Book 1, Hell Divers: The Hell Divers Series

Every once in a while you stumble across a new book or series by complete accident and by an author you never heard of, and suddenly a whole new world of fantastic fiction is unveiled to your unsuspecting consciousness. Not only did I find Hell Divers engrossing, highly original and well thought out, but the character development is superb. Nicholas has a gift for creating a dark and highly suspenseful atmosphere, and I lay in bed at night shuddering at such a possible apocalyptic future. I am looking forward to reading more of Nicholas' dystopian works. Bravo.

A great start to what I expect to be another great series. I actually reread Extinction in anticipation of Aftermath when that gets released. That's how good and engrossing these series are. It's very hard to put these down when you start. Hell Divers is another captivating start to a new series that will not disappoint. A great combination of characters with heart, determination, ability, and intelligence. Looking forward to the next installment.

This book was an excellent effort by the author in starting a new storyline. I thought the approach was original and entertaining. Good characters and an interesting story line. Well done. I am waiting for book two and hoping the author is busy writing...

Spectacular read! Incomparable to anything out there in the Post Apocalyptic genre. From the first introduction to Hell Divers at the end of the Extinction books was all I needed to pre-order. The only bad side to this is having to wait until next year for book 2.

X is the legend that all other Divers strive to become. He is the voice of experience where the Captain trusts him implicitly and seeks his counsel/advice. Save up your money and purchase this book, worth every penny and minute of reading. And now we wait for the second book :-( Seriously anxious for the next one !

Hell Divers, book 1, turned out to be more than I expected. it didn't grab me at first, but as the characters developed within the story, the story caught me. As always, loads of action from page one. Heartbreak, terror, sorrow, and redemption....are all a part of this book. Completely enjoy Nicholas Sansbury Smith story telling from Orbs to the Extinction Seriers and now Book 1 Hell Divers. Keep em coming.

Great story, action, imagery, etc. read this book in two days (sorry work productivity) only issue was the ending. It wasn't a bad ending, just not one I really liked. Maybe it was the hope then despair. I will def be waiting on the next book, He'll Divers: Ghost

I like this genre very much and had heard good things about the author, so I picked up Book 1 to see what it was all about. The idea is pretty original and has a very interesting concept of the last vestiges of humanity living above Earth, but no longer being of Earth. Except for the exceedingly brave "Hell Divers," man has not lived on the surface for hundreds of years. The divers have to make repeated trips to the now nightmarish land to scavenge supplies that keep the two remaining airships afloat, and with them, all of the human race. So again, pretty original and pretty interesting.

Problematically, most of the characters are one-dimensional. Brave, tortured, rebellious, hot-headed -- you can pin one of these attributes on most of the characters and not worry about the rest. The main character has the most depth, and the author is trying hard to flesh him out by having him live in two worlds: a hell diver and an unexpected parent. But even then, the child is a typically precocious tyke who seems destined for "greater things".

Perhaps future volumes give us more to chew on, but frankly, between all the calamities that befall the people in the book, in a couple of weeks no less, makes it hard to really focus much on anything but the action. So speaking of the action, it's good, although again, somewhat unbelievable as we have a population on a ship of around 500, and they seem to lose 4-5 every day during this book, amounting to a good 10% of vital members of the population (engineers, farmers, divers, etc) but nothing seems to slow down really. It's just odd that the ships have existed for this long and all of the sudden, in the time span of this book, all hell is breaking loose. Ditto for certain discoveries on the surface that I won't reveal, but seem terribly convenient to be appearing at this particular point in time.

Anyway, I wouldn't say don't bother, but but also don't expect too much.

Once you pick it up you'll find it's hard to put down. I love post apocalyptic and zombie reads. Mr Smith has adequately combined the two for an awesome thrill ride to and from the sky. Characters are very relatable and are well developed. Plot is well written and moves along a good pace. Only complaint I had was number two wasn't available to read yet. Also if you happen to read this review sir might I suggest a book or two with a full backstory leading to humanity taking flight?!

This was a very good read. My evening reading before bed has worked its way from twenty minutes into hours. I couldn't put this book down. The story kept me interested and engaged all the way through the book. Nice work!

Outstanding!!! This is one of, if not the best, post-apocalyptic
books I've ever read. It was non-stop. The characters made you cheer and scream and agonize over their adventures. I can't recommend this book enough!

I've now read all of Mr. Smith's prior works - Hell Divers very simply surpasses all his previous work and cannot fail to satisfy. This new post-apocalypse scenario features plenty of nail-biting action but never art the expense of serious, thoughtful character development. Buy your copy now -don't hesitate!

A great start to what I expect to be another great series. I actually reread Extinction in anticipation of Aftermath when that gets released. That's how good and engrossing these series are. It's very hard to put these down when you start. Hell Divers is another captivating start to a new series that will not disappoint. A great combination of characters with heart, determination, ability, and intelligence. Looking forward to the next installment.

This book was an excellent effort by the author in starting a new storyline. I thought the approach was original and entertaining. Good characters and an interesting story line. Well done. I am waiting for book two and hoping the author is busy writing...

Spectacular read! Incomparable to anything out there in the Post Apocalyptic genre. From the first introduction to Hell Divers at the end of the Extinction books was all I needed to pre-order. The only bad side to this is having to wait until next year for book 2.

X is the legend that all other Divers strive to become. He is the voice of experience where the Captain trusts him implicitly and seeks his counsel/advice. Save up your money and purchase this book, worth every penny and minute of reading. And now we wait for the second book :-( Seriously anxious for the next one !

Hell Divers, book 1, turned out to be more than I expected. it didn't grab me at first, but as the characters developed within the story, the story caught me. As always, loads of action from page one. Heartbreak, terror, sorrow, and redemption....are all a part of this book. Completely enjoy Nicholas Sansbury Smith story telling from Orbs to the Extinction Seriers and now Book 1 Hell Divers. Keep em coming.

