Doctors in Hell

Heroes in Hell #18

by Janet E. Morris, Chris Morris, Deborah Koren

Myth and legend. Historical fantasy. Literature. Horror. Demonology and Satanism. Urban fantasy. Damned souls wail as plagues wreak havoc, doctors up their fees, snake-oil salesmen make a killing, and Satan turns his hit-man loose. Be there when Erra, the Babylonian plague god, and his seven personified weapons, spread terror throughout the underverse! Victor Frankenstein and Quasimodo develop a vaccine -- with diabolical results... Satan looses Daemon Grim, the Devil's personal hit man, and damned souls cower... Bat Masterson finds himself caught between plague victims and Wyatt Earp... Judas learns you can't teach an old dog new sins... Calamity Jane and her Sinchester carbine defend hell's last uninfected outpost... Nietzsche and Lilith, Adam's first wife, face the Beast and come to fiendish accord... Doc Holliday tries one last gambit, and unleashes all hell's fury... And there's worse to come, even an excerpt from bestselling author Andrew P. Weston's forthcoming Heroes in Hell novel! If you think life is tough, try the afterlife, where the doctor is always wrong, sinners never win, misery runs amok, and all hell's damned get their just deserts -- eternally.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Paranormal, Historical Fiction, Historical, Heroic Fantasy, Dark Fantasy

338 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 22, 2015

About the author

Janet Ellen Morris (born May 25, 1946) is a United States author. She began writing in 1976 and has since published more than 20 novels, many co-authored with David Drake or her husband Chris Morris. She has contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell. Most of her work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written several works of non-fiction.

Morris was elected to the New York Academy of Sciences in 1980.

In 1995, Morris and her husband and frequent co-writer Christopher Morris founded M2 Tech. Since that time, their writing output has decreased in proportion to the success of the company, which works with U.S. federal and military agencies on non-lethal weapon systems and software.

Reviews

[Uvi Poznansky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctors in Hell, a highly-creative anthology led by Janet Morris, is just the right antidote to boredom. Like the previous multi-author anthologies in the Hell series, it reminded me of the monstrous creatures painted by Hieronymus Bosch, set against fantastic, nightmarish depictions of hell, which allows us to have hilarious delight. For us, it is great to become an observer of this demonic realm, standing outside the canvas, feeling safe. Or are we?

The ‘underverse’ underlying all the tales is whimsically set up, so that each author can let their imagination run wild as they populate the afterlife with souls, and as they let them get their just reward for actions in past lives.

The Wager by Janet and Chris Morris, The Cure by Chris Morris, Grim by Andrew P. Weston, The Right Man for the Job by Deborah Koren, In Memory by Nancy Asire, What Price Oblivion? by R. E. Hinkle, In the Shadowlands by Dr. Richard Groller, Let Us Kill the Spirit of Gravity by Matthew Kirshenblatt, Pavlovian Slip by Bill Snider, Hell on a Technicality by Joe Bonadonna, Convalescence by Michael H. Hanson, The Judas Book by Jack William Finley and last but not least, Writer's Block by Janet and Chris Morris are all great tales. They entertain, and leave you wondering, as you reflect upon the reality in which we live.

Five stars.

[S.E. Lindberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctors in Hell– A honed recipe of Human Habits and Myths

Doctors in Hell is the 18th in the long running Heroes in Hell series, each installment being a different theme. “Doctors” has 14 short stories plus an excerpt (a sequel of sorts to one entry, and a prelude to a novel). First-time hell readers can feel comfortable jumping into Doctors, since it works as a stand-alone book as well a series entry. Beware, hell is a seductive force and the book a gateway (this was my first full adventure but now I have committed myself to more since I have now bought five previous installments). Here are basic expectations of the series from my fresh perspective:

(1) Human behavior persists: The dead do not need sustenance nor drink, and all the food tastes bad (i.e. like vomit), but inhabitants habitually eat/drink anyway despite the displeasure. “Real people” copy their initial lives in hell.

