The Day After Judgment

'The Day After Judgment' Is the second of a pair of novels by James Blish. The first is the novel "Black Easter". They have more recently been published as a single book called "The Devil's Day".

Plot introduction

"Black Easter" and "The Day After Judgment" were written using the assumption that the ritual magic for summoning demons as described in grimoires actually worked.

Plot summary

In the first book, a wealthy arms manufacturer comes to a black magician, Theron Ware, with a strange request: he wishes to release all the demons from hell for one night to see what might happen. The book includes a lengthy description of the summoning ritual, and a detailed (and as accurate as possible, given the available literature) description of the grotesque figures of the demons as they appear. Tension between white magicians who appear to have a line of communications with heaven, and Ware is woven over the terms and conditions of a magical covenant that is designed to provide for observers and limitations. "Black Easter" ends with Baphomet announcing to the participants that the demons can not be compelled to return to hell: the War is over, and God is dead.

"The Day After Judgment", which follows in the series, develops and extends the characters from the first book. It suggests that God may not be dead, or that demons may not be inherently self-destructive, as something appears to be restraining the actions of the demons upon Earth. In a lengthy Miltonian speech at the end of the novel, Satan Mekratrig explains that compared to humans, demons are good, and that if perhaps God has withdrawn Himself then Satan beyond all others was qualified to take His place and if anything would be a more just god.

It is likely that Blish got the name for his black magician, from the titular character in Harold Frederic's 1896 novel, The Damnation of Theron Ware.

Grimoires and Assorted Texts Mentioned

Blish claims in his foreword that all of the texts referenced in the novel are authentic magical texts. Here is a complete list of the books as referenced in the book. Obviously some are secular texts, but most are not.

*Malleus Maleficarum by Heinrich Institor and Jacob Sprenger
*The American Weekly
*Ardshi Bordschi Khan
*Siddhi Kur
*Skaskas
*The Divine Comedy
*Talmud
*Midrash
*Perspectiva by Roger Bacon
*The Gospel of Matthew
*The Book of Job
*Lemegeton by Rabbi Solomon
*Grimoire Verum
*Grand Grimoire
*Comte de Gabalis
*The Black Pullet
*The White Devil by Webster
*The City of God by St. Augustine
*Confessions by St. Augustine