-
A Short Stay in Hell
- Narrated by: Sergei Burbank
- Length: 2 hrs and 42 mins
- Categories: Literature & Fiction
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Audible Premium Plus
$14.95 a month
Buy for $6.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
Where the Hell Is Tesla?
- A Novel
- By: Rob Dircks
- Narrated by: Rob Dircks
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I found the journal at work. Well, I don't know if you'd call it work, but that's where I found it. It's the lost journal of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors and visionaries ever. Before he died in 1943, he kept a notebook filled with spectacular claims and outrageous plans.
-
-
Had A Blast Listening To This One!
- By Cheri on 08-11-16
By: Rob Dircks
-
Dark Matter
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Are you happy with your life?" Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."
-
-
I no longer trust Audible reviews
- By mcb17 on 04-22-19
By: Blake Crouch
-
Recursion
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom, Abby Craden
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery - and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth - and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery...and the tools for fighting back.
-
-
The power of positive thinking
- By Michael G Kurilla on 12-29-19
By: Blake Crouch
-
Infinite
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Galahad, a faster-than-light spacecraft, carries 50 scientists and engineers on a mission to prepare Kepler 452b, Earth's nearest habitable neighbor at 1400 light years away. With Earth no longer habitable and the Mars colony slowly failing, they are humanity's best hope. After 10 years in a failed cryogenic bed - body asleep, mind awake - William Chanokh's torture comes to an end as the fog clears, the hatch opens, and his friend and fellow hacker, Tom, greets him...by stabbing a screwdriver into his heart. This is the first time William dies.
-
-
What kinda neckbeard fantasy was that?
- By Erik on 09-06-19
By: Jeremy Robinson
-
Terminus
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Murdoch’s past has finally come crashing down on him. His former girlfriend. His Family. He’s been happily avoiding them for ages, trying to live something close to a normal life. But now he’s been drawn back into another one of their ludicrous attempts to bring about the end of all things. Anne is tired of living in the past. She’s finally looking to the future and embracing her destiny. She’s going to lead the Family forward on their greatest, final crusade to destroy the hated Machine of their long-time adversary.
-
-
Super dope entry in the Threshold series
- By Sandra L. Etemad on 01-30-20
By: Peter Clines
-
Heaven's River
- Bobiverse, Book 4
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by Audible number one best seller Dennis E. Taylor. More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost. But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore.
-
-
BOB-tastic!!! 🛸
- By C. White on 09-24-20
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
Where the Hell Is Tesla?
- A Novel
- By: Rob Dircks
- Narrated by: Rob Dircks
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
I found the journal at work. Well, I don't know if you'd call it work, but that's where I found it. It's the lost journal of Nikola Tesla, one of the greatest inventors and visionaries ever. Before he died in 1943, he kept a notebook filled with spectacular claims and outrageous plans.
-
-
Had A Blast Listening To This One!
- By Cheri on 08-11-16
By: Rob Dircks
-
Dark Matter
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"Are you happy with your life?" Those are the last words Jason Dessen hears before the masked abductor knocks him unconscious. Before he awakens to find himself strapped to a gurney, surrounded by strangers in hazmat suits. Before a man Jason's never met smiles down at him and says, "Welcome back, my friend."
-
-
I no longer trust Audible reviews
- By mcb17 on 04-22-19
By: Blake Crouch
-
Recursion
- A Novel
- By: Blake Crouch
- Narrated by: Jon Lindstrom, Abby Craden
- Length: 10 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At first, it looks like a disease. An epidemic that spreads through no known means, driving its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived. But the force that’s sweeping the world is no pathogen. It’s just the first shock wave, unleashed by a stunning discovery - and what’s in jeopardy is not our minds but the very fabric of time itself. In New York City, Detective Barry Sutton is closing in on the truth - and in a remote laboratory, neuroscientist Helena Smith is unaware that she alone holds the key to this mystery...and the tools for fighting back.