Great story, action, imagery, etc. read this book in two days (sorry work productivity) only issue was the ending. It wasn't a bad ending, just not one I really liked. Maybe it was the hope then despair. I will def be waiting on the next book, He'll Divers: Ghost

I like this genre very much and had heard good things about the author, so I picked up Book 1 to see what it was all about. The idea is pretty original and has a very interesting concept of the last vestiges of humanity living above Earth, but no longer being of Earth. Except for the exceedingly brave "Hell Divers," man has not lived on the surface for hundreds of years. The divers have to make repeated trips to the now nightmarish land to scavenge supplies that keep the two remaining airships afloat, and with them, all of the human race. So again, pretty original and pretty interesting.

Problematically, most of the characters are one-dimensional. Brave, tortured, rebellious, hot-headed -- you can pin one of these attributes on most of the characters and not worry about the rest. The main character has the most depth, and the author is trying hard to flesh him out by having him live in two worlds: a hell diver and an unexpected parent. But even then, the child is a typically precocious tyke who seems destined for "greater things".

Perhaps future volumes give us more to chew on, but frankly, between all the calamities that befall the people in the book, in a couple of weeks no less, makes it hard to really focus much on anything but the action. So speaking of the action, it's good, although again, somewhat unbelievable as we have a population on a ship of around 500, and they seem to lose 4-5 every day during this book, amounting to a good 10% of vital members of the population (engineers, farmers, divers, etc) but nothing seems to slow down really. It's just odd that the ships have existed for this long and all of the sudden, in the time span of this book, all hell is breaking loose. Ditto for certain discoveries on the surface that I won't reveal, but seem terribly convenient to be appearing at this particular point in time.

Anyway, I wouldn't say don't bother, but but also don't expect too much.

Once you pick it up you'll find it's hard to put down. I love post apocalyptic and zombie reads. Mr Smith has adequately combined the two for an awesome thrill ride to and from the sky. Characters are very relatable and are well developed. Plot is well written and moves along a good pace. Only complaint I had was number two wasn't available to read yet. Also if you happen to read this review sir might I suggest a book or two with a full backstory leading to humanity taking flight?!

This was a very good read. My evening reading before bed has worked its way from twenty minutes into hours. I couldn't put this book down. The story kept me interested and engaged all the way through the book. Nice work!

Outstanding!!! This is one of, if not the best, post-apocalyptic
books I've ever read. It was non-stop. The characters made you cheer and scream and agonize over their adventures. I can't recommend this book enough!

I've now read all of Mr. Smith's prior works - Hell Divers very simply surpasses all his previous work and cannot fail to satisfy. This new post-apocalypse scenario features plenty of nail-biting action but never art the expense of serious, thoughtful character development. Buy your copy now -don't hesitate!

The Extinction Cycle was epic but Hell Divers takes it to an entire new level with a unique premise of skydiving into the apocalypse. Great characters, especially X and Tin. This is one of the best Post Apocalyptic books of the year because it's fast paced, frightening and breathtaking at times!

Awesome book! Loved the whole thing! I actually got this book because RC Bray was the narrator, but am so glad I did! Can't wait to read the next one. This would make a great movie! Be sure to pick up the audio version as well!

The last remnants of the human race live on airships as the surface of the planet is no longer habitable. As the airships age, Hell Divers are dispatched to hunt for the materials needed to keep the airships afloat. "X" Rodriguez is the best of the Hell Divers and leads diving teams to locate these materials. While the surface of the planet is full of dangers, life on the airships is fraught with unhappy survivors due to harsh living conditions.

Nick takes us on a wild, adrenaline filled ride throughout the book. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and the only bad thing about the book was that it ended! And wow, the ending literally left me hanging! I can't wait for the second book in the trilogy to come out! Remember the team motto:

We dive so humanity survives!

I've read all of Nick's other books, Extinction Cycle, Orbs, and The Tissian Chronicles. None of these disappoint and Nick delivered another fantastic read!

Nicholas Sansbury Smith has done it again. Hell Divers is a very well written post-apocalyptic story that grabs your attention and won't let you put it down. I found the author through his Extinction Cycle series and am happy to say that I will continue to be a loyal reader. Great book for any fan of sci-fi or post-apocalyptic reading!

Do you like this author? Do you like post-apocalyptic fiction? Then you'll be entertained by this book.

Now for some of the issues I found. The main thing that bugged me throughout the book were some of the incredibly poor choices made by individuals who are supposed to have experience, are leaders, or frankly are just survivors. Without getting into specific details, at one point the main character of the book ignores every sign that someone is alive. They literally come upon what is obviously a situation where supplies were scavenged, and the author has this genius say "I have no idea what happened." Really? Hmm, who could use specific supplies (such as a suit battery), and who he knows were dropped in the area. At the same time, they can't accept that their sensors are literally detecting a suit beacon in the area, heading towards their supply crate. The author has them continually explaining away ideas that make sense (maybe a suit beacon means someone in a suit?), and throwing out theories instead.

In addition, the diver teams are so poorly led and disciplined it's laughable. Here you have the select few that the last of humanity has to rely on, and not only do they all (including the badass main character) get plastered the night before and show up hungover for the jump, when they are on the surface they act scared, and argue about what to do all the time. Is there no chain of command? I get that the divers are these cool wildcards, but they really aren't taught and trained that the team leader is just that, the Leader?

In another example of these laughable divers, at one point they need to pick up assault rifles from a supply crate as the (creatures) are getting closer. The main character yells for them to load up with rifles and ammo. So what happens with this crack team of experienced daredevils? One of them stands frozen, and she yells to him "I'm not good with guns!" with panic in her voice. Oh good. I'm glad humanity chose you to be part of it's last ditch effort to prevent extinction.

