Lotus Eaters exist in dilapidated conditions without structure. It is discovered that Leo Meriden often travels there to escape from the politics of Dis. While mentioned in the Divine Comedy, the lands of gluttony in The Lost Kings are likely named after those mentioned in the Odyssey of Homer.
- Limbo- a place forbidden to the damned. Most souls that reside here are not explicitly told what they have done wrong. The only names mentioned known to inhabit this sphere are Flavus Theodus. Leontes encounters Limbo in another reality outside the confines of Hell, where he sees peaceful souls content on millions of islands. Reimann also mentions the existence of Noah’s Arc among the Limbanesse.
- Lower Hell- the lands beneath Dis are never truthfully described in The Lost Kings. Several souls have made guesses about forests of suicides or enslaved immortals, but these derive from their personal knowledge of Dante’s Divine Comedy rather than a personal account as no one who has been condemned to these lands have returned.
[edit] Major Themes of The Lost Kings
People creating their own hell, whether in life of the afterlife, is a major theme used throughout the novel. This is contrary to Dante’s work as the possibility of mobility in eternity is a possibility in The Lost Kings, whereas souls in The Divine Comedy are trapped in place, often until Judgment Day. A larger theme of the novel is the fallibility of black and white religious dogma, symbolized in the novel through the characters’ failure to create a perfect system of law. For instance, there is commentary about accidental murder and insanity as victims of fate rather than souls justly serving their sentences.
[edit] Allusions and references
[edit] Allusions to other works
- The setting of the Hell of Dante’s Inferno is not only modernized throughout The Lost Kings, but the poem is also one of the books in Cado’s library of his pub. Other books that he owns include everything from the Qur’an and Ovid's Metamorphoses to It by Stephen King. The name of Cado’s pub is likely an allusion to Bleak House.
- Most of the people of The Lost Kings allude to a Shakespearian character in name. Leontes is an explicit reference to The Winter’s Tale while Cado Mentula’s first name is Latin for “fall,” which might be a loose reference to Falstaff.
- Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" is recreated by the Law of Dis in order to bring about the maximum amount of terror to those who commit theft or terrorism.
- Stories from The Old Testament are referenced, dealing with the back story of the Seal of Solomon with the kings Zabdi and Nebuchadrezzar as well as the demon, Mammon. The Seal of Solomon, or the ring that was reputed to control demons in the Old Testament, plays a major role in The Lost Kings.
- Several major dialogue sequences between Cado and Leo are heavily influenced by Don Quixote, particularly a scene where Don Quixote finds a brass spittoon and thinks Sancho Panza had soiled himself.
[edit] Allusions to actual history and geography
- The novel incorporates a few historical events. Interspersed throughout the book are Jack the Ripper’s and McAllister’s memories of the Whitechapel Murders. [4]
- One of the High Judges references the invasion of Gaul by the Romans and remembering his experiences as a child.
- The only defined location on Earth that is used as a setting in The Lost Kings is some of the hiking trails near Mulholland Drive, where a silo covered in graffiti is used as a backdrop in one of the scenes between Leontes and his wife.
- The history of the building of the Notre Dame is discussed as it relates to the building of the cathedral of Dis. The cathedral on the cover of the first edition is an original photo of the Parisian cathedral and a multi-pronged streetlight.