-
-
The power of positive thinking
- By Michael G Kurilla on 12-29-19
By: Blake Crouch
-
Infinite
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Galahad, a faster-than-light spacecraft, carries 50 scientists and engineers on a mission to prepare Kepler 452b, Earth's nearest habitable neighbor at 1400 light years away. With Earth no longer habitable and the Mars colony slowly failing, they are humanity's best hope. After 10 years in a failed cryogenic bed - body asleep, mind awake - William Chanokh's torture comes to an end as the fog clears, the hatch opens, and his friend and fellow hacker, Tom, greets him...by stabbing a screwdriver into his heart. This is the first time William dies.
-
-
What kinda neckbeard fantasy was that?
- By Erik on 09-06-19
By: Jeremy Robinson
-
Terminus
- By: Peter Clines
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 11 hrs and 21 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Murdoch’s past has finally come crashing down on him. His former girlfriend. His Family. He’s been happily avoiding them for ages, trying to live something close to a normal life. But now he’s been drawn back into another one of their ludicrous attempts to bring about the end of all things. Anne is tired of living in the past. She’s finally looking to the future and embracing her destiny. She’s going to lead the Family forward on their greatest, final crusade to destroy the hated Machine of their long-time adversary.
-
-
Super dope entry in the Threshold series
- By Sandra L. Etemad on 01-30-20
By: Peter Clines
-
Heaven's River
- Bobiverse, Book 4
- By: Dennis E. Taylor
- Narrated by: Ray Porter
- Length: 16 hrs and 57 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Civil war looms in the Bobiverse in this brand-new, epic-length adventure by Audible number one best seller Dennis E. Taylor. More than a hundred years ago, Bender set out for the stars and was never heard from again. There has been no trace of him despite numerous searches by his clone-mates. Now Bob is determined to organize an expedition to learn Bender’s fate - whatever the cost. But nothing is ever simple in the Bobiverse. Bob’s descendants are out to the 24th generation now, and replicative drift has produced individuals who can barely be considered Bobs anymore.
-
-
BOB-tastic!!! 🛸
- By C. White on 09-24-20
By: Dennis E. Taylor
-
The Elfor Drop
- The Code Series, Book 2
- By: R. R. Haywood
- Narrated by: Colin Morgan
- Length: 19 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Coming from the poverty-stricken Elfor settlement on the Humility, Master Thief Yasmine Dufont just wants a way off the stinking ship and to put a whole lot of distance between her and gangster ex-boyfriend, Dimitri. But when a dream score of credits goes disastrously wrong, she’s left on the run with a hidden code that everyone seems to want to get their hands on. Addict Detective Zhang Woo will do anything for his next fix.
-
-
Spellbinding
- By Janette Deyell on 01-03-21
By: R. R. Haywood
-
I'm Thinking of Ending Things
- By: Iain Reid
- Narrated by: Candace Thaxton
- Length: 5 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this deeply scary and intensely unnerving debut novel, Jake and a woman known only as "The Girlfriend" are on a drive to visit his parents at their secluded farm. But when Jake leaves "The Girlfriend" stranded at an abandoned high school, what follows is a twisted unraveling of the darkest unease, an exploration into psychological frailty, and an ending as suspenseful as The Usual Suspects and as haunting as Misery.
-
-
Strange book with an odd time-line.
- By S. S. Reiter on 06-29-16
By: Iain Reid
-
Exhalation
- Stories
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Edoardo Ballerini, Dominic Hoffman, Amy Landon, and others
- Length: 11 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the acclaimed author of Stories of Your Life and Others - the basis for the Academy Award-nominated film Arrival: a groundbreaking new collection of short fiction. In these nine stunningly original, provocative, and poignant stories, Ted Chiang tackles some of humanity’s oldest questions along with new quandaries only he could imagine.
-
-
Masterful and singular
- By Brian on 05-15-19
By: Ted Chiang
-
Lullaby
- By: Chuck Palahniuk
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author of Fight Club, which was adapted into a major motion picture, Chuck Palahniuk offers a haunting tale. Winner of the Northwest Booksellers Association Award, Palahniuk is one of the rare literary geniuses who has been able to bridge the gap between a cult following and commercial success.
