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Hell Divers
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Hell Divers
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Hell Divers
Ebook430 pages6 hours

Hell Divers

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this ebook

The New York Times and USA Today bestselling series

They dive so humanity survives …

More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers—men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there’s something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past—something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateApr 18, 2017
ISBN9781504725866
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Hell Divers

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Reviews for Hell Divers

Rating: 3.6796115970873786 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

103 ratings9 reviews

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  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Liked by many but I just could not get into its rhythm.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Good read! I enjoyed the premise and the action kept it going nicely.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I’ve listened to this book twice and it was great both times through. The first go drew me in with this airship and the hell divers and the destroyed land beneath them. The second pass let me appreciate the characters more. Xavier (X to most) and his sorta adopted kid Tin are both great characters. Both have a lot on their shoulders and both save their little society in their own ways.The setting really captured my imagination. Yes, this is post-apocalyptic fiction, but in this world, the apocalypse came a bit further along the human timeline. Even the remnants of the technology that was once available is just beyond what we have now. The Hell Divers jump to gather much needed supplies for their airship, keeping it in the air, away from the worst of the radiation for generations now. But stuff is breaking down, supplies are limited, and the situation becomes more and more desperate.I did get a little chuckle over Hades being what once was Chicago. All those deadly lightning storms! And the monsters dubbed the Sirens! I’m a huge Dresden Files fan and I can just see Harry Dresden rolling over in his grave that Chicago has fallen to lightning and monsters!Even with everything being in a desperate state, politics still plays a role in the management of the ship. So true. I can see why the rebels demand more meds and more food but their efforts end in a body count and could have easily ended them all! The captain was put in a very tough situation. She couldn’t let this minor rebellion grow but any body count earns her a bit more hatred from part of the population. Captain Ash earned my respect with her actions during this crisis.I loved that the ladies were part of every aspect of this story. They were in the military management of the airship. They were Hell Divers. They were teachers, cooks, kids, drug addicted desperate people, etc. For a military post-apocalyptic scifi, this was a very important aspect for me and Smith met the challenge! Yay! It’s only practical to have women be on an equal footing at the end of the world.The action never stops with this book. There were so many moments where I thought for sure this character or that was toast! I was on the edge of my seat the first time I read it. On the second pass, you could still catch me nibbling my fingernails as I relived this scene or that. This was a very enjoyable book! 5/5 stars.The Narration: R. C. Bray is a delight to listen to. His deep voice for X is perfect. His female voices sounded feminine and his little kid voices were realistic. He makes a great Tin as well as a great Captain Ash. The pacing is perfect and he performs those emotional scenes perfectly. 5/5 stars
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I am an avid fan of interesting and different post-apocalypse fiction. I also love sci-fi stories that have to do with airships. Good monster tales are also right up my alley. When I was strolling in one of my favorite local bookstores and found Hell Divers, I was ecstatic to find all three in one, with the promise of a new series to boot. I had never heard of the author Nicholas Sansbury-Smith and enjoy trying new writers. All I can say is that I was not only not disappointed, I was in awe. What a wonderfully crafted sci-fi story that has it all. The concept of skydivers diving from airships in the future after a nuclear war was beyond cool. After an apocalypse from nuclear bombs nearly wipes out all of civilization on planet earth, the remaining survivors live aboard two airships. They dive to survive, they dive for supplies. Diving through intense lightning storms like we've never imagined possible, the Hell Divers need to repetitively dive to the earth's surface through radiation and lighting in order to find any remaining food that is not contaminated, and to search for parts that will keep the aging airships afloat. The Hell Divers, and all other human inhabitants, have lived aboard these flying death ships for over two hundred years. People are dying from radiation, and food is scarce leaving hunger a serious problem. Medical supplies are limited and parts to repair airships are not plentiful. When one of the airships is damaged and crashes down in a storm, the divers must once again jump into hell to see if there are survivors or if not, parts to claim for their own ship, sad as that is. They must jump into the earth zone they call Hades, the most treacherous and highly radiated area on the planet. But once there, they find more than they could bargain for in the shapes of deadly creatures ready to kill.Roller Coaster ride action, greatly developed characters that seem realistic, cool futuristic high tech gadgets and very very scary monsters had this reader glued to each page and then couldn't wait for book two. I devoured this in one sitting and totally loved it. 5 stars! More please!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I had never heard of this author before, but he can certainly write an exciting story. In this post apocalyptic novel, the remainder of the human race has been relegated to two ancient spacecrafts where they are faced with class warfare, scant resources, electrical storms and carnivorous mutant humanoid creatures. Teams of hell divers plummet 20,000 feet, from the spacecraft called the Hive, to land on the poisoned surface of the Old World in order to scavenge for critical supplies. The Earth has been radioactive for centuries and is subject to both monstrous blizzards and those killer electrical storms and creatures.The action takes place both on the Hive and on the Old World, especially a particularly dangerous portion of it called Hades. Perhaps it was a formatting problem in the advance digital copy of the book that I read, but sometimes it was confusing telling exactly where the action was taking place. However, the action (wherever it occurred) was really thrilling. This is not exactly a character driven book, and the only ones we really get to know in any detail are X (a veteran hell diver), Tin (an intelligent and resourceful 10-year-old boy) and Captain Maria Ash the leader of the Hive and it was easy to root for all three of them.I did not realize that this was the first book of a new trilogy and the book ends on what may be a cliffhanger, which I found somewhat annoying. Nevertheless, I really liked this book and I will probably read book two.I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    The earth is a radioactive wasteland and for 200 years the last vestiges of humanity have been living above the surface in helium filled blimps. The only way they stay airborne is to send people down to the surface to scavenge for supplies. Hell divers rarely last beyond a dozen dives. The story follows a hell diver called Ex, who has survived 96 dives, and is a jaded alcoholic anti-hero. The book is driven by plot, having the divers dive within the first few pages to scavenge from the desolate surface. There's little world building in this book, and what there is is not credible. There's a hierarchy of society inside the air ship, with many starving and poor citizens. In a closed eco-system there'd be strict population control but this was never mentioned or even suggested, people just got on with breeding and using up all the meager resources. There's a captain, but I think there's no democracy, I don't think it was stated how she became captain. The characters were pretty thin, with Ex not having an interesting enough personality to carry a book. Overall, there were a couple of fast action scenes but I thought this wasn't exciting enough to outweigh the many flaws in both the setup and story.
  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Everything is constantly the worst it could possibly be. There is no rising tension because the book starts at 100% and then stays there until the end. It's boring. I gave up with less than 30 pages remaining. I don't care how it ends.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I'm generally a fan of dark/apocalyptic sci-fi, and I was really excited about the concept of this book. However, it turned out to be full of plot holes, poorly researched worldbuilding, and utterly forgettable characters. The cop-out ending clinched my disinterest in reading more of this series. So disappointing!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Received via Blackstone Publishers in exchange for an completely unbiased review.
    Also posted on Silk & Serif

