Content levels
Trigger warnings
Positive tags
Hero archetypes
Protagonist archetypes
Tropes
Themes
Synopsis
Synopsis - Dare you Descend into a man made hell on earth? By the gloom of electric lights, stunted and misshapen beasts scrabble for their lives in blasted landscapes of poisoned canals and grotesque vegetation. But his is no alien world. This is Earth or used to be. Now it is Tartarus, shut off from the face of heaven by a huge platform which completely envelops the world. Living in a technological utopia the inhabitants of the platform have long forgotten that other men still live in the grim underworld that they forsook. But one man descends to the Tartarean depths. He discovers that under the accelerated evolutionary conditions of this hothouse underworld a whole new ecology of grossly mutated life forms has emerged. Now the True Men share their environment with rat men, cat men and gigantic waterworms...
Is The Face of Heaven appropriate for my child?
Suitable for most readers 13 and up.
This 1970s science fantasy depicts a stratified post-apocalyptic Earth where the surface-dwellers have forgotten the mutated humans living in the toxic underworld below. Contains moderate violence, grotesque mutated creatures, and themes of social inequality and environmental destruction.
What to know going in
This book has moderate violence, no sexual content, and mild language. Content notes include violence, body horror, and class struggle (see the full list above).
Publisher ages reflect reading level; our rating reflects content maturity — they can differ.
Who'll love this
Teens interested in classic science fiction will appreciate the imaginative two-world setup and exploration of a strange mutated underworld.