-
-
Palahniuk's New Hit
- By RockyToTheMoon on 01-12-05
By: Chuck Palahniuk
-
The Girl with All the Gifts
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Finty Williams
- Length: 13 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melanie is a very special girl. Dr. Caldwell calls her "our little genius". Every morning, Melanie waits in her cell to be collected for class. When they come for her, Sergeant keeps his gun pointing at her while two of his people strap her into the wheelchair. She thinks they don't like her. She jokes that she won't bite, but they don't laugh. Melanie loves school. She loves learning about spelling and sums and the world outside the classroom and the children's cells. She tells her favorite teacher all the things she'll do when she grows up.
-
-
Not as expected but a nice, easy audio book
- By Jen on 01-05-16
By: M. R. Carey
-
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
- By: Claire North
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No matter what he does or the decisions he makes, when death comes, Harry always returns to where he began, a child with all the knowledge of a life he has already lived a dozen times before. Nothing ever changes. Until now.As Harry nears the end of his 11th life, a little girl appears at his bedside. "I nearly missed you, Doctor August," she says. "I need to send a message." This is the story of what Harry does next, and what he did before, and how he tries to save a past he cannot change and a future he cannot allow.
-
-
Amazing
- By clifford on 11-12-15
By: Claire North
-
Level Five
- Killday, Book 1
- By: William Ledbetter
- Narrated by: MacLeod Andrews
- Length: 11 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Level Five, the debut near-future thriller by Nebula Award winner William Ledbetter, AIs battle for dominance, and nanotechnology is on the loose. And all that stands in the way of the coming apocalypse is a starry-eyed inventor who dreams of building a revolutionary new spacecraft and an intelligence agency desk jockey faced with the impossible choice of saving her daughter - or saving the world.
-
-
Excellent Performance! Thought Provoking
- By Andrea on 07-31-19
-
The Sandman
- By: Neil Gaiman, Dirk Maggs
- Narrated by: Riz Ahmed, Kat Dennings, Taron Egerton, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When The Sandman, also known as Lord Morpheus - the immortal king of dreams, stories and the imagination - is pulled from his realm and imprisoned on Earth by a nefarious cult, he languishes for decades before finally escaping. Once free, he must retrieve the three “tools” that will restore his power and help him to rebuild his dominion, which has deteriorated in his absence.
-
-
absolutely Epic!
- By Victor @ theAudiobookBlog dot com on 07-16-20
By: Neil Gaiman, and others
-
NPC
- By: Jeremy Robinson
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray, Jeffrey Kafer
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times and number one Audible.com best-selling author Jeremy Robinson takes listeners on a journey that is not only action-packed, but full of scientific and philosophical intrigue. In his most mind-bending story since Infinite and Alter, Robinson blends genres, belief systems, and bold prose into an unputdownable tale exploring the nature of reality.
-
-
The Good, The Bad, and Overall...
- By Animated Puppets on 07-06-20
By: Jeremy Robinson
-
House of Sand and Fog
- By: Andre Dubus III
- Narrated by: Andre Dubus III, Fontaine Dollas Dubus
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this riveting novel of almost unbearable suspense, three fragile yet determined people become dangerously entangled in a relentlessly escalating crisis. Colonel Behrani, once a wealthy man in Iran, is now a struggling immigrant willing to bet everything he has to restore his family's dignity. Kathy Nicolo is a troubled young woman whose house is all she has left, and who refuses to let her hard-won stability slip away from her. Sheriff Lester Burdon becomes obsessed with helping her fight for justice.