Great concept and a decent book, way too much unbelievable behavior to make it a great one.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a relatively quick read due to the fact that I couldn't put it down. I ended up reading until midnight to see how it ended. It was interesting how vividly I could imagine all the different landscapes and monsters in my mind. The author did a fantastic job on his descriptions.

An exhilarating ride thru space to save the last humans. Nick Smith has again proven he can tell an amazing imaginative story. Xavier (X) and his band of Hell Divers leave their flying fortress Ares, home to the last known 600 people to "dive so humanity survives." They jump in the storm ridden skies as they descend to the radiation filled remnants of earth to find the life saving pressure valves and nuclear cells needed for survival. As the ship Ares is fighting rebellion in the skies, X and his other Hell Divers are fighting their way through horrendous snow storms, winds, lightening and flying mutated monsters called Sirens. It's a story that doesn't give you time to breathe, keeps you immersed and engrossed. Wonderful job Nick!

The basis for the story is quite interesting and, in it's specifics, afaik is original. Pertually flying lifeboat for humankind has to risk people to grab parts & supplies ti keep surviving. Looked great. But then the story derails.
The overall action is, imho, good enough. Decent pacing and writing, with the main characters detailed just enough for us to care about them. But the ship itself and it's environment is very badly described. We are told that the ship has been flying around for 200 years... but has a crew of only a little over 500. This, simply put, is completely impossible. Setting aside the problems of DNA diversity, inter-family marriage, etc, the sheer casualty rate from the diver's own activity, plus all the fatalities from cancer we are shown, would wipe out such a small crew in a few generations. And the ship's size is also very poorly represented; we are told these 500 live cramped, with barely enough space for a farm and animal area... and yet the ship is powered by EIGHT reactors. Even a modern USN carrier has only 2, and carries over 5000 people, so 8 reactors points to a gigantic ship, something like Galactica... so why so few people? It makes no sense, and it stuck with me as I read the book and saw people dying left and right. And the problem is made even worse by the separation between upper and lower deck staff, which apparently leaves only a handfull of people to actually work the ship! A crew of 5000-10000 would solve all these problems, and would give the author a lot more leeway. Forget any problems related with making the ship last 200 years, finding parts, etc; the ship would run out of crew long before it became worn out...

The last remnants of the human race live on airships as the surface of the planet is no longer habitable. As the airships age, Hell Divers are dispatched to hunt for the materials needed to keep the airships afloat. "X" Rodriguez is the best of the Hell Divers and leads diving teams to locate these materials. While the surface of the planet is full of dangers, life on the airships is fraught with unhappy survivors due to harsh living conditions.

Nick takes us on a wild, adrenaline filled ride throughout the book. It definitely kept me on the edge of my seat and the only bad thing about the book was that it ended! And wow, the ending literally left me hanging! I can't wait for the second book in the trilogy to come out! Remember the team motto:

We dive so humanity survives!

I've read all of Nick's other books, Extinction Cycle, Orbs, and The Tissian Chronicles. None of these disappoint and Nick delivered another fantastic read!

Nicholas Sansbury Smith has done it again. Hell Divers is a very well written post-apocalyptic story that grabs your attention and won't let you put it down. I found the author through his Extinction Cycle series and am happy to say that I will continue to be a loyal reader. Great book for any fan of sci-fi or post-apocalyptic reading!

Do you like this author? Do you like post-apocalyptic fiction? Then you'll be entertained by this book.

Now for some of the issues I found. The main thing that bugged me throughout the book were some of the incredibly poor choices made by individuals who are supposed to have experience, are leaders, or frankly are just survivors. Without getting into specific details, at one point the main character of the book ignores every sign that someone is alive. They literally come upon what is obviously a situation where supplies were scavenged, and the author has this genius say "I have no idea what happened." Really? Hmm, who could use specific supplies (such as a suit battery), and who he knows were dropped in the area. At the same time, they can't accept that their sensors are literally detecting a suit beacon in the area, heading towards their supply crate. The author has them continually explaining away ideas that make sense (maybe a suit beacon means someone in a suit?), and throwing out theories instead.

In addition, the diver teams are so poorly led and disciplined it's laughable. Here you have the select few that the last of humanity has to rely on, and not only do they all (including the badass main character) get plastered the night before and show up hungover for the jump, when they are on the surface they act scared, and argue about what to do all the time. Is there no chain of command? I get that the divers are these cool wildcards, but they really aren't taught and trained that the team leader is just that, the Leader?

In another example of these laughable divers, at one point they need to pick up assault rifles from a supply crate as the (creatures) are getting closer. The main character yells for them to load up with rifles and ammo. So what happens with this crack team of experienced daredevils? One of them stands frozen, and she yells to him "I'm not good with guns!" with panic in her voice. Oh good. I'm glad humanity chose you to be part of it's last ditch effort to prevent extinction.

Great concept and a decent book, way too much unbelievable behavior to make it a great one.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was a relatively quick read due to the fact that I couldn't put it down. I ended up reading until midnight to see how it ended. It was interesting how vividly I could imagine all the different landscapes and monsters in my mind. The author did a fantastic job on his descriptions.

An exhilarating ride thru space to save the last humans. Nick Smith has again proven he can tell an amazing imaginative story. Xavier (X) and his band of Hell Divers leave their flying fortress Ares, home to the last known 600 people to "dive so humanity survives." They jump in the storm ridden skies as they descend to the radiation filled remnants of earth to find the life saving pressure valves and nuclear cells needed for survival. As the ship Ares is fighting rebellion in the skies, X and his other Hell Divers are fighting their way through horrendous snow storms, winds, lightening and flying mutated monsters called Sirens. It's a story that doesn't give you time to breathe, keeps you immersed and engrossed. Wonderful job Nick!

