Submitted by Fred Patten, Furryâs favorite historian and reviewer.
Infurno: The Nine Circles of Furry Hell, edited by Thurston Howl. Illustrated by Drkchaos.
Lansing, MI, Thurston Howl Publications, April 2018, trade paperback, $14.99 (278 [+ 1] pages).
Infurno certainly looks like a descent into Furry Hell. Itâs printed in white type on black paper â all 278 pages of it. The full-page illustrations by Drkchaos (identified in the blurb as Joseph Chou) add to the bookâs grim aspect.
Actually, Infurno makes a good companion volume to the publisherâs Arcana: A Tarot Anthology, edited by Madison Scott-Clary and also illustrated by Joseph Chou. But where that anthology was weird-horror, this one is more horror-disgusting.
Infurno presents 14 stories themed around the Nine Circles of Danteâs Inferno, divided by a Prologue, eight Interludes, and an Epilogue; unsigned but presumably by the anthologyâs editor, Thurston Howl. There are one each for Limbo, Lust, Heresy, and Fraud, and two for Gluttony, Greed, Wrath, Violence, and Treachery.
Kyle (sub, jackal) and Terry (dom, squirrel), two gay lovers working alone at Feral Electronics at night, are summoned to the buildingâs ninth basement floor. (The building doesnât have nine basements.) There Atha, a mysterious gazelle, leads them further down a staircase.
Atha, their guide into the Inferno, tells them they must witness the final memories of 14 damned souls. Some of the Interludes are more horrific than the stories:
âA three-headed dog as large as a skyscraper loomed over the ocean. The waves themselves, though high and mobile, were thick and viscous, oily yet solid. Breaking the surface all around the dog were drowning souls. When one would breach the surface right below one of the massive heads, the head would swoop down and grab the unfortunate spirit by its head, fling it around it, chew it, and swallow it.â (p. 48) {The sea is shit, not water.]
In âBlurâ by Weasel (Limbo), they meet Ely, a white lab mouse who has gotten sick of always giving blow jobs for money and tries to leave that life. âBut you canât stay a whore forever. I started getting tired of sucking dick. The taste of cum started to burn my stomach each time I swallowed.â (p. 18)
In âA New Toyâ by Tarl âVoiceâ Hoch (Lust), Anderson, a fox pornography store owner, is offered ten new Lovecraftian sex toys. âThe first impression the toy gave me was of something vagina-pink that I couldnât make heads of tails of. There were multiple holes that looked like insertion points for a penis, but their locations didnât make any logical sense.â (p. 38) Moral: donât stick your prick into any hole if you donât know where it leads.
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