-
-
Astounding characterizations, and wonderfully read
- By Lisa on 06-08-04
By: Andre Dubus III
-
Ready Player Two
- A Novel
- By: Ernest Cline
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Days after winning OASIS founder James Halliday’s contest, Wade Watts makes a discovery that changes everything. Hidden within Halliday’s vaults, waiting for his heir to find, lies a technological advancement that will once again change the world and make the OASIS 1,000 times more wondrous - and addictive - than even Wade dreamed possible. With it comes a new riddle, and a new quest - a last Easter egg from Halliday, hinting at a mysterious prize. And an unexpected, impossibly powerful, and dangerous new rival awaits, one who’ll kill millions to get what he wants.
-
-
Heartbreakingly Disappointing and Insulting
- By Marcus Haynes on 11-28-20
By: Ernest Cline
-
Stories of Your Life and Others
- By: Ted Chiang
- Narrated by: Abby Craden, Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stories of Your Life and Others presents characters who must confront sudden change-the inevitable rise of automatons or the appearance of aliens-while striving to maintain some sense of normalcy. In the amazing and much-lauded title story (the basis for the 2016 movie Arrival), a grieving mother copes with divorce and the death of her daughter by drawing on her knowledge of alien languages and non-linear memory recollection.
-
-
Odd stories except for the Arrival
- By Mark on 07-15-17
By: Ted Chiang
Publisher's Summary
An ordinary family man, geologist, and Mormon, Soren Johansson has always believed he'll be reunited with his loved ones after death in an eternal hereafter. Then, he dies. Soren wakes to find himself cast by a God he has never heard of into a Hell whose dimensions he can barely grasp: a vast library he can only escape from by finding the book that contains the story of his life.
In this haunting existential novella, author, philosopher, and ecologist Steven L. Peck explores a subversive vision of eternity, taking the reader on a journey through the afterlife of a world where everything everyone believed in turns out to be wrong.
More from the same
What listeners say about A Short Stay in Hell
Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ryan
- 08-23-14
Beautifully unsettling
This short, smart existential novella is a gem. After the protagonist, Soren Johansson, a devout Mormon, dies of cancer, he finds himself in a room with four other people. There, an officious demon cheerfully informs everyone that they’ve all failed to follow the one true religion (which I won’t spoil, but suffice to say, it’s not one of the obvious candidates) and consigns them all to a variety of hells.
For the protagonist, hell is a bigger-than-the-known-universe library containing every possible book (including those whose contents are just random characters, i.e. the vast majority). And the only way out, according to a posted notice, is to find the book containing one’s own life story. Hell does operate according to a few rules, which can’t be broken. There are food dispensers, which give out any meal requested. Non-carried objects return to their place at the end of each day. People who die are returned to life.
At first, Soren does what most people would do: he explores, forms relationships, tests the rules, and discusses solutions to the shared predicament. But days, then months, then years pass. The denizens of the library form societies. Soren experiences wandering and loneliness. He falls in love. Then violent religious mania hits people, and hell really does become hell. So, he escapes to deeper levels, in search of both his lost lover and answers.
I won’t give away what happens from there, but Peck does eventually make it clear that there’s no easy way out. The author’s wry sense of humor makes the haunting philosophical questions go down easy, but that won’t stop them from swirling uncomfortably in your mind later. As I see it, this is a book about what faith really means. What happens if God utterly defies all our expectations? Would we still believe? Could we let go of our belief? And I don’t think Peck is letting non-believers off the hook, either -- if we contemplate the hell of a purposeless reality, might it be better to have some ray of hope in a greater meaning, however slender?
Beautifully unsettling questions. I’m glad I spotted this one in an audible sale.
36 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rachel
- 08-08-13
Great story
It doesn't take long to listen to the story (less than 3 hours) but the author packs a lot into it.
The premise is essentially: a nice guy, irregardless of how he lived on earth, ends up in hell, which actually does not seem so bad at the beginning. The demon in the first scene is more like an affable business manager than genuinely scary; people get idealized bodies once they're admitted to hell; and they can order whatever food they want from the food kiosks. Even though the task set to each person is tedious (find a single book in a mind-shatteringly huge library) there are optimistic/encouraging rules that give everybody in hell hope that they will eventually get out. Over time, the story slowly dismantles, piece by piece, this initial impression by undermining anything that might lead the main character to believe that hell is actually not that bad, while at the same time progressively building up, piece by piece, his growing realization of how horrific and tragic his circumstances actually are. It's a really impressive about-face. A great story, funny and tragic and hopeful and horrific all at once.