The basis for the story is quite interesting and, in it's specifics, afaik is original. Pertually flying lifeboat for humankind has to risk people to grab parts & supplies ti keep surviving. Looked great. But then the story derails.
The overall action is, imho, good enough. Decent pacing and writing, with the main characters detailed just enough for us to care about them. But the ship itself and it's environment is very badly described. We are told that the ship has been flying around for 200 years... but has a crew of only a little over 500. This, simply put, is completely impossible. Setting aside the problems of DNA diversity, inter-family marriage, etc, the sheer casualty rate from the diver's own activity, plus all the fatalities from cancer we are shown, would wipe out such a small crew in a few generations. And the ship's size is also very poorly represented; we are told these 500 live cramped, with barely enough space for a farm and animal area... and yet the ship is powered by EIGHT reactors. Even a modern USN carrier has only 2, and carries over 5000 people, so 8 reactors points to a gigantic ship, something like Galactica... so why so few people? It makes no sense, and it stuck with me as I read the book and saw people dying left and right. And the problem is made even worse by the separation between upper and lower deck staff, which apparently leaves only a handfull of people to actually work the ship! A crew of 5000-10000 would solve all these problems, and would give the author a lot more leeway. Forget any problems related with making the ship last 200 years, finding parts, etc; the ship would run out of crew long before it became worn out...

This book will make for a blockbuster movie, as will his award -winning Extinction Cycle series and Orbs trilogy! As much as I loved his other books, Hell Divers is definitely Nicholas Sansbury Smith's best. His imagination knows no bounds, his writing is crisp, fast-paced and the suspense does not end!. If you like all those features, you are going to love Hell Divers and the characters the author has populated this book with. In two airships live the remainder of the human race, some of whom have never set foot on Earth - an Earth that is in ruins, radioactive, unrecognizable, and with...well I don't want to spoil the effect for you as you discover the twists and surprises that await not only you, the reader, but the Hell Divers, as they dive from the airships down to Earth to try and find the various parts needed to keep the ships in good repair and in the air. I don't want to say too much as I think you will appreciate discovering on your own all the things that make the authors' characters not only come to life but become relatable to you, as well as all the plot twists and suspenseful, life-threatening happenings on the ships, during the dives, and on Earth. Will the Hell Divers succeed in their missions? Will humanity survive? You.Will.Enjoy.This.book! I was recently and unexpectedly hospitalized and made my son go home and get my Kindle so I could keep reading this book! Does that tell you anything?! Buy this book - you won't be sorry!

What a ride! This book had me hooked from the get go. A slightly different approach to the post-apocalyptic genre that totally works. I also liked the realistic characters with all of their flaws an weaknesses exposed. No super heroes here, just people trying to survive. Looking forward to the next installment!!

Well written with great visual imagery. Would make a fantastic film.

The Helldivers parachute to the surface from giant zeppelins to hunt for resources in a post apocalyptic world. They dive to keep the airships flying above the monster infested surface.

Great book! I love the unique setting of the story, it's really refreshing in a genre bloated with spaceships and jump drives. The character development is paced perfectly, and the mixture of tactical- and strategic level story keeps the story compelling, dynamic and plausible. Well done!

I did not have very high expectations really for the book, but I trusted the reviews enough to give it a shot. I was positively surprised. Good pace, compact story with gritty realism without overdoing it. I would not label it as military sci-fi as such, although it has some aspects in common.

Don't bother if you have already read the Extinction series. Instead of Team Ghost leaving Plum Island and going off to find whatever and fighting and getting killed by Variants, it's Team Raptor leaving the Hive and going off to find whatever and fighting and getting killed by Sirens. I wouldn't call the book bad, it's just if you read Extinction then you have already read Hell Divers. There's many scenes where you could just substitute Ghost for Raptor, Beckham for X or Variant for Siren and you would think it's just another Extinction book. The two series are pretty much identical, at least so far.

The Gist:
Set 250 years after World War 3 has all but decimated humanity, A brave few live on Airships. Surviving on scraps and constantly battling furious storms to keep afloat, They send down to the surface Hell divers so humanity can survive.

What works:
This is an exceptionally thrilling and well crafted book, the action never lets up. The characters are suitable flawed but with good hearts, we have monsters that prowl the surface, villains and heroes.
The author wrote the best selling extinction cycle series and he steps it up several notches with this new exciting book.
The book is fast paced but gives you some breathers, the dialogue expertly captures the bleak and haunting nuclear wasteland, I loved the way the author describes what the character's see and feel, it really transported me into the nightmare.
When you create a post apocalyptic world it needs to be believable and it totally is.

What doesn’t work:
I simply can not fault this book, I tried to get pedantic over something but couldn’t.

Overall:

A perfectly crafted post apocalyptic thrill ride, with plenty of action and military bangs and even a few jump scares.
An epic movie in the making, Just call me for the casting.
You’ll love it.

Hands down one of the best books I’ve had the pleasure of reading.

5 out of 5 stars.

This is one of the best books I have ever read. I couldn't put it down. Record reading time for me. I received the book on the 19th and finished it the afternoon of the 20th. It is an absolute must read.

Just. Read it! [Insert Shia LaBeouf meme]
Seriously, I've been completely captured by the atmosphere depicted and didn't want to stop reading. Full of suspense and surprises. Exceeded my expectations.

