Rating: 
Summary: 'Great imagination'
Review: This book has as good imagination as 'Master of imagination in horror' Mr. Clive Barker. Of course Barker is the best. This author has the potential to become another Barker. He has it all. I hope there will be part II. Some of the so-called authors who write horror because market is good should read this book and keep this book under the pillow and sleep; hoping something will go in their mind! Good job EL. There are very few authors who dont imitate King or Straub and still produce results. NO, EL did not try to write like CB. The only thing they both have in common is imagination. EL is one of them. And then there are some who try to write like masters[King,Straub,RRM] but fall flat!
Rating:
Summary: Very original and highly entertaining
Review: City Infernal is the first book I've read of this author, although I've heard his name mentioned many times among my horror friends. Believe me, I've slapped myself after the first few chapters as punishment for not reading him sooner. This book reads like lightning... which is great, but it's also it's weakness. Things happen too quickly near the end and some of the dialogue is a little stiff. But have no fear, the positive far outweighs the negative. This novel seems like it could easily become a trilogy or longer. Please, Mr. Lee, write a sequel!!!
Rating:
Summary: City Infernal...book hilarious
Review: i usually never read horror, but as a devout agnostic, the title caught me. i am also a writer, but stick to fantasy. this book was great; gory, full of sex and magic. if you are looking to be scared, this is not the book for you. it is an ecellent fantasy of what hell could be like, and a reminder of just how sick our own society is. i keep reading negative reveiws about Lee, but he writes with flair and without fear. Pick this book up and enjoy. any lovers of gore, dark fantasy and sexy writing will like this book.
Rating:
Summary: For the hell of it...
Review: Come on, folks. He's really kidding half the time. This is a delightful "B" movie romp of sorts, and must be taken with both a sense of humor and a grain of salt. Like Harry Shannon's 2002 knockout "Night of the Beast," Lee's book tips its hat--with affection--to the glory days of horror. It is intended to be a good, fun, scarifying read that makes you laugh now and then. Not great, maybe, but fun just for the hell of it.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderfully fun B-movie book
Review: Okay, it's not horrific. In fact, it's a little silly (maybe even a lot), but still Edward Lee manages to write a compelling, humorous, bizarre, and fun book that includes more hellish savagery and gruesome elements than just about anybody else. While an author like Tom Piccirilli might use demons and ghosts and biblical tales to give a serious chiller, Edward Lee does the exact opposite. He gives us a rollicking good time full of viscera and splatter. He's the writing world's answer to Joe Bob Briggs, someone who enjoys the inherent goofiness of B-movies. None of it can be taken seriously. Lee starts off with a twin underage sisters in a bar. When the boyfriend of one starts hitting on the other, her jealous sister goes insane, whips out a gun (where'd a teenage upper crust girl get it?) and kills herself. Years later, the surviving sister moves to a large secluded home in the backwoods of MD. Little does anybody realize that the portal to hell is in the house. Soon the ghosts of a trio of teenagers come through and the girl is lured down to the pits of hell itself...a colossal city which gets its energy from suffering. As she searches for the osul of her dead sister, the girl is swpet up in a rebellion to overthrow the infernal order, and, well, all hell breaks loose. A fun, fast ride that takes you to the center of hell and back again. If you enjoy Grade-B movies and find yourself laughing with them instead of at them, you'll love City Infernal. And you'll delight in the fact that this is just the first book in a proposed trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: I have been to hell.
Review: Edward Lee takes you to hell. Cassie and Lissa are two city goth chic twin sisters in the D.C. area. Regulars at the hip goth night clubs were ectasy is the drug of choice. When Lissa bust her boyfriend making a move on Cassie she guns him down in cold blood then take's her own life as Cassie witnesses the whole thing.
Realizing Cassie needs to get away,her father moves her to the country side. Only the house they move into was that of an infamous murderer who impregnated women only to sacrifce the new
borns to Satan. Which opens a porthole to hell.
After hearing strange noises and odd music Cassie stumbles upon 3 of hells dwellers-who are actually goth's like herself-in one of the upstairs bedrooms. She ultimatley convinces them to take her to hell.
Upon arival Cassie finds out suicide victims go to hell. So she then sets on a quest to find her sister,to apoligize.
Once word gets around that a human is in hell,well thats like gold on earth,a massive violent hunt begins for Cassie.
Lee takes you on a graphically horror filled decription of Hell with insane creatures and machines that I have not witnessed scince early Clive Barker. He actually researched the goth music scene to get the names of bands right and he picked some hip ones to boot. A great read with a great ending. Thumbs up to Lee.
Rating: 
Summary: THIS GOT PUBLISHED?
Review: If you like stories that have no character develeopment and little to no plot, by all means pick this up.
Reading the back of this cover it would seem that this would be a great read. A girl descends into Hell to save her sister who has committed suiced. While she is there she learns that Hell has become a city of huge porportions with streets, bars, and restaurants. Throw in an angel who is sorry he ever joined Lucifer to fight against God and now wants to make good. He has an army and with the help of the sister he is going to over throw Satan.
But when you read it you will realize what horrible stuff this is. It is written on a fifth grade level. maybe it took me an hour to read this. An hour I wish I had back to do something else,like watching paint dry. I should have realized this book was going to be bad, when I realized this is the same guy who wrote the Big Head(see my review of that one).
If you like this kind of thing stick with King and Barker.
