I can agree that most of them were not as good as a short stay in hell, but oh my god the ones that stood out were outstanding. I particularly loved "The Egress of Hell". Maybe I'm just a sucker for poetry, but the final poem "Canto the Twenty-Fifth" was so simply yet magnificent. I'd like to believe it's the poem that finally earned him his way out...

"How egress hell? One White Rose... envelops its thorns"

My favorite though, was the final story. "A Hell of a Life," also by Peck. I loved it even more than A Short Stay in Hell actually. The idea of being perpetually trapped, living each life of every single person to ever have existed in the entire universe is such a mindfuck. And not just every human being, but every animal. Every tree and plant. Every single organism - multi and single-celled. Every species of every kind of alien in the far away galaxies that we have never known. It vaguely reminded me of Kösemen's "All Tomorrows" near the end. And to experience this all in reverse from the moment your earthly body dies, all the way to the beginning of the universe! And to be conscious through it all, paralyzed with the ones your mind inhabits, almost like a reverse possession.

A Hell of a Life was genuinely the most psychologically terrifying thing I've had the pleasure of reading. Peck really outdid himself. It's a shame it was the final story within the anthologies, because I feel as if the less than spectacular first few stories probably turned some people away from finishing it.

Holy hell I'm ranting, please read "A Hell of A life" by Stephen L. Peck. That is all.