Ok so this is a great book. Well thought out story and great characters with plenty of action and mystery. So with that being said why are we having to wait a year between releases. I read this book about 6 months ago and the new one finally came out and is only 285 pages and the next installment won't be out till July 2018. That is a huge turnoff. It shouldn't take any author a full year to write less than 300 pages. If I were you I would def hold off on buying it until the next one is out as that's what I am doing and in fact I regret buying the first one now too. A year between releases is just dumb unless a book is 600 plus pages. Very poor choice by this otherwise great author although if it takes him a full year just to write 300 pages then how good of an author can he really be.

This is one of the most drawn out and predictable books ever. It had its moments, but it’s one of those “oh they’re going to die” like 2 lines after they’re introduced. Way too over the top and cheesy to a fault.

There are much more poorly written books out there, but that's a pretty low hurdle. The writing in this story is often clumsy and full of too many similies, but the story was interesting enough to keep me reading to the end.

The biggest flaw, is that the ship floats with hydrogen but supposedly only when that hydrogen is in certain containers and not in others. If their balloons burst, they lose altitude, even if they have more hydrogen elsewhere on the ship that they could supposedly fill them with when repaired to gain altitude again. Frustrating.

Pretty pedestrian and largely not "believable" not the environment, but you have a community of about 500 people and we have big groups of people who just don't know each other? That is a pretty small town...

Engaging writing, intriguing story, but dirigibles do not fly on helium. Add to that the NPR stories about our dwindling helium reserves and that manufacturing helium is difficult. i am finding it difficult to want to continue reading on this basis alone. A little bit a research and a keen eyed editor could have saved this book from that kind of silly mistake. Maybe it gets better, but if the helium leaks into the passenger area I am pretty much going to pee my pants laughing at all these serious stuff and people with squeaky voices.

I am not a writer so I hate giving less than stellar reviews to those brave people who do write, and even more so those who write well. So when I say that Nicholas Sansbury Smith is in the latter category you can imagine how much I hate having to say I really didn't enjoy this first volume of what I sincerely hope is a ever improving series. What's worse is I am not sure how to describe why I didn't like it except to say I just figured out where the first book was going long before it got there and that took the fun out of reading it. I realize that the next book may be a game changer with some twists and surprises and some fleshing out of characters and I hope it is because I did so enjoy The Extinction Cycle and ORBS.

Lastly from the looks of the great ratings so far, I am obviously in the minority in my review of this book. And I am fine with that as I wish Smith all the luck in the world.

Let me start by saying I loved the author's Extinction Cycle series of books so I was eager to read this new trilogy. The story was, at first, engaging and the premise exciting. Loved most of the characters. Even pictured Vin Diesel in the role of X. However, I found myself getting bored rather early in the book. The action was slowed by unnecessary repetitive dialogue. Each "Dive" seemed to be the same. I was looking for more action and less talk...seemingly the same talk repeated. I must admit that I skimmed much of the narrative to get to the action sequences. I do hate overly long, adjective based writing. Definitely got the overview of Hades the first go round. Then again & again! I would love to see this author tighten up his descriptive prose and tell the story without repeating the same boring details. Will I read the next installment? Not sure at this time.

"the bombs dropped by his ancestors hadn't just destroyed the Old World - they had created a new one and populated it with monsters."

UPDATE: June 29, 2017
I just re-read and finished this first book of the HELL DIVERS series to refresh my memory before starting on an Advanced Reading Copy of HELL DIVERS II: GHOSTS. I enjoyed it just as much the second time around and am very anxious to "dive" right into GHOSTS.

I don't know why I enjoy post-apocalyptic novels as much as I do (crazy, warped, have a death wish - or a mixture of all three attributes) but I was thrilled to hear that author Nick Smith has started a new series. I am a huge fan of his EXTINCTION series and after reading this first book in his new series, I don't want to wait around for the second book to come out. It is that good.

The book starts out 250 years in the future - after World War III has decimated the Earth. The only survivors live on two huge airships - the Hive and the Ares - and roam the skies looking for someplace on Earth where it would be safe to land.

After so many years, the airships aren't in the greatest shape and Hell Divers jump from the airships down to a very dangerous Earth to find parts to fix the airships. The Hell Diver who has been doing this the longest is Commander Xavier Rodriguez, aka "X".

The average life expectancy of a Hell Diver is 15 jumps. X has made close to 100 jumps.

I loved the world building author Smith does in this tale. He brought me into the Hive, showed me the different classes of people that live on the ship, introduced me to interesting, desperate people doing what is needed to survive under horrendous conditions.

This is an exciting look at what "might be" in our future. Scary but also hopeful - I recommend it to those who like post-apocalyptic thrillers, science fiction, horror, monsters, blood, guts and gore.

I received this book from Blackstone Publishing in exchange for my unbiased review.

***Since I discuss some plot elements in my review below, I'm issuing a light SPOILER WARNING here.***

After five Extinction Cycle novels (and a sixth on the way!), Hell Divers, the first installment in a brand-new series from Nicholas Sansbury Smith, is a refreshing change of pace. While it has all the hallmarks of Smith’s usual brand of brimstone and bullets, its premise goes a long way in making this a distinct entry in this author’s oeuvre.

In both the Orbs and Extinction Cycle books, Smith approaches his doomsday scenarios as fresh threats to humanity on the brink of destruction with The End Of The World As We Know It just right around the corner or rapidly in progress. In Hell Divers, the apocalypse has already happened and, two hundred years later, mankind has been reduced to roughly a thousand souls spread out across two airships, the Ares and the Hive. The Earth below them is a radioactive wasteland, the skies treacherous with the constant threat of electrical storms. After Ares is damaged, the Hell Divers (think futuristic paratroopers with wildly short lifespans) aboard the Hive are sent on a rescue mission. Soon enough, they find out the ground is not as lifeless as they thought, as marauding bands of vicious creatures they dub Sirens are out to get them.