(2) Our gods and hell exist: Various gods from history battle to maintain some ideal flux/condition of souls; in “Doctors” the Akkadian plague god has descended from heaven to ensure hell is sufficiently undesirable, casting additional illnesses upon the dead … and messing with Satan’s control of hell.

Part of hell’s nature ensured that it metamorphosed to suit those it incarcerated. All societies created the hell they deserved, if left to their own devices. And the devil moderated the creation of the New Dead’s societies, so that no one group took power, intent on preserving the balance that made the underverse an equally uneasy resting place for history’s manifold modern damned. – from THE WAGER by J. Morris and C. Morris

(3) Unbounded time: Time is nonlinear and infinite, so individuals from various centuries are often paired or pitted against one another. Where else can Attila the Hun and Napoleon Bonaparte join forces against armies of rats and Vietcong?

(4) Resurrections: If one dies again in hell, then an entity called the Undertaker will resurrect the individual and “reassign” it to another life – so “death” is not a way out, and the process is painful.

“He’s still there. What’s wrong with Reassignments? He should have disappeared by now.” “Maybe they’re overwhelmed,” Wellington offered. “So many deaths. Even the Undertaker must be up to his malformed eyebrows in bodies.” –from MEMORY by N. Asire

“I do not understand. These men are dead! They should be on the Undertaker’s slab waiting for recycling,” from HELL NOON by P.Freeman

(5) Titular theme: Each book has a theme as per the title that focuses each anthology and makes them stand alone; however story arcs and characters do carry from volume to volume, so the more one reads the more one enjoys.

(6) Varied content: Each author demonstrates freedom to explore the titular theme, with their own style and genre. This collection has classic myths, western shoot outs, zombie apocalypse, comedy, a military sortie, and police drama… and somehow all the mix feels very consistent.

Highlights: I enjoyed the whole set, but in particular five resonated with me, seemed more stand alone or tailored to a new-HIH reader, demonstrated hell’s operation explicitly, and fully embraced the “doctors” theme.

The Wager by Janet E. Morris and Christopher Morris (heroic myth): The initial story sets the stage for the book, economically capturing the tone of previous stories, the purpose of this tome, and the delivering an entertaining tale of Satan and the angel Altos. The Morris’s have a knack for writing heroic fantasy, and true to form, they deliver again. This made me feel guilty about being an armchair, video-game general.

What Price Oblivion by Rob Hinkle (horror) : Con-man Charles Braggs (known as Doc in life since he had a skill of ‘skinning suckers’ was as sharp as any surgeon’s) gets his murderous due. Without spoiling, I’ll highlight a line that I cannot get out of my head: “Why do you keep doing this to me?” This story showed the Undertaker’s role vividly.

Pavlovian Slip by Bill Snider (comedy): Utterly hilarious depiction of psychologists Ivan Pavlov and Sigmund Freud, struggling to reason why humans have habitual behavior and the consequences for that in hell. The philosophical undertones strengthen the commentary greatly. Saturated with dark humor.

Hell on a technicality by Joe Bonadonna (comedy): Ah, another hilarious blend: this time a death panel (inducing Aristotle and Da Vinci) convenes to discuss the nature of the soul and body in the preposterous case of Doctor Victor Frankenstein, who has had his brain switched with his creature Adam’s. So now Victor’s mind finds itself in his creation’s body… and vice versa. How else better to discuss the nature of a soul in hell then to work out this mess. The death panel erupts into an outrageous furor.

Convalescence by Michael H. Hanson (zombie horror) : This reads as a homage to Edgar Allen Poe’s Masque of the Red Death, one of my favorites. Here we have Calamity Jane as a nurse in one of hell’s retirement homes. A zombie horde surrounds the home while a “Strawberry Ball” masquerade event is held. The colored rooms, impending doom, and costumes are very Red Death-like; of course, Poe’s Mask of the Red Death involved a cureless plague and the inevitability of death to good measure, so echoing in “Doctors” is perfect.

