Hell Divers

Brilliant!

Years after World War III poisoned the planet, the remaining humans all live in air ships floating above the ground. They relentlessly search the globe for somewhere they can inhabit and rebuild but the world as we knew it is gone. There is only a wasteland there that is radioactive and uninhabitable. Hundreds of years later and humanity is barely hanging on. The 2 remaining airships, Ares and The Hive, are outdated and held together with items that they scavenge. A team of people known as Hell Divers, are the only ones who can scavenge things from earth. They dive down and retrieve power cells to keep the ships afloat. When The Hive receive an SOS call from Ares, they have no choice but to go to the coordinates they sent. Only things is, the place Ares is is called Hades! It's a place that many Hell Divers have dived into but none have returned. Can the team, led by Xavier Rodriguez, known as X, survive?

This book rocked!! What a start to the series!! The idea that the last remnants of humanity are in air ships circling the globe was unique (for me anyway). Usually in Post Apoc books, it's about the preppers and how they survive, here it's people from all walks of life, living in a ship because the earth is poisonous. The only way the ships stay afloat is the fact that men and women dive down to retrieve the necessary resources. It was a fresh and unique look to the PA genre.

I've read quite a few of this authors books and am always amazed with his descriptive writing and how he can pull you in right from the start. The action starts pretty much straight away and never lets up. This author can sure right some intense and exciting action scenes!!! I had no problem, whatsoever, in picturing the harrowing scenes of the wastelands, nor picturing the Hell Divers themselves and what it would feel like to dive towards death! Because that's what it is... very few Hell Divers make it past their 15th (or 19th, can't remember the exact number!) jump and the author is able to portray the way the divers feel perfectly. My heart was in my mouth the whole time!!

Another thing this author has a knack for is writing amazing characters. Xavier Rodriguez is damaged. He lost the love of his life and is just basically going through the motions. He is the head Hell Diver and is very very good at his job. The last dive he was on, he lost someone close to him and became responsible for Tin (Michael). He tries with Tin but X doesn't know how to look after someone else. He is a drunk and only lives so he can dive. I loved X right away. He may be gruff but he is loyal to his fellow divers and does what he can so the ship stays a float. He doesn't hesitate to dive, even when he finds out it Hades!! He is a worthy hero!

Then we have Tin. He loses his father and moves in with X. Tin was awesome!! Such a smart little cookie and not afraid to do whats needed. He wants to be an engineer when he gets older and is interested in fixing everything and anything. He was inquisitive and I loved his character. I really hope we see more of him in the next book. Smith also writes strong females. Captain Ash's cancer is back but she knows she has to stay strong so the ship can stay in the air. She isn't afraid to take chances and make difficult choices, but she is also compassionate. The author knows how to write characters that you will immediately connect to.

In all, this was a book that left me breathless many times! It is non stop and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time!!! I don't know how many times I gasped out loud, but can only imagine it was a lot because so much happens, both on and off the ship! I listened to this in a day because I couldn't stop!! Bring on book 2!!!!

R.C Bray is a master story teller. He brought not only the characters, but the atmosphere to life. I really felt like there was more than one person reading this! He is exceptional and I highly recommend you check his work out.

7 of 7 people found this review helpful

Hell No

I've never reviewed an audiobook other than the standard star system but with this one I felt the need to share my thoughts.

Good god, this book was boring. Despite its exciting premise Hell Divers never manages to grip you, the first chapter really sets the tone for the rest of the book; clichéd and cringe worthy. For starters the main character is literally called "X" for well over 90% of the book. That's his name, I'm honestly being serious, unless of course on a mission where he prefers to be referred to as Commander X.

Once you get over that edgy hurdle you then come to the dialogue which has a flair of 80s action movie to it. Now, 80s action dialogue I can handle with just the right amount of cheese and self deprecation but this book takes itself way too seriously which unfortunately sucks all the tension out of scenarios and replacing it with a few audible groans of despair. None of the dialogue is really good and the characters saying said dialogue are all flat, boring and for the most part unlikeable. I didn't enjoy any of the characters in this book, nothing they said connected with me and nothing they did excited me.

The worst part about this book is there are some good ideas hidden away behind all the tropes but the execution sucked. How the hell this book was sitting with five stars when I spent my credit on it is a mystery to me so take my advice, don't waste your time or money on this.

6 of 8 people found this review helpful

Clichéd and predictable

Nothing new here. All the characters are basic caricatures. The monsters are generic. The language is repetitive, with tongues being repeatedly bitten, and blood repeatedly steaming from one hole or another. Even the characters die in the same way. The kind of story you would expect from a 14 year old. Despite this it had exciting moments, but it was far from great.

5 of 7 people found this review helpful

Average

This is my second novel from the same author nick s smith, the first was extinction cycle. If you enjoyed that I think you will enjoy this. I think the problem I have with this author is his writing style its adequate and serviceable but not that exciting. I had the same problem with extinction cycle. So if ur a fan of the author plz get this book you will love it and the narration by RC Bray is amazing. Otherwise if ur looking for a post apocalyptic tale plz listen to Arisen it's beyond amazing (also narrated by RC Bray)

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Omg, I mean......wow.

This is one of the best books I have ever listened to. A word of advice though..... don't start listening to this book at night, I couldn't turn it off or fall asleep. So thank you Nicholas Sansbury Smith, its now 9am and I'm an exhausted slobbering mess with spots floating before my eyes, I hope you're happy. Amazing book, but I am now going to fall into a coma. I almost forgot (exhortation) R. C. Bray did an amazing job with this book, honestly couldn't have been done better.

9 of 14 people found this review helpful

Boring, not joined up, plot holes

I really wanted to enjoy this book as the premise sounded so good. However, after forcing myself to listen to hours of this I don't understand what all the good reviews are for.

The good: RC Bray is on his usual high form and I can't fault that. The idea is good, a different take on the post world scenario.

The bad: I wanted to understand about living on the airships. So much potential with the upper and lower decks. This is hardly touched up except for cliched comments.
The hero worship (main character) is dull and predictable with no depth. This is the kind of tough guy I imagine a 15 year old boy would like (like watching an Arnie tough-guy film).
There is one part with a child who goes from hating the main character to loving him in a single paragraph. There should have been so much tension but.. nothing.

The monsters are described well but makes no sense, they just appear. How did they evolve? Why had they not been seen for hundreds of years? Again so much opportunity lost in place of tough guy lead character.

This book could have delivered so much but was flat and boring.

8 of 13 people found this review helpful

Looking forward to more

Great fun, fast paced. Superb start to a series. R C Bray great as ever.

Enjoyable

Very enjoyable and the narrator is very good, probably one of the best on audible.

Loved it!

Can wait for the next book, loved it from start to finish. Great narrator too!

It really wasn't for me.

Reading the blurb I thought I'd really enjoy being thrust into the Helldivers world...but it ended being rather vapid. If you enjoy fights, half glimpses at a world & structure then this might be for you. I thought we'd find out a lot more about the day-to-day and even to some degree the helldiving world. I also hated the end, normally the bit I sit in and concentrate on, but I found myself just trying to get through the wild shift in characters and nice little bows thrust onto everything.

Tl;dr - do you like those spy books that are more just kinda the spy kicking things over? You'll like this book.