One thing Smith does exceptionally well are action scenes, and there’s plenty of those to go around here as Xavier Rodriguez (otherwise known as X) and his team do battle across frozen wastelands, and the shipboard Militia stave off homegrown threats, as well as more elemental troubles. When the Divers do their diving, there’s some legitimate excitement to the sequences and Smith does a terrific job describing this horrific adrenaline rush. Ground combat is equally fierce, although the Sirens could use a little more oomph. As a fan of the Extinction Cycle series, I didn’t find these mutant killers quite as intriguing as the Variants. However, with two more books on the way, Smith certainly has plenty of space left to flesh out the concepts introduced here.

On the character front, X is the strong dashing male hero, and Captain Ash is the strong-willed woman in charge of the Hive – both are great characters, and get their own moments to shine. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more about these characters, as well as their lives aboard ship, and the ten-year-old Tin has all the makings of a heroic prodigy if he survives all the threats life in the skies brings.

There’s a lot about Hell Divers that feels comfortably familiar, but Smith freshens it up with a new coat of paint and shakes up the formula of his previous series enough to avoid feeling derivative of his other apocalyptic military thrillers. I think he’s on to the start of something that could be pretty bold here, and I’m excited to see what he has in store for the Hive, and readers, with future installments. Onward and upward!

[Note: I received an advanced copy of this title for review from the publisher via NetGalley.]

SPOILERS BELOW.

The dialogue was repetitive and cliched. Major unrealistic plot devices.

The book involves a blimp/airship that is hardened against nuclear EMP but is vulnerable to lightning strikes.
The monsters eat radioactive material but have left the nuclear cells alone for centuries.
Buildings that have survived for centuries happen to fall when the characters are around.
Only two things ever seem to break or run out: pressure valves and nuclear cells.

I got all the way to the end of this book, closed it and yelled 'SERIOUSLY?'.
That pretty much sums up how I feel about this entire book.
The ending was a complete cop out and more than a little like the reader got bitchslapped.

I had such high hopes. The descriptions were beautifully done, the emotions clearly conveyed, the plot was a bit all over the place at times, but fairly easily followed. The premise was awesome, and it was a good read.

And then there was the 'conclusion'. The second book hasn't come out yet, so I can't say if it continues that story or not, but without giving spoilers, I HIGHLY doubt it.

Is the author a good writer for getting me so pissed off and riled up about how it ended? Maybe. I enjoyed it up to the last chapter.

Having written that ending differently, I would have given this book at least 4 stars.

However it didn't, and I don't see myself getting the second in the series.

I keep sitting down to write this review, and I keep stepping back, unsure of what words could possibly describe this book. I hope you can bear with me, and if my words aren't enough, just buy the book and read it for yourself. Then we can talk about it. ;)

So, it turns out that Sansbury Smith isn't a newbie author. He's actually got a huge arsenal of books under his belt. I got really excited after finishing Hell Divers to read something else by him, and I certainly have a lot to choose from. But... I can also see why I may have overlooked his books in the past. They all look very... military? I've never really been interested in reading books that involve a heavy military plot, but if they're anything like Hell Divers, then you bet your knickers that I'll be reading them! His Extinction Cycle series comes highly recommended, so I think that sounds like a good place to start.

The intensity level of this book is off the charts! There is literally danger at every turn, and you know that not every character is going to make it out alive, because that would be too unbelievable, and quite honestly, this just isn't one of those books. There won't be any rainbows or fluffy kittens, and I actually prepared myself for a devastating ending. Because seriously. This book delves into the dark. It's violent and bloody, and definitely for a mature audience. Even saying that, I never felt like it crossed that line into the gratuitous. The story called for gore, plain and simple.

There are multiple POVs told in the third person, but essentially, the main character is X. He's brooding and mysterious, recovering from his own emotional baggage. He has suffered loss, just like every other remaining member of the human race. Radiation poisoning and cancer, malnutrition and poverty. Everyday life aboard the Hive is rough.The Hive is described as a giant airship, though my imagination seems lacking when it comes to drawing the mental picture for it. Is it a blimp? It's held aloft with helium and propellers, that's all we need to know. Even after reading the book, I'm not sure if X is talented or just lucky. Either way, he has stayed alive longer than he should have. He is a Hell Diver, whose job is to skydive out of the Hive to retrieve resources from the ravaged surface. Part of me really wants to tell you what's going on down on the surface, every spine-tingling detail. But then there is part of me that knows spoilers are wrong. *sigh* I hope you appreciate the effort I'm putting in here.

Our other main characters include the captain of the ship, Ash, and Tin, the son of a fallen comrade. These character choices allow a huge variety of perspective throughout the story. We can see the political choices being made, but also get the simple and honest opinion of a child. The POV changes also allow the elimination of any potential boring filler scenes. Seriously, that pace, dude.

The world was so solid, I swear I could see it when I closed my eyes at night. Though the world building was never obvious, it was always just... there. In the way the air smelled, in the texture of the Sirens' skin. It was very three dimensional. Together with the characters and the plot, Sansbury Smith has created a full-bodied sci-fi novel, and by far, one of the most entertaining reads of the year for me. Annnnnd the ending? I am so not having any of it. How long until the sequel? A YEAR?! No. Just... no.

A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.

The problem with writing a book like this is that one can't really rely on new science as very futuristic science fiction books can (e.g., warp drive). I realize many readers don't give a whit about scientific or engineering reality, but I do (these are almost uncountable, but to give just one example, having man-sized creatures being able to fly with wings that fold into their backs is just so ridiculous, never mind that mutations of this sort happening in a few generations is as well). I can forgive some lapses as almost all fiction has them. But in this case the unreality is ludicrous so that alone ruins it for me. Even setting this aside, I find the characterizations mediocre, and the action is of the class where the hero can shoot man tens of beasts (that are lightning quick) without harm puts this book firmly in the fantasy and shoot-em-up categories.