Other Grim Stories: The other stories are all worthy in their own right, some catering to readers of previous books like Poets in Hell and Lawyers in Hell (Memory, In The Shadowlands, The Cure & Writer’s Block, and Let Us Kill The Spirit of Gravity), there are two western motifs (The Right Man for the Job, and Hell Noon), and a 1920’s pairing of Elliot Ness versus lobotomist Walter Jackson Freeman II (The Judas Book). Last of note, there is Grim who’s character is a genuine reaper allowed to leave hell on a sortie to retrieve an escapee early in the collection; the last entry A Moment of Clarity is an excerpt from the forthcoming Heroes in Hell novel called “Hell Bound” – this excerpt extends the initial story and prepares the reader for more in a dedicated novel.

Highly recommended for readers of dark, historic, or heroic fantasy.

Contents:
THE WAGER - Janet E. Morris and Christopher Morris
THE CURE - Christopher Morris
GRIM - Andrew P Weston
THE RIGHT MAN FOR THE JOB - Deborah Koren
MEMORY - Nancy Asire
WHAT PRICE OBLIVION? Rob Hinkle
IN THE SHADOWLANDS - Richard Groller
LET US KILL THE SPIRIT OF GRAVITY - Matthew Kirshenblatt
PAVLOVIAN SLIP - Bill Snider
HELL ON A TECHNICALITY - Joe Bonadonna
CONVALESCENCE - Michael H. Hanson
HELL NOON - Paul Freeman
THE JUDAS BOOK -Jack William Finley
WRITER’S BLOCK - Janet E. Morris and Christopher Morris
A MOMENT OF CLARITY Excerpt - Andrew P Weston

[Joe Bonadonna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full disclosure: having contributed a story to Doctors in Hell, I do not feel right about reviewing this 18h volume in the classic Heroes in Hell shared-universe series. And Amazon won't let me post this without giving the book some kind of star rating. So forgive me if I give it a good rating, because the writers assembled for this volume are top-notch, and they deserve the 5-star rating. I am humble and yet honored to be a part of this edition. If I may, I'd like to tell you a little about this 2015 volume in the saga of Heroes in Hell, and my part in this grand project.

The series is often called “Bangsian fantasy,” a genre of fantasy which concerns the use of famous literary or historical individuals and their interactions in the afterlife. It’s named for John Kendrick Bangs (1862 –1922), an American satirist who often wrote such tales. Heroes in Hell itself is an epic series of shared-world novels where the famous and infamous throughout history all wind up together in Hell, where they virtually pick up right where they left off when still alive — but now with a diabolical twist: Hell may give you what you want and what you need, but these things are never quite what you asked for. Hell is not what you’d expect, so always expect the unexpected. Things are broken in Hell, things malfunction, and there’s always a grand touch of irony to everything that happens. Hell gives and Hell takes away, and in Hell the Damned get just what they deserve. There is comedy and tragedy in this eternal and infernal arena of Lost Souls, where human drama is played out across a wide spectrum of such literary genres that include heroic fantasy, horror, action-adventure, political thrillers, westerns, science fiction, and even romance. Each individual story in each book reads like a chapter in a novel, and each story/chapter bears the unique touch and personality of its author.