Rating:
Summary: Mass Market Lee
Review: More bi-polar critiques on Ed Lee. Whaddya gonna do? If you like Ed Lee's "stuff" and the hardcore horror genre, you are going to like this book. Not as whacky as his other stuff (like "The Bighead" or "Sex, Drugs & Power Tools"), but this book is still a fun, fun read. His imagination is great, and his characters are different. There's often some redneck, hillbilly satire in his books, and this one has just a smattering, ("one-armed man" Roy), but you still got your fair share of hyper-sex and gore. Lots of gore, but not quite as disturbing as his other books because the setting here is more fantastic (hell, as opposed to, say, the Blue Ridge Mountains). Many have seemingly criticized this book and others by Ed Lee because of plot loopholes and some underdeveloped characters. I guess I am not disappointed as much as my expectatations are more in line with his previous books, that focus less on plot and more on dialogue and extreme societal satire -- in the form of gratuitous gross-out sex and violence. You want some more refined plot, go read a boring run of the mill suspense thriller. These books, IMHO, are more original. But, it's all a matter of personal preference. If you like movies like "Re-Animator" and "Evil Dead II," then you are going to like Ed Lee's books. If you instead prefer "The Omen," or more straight hair-raising horror, then you will be disappointed. Better yet, go read "Duet for the Devil" and then really understand what hardcore horror is, without any humor (now that was fu**ed up!).
Rating:
Summary: Gruesome
Review: Edward Lee is considered by many to be the gross-out king of the horror genre. I wish I could confirm or deny that statement, but I cannot. That's because "City Infernal" is the only Ed Lee book I've ever read. His other novels are either out of print or are so expensive that one would have to visit a mafia loan shark just to come up with the dough to buy one. Fortunately, "City Infernal" doesn't require a broken arm in order to get a copy (at least not yet; when it goes out of print, it might be a different story.). "City Infernal" is a real thrill ride. Lee tells us the story of Cassie, a Goth girl recovering from the suicide of her twin sister Lissa. Cassie and her father, a big shot Washington lawyer, move into the Virginia boonies to put the past behind them. Unfortunately for the two, they move into a mansion built by a Satanist. Cassie discovers that the house is occupied by three dead teenagers and serves as a gateway to the underworld (one of the teens is a mute named Hush. Nifty name!). But the Hades that Lee creates isn't all fire and brimstone; this Hades is a city built over the last 5000 years. It is much like New York or any other global metropolis. But in this city, torture, cannibalism, weird shops, and other types of mayhem can all be found during a stroll down the street. In Hades, black magic and sorcery are hard sciences. One can buy elixirs and cast spells on other people. Lucifer exists and lives in the largest high rise in the city, where he controls all types of government operations. The fallen angel Ezoriel, who battles his former friend for control of the underworld, opposes him by using terrorist tactics with a private army. Cassie enters Hades with her three dead friends, hoping to find Lissa. Fortunately for Cassie, it is quickly discovered that she has special powers in Hades. The result is a freewheeling ride through the nooks and crannies of the city. We see Cassie and her chums battling demon cops, eating at a fancy restaurant that serves human and demon meat, cooling their heels at a club, and running from a gangster called "Nicky the Cooker." I found this book highly entertaining. Lee is a reader's writer. He knows that when creating such a fascinating world, the reader wants details. That is exactly what Lee delivers. Hundreds of pages are devoted to the minutiae of life in the netherworld. We get to see a demon birth, gruesome murders and tortures, very strange television programs, and some of the more famous residents of the underworld. All of this is described in abundant and clever detail. I liked Cassie a lot, probably because she reminds me of several young ladies I know. Her internal observations were entertaining and realistic, considering the subject matter. Cassie's anguish over her responsibility for her sister's death is written with genuine feeling and comes across as such. Some of her reactions to experiences in Hades are a bit ridiculous, but on the whole she emerges as a good character that the reader knows quite well by the end of the story. Other characters aren't drawn as well. Cassie's dead buddies are central to the story, but come across as one dimensional (of course, they are dead!). Lissa is an enigma; she appears at the beginning of the book, and only intermittently throughout. We know the context in which she kills herself, but never understand the real reason for her actions. This is a problem because Lee originally paints Cassie as the outcast, depressed loner while Lissa is an extrovert. An even bigger problem is Lee's tendency to make the rules up as he goes along. We are told, by Cassie's dead friends in the beginning, that Hades has many rules. How fortunate that these rules always become apparent when most needed, and always helpful to our heroes! The demon cops are closing in-presto! We're invisible! Oh dear, it doesn't look like we're going to get out of this situation alive-here's Ezoriel and his black knights to save the day! I could probably stomach most of these miraculous saves, as most fiction uses them to some extent or another. But by the time the end of the book rolls around, it gets cutesy-wootsy and it grates. Despite a few minor problems, this book is still a lot of fun. I would read more Ed Lee in the future, based on what I know of him from this book. If you like horror/sci-fi/fantasy, pick this one up before it goes out of print.
Rating:
Summary: The book lacked substance
Review: This book is a lot of fun; however, it was only a matter of time before someone compared City Infernal to the Divine Comedy. Holding Lee up to the impossible standards of Dante may not be fair, but inevitable considering the two have similar plot lines.
When I first began reading the book I expected it to contain a little more substance, historical figures possibly making an appearance in the book. For instance, a Grand Duke Adolf Hitler would have been appropriate. After all, even South Park included this type of character when Kenny makes his dissent to hell. It would serve as an emphasis to the immortality of the human soul, and to the tragic consequences that await those who have not lived a virtuous life.
The book did have its moments though. Lee suggests that all paranormal activity in the living world is the work of Satan. Near death experiences and alien abductions serve the Devil by distracting people from God. If people believe in aliens instead of God, or believe in a non-bible oriented paradise then, "...their ... land right here (hell) the minute they die." Ideas like this one is exactly what the book lacked.
As I said earlier, the book is a fun read. The pages turn very quickly and the novel is rather entertaining. I do recommend City Infernal for everyone who is just looking for an easy, good read. The lack of substance is all that kept it from receiving the final star.
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