12 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- David
- 02-02-16
A strange tribute to Borges
So, you die and wind up in hell, greeted by a demon who says "Yeah, that religion you chose? Sorry, wrong one!"
This was a very odd little short novel, about a Mormon who dies and finds out that in fact, there is one true religion, and it isn't Mormonism. But don't worry - this is neither an anti-Mormon nor an evangelical work. The fact that the main character is a Mormon is just coincidence - he is joined in hell by many other people who are equally surprised at having checked the wrong box.
(What is the "one true religion," according to this book? It probably won't be your first or second or third guess... you'll just have to read it.)
The hell he is sent to (it's implied that there are multiple hells) is an infinite library, in which the residents are told all they have to do is find the one book on its shelves that tells their entire life story, complete and without a single typo or error. The catch is that every possible book of a given length, given the 95 standard characters on a Latin-character typewriter, exists in this library.
This is, in fact, literally Jorge Luis Borges' Library of Babel.
So, technically it's not infinite. But someone calculates the actual number of books that must exist in the library. If you know anything about exponentiation, you already have an inkling of how big the number is. For all practical purposes, the library is infinite and the residents of hell are stuck there for eternity.
The main character spends some time (a lot of time) exploring, meeting other people, figuring out the metaphysical rules that govern this place, and searching for that one book in umpty-gazillion-googleplex-to-the-numptifinity-power that will get him out.
This wasn't as philosophical as you might expect - there are not really any theological explorations on the part of the author or the characters. It's more of a modern tribute to Jorge Luis Borges, with some parts that reminded me a bit of Piers Anthony or Jack Chalker - not their penchant for skeeviness, but the way they create odd alternate worlds with different metaphysical rules and then toss an ordinary person into them to figure their way around.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Evan
- 03-04-13
Look Infinity in the Face
What did you love best about A Short Stay in Hell?
Steven L. Peck turns a very abstract concept into an emotionally understandable and terrifying reality. Imagine a library with more books than there are electrons in the known universe; now imagine that you had to find one book among them. It's very hard to imagine this, but Steven tells the story with great skill and brings you through the joy, despair, hope, and hopelessness of the situation. Spiritual, philosophical, but also very down-to-earth, A Short Stay in Hell made me feel so many things that I will never forget it (when I finished it I had to go into the house and hug my wife). If you like thinking about "big questions" like how large the universe is and what immortality might be like, this book may teach you a lot of things.
What about Sergei Burbank’s performance did you like?
Sergei Burbank read the book in a simple, honest tone, which suited the narrator very well. It felt like I was sitting with the main character, listening to him tell me his story.
If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?
One day, this will all be a distant memory.
10 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Janice
- 08-12-13
I'll be thinking about this one for a while.
While this book doesn’t really line up with my own spiritual beliefs, it does present a very interesting version of hell beyond the stereotyped Dante’s Inferno that much of the western Christian cultures have bought into. The first impression of a strange but not especially menacing existence (that is supposed to be only temporary anyway) initially inspires a sense of tentative relief. Then as the magnitude of the assigned task (finding a specific book among billions of books in a library of infinite dimensions) becomes increasingly evident, the reality of hell begins to assert itself. What temporary can mean in relation to eternity is suddenly daunting. Hopelessness, lack of a true faith to believe in, the absence of behavioral boundaries or consequences, and the lack of diversity among the residents may be a reflection of the type of lives many have lived on earth when our naïve thoughts of our own immortality fool us into careless lives. Do we create our own hells, underestimating the effect on our souls of living for the comfortable and the familiar instead of embracing more diverse possibilities of experience and acquaintance?
