The novel appears to be heavily influenced by John Milton's Paradise Lost.
•
From the illiaster came consciousness that resulted in the firstborn angels: Yaweh, Satan, Michael, Lucifer, Raphael, Leviathan and Belial.
Hell | Reign of Terror | Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos | Hell's Kitchen | From Hell | DJ Hell | Hell Night | Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway | Richard Hell | Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell | Hell's Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs | Black Reign | Hell's Angels (film) | Hell's Angels | Hell on the Heart | You Can't Stop the Reign | Reign in Blood | Pigeons from Hell | Hell's Kitchen (UK) | Hell's Kitchen, Manhattan | Hell (DC Comics) | Hell Comes to Quahog | hell | From Hell (film) | Doom II: Hell on Earth | Dark Reign (comics) | Dark Reign | Where The Hell's That Gold? | What Hell Is About | War Is Hell (film) |
by Steven Brust in To Reign in Hell as the angel who catalyzes the dispute between Yaweh and Satan which would eventually result in the revolt in Heaven
Decker manages to flee to Costa Rica and Copen stays behind, after stating "This is my prison, after all" and quoting Satan from Paradise Lost by John Milton: "Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven."
Libba Bray uses a quote from Paradise Lost to name the second book of her trilogy, Rebel Angels quoting from it "To reign is worth ambition though in Hell: Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heav'n."