The premise of the series is based on the tradition that 613 is the number of mitzvoth or commandments in the Torah, which began in the 3rd century CE when Rabbi Simlai mentioned it in a sermon that is recorded in Talmud Makkot 23b. Our series of novels begins with the 613 original commandments, binding on every living soul, and ignorance is no excuse: break just one little commandment and you go to Hell. So almost everybody who was anybody broke some commandment or other while on earth, and now here they are, sometimes in a part of Hell where they belong, sometimes in an area of Hell where they don’t. The Damned come from across the length and breadth of time and history to interact, to scheme and plot, and even go adventuring — all the while suffering the torments of a well-deserved damnation. The worst and best from all of time make the same mistakes in Hell that got them there in the first place: character is destiny, in life Topside and in the Afterlife of the underverse, as well. You could read these books in order, in any order, or without having read any of the previous volumes in the series. In Hell, Time is meaningless, so it doesn't matter which book you begin with: start anywhere, for the cohesion in each volume makes it stand alone. You can read Hell forward or backward or upside down: Hell is still Hell. It still unsettles minds and makes hearts skip beats. The Damned get the Hell they deserve. Expect what will be, nothing less, and nothing more. This is not your mommy’s world of fantasy: this is Hell, and tonight we dine on gore, tonight we feast on souls.

For all the horrors and torments that Satan has unleashed upon the Damned, the Almighty has decided that he’s been too lenient on them, and so to Hell were sent Erra, the Babylonian plague god, and his henchmen, the Seven Sibitti, to spread plague and terror, to wreak havoc and further punishment throughout the underverse. Erra then stirs the pit by adding his own little brand of mayhem, maleficence, and malefic maladies to the mix. The result is that pestilential misery runs amok in Hell, lost souls wail in even more torment, doctors raise their fees, and snake-oil salesmen make a killing selling all sorts of bootlegged versions of vaccines and so-called remedies for the plagues sweeping across and through all levels and circles of Hell. But the damned must suffer, and the Devil is furious about Erra and his enforcers being sent from Heaven to prove that Hell is insufficiently hellish. And since death in Hell for all lost souls is only fleeting, followed by a horrifying turn in the Mortuary where they are worked on by the Undertaker prior to being reassigned, torment and suffering are eternal.

There is no escaping Hell. And don’t bother telling Hell’s doctors where it hurts, they won’t care. They have their own problems. Ah, but Satan has a plan. Satan always has a plan. It’s a purge that may be even more terrible than anything cooked up by Erra. Satan, you see, has always held to the belief that Mankind is worthy of neither salvation nor damnation, and deserves only oblivion: total obliteration into nothingness. His Satanic Majesty has been trying to prove his point to Heaven and the Big Man Upstairs for ages upon ages, and this argument is what landed him in Hell in the first place. The Devil has always insisted that modern souls in Hell — called the New Dead, roughly anyone born Anno Domini — are so vicious, self-centered, hubristic and morally bankrupt that they would punish themselves and each other, if given a chance, more horribly and thoroughly than Hell’s bureaucracy could ever contrive to do. This leads to a bet between Satan and the angel Altos, who wants to prove the New Dead worthy of salvation — or at least deserving of leniency, to show themselves no worse than their predecessors or successors.

This brings us to the first story, "The Wager," by Janet Morris and Chris Morris, wherein Altos, Hell’s only volunteer angel, has been sent from Above to effect Satan’s rehabilitation, a daunting task. Altos and Satan wager on the outcome of a battle between 20th and 21st century militarists who, Satan says, “will combat one another in battles fought exclusively by volunteers: armies manned by voyeurs of violence who find vicarious thrills reading of heroes who never were, fighting villains who never could be. If we hold this war and nobody comes, or the doctors of the damned heal the wounded and save the plague-ridden, then, Altos, you will win, and I shall soften my heart unto the New Dead and forestall the purge you know I am readying.”

Chris Morris follows this up with "The Cure," where Satan orders John Milton: “Tell Marlowe you have learned the difference between oblivion, impossible in my domain, and obliteration, which a soul can claim, be he brave enough: obliteration — complete and sweet: Not only ‘not to be,’ but to be expunged as if he’d never been at all. This will make an end to his playwriting and poetry, and an end to his affair with Shakespeare.” So Milton, horrified at what he hears next, must infect Christopher Marlowe with the knowledge of this cure.

