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whiskyrob's review against another edition
3.0
The switching between viewpoints got frustrating pretty quick, especially when every chapter is only a few pages long. Okay plot, not that interesting. Couldn't really connect with the characters since it felt like not much time was spent on them. And really, General Tiber Maximilian Adolphus? You went with that as the name for the protagonist? Cringe.
joshmorrey's review against another edition
4.0
Long, and sometimes over-explained, but I really enjoyed this book, and this entire series.
futuregazer's review against another edition
3.0
Surprisingly good character writing. I expect that the series as a whole may depreciate towards the end in terms of plot, as the timeweb series did, but the thing I really liked about the first book of this new series is that despite the large number of character viewpoints, I did not often get that feeling of frustration when it switched away from the characters I wanted to read. At first, I was worried that I wouldn't get to see what was happening on Hellhole for a while, and would have to slog through many pages on the necessary but often predictable (in the start of the book) politics on the Crown Jewels capitol world. However, all the chapters were kept to fairly short affairs, which is a brilliant and difficult thing for an author to do, which facilitated fast movement among the point of view characters. I didn't get a lot of my favorite characters, but I didn't slog through a BUNCH of the others before my favorites were back! That made all the difference. I was also pleased that when action began to get interesting in a certain geographical location, MANY of the characters that were in an otherwise boring location BEGAN TO MOVE TOWARDS THE INTERESTING LOCATION. This is great, because it gives relevance to even the less apparently essential point of view characters. Whether or not we know yet why we are telling the story, we are getting the story of how everyone is winding up at this interesting place (in this book: Hellhole), so that story is a placeholder for now until we find out what else the characters are here to contribute in sequels.
SEEMS that Herbert is also willing to kill off viewpoint characters, which if not overused is a very good thing. However, I'm not convinced at all that the characters killed off in the first book are actually perma-dead. But we shall see.
Other than that: plot good, politics believable and not overdone, aliens: so far mostly an unknown quantity and a little bit hard to believe in terms of their abilities compared to the level of naivety they have so far exhibited. Humor: largely lacking so far, and this is the sort of book that would benefit from some more of it. Impressive stage-setting book though, for a known series.
SEEMS that Herbert is also willing to kill off viewpoint characters, which if not overused is a very good thing. However, I'm not convinced at all that the characters killed off in the first book are actually perma-dead. But we shall see.
Other than that: plot good, politics believable and not overdone, aliens: so far mostly an unknown quantity and a little bit hard to believe in terms of their abilities compared to the level of naivety they have so far exhibited. Humor: largely lacking so far, and this is the sort of book that would benefit from some more of it. Impressive stage-setting book though, for a known series.
phighum's review against another edition
5.0
Superb, very creative and exciting as well as enjoyable. interesting space travel methods as well characters.
bigbear73's review against another edition
2.0
Lame. A blatant, weak attempt at creating a new book spanning epic.
reasonpassion's review against another edition
3.0
When faced with the philosophical epic that is "Dune," I shudder to think how attempting to live up to it can be anything but daunting. There are many similar themes here, but precious little weight to it. The characters are solid, the plot well laid out and the world imaginatively created. Certainly entertaining and I had no problem finishing it, but I simply don't care enough about the characters to read any further. Good science fiction should expand and challenge the imagination, this merely goes along for a decent ride.
mjfmjfmjf's review against another edition
3.0
A book I read for the Endeavour Award. This is not exactly a bad book - actually it is written fairly well. It just uses every single trite predictable trope of space opera (it may have left off one or two, but not many) and drops them together in one big gloop. Possession by aliens, alien ascension, unobtanium, aristocratic interstellar organization,... If you've never read any other sf you might even like it. But for me it just came off a stupid.
david_agranoff's review
3.0
I first heard about this novel when one of the authors was on the Dragon Page cover to cover podcast. I thought it sounded very interesting. After years of working on Brian Herbert’s Father’s universe the duo had produced the first novel in a universe they had created by themselves.
Hellhole is a far future novel similar to Dune in only that respect. Earth is a distant memory but still in the memory of the human species. They live among seventy or so worlds. The inner planets are called the crown jewels and the 54 colonies in the outer rim are called the deep zone planets.
The crown jewels have monopoly on the stringline, a network that makes FTL starships travel between far flung planets possible. The story takes place ten years after a failed rebellion. I loved the dark concept of a rebel leader in a Napoleon like exile on a barely habitable world. The world is called Hellhole by the people in exile, the planet is recovering from an asteroid impact five centuries earlier. The story really moves into interesting territory when they discover evidence of an advanced civilization that once existed on that world. This creates most of the interesting elements of this novel.
Almost 700 pages this is a vast universe that sometimes feels like it might have too many characters.
I liked the concepts, and the story. I enjoyed this novel as pulpy space opera. Does it have the power and depth of Dune…No way? Is it unfair to compare Hellhole to Dune. Yeah it is probably unfair but this is the first time this team is writing outside of Dune so I think most readers will. It’s hard not to do it.
So why only three stars? Well a lot of this book falls into one of the worst habits of Science Fiction authors who lack strong editors. Tons of info-dumps that break up the narrative, for some reason John Scalazi gets away with it, but huge parts of the narrative gets broken up by chapters that read like a far future history book. Tons of telling, not showing, the story loses organic flow often.
That being said I enjoyed the novel overall, perhaps the most annoying part was the cliff hanger that set up the next book. I felt like I read a lot of build up without a release. Imagine if Star Wars ended as Luke first entered the trench in the Death Star. Well, I intend to read book two so mission accomplished.
benbert's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
stillmeenu's review against another edition
Great concept, I think this book shows how the inner paranoid in us works, I would say this is a great read, and seriously the only reason I picked up this book was the wicked cover, but the plot kept me hanging.