Interesting premise. Awkwardly written. Like Extinction it has useless chapters. Annoyingly the story jumps way too often. Seemingly every chapter is a cliffhanger. If you dig constant "meanwhile, back at the ranch" tempo you'll like this. Like other stuff this guy writes, there is no real win for the characters. All their lives REALLY suck. They just scratch by between beatings and it gets old.

Weak overall story and pedestrian dialogue at best. Another book where the writer mails it in - no effort to provide a plot twist, develop a character with more than one dimension, or create palpable intrigue. Boring.

I will not trust any reviews on the store books under 500 reviews from now on. Must be a better way to find quality.

If you paid attention in to your high school science lessons, then this book will read as nonsense.
Also, like others have stated... within the book the ship is 250 years old and has a population of 500 people. Yet some how they are strangers to each other. Even the Hell Divers act like they hardly know each other.

However, if you don't know the difference between hydrogen and helium, don't care about how long evolution takes, have no idea about minimum breeding populations, or are unfamiliar with human social structures... you might find some fun action here.

Wow, what a ride! This post-apocalyptic science fiction/thriller novel was very exciting— quite the “page turner”. I use quotes for the phrase because I listened to this on audio so there were no pages, but I didn’t want to stop listening. RC Bray does a fantastic job narrating and makes each character feel real. The characters are believable, well developed, and likeable (if they are supposed to be). The plot is interesting and exciting. The story is well-written. I am so glad that I gave this a try. I almost didn’t because I read one of his previous books— “Orbs”— and really didn’t like it. Very happy that this one turned out to live up to it’s potential. I hope book two is as good as this one because I’m downloading the audio for it as I type this review.

As a side note, don’t be deterred by the “horror” shelf tag that many readers have used for this book. This didn’t feel anything like a horror novel to me. There are scary, predatorial creatures on the planet’s surface and a few descriptive passages about what they do to their prey but it didn’t bother me or scare me in the slightest (and I’m squeamish and easily scared, LOL).

So after the first few chapters it was pretty apparent that both the characters and the story line didn't have a lot of depth. The characters seemed very clichéd and the dialogue was very trite and overdone. It felt like he had wrote this book as a movie, which was disappointing. The ending wasn't very good either and I don't believe I would read any of the other books in this series.

I have to say this was a very pathetic book. It took me over a month to read! Usually I read a book in 2 weeks. It was long and drawn out. and You know with a 2nd and 3rd book coming that the hero survives. This book needs some serious makeover help. I do not think, I will read future installments of the series.

I was enjoying the book. Good pacing, good action, and good characters. I was going to pick up the rest of the series until the last scene. Don't mind a tragic ending and would have been fine if it had ended with the next to last scene. The last scene has no purpose but to make a cruel emotional manipulation in the reader. Won't be wasting my time with the rest of the series.

About 250 years from now, almost all life forms have been erased from the surface of the Earth. Two airships, each with about 500 people aboard, represent the total population of the human race. They are the surviving remnant of fifty that were constructed centuries ago, for the purpose of raining nuclear weapons down on the surface of the planet, and have been repurposed as “lifeboats”. They are falling apart, running out of food and fuel, and the second-class citizens are ready to explode with violence that will doom both ships.
The only resources available, that might temporarily stave off the extinction of humanity, are on the surface. The only way to access these resources is to parachute men and women down to the surface, in the hope that some will survive, and some of the critical resources might be raised to the two ships.
With terrifying lightening storms encircling the globe, weather patterns that effectively bury hundreds of square miles of ruins at a time, and a surface menace that has only been glimpsed a couple of times but has its focus on any and all power sources, stand in the way. On average, a Hell Diver survives 15 trips to Old Earth and back. Xavier Rodrigues (known as “X”) has survived 96. X just wants to die and get it over with.
When a Hell Diver mission is launched, I picture Matthew McConaughey hurtling, with no superhero resources, headfirst through the atmosphere (in his case, acting as dragon bait) and with similar survival statistics.
This could make a great movie

The earth as we know and loved it has been nearly destroyed by humans.  Floating above the clouds and well above the radiation levels, two airships – Ares and The Hive contain the only living humans.  All others are gone, fallen to the earth in crashes leaving no survivors.  All too often, the airships need supplies that only the war-ravaged and nearly destroyed earth can provide – parts to maintain the ships.

The ships are self-sufficient, crowded and depending on who you are – life can be pleasant or hellish.  Not only does The Hive have to attempt a rescue mission over Hades (a particularly deadly area of the world) but their ship is falling into ruin.  Hell divers are the men and women who dive from the airships and fall to the earth to scavenge what the ship needs to stay afloat.  X is one of the best but he carries so much baggage that one wonders if he still has it in him.

Action packed, X and his crew must find the necessary parts to keep their ship afloat while the captain faces her own difficulties.  Residents are recruited younger and younger to be engineers, hell divers and more – there is no childhood anymore!  Diving to the  planet from the airship, is dangerous given the electrical storms and other conditions that mother nature throws their way.  While on the planet, X not only loses his best friend and becomes a surrogate father but he comes face to face with deadly vicious monsters that have mutated into unspeakable horrors that enjoy human flesh.  The Hive must fly, X must return with the needed supplies and the human race must survive – but is it too late?

Nicholas Sansbury Smith brings the injustices of society, mistakes, and fallacies of humans to the forefront and mixes in unimaginable monsters with razor-sharp nails and teeth.

I thoroughly enjoyed Smith’s Extinction series so I was looking forward to this series with anticipation and excitement.  Smith did not fail to deliver – Hell Divers is an exciting action packed book that is well written and developed fully.  Rich in detail, the characters are fully developed along with the plot.  Everything moves together – in a fluid-like manner leaving no questions or holes.