Next up is Andrew Paul Weston’s tale, "Grim." Satan demands a purging laxative to clear the bowels of the underworld of the dross that has accumulated over the centuries, and turns to the doctors for assistance. However, it appears our infernal physicians are hell-bent on fomenting rebellion. Forced to act, His Satanic Majesty turns to his Chief of Surgical Strikes and cure-all remedy — Daemon Grim — to wield the scalpel of injustice . . . and wield it he does.

In "The Right Man for the Job," Deborah Koren’s story, we learn that the only thing worse than having Wyatt Earp gunning for you is having Wyatt Earp and plague victims after you. Bat Masterson joins forces with Dr. Henry Porter, the only surviving surgeon from the Little Big Horn, in order to stay alive.

The main premise of Nancy Asire’s "Memory" is the plague that’s struck hell and Napoleon’s memories of dealing with plague during his Egyptian campaign. The ramifications of these memories color his actions when dealing with the threat to those he cares about and shows the response of his friends in the face of potential disaster.

R.E. Hinkle’s story is "What Price Oblivion?" In this, he writes of 19th Century confidence man Charles “Doc” Baggs, who abhorred violence in life, but finds himself in death forced to be the thing he loathes the most, so much so that even oblivion is preferable to the monstrosity he has become. But when he encounters another doomed soul in worse torment than his own, who deserves that oblivion more than Baggs himself craves it, he finds himself tempted to take action. Can there be good deeds, even in Hell?

Richard Groller’s "In the Shadowlands" picks up where his previous story, (“Island Out of Time”) left off. Houdini’s brief escape from Hell results in him returning to Hell with an unwitting passenger: a living lawyer, not yet a member of the damnable dead. His self-assigned mission is now to return the lawyer to the land of the living before it is too late.

In Matthew Kirshenblatt’s "Let Us Kill the Spirit of Gravity," a fallen angel awaits and a Beast awakens as Lilith, the first wife of Adam, and the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche come to an unlikely accord.

"Pavlovian Slip," by Bill Snider, is up next. In Hell, one would expect that psychologists would be in their place; the variety, the divergences of human experience, the interactions, the very grist of individual will and the exercise thereof. But, for Ivan Pavlov and Sigmund Freud, there can be no joy of discovery, there can only be the persistence of existence, in Hellish accord. When Ivan and his demonic horde of Grumbles join with Sigmund . . . what kinds of insanity are likely to happen?

My own story, "Hell on a Technicality," continues the misadventures of Doctor Victor Frankenstein who, with the assistance of Quasimodo, concocts a plague vaccine that has some unforeseen and diabolical side effects. Meanwhile, Galatea and Frankenstein’s Monster visit a panel of so-called experts to find out if they have or don’t have souls — and if they don’t, can they get out of Hell on a technicality?

In Michael H. Hanson’s "Convalescence," Nurse Calamity Jane, with the help of her Sinchester Rifle, protects Satan’s final outpost, The St. Rictus Nursing Home, from the all-encompassing plagues sweeping across Hell.

Paul Freeman’s "Hell Noon" deals with the plagues sweeping through hell, corrupting souls already suffering the harshest torments, and a group of gamblers holed up in a saloon on the outskirts of the Dead Plains. Doc Holliday leads the motley crew of damned souls as they seek to sit out the spreading contagion. But hell holds no place to hide from Satan’s punishments, least of all for a gambling man seeking to con the lord of all evil.

In "The Judas Book," by Jack William Finley, Lobotomist Dr. Walter Freeman thinks he’s got a loophole to free himself from Hell. Judas Iscariot thinks he’s got Hell’s news bestseller, and Frank Nitti thinks they are both a pain in his ass worthy of Hell.

Now we come to the end of it all with "Writer’s Block," by Janet Morris and Chris Morris. This time out, Shakespeare insists on taking Christopher Marlowe to the most infamous witch doctors in hell, where Marlowe begs their aid to find his lost Muse: “Can you help us? Spin a spell? Weave a charm? Vex a potion? Hex an enemy? Do any magics such as your sign outside boasts you can?”
“I can. I’ll give ye a push toward destiny,” cackles one bristly hag.
And the witch doctors do just that.