Beginning with a fairly light tone with humorous episodes, the mood subtly darkens as the story-teller relates his own increasing need to find an escape. Eventually he, and we with him, realize the full impact of his situation. Regardless of your belief or lack of belief in a hellish after-life, this book will challenge your viewpoints, and hopefully challenge your earthly behavior in the reflected image of what this literary hell looks like. Now I wonder what Peck's image of heaven looks like. I'll bet that's a mind bender too.
31 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Keith
- 01-13-15
A Most Depressing Excellent Novel
Peck had accomplished what I didn't think likely, capturing my own greatest fear (falling) in a book about an afterlife. As with all good fiction this novel's strength lies in its protagonist, a Mormon who must come to grips with a very weird version of hell. I found the character compelling and sympathetic. I also found his plight to be depressing as, well, hell.
This novel is going to become a favorite of mine; in fact, I may buy the ebook as well. The narrator was also quite good, capturing the feel of the character.
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- joyce
- 12-14-14
I'd be looking around for Rod Serling!
It's that old idea; Hell will be specific to each sinner. And you are sent there because you have fervently worshipped the 'wrong' God. But when you arrive-Thank God!-Satan's minion tells you that it's not forever, don't be silly. You must only perform one task, and then you can leave. How long will it take you to realize the immensity of your task? How long before you lose all hope? before you give up completely on God, if you haven't already? How long can you hold on to a sense of purpose, or assign meaning to your actions? What does it feel like when you can't?
Hell?
This is such a funny, unique, fascinating, thought-provoking and enlightening story (I had never heard of the Library of Babel before), I absolutely LOVED, LOVED it!! Hell as a nearly-infinite library, with comfortable living quarters and food kiosks dispensing your every wish, and all you have to do to be excused is find your own bio on the shelves.
Easy-peasy. No?
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Melissa Bee
- 01-26-14
Makes you wonder...
For me, the narrator neither added to nor subtracted from the content of this story. When Soren Johansson, a Mormon, dies of brain cancer in his early 40's, he is stunned to find himself in hell. This is no hell that he or anyone else has ever fathomed. The reason he and the other people were cast in this particular hell is because they did not believe in Zoroastrianism. Who would have thought that's why you would end up in hell? But don't worry, this hell is not forever. Your ticket to getting out is to simply go through the vast library that awaits you and find the book about your life without any errors in it. So begins Soren's new "life" in hell. It may take you awhile to really understand the dimensions in this hell and when you do, you will not only wonder at its possibility but you will also find more value in time and life in general. This story made my head spin a bit but mostly it left me with a strange, unsettling kind of uncertainty about what could be.
9 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- DB Reviewer
- 03-18-13
Excellent novella!
Would you consider the audio edition of A Short Stay in Hell to be better than the print version?
I have not read the print version (yet).
What other book might you compare A Short Stay in Hell to and why?
There is really no other book to compare it to; that said, this novella is an excellent examination of human morality, character, religious belief systems, etc. Excellent!
What about Sergei Burbank’s performance did you like?
Very well done!
If you could take any character from A Short Stay in Hell out to dinner, who would it be and why?
The demon at the beginning of the story.
Any additional comments?
Read or listen to this story, it will stay with you for a long time.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- mezzovoce
- 04-20-15
Thought Provoking
I won't bother with providing a synopsis of the story; if you're interested, there are several here among the reviews. I will concur with the person who stated that you don't need to be of any particular faith, or really of any faith at all, to enjoy this book. And for those like me, who strongly adhere to a particular faith, you are not likely to find this doctrinal, but you might find it worth contemplating. I enjoyed this sufficiently to immediately look for other books by this author. I do hope he writes more.
2 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Derfel C
- 06-21-20
Brilliant, unexpected and makes you think
I love short stories like this; it's so different and uim35$wdr56g!+1rty9nn you will understand this if you read the story, somewhere there is a correct and complete version of this revie
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story

- Anonymous User
- 10-08-20
thought provoking and engaging
A simple concept beautifully executed. Has been occupying my mind all day after finishing this morning.