this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2026
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https://bookshop.org/p/books/inferno-larry-niven/7103060
From science fiction team Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle.
I finished it, but it wasn't particularly memorable.
[off topic]
https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-dante-club-a-novel-matthew-pearl/8f39a0592e17ef17
A much more enjoyable novel where Oliver Wendell Holmes and Longfellow are hunting a murderer while translating The Devine Comedy
I've never actually read the original Dante, but my dad was really big into science fiction novels when he was younger and had a copy of this. I was bored one night and decided the cover looked interesting, and it was about hell so that sounded pretty cool as a teenager. I thought it was pretty neat, although I don't remember much of it or the ending, but remember thinking it was so cool. I bought a copy used later but never actually reread it. Maybe I should bust it out and see if I just have rose colored glasses on from the nostalgia factor. Granted, I'm not well versed in much of the other author's work either. I know my dad has a shit ton of Niven still in the basement along with a bunch of other authors of sci-fi. I'm sure there's probably better work out there by both of them. Come to think of it as he's getting older. He's been talking about what he's going to do with all his science fiction novels. He doesn't want to leave a whole bunch of shit around after he goes for his family to have to clean up. Maybe I should pick up the reading hobby I used to have that kind of fell away, and find out for myself.
Enjoy.
One thing I enjoy with the old science fiction novels is when the author misses some piece of technology. "Starship Troopers" has a guy who regularly travels faster than light gushing over a portable piano.
I think I remember landline phones in "Ringworld" but I could be wrong.