Oh, wait! We’re not quite finished yet. As a special treat, there’s "A Moment of Clarity," a wonderful excerpt from Andrew Paul Weston’s forthcoming novel, "Hell Bound."

So there we are, Doctors in Hell, where the doctor is always wrong, sinners never win, misery runs amok, and Hell’s damned get their just deserts . . . eternally. I hope you join our Company of 13 Hellions on a journey through all the pits, circles and levels of Hell, where not only doctors, but explorers, warriors, playwrights, lawyers, rogues, dreamers, and poets become an unlikely band of heroes — and anti-heroes — in Hell.

[A.L. Butcher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everyone knows Hell is a pretty awful place to spend eternity. It just got worse. Not only are the auditors in, which is bad enough, but now a terrifying new plague stalks Old and New Dead alike. Rumours abound on its source, be that Erra and his mighty weapons personified, Old Nick himself or something else. Whatever the answer might be cures are sought, bought, sold and bold. Hell being Hell, of course it does not go entirely smoothly…

Dr Frankenstein, Polydory, Dr Neill Cream, Shakespeare, Kit Marlow, Calamity Jane, Napoleon, Wellington, nurses and physicians from civilisation’s birth, gangsters, poets and even artificial life in the form of Galatea, and Adam Frankenstein, battle against a foe they don’t understand, have no clue how to beat and yet, as Heroes in Hell, fight they must and endure the twisted half-life in Satan’s domain. Truly mythic, where myths get turned on their heads and characters you thought you knew live (or unlive) again.

Filled with diabolical machinations, intrigue, courage, dark humour, and even searching questions about the nature of the soul – particularly from Joe Bonadonna in Hell on a Technicality this collection of Hell themed tales from a mix of talented writers from science fiction, fantasy and historical fiction. Janet Morris, has yet again, produced an anthology which flows from one scenario to another, despite the varying styles and stories. There were stories I didn’t want to end, and some which made me chuckle (Napoleon and Wellington always crack me up), some which were tragic, some vengeful (Grim) and some which were extremely clever.

This is a world of darkness, but it is a shared world across time, across history, across the good and great and the weak and pitiful and the characters reflect that. There is something for die-hard fans of the series and new authors to discover, and an exquisitely crafted greater whole for those new to the series.

The eighteenth Heroes in Hell is, perhaps, darker and bloodier than its predecessors. It’s not for the faint-hearted, but then again – this is Hell, what do you expect?

[Jana Petken · Rating 5 out of 5]

This team of writers, headed by Janet Morris, have done it again. In this 18th volume in The Heroes in Hell series, we begin with Altos, the only un-fallen angel in hell, making a bet with the devil.

I was immediately swept away with the dialogue, descriptions, and settings, right from the first page, and my enthusiasm did not wane throughout the book and within every individually written story.

What I love about this series is the diversity of writers, who all manage to bring unique stories and character from history to life, yet at the same time maintaining the atmosphere of hell and the overall themes alive.

A plague comes to Hell, as if there was not enough torment there already. Instead of sacrifice and heroism, on a grand scale to combat the ills wrought on the devil's plain, there is dark, greedy, narcissistic desires to turn a profit from the suffering.

I could go on and on about the plots and stories but they have been well fleshed out in some of the other reviews. So, what do I think of this book? Marvellous, absolutely marvellous, and one of my favourites, to date.

[Cherime MacFarlane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is hell being consigned to living as you did with the added bonus of a god's nasty little plagues. Is Satan attempting to clean out the place and start all over? The stories of the individuals who find themselves in hell wearing surprised expressions give one pause. It's a free for all with no holds barred in the very worst of places. Are there heroes in hell? Pick this up and find out.

