Matthew Hughes has an interesting take on the superhero story with his To Hell and Back series. He’s combined the superhero tale with an interesting take on religion (specifically Judeo-Christian religion) and made an compelling series. The series comes to a conclusion now with the latest book, Hell to Pay. It finished off Chesney’s journey, but it doesn’t stick the landing. And I’m left wishing for a better book. Let’s check it out.

When we left our heroes at the end of book 2, Costume Not Included (my review), it appeared that reality was an everchanging book written by God. And several people, including Satan and Jesus, were sitting down to rewrite the book and help God determine good and evil. Chesney, cured of his autism by the presence of Jesus, isn’t sure if his lack of autism is a good thing. Melda, Chesney’s girlfriend, isn’t sure about this whole superhero thing. When Chesney was beating up bad guys, that was one thing, but this whole religious thing seems to be more trouble. Especially when Chesney and Melda find themselves stuck on a planet of dinosaurs with Simon Magus. But let me explain.

Chesney felt guilty about Poppy Paxton. The trip she had to Hell seems to have broken her and Chesney wants to fix her. With Jesus out of the way, Xaphan, the demon, leads Chesney to Simon Magus. But The Twenty, is less than thrilled with the attack on their control of the city. This leads to a demon on demon battle with Xaphan. To protect Simon, Melda and Chesney, Xaphan puts them onto an alternate dimension/universe/timeline that has dinosaur warriors. Nat Blowdell, who had a one-on-one contract with Satan for power and longevity. The contract, amended multiple times over the centuries, mutated until the only way he can keep power is being the ultimate power behind The Twenty. Now Chesney  has to try to escape from the dinosaur warriors and Nat Blowdell and get back to Earth to try to save the world yet again.

Overall, this book was just mediocre. All the interesting pieces about the religion that were in book 2, were less important now because all the characters  involved are off panel for the majority of the book. New characters and situations are introduced that don’t add much to the series, but cover a large amount of this book. Melda has very little to do in this book and is no longer in partnership with Chesney. He goes and asks her questions and she gives an answer and then leaves. She seems like more of a plot device than a character now. And now that Chesney is a more complex person, his character seems less complex and less interesting. I had such high hopes for this book, but was ultimately disappointed. It wasn’t a bad book, but was considerably less interesting than the first two. Mildly recommended.