    Imagine that humanity finally started World War 3 and the majority of the Earth fell into nuclear ruin. Now imagine a world where the last vestiges of humanity are living in air ships that float around the world above the nuclear ravaged world below for generations until only two ships remain. This is essentially the plot of Hell Divers from the point of view of X, a member of the illustrious team of men and women who risk their lives venturing into Earth’s nuclear wasteland to retrieve items that the air ships require to stay afloat.

    Xavier Rodriguez, the most senior Hell Diver with the most dives survived, has seen almost everything the world could throw at a Hell Diver team, but nothing has prepared him for his most recent jump. It isn’t just the nuclear radiation that could kill them all, but the creatures that X christens Sirens. Sirens are bloodthirsty creatures that have evolved to be impervious to the high levels of radiation that renders Earth uninhabitable. Humanity is not prepared to face creatures made of teeth and speed that particularly seem to enjoy human flesh, but when the Hive is gravely damaged in a storm when attempting to aid the ill-fated sister ship Ares, the Hell Divers have no choice but to visit the most dangerous city on Earth, Hades. Inevitably, it seems, Hades is also monster central. X and his team must rely on Ares Hell Diver Weaver navigated the long forgotten streets of Hades, but can they survive long enough to locate the precious supplies their family and friends above so desperately need?

    Meanwhile, in the air, a rebellion breaks out among the lower deckers that threatens to ground the Hive for good. The Hive is losing altitude, a social unrest explodes into violence and the Captain struggles to keep the ship from entering a dangerous electrical storm that imperils everyone aboard. Hell Divers is an action packed ride that delivers a gritty and exciting tale about human survival and desperation.

    Hell Divers is an adrenaline rush with plenty of bullets, life threatening situations and exceptional world building to make a story that is easily immersive. Plus, the Sirens are seriously creepy.

    When I first read the synopsis of Hell Divers my reaction was "meh". The story sounded terribly boring and it had hints of steampunk in the mix (I don't hate steampunk, but it's not really a preferred genre either). I'm incredibly glad that I decided to request Hell Divers on NetGalley since the synopsis definitely did not do this novel justice. This is a novel that fits the military driven horror mold more so than steampunk dsytopian fantasy that the synopsis initially lead me to believe. Smith delivers plenty of suspense and human interest to develop a plot that is exciting, but also has an undercurrent of social commentary. I mean, lower deckers vs upper deckers, the fall of civilization due to nuclear winter, the importance of history and the lack of knowledge about the "world before"? Whether or not Smith meant it, I definitely loved the various aspects of this novel that could have been discerned as slightly more intellectual in nature.

    There were a few aspects of Hell Divers that bothered me: The ending was a giant let down for me. Sorry. Also Tin's acceptance of X was too easy and required a bit more struggle for it to be believable. Finally, the love interest was a character that I repeatedly prayed to the literary gods would die a horrible death because of her history with the main character, but thankfully the romance department is tertiary to the actual plot.

    I had a positive experience and found Smith's writing both engrossing and entertaining. I enjoyed the unique take on the usual "end-of-the-world" trope and the use of a multiple story line approach to further develop a world that will only become more interesting as the series continues.

    I suggest reading Hell Divers because it's an extremely exceptional change from the usual post-apocalyptic novels. The synopsis does NOT do it justice!

    This book will appeal to readers who enjoy gritty military sci-fi novels, science fiction, post-apocalyptic novels and strong but flawed male leads. I would definitely call this a dark horror novel because of the Siren creatures that stalk the Hell Divers through Hades. I would not suggest this novel to romance fans, staunch chicklit readers or people easily disturbed by language or adult themes since these aspects are part of the fantastic package that is Hell Divers.