[Janis Hill · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would like to thank Perseid Press for providing me with a free electronic ARC of this book, via Netgalley. Although I required their approval, the decision to read this book is my choice and any reviews given are obligation free.

Okay, honesty time… this is one of the DOZENS of books I read sometime last year and never got around to writing a review for. See my post about my year on the couch… Reading was a life saver, writing a review was not. So, apologies for the delay, but here we are. Oh, and I’m Neuro Diverse, so I can read something 10 years ago and chat to someone who has just read the same book and remember it as easily as they do. So my reviews from last year are still valid. Trust me. ;-)

To the review! ‘Doctors in Hell’ is an anthology, where the connecting theme is… doctors in hell. Literally. I mean, yes some of the stories did bleed into each other with sub-themes, but the main one is in the title. As with any anthology I’ve read, there were stories I liked more than others. I refuse to give examples and I refuse to use terms like “good” or “bad” as it’s just my opinion and I don’t want to say a story is bad, just because it wasn’t my thing. Anthologies are one of the only times I am this lenient as I expect to not be a fan of every story… as long as the majority of the stories were enjoyable, then it was a good book.

AND… ‘Doctors from Hell’ was indeed a good book. I loved seeing historical characters, who wouldn’t have met in real life, getting together to deal with a mysterious illness wiping out hell’s residents. With eras relived… sometimes spliced together with eras you’d never think would gel so well, and the ever underlying wonder as to what was happening in hell, who was causing the illnesses (and other things) and why the Doctors were suddenly in such high demand.

If I focus on how enjoyable it was as a whole, it definitely was. To me, it was a unique theme, which made it an even more enjoyable book. Not everyone can write stories about what’s happening in hell and make it so entertaining and unsettling all at once. ;-)

Would I recommend this book to others?

Yes I would. Lovers of anthologies with a difference – check it out. Lovers of many genres will also enjoy ‘Doctors from Hell’ as the genre hodge podge is blended so well that I feel there is something for everyone in there. But, lovers of speculative fiction will probably enjoy it the most. Who doesn’t love a good “what if?” like ‘Doctors in Hell’?

Would I buy this book for myself?

Probably not… but that is because I tend to prefer to borrow anthologies from libraries as a taster box to learn of new authors… if that makes sense? This is not me saying ‘Doctors in Hell’ is a bad book, not worthy of buying. I’m just saying, with my limited physical and electronic bookshelves, I’d rather have the option to borrow it from a library. Saying that, it is also a book I can see myself enjoying again and again… from the library. To me, anthologies and libraries complement each other, so it’s a compliment I see this more as a library book. Hey, I’m weird, okay?

In summary: An enjoyable speculative fiction anthology on hell and what may have happened to the historical people who deserved to be there… and some who didn’t. ;-)

[William O'Brien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Doctors in Hell (Heroes in Hell Book 18) Kindle Edition
Janet Morris et al

An amazing and high-powered epic story which, take the reader into another dimension of dynamic and intricate characters.

The layers in this book gradually unfold to reveal an intricate plot to rival the best in its genre.

I was truly taken back by the high quality of writing of Doctors in Hell.

Superb!

[Sifi Zonkoid · Rating 2 out of 5]

My rating is a two because I expected something less based around parody. I also could not get a sense of hell, the landscape and the locations where all the famous people lived. Having extremely famous dead people placed in hell and acting as buffoons is ignorant in the least. Each a powerful character made to look like Mr and Mrs Smith from next door isn't much fun or realistic, but I did say my expectation was different, and based on this expectation I bought the book in the first instance.

There were a few stories I enjoyed, but I also expected a continuation from the first chapter. Satan had promise but seemed to disappear, only mention here and there as a reference. The book did not go anywhere. It was just a collection of various 'funny' stories about different places and people in Hell. A vision of hell I cannot picture or believe. There was no climax and no point to the story. Two is reasonable, because I managed to finish it.