Rating: 
Summary: Unfaithful and Lacking Grace
Review: "In the middle of my lousy, rotten life" -- or so it begins, if I remember correctly. Gone already is the genius of the original, "Midway in the journey of our life" -- in which Dante's story of personal redemption plays on allegory, mixing the specific with the universal, the "our" referring both to him and to us. I flipped ahead from there to the discovery of Virgil -- just awful and plain irreverent.
The problem with this translation is that it doesn't give you Dante at all, it gives you a pretentious "modern" interpretation of Dante that may be interesting in itself (I personally prefer the original) or as a kind of coffee-table novelty, but which certainly shouldn't be mistaken for an actual translation. A translation attempts to render the original from one language into another; of course, there are questions of idiomatic accuracy, in which one might render a phrase that would seem odd in direct translation into its equivalent idiom in the new tongue, but this goes far beyond...
What the "translator" does is attempt to turn the Inferno into something that a modern day writer would have written, and, judging by what I read, something from a relatively puerile comic book artist (not to say they're all puerile, of course). In this context, the Inferno is a passing novelty, and not really engaging or interesting as literature.
I give this book two stars because the transposition of setting and the pictures is interesting as an interpretation of the original, and lovers of the Divine Comedy will at least be titillated by the whole thing -- until they start reading it. Of course, this production, like all others, has its value...but if you're actually looking to engage with Dante, I would reccomend the excellent translation by Robert and Jean Hollander, which has the benefit of flowing language and very detailed notes on each canto.
Rating: 
Summary: To Hell And Back
Review: Dante's Inferno by Sandow Birk and Marcus Sanders is an excellent treatment on the first of the three parts of Dante Alighieri's well known and important Divine Comedy. The illustrations of Birk, heavily inspired by Gustave Dore's engravings further serve to increase the pleasure of reading this translation. Is this one of the most scholarly translations of the Inferno, certainly not. Is this one of the most readable and refreshing translations of the Inferno, without a doubt, yes. If you are looking for a translation of the Inferno for close and thorough study two time poet laureate (1997 + 1998) Robert Pinsky has an excellent version.
Rating:
Summary: Inspirational Hellfires!
Review: Even if you've read Dante before in any other version, you're going to love this new adaptation! Its completely faithful to Dante and at the same time its funny, insightful, clever, and well-written. And if you've never read Dante before but always felt like you should, this is the version you've been waiting for. Written in contemporary American English, its metaphors are contemporized and meaningful, and you'll find some of the world's most notorious characters in the fires below. But the writing is only half this book, the "trojan horse" of its real power, the illustrations, which set it in our own times. Phenomenal! Excellent!
Rating:
Summary: Go to Heck!
Review: I am not an expert on editions, But I can tell you this is a marvelous story. As some of the other reviews have stated, we fall into generational sins. This book is not generational. Only it's tranlations are. Dante's Inferno covers a wide variety of The Fallen and their designated punishments. A literary museum of horror, pain, and regret. Read this or any translation understandable of The Inferno to have your own handy-dandy pocket guide of what not to do then descend/ascend(you'll see what I mean when you read it) into purgatory and find the museum of atonement. Even if you don't like morbidty, you may still find this book digestable...and even find pity and sympathy in your heart. If you've read it and liked it, check out my poetry book: Poisoned Mushrooms(found here at Amazon.com and Authorhouse.com. It has a gloom and doom chapter reminiscent of this book by Dante. Jason Leonard
Rating:
Summary: Dante is "like a bag of cheetos"
Review: Suppose you updated Dante's "Inferno" into the modern setting putting in people we hate in our modern day and making the text more coherent to Mr. Average Joe on the street. It would be a unique, interesting project, and one they attempted here - but this rendition of Dante's masterpiece walks the thin line between modern and just flat-out unintentionally laughable.
In many ways it could be done well. There are people who write books on street life who are profane and vulgar - yet somehow, they come at you with a class all their own. Birk, unfortunately, can't do that. His take on the Dante's prose into modern life can be done in a very simple formula: 1) add swear words at the beginning of your sentence, and 2) occasionally replace Dante's original metaphors with phrases like "a bag of cheetos." Many of the metaphors don't make any sense - the most glaring example coming from one that compares two demons fighting to fighter jets clawing at each other. OK people, let's be serious here - how many of you have seen fighter jets "claw" at each other?
The update of Hell doesn't fit too well with location, either. Dante's originally version of Hell was several layers, each going deeper and deeper until finally at the very bottom pits of damnation you came face to face with Satan himself. Birk instead chooses random city locations for his "levels," with no real clear path like the original one Dante described to us. And it could have done so well, too - just imagine starting out perhaps at the start of a skyscraper, working your way down to the city, stopping at shops, reaching the boondocks, then entering the subway, and eventually down the sewers and below. Satan's place in the story and in Sandow Birk's sketching is along a highway. Nothing too spectacular about that really, compared to the very core of Hell that Dante originally gave us. As I pointed out, this was a wonderful opportunity to use the different levels of a city to go with the levels of Hell, but everything stays on two or three levels.
The best reason - in fact, the ONLY reason - to purchase this is for Sandow Birk's sketchings. They were wonderfully done and fit the idea of a modern Dante better than he could do in words. But you don't have to buy the book just to see them - in fact, I wouldn't suggest buying the book.
Rating: 
Summary: A Modern take
Review: This book is about the spirit and ideas of Dante and not the literal text. I think the references to modern people and concepts make it more accessible to new readers. The drawings are a fun take on Dore. If you are looking for a literal translation, look elsewhere. If you are looking for a well written and thought out interpretation of Dante, I can recommend this book. I have read many translations of the Inferno but few that I have enjoyed as much. I look forward to Birk and Sanders' Purgatorio and Paradiso.
Rating:
Summary: great work
Review: this book will grab you by the hand and drag you through the depths... visually fun and verbally humorous. entertaining and educational. will introduce readers to dante who might have never found him otherwise. written in 21st century teenspeak, the book tells dante's story very simply. perfect for anyone who wants to understand this great piece of literature without being challenged by a language long gone.
Rating:
Summary: Timely adadation of Dante's Inferno
Review: This translation is kind of cool in part because the original was written the Vernacular of its day and so too is this edition. I liked the illustrations and the use of current folks rotting in the various circles of hell. But in 20 years it will need another update as there are always new folks with the same old sins. A fun read.
Rating:
Summary: Please Note
Review: We are the original publishers of the limited (100 copies) edition. with 70 hand pulled lithographs bound in leather, etc, etc...
Please note Sandow Birk is the author as well as the illustrator, with Marcus Sanders as the co-author.We have had an eventful and delightful journey producing this project; the folks at Trillium Press are really excited to have this more available version for the larger public.
Rating:
Summary: Hell grows on you
Review: When I first stumbled on this project the audacity of it took me aback. But after reading it, I've come to see the real power of it lies not in the drawings, but in the combination one-two punch of the text and the images. While the text is at once faithful to Dante's original and at the same time brash and a bit irreverent, the images setting this classic in contemporary urban American wastelands give it new depth. The combination of the two reshapes the classic into something new - a bold, new commentary on our times and the role religion has in it. Very good.
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