'Death doesn’t stand a chance against love.
'Hell-bent on confronting God after the death of wife Kate, Paul gate-crashes heaven. With immigration problems and a wall, heaven turns out to be nowhere near as welcoming as expected. Both heaven and hell are modern, militarised, and the cold war that exists between them is about to heat up, with him in the middle of it. Caught on the wrong side of heaven, Paul faces an impossible choice if he’s to have any hope of seeing Kate again.'
I'm going to get my big criticism of The Plot Against Heaven out of the way first before delving into the rest of the book. I don't like that this was a novella, because it wasn't long enough for me. I've read countless novellas and short stories that have satisfied me, and have really benefited from their short length, but there are a few that I read that leave me wanting more, that have me cursing the author for not having written it as a full length novel so that I could have spent longer with the story, and this book definitely falls into that category. I just wanted more.
The book follows Paul, a man who was in a car crash with his wife, where he watched her bleeding to death in the wreckage. Angry that God would do this, that he'd been able to live through his own illness and recover, find and marry the woman he loves, only for her to be snatched away from him, he sets out to make things right by confronting God and getting her back.
Paul does this by managing to make his way into heaven, but rather than it being the paradise that myth has made it out to be it's more akin to a dystopian state, where soldiers walk the street, giant walls keep people separated, and a military presence runs everything. This was something that immediately grabbed my attention, as I'd never seen something tackle heaven in this way. It presented the ultimate reward as a harsh, dull place, one with rigid rules and fierce punishments. It made Heaven into the place that you'd never actually want to end up.
Unfortunately for Paul, he's unable to achieve his audience with God after attempting it a number of times, and is cast out of heaven when he tries to force his way in to confront the deity himself. Sent to Hell, Paul is shocked to find that not only did religion get Heaven wrong, but Hell too. Instead of the scores of demons, lakes of fire, and torture for all eternity, he finds what's basically Vegas, a place where souls can relax, kick back and enjoy themselves.
It's also in Hell that Paul meets the other 'bug man', and this version of the devil is pretty nice. He takes the time to listen to Paul, to ask him his problems, and what it is he's trying to achieve. It's here that Paul gets drawn into the devil's plan, his plot against Heaven. Now working for the devil to try and help his public image, Paul feels that the only way to get his wife back is to side with the forces of Hell against God, in a mission that will change everything for him.
I really enjoyed the way that Mark Kirkbride went against expectations in this book, how he altered Heaven and Hell from biblical depictions into things that barely resembled what people expect, yet managed to make them feel true to the bible. God is a figure that demands worship, that sets strict rules, and meets out harsh punishment when their will is broken, so a somewhat fascist dictatorship and military state kind of does make a lot of sense. Angels are the warriors of God, beings designed to fight, so why wouldn't Heaven be filled with soldiers? The version of Hell presented here also acts as a good counterpoint to this version of Heaven. If Heaven is a place based on strict rules and oppression then the opposite of that being a place about enjoyment, decadence, and feeding desires makes perfect sense.
Obviously, things in this book aren't all what they first appear, and there are things about both realms that aren't first apparent that are revealed as the story unfolds, things that will change your views on the story and the characters, so I can't go into huge amount of details without spoiling, but I will say that Kirkbride manages to create a world that feels interesting and keeps your attention, one that subverts your expectations, and goes in some directions that you're not expecting.
Like I said earlier, I was annoyed that the book wasn't longer, because I felt like there was so much here that could have been given more time, with the story, characters, and world all strong enough to have been able to fill an entire novel. Whilst we don't get that in this book, I'm left hoping by the end that this might be a place that he could revisit in the future, with other short stories and novellas. I hope that proves to be the case, as I want to spend more time with Paul, to see what comes next for him and the realms of the afterlife.
Thanks so much, Amy.
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