Well, this one is average for this series. Most of the stories were very weak and consisted almost entirely of cardboard characters bantering endlessly with the spare main plot (Che Guevara's rebellion and the Devil's Children plotting) at a standstill. However, I did find a couple of strong stories here. Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Michael Armstrong was the stand-out and was seemingly a self-contained story aside from further exploring the rules of hell and had a very horror-esque twist ending. I also enjoyed The Gods of the Gaps by Gregory Benford. The story explores hell's rules and existence through the fleeing main character, Gregory Markham as he runs from the murderous troops of Che Guevara. Snowballs in Hell by Chris Morris was an okay story, the strongest bit was before the angel Altos returns Alexander the Great to the dissidents' encampment where much of the story takes place. Most of it was just plain disappointing. Overall, I would advise anyone interested to read just the stories I've mentioned and skip the rest especially since the main storyline (Che's rebellion) never goes anywhere in this book. Otherwise, I would say skip it. ( )

Hit and miss. As I continue the series, I find myself interested in following the exploits of specific characters and when the anthology stories veer onto others...I find myself skimming. Still caught up enough to go on to the next one. ( )

With faster-moving stories that at times move the larger plot along and at other times are interesting explorations into Hell in general, this fifth volume of the Heroes in Hell series was probably the most enjoyable for me so far. (Caveat: I skipped the Bill Kerby story; I simply cannot get into his writing style and the stories do not appear to be required reading for the core storyline of the series.) Michael Armstrong's "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" was especially good as a non-core story, and Chris Morris' "Snowballs in Hell" wrapped up a lot of loose ends while also propelling the story forward again.

Next up: Legions of Hell, the first in the series by one author only, C.J. Cherryh. ( )