HELL’S HEART by Alexis Hall (BOOK REVIEW)
They are monsters. They are legends.
And they are our prey.
Earth is dead. Which leaves us stuck living in atmospheric domes on planets that will kill us if we blink wrong, or run out of fuel. And by ‘fuel’ I mean cerebrospinal fluid, harvested at great risk from gargantuan space monsters.
I joined the hunt hoping to get paid and maybe laid, but mostly paid. And I followed a charismatic captain eager to face these beasts and to howl her defiance across the skies of Jupiter. On her crew, I met Q, a woman from the wreck of old Earth, who might have kept me grounded. Or then again, perhaps not.
We were ordered to hunt the greatest leviathan of all, and we fought beasts and ships and one another. Then we finally met our nemesis, there above the red heart of that world. Spoiler: it didn’t end well.
Caveat before we start: this English Lit graduate never finished Moby Dick. Now having read this, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to – because it just will not measure up to the wondrously queer, insane, gonzo adventure that is Hell’s Heart.
Protagonist ‘I’ lives in a future galaxy made up of corporations. This is a familiar Sci-fi Dystopian Nightmare played as a brilliant satire, with the morality and ethics we know from our own religious history turned completely on its head. In this universe, Capitalism Won. Brutally and completely. Why worship some cosmic invisible god, when you can worship worldly things and get rich?Therefore, as an orphan with her entire life in debt to one such corporation, I joins the crew of the Pequod and its captain ‘A’ to seek out the greatest of all Leviathans and make their fortune (hopefully not dying along the way, but no promises).
Whereas the original white whale tale was difficult for me to read because it was fairly of its time – being very dry and male-focused – this is almost completely opposite. The prose is lush, as colourful as those beautiful pictures beamed back from space telescopes, and full of bawdy almost-Shakespearean humour because I is not entirely mentally stable. Nor would you be in her situation.
This is a crew of the mad, with perhaps one sane individual among them – the enigmatic Earther ‘Q’, a barbarian who speaks only in Latin. A quick note: this reviewer has a Latin GCSE and regularly burst out laughing at her words. Trust me: keep Google Translate on standby, because the book does not do your work for you and the classical jokes are absolutely worth it.
We all know of Captain Ahab as portrayed through many other retellings, but while A almost reverently calls back to him often, she is very much her own being. Fiercely determined, a cosmic force in herself, it’s often asked if she’s somehow hypnotised the crew with sheer charisma as they dive repeatedly into impossible situations to capture that Leviathan. The eternal battle of giant versus human continues here, and it is as captivating for the reader as it is for those risking their lives in the text.
Because I is telling this story to us. The fourth wall is well and truly smashed from the outset, and we find ourselves along for the ride – at first nervously in my case, and then joyfully and somehow inexorably. I found it hard to step away from the book, and when I did, the vibes stayed with me until the final page. I shares her words sometimes hopelessly, other times hopefully, in that her tale will echo down the years – and it does, just not in the direction she anticipated. Her honesty is refreshing too, with the regular asides about how the crew deal with boredom while sailing the endless stars (this book is very Adults Only).
This captures the intrinsic humanity contained in great literature, and reminds us why such stories are told and retold. It reflects who we are now, with all our crazy dreams, goals and utterly illogical societies, via the deep inner thoughts of a lonely fictional woman from the far future.
‘We’re bound together by webs of trust and betrayal and pain and comfort and triumph and humiliation and caring and apathy and life and life and life.
And below the web, the endless void.
And at its heart, monsters.’
This book is absolutely unique. Well thought-out science fiction that never leaves the reader lost, tied tightly to an historic tale whose ripples are still felt today. I (the reviewer, not the protagonist) can’t do it justice in a simple review. Suffice to say, it’s one of my Books of the Year by a far margin. Brace yourself, stock up on supplies, and step aboard.
Hell’s Heart is due for release 12th March – you can pre-order your copy on Bookshop.org