Smith is a rare and unique story-teller; one that can grow a story into a very skillful piece of writing capturing the audience’s attention and interest.

R.C. Bray, narrator performs this oral narration perfectly.  He captures the roughness and personality of each person; he plays his voice as if it were a musical instrument – concise and with the correct tone inflections and emotion.  He embraces the book and allows the book and its characters to shine.

If you enjoy action and well-written stories of the apocalypse, then don’t miss out on this one.  It is riveting!

There were no issues with the audio production or quality.

Audiobook was provided for review by the author.

Please find this complete review and many others at my review blog

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I listened to about 80% of this with my wife while we did a 6-hour drive to see a friend for his sons birthday. I put it on as she was falling asleep since I figured she wouldn't like it. I couldn't have been more wrong. The combination of Bray's voice and Smith's writing kept her awake the entire way down and back (which if you knew her in cars you would know that was a big feat!)

Hell Divers tells the story of a poisoned Earth that humanity has destroyed. We basically bombed ourselves out of our own homes and things on Earth are really bad. If you were to stand there (and not die from radiation poisoning) and look up through the electrical storms you might catch a glance of the airships that have been the home of X and the crew for the last century or so. X is a Hell Diver -- a group of elite men and women who dive back to Earth risking life and limb to collect much-needed parts and equipment to keep the airship afloat.

Holy crap was this an exhilarating story. There wasn't a lot of time to catch your breath as you blew through pages wondering if X and his team were going to make it out of different situations. There were a ton of things that I liked about this book but the few standout moments include the description of a Hell Divers jump expectancy (15) compared to how many X has completed (over 90 I believe it was). Along with the interaction between X and his friend son towards the end of the book (an incredibly heart-warming part of the book). These two specific parts stood out to me, but honestly, this book will be in my memory for quite some time.

It doesn't hurt to have one of the best voices in the audiobook industry record your audiobook either. R.C. Bray does a phenomenal job narrating this story and made the minutes fly by. I couldn't believe that we were at my friend's house already -- the time really flew by.

Overall, Hell Divers will be a book I remember for a while, and thanks to the Facebook Live video that I saw with Smith and Bray where Bray reads the intro to book 2 I decided to push this book up in my queue and give it a shot. Now I'm eagerly awaiting Hell Divers 2's release date.

I love sci fi, and I consume a lot of medium grade post-apolcolypic and military sci fi. This book has a fantastic concept, and the writing is generally solid. But the story is riddled with plot holes, MacGuffins, and unrealistic technology. If you are going to imagine a near-future world using quasi-believable technology, why take shortcuts. There were exciting moments, but mostly eye-rolling, and on multiple occasions I had to push myself to keep going and finish the book.

Some groan-worthy notes:
* 250-year old amphetamines are still effective.
* Helldivers on mission critical jumps are at the mercy of a 250 year old "storm sensor" to determine if they should jump or not. Instead of, you know, looking out a window from 20k feet and just seeing if there is a storm below you.
* Radios sometimes have a multi-hundred mile range in the air, but do not work in the 4 miles from air to ground. Beacons on the ground work in the city, indicate whether someone is alive, and indicate relative position without the benefit of GPS or triangulation.
* Every hive uses different radio frequencies and there is apparently no way to change between them.
* Multiple supply crates are dropped on every "helldive" but it appears to be no big deal when they are left behind, even though they contain irreplaceable rifles and batteries.
* Helldivers jump with not one, but TWO weapons (a pistol and a "blaster" (sawed off shotgun?)) but rely on finding dropped supply crates containing automatic weapons, batteries, food and supplies. Did the author consider researching what WWII and later paratroopers jumped with?
* Helldivers must always manually pull their ripcords even when blinded by weather, but supply crates always arrive without trouble.
* Sirens (monsters) have evolved to live in a place where the temperature is -30 degrees with no apparent food source or plant matter that might support a food chain. And evolved to fly in near constant hurricane-like storms. And can see "power sources" and also navigate using sonar. And have teeth like sharks and claws that can cut steel and shred titanium armor. And can home in on a sound made in the midst of a snowstorm dozens of city blocks away.
* Everyone must work for food, and food is scarce, but people are put into jail for years or longer for crimes like theft and rioting.
* The "Hive" has survived for 250 years but can't withstand electrical strikes without shutting down its nuclear reactors (a modern-day aircraft can easily withstand a lighting strike)
* A 40 kg briefcase full of "nuclear cells" can run multiple reactors for years.
* Warehouses full of "nuclear cells" were apparently built and scattered all over the US, with little more security than a digital keypad.
* Helium cannot be effectively generated as suggested (A ton of radioactive material might be able to produce 10-20 grams of helium in a year)
* Deadly environmental radiation has apparently lasted for more than 250 years-- it has not decayed, been buried, washed away, or covered up (google is it safe to visit: Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Chernobyl, Fukushima)
* Continuous electrical thunder/snowstorms rage across a frozen world whose sun almost never reaches the surface to evaporate any water vapor.
* These thunderstorms can move and grow unlike any known storm, and always in the worst direction (towards the protagonists)
* Chicago is covered by a permanent electrical snow storm (generated by moisture evaporating from its frozen lake?)
* Some parts of the hive like the Farm are protected by amored hatches. But the walls are thin enough that assault rifles carried by all of the guards can easily penetrate multiple layers and puncture critical gas bladders.

Ok.. that's enough. Like I said, the author can write. He just structured the book like a 50s pulp serial and took short cuts in order to tell the story he wanted. It just could have been a much better and more believable story. Just look at Hugh Howey's silo.. that's just as far out a concept.

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.

WOW! I just finished this book the other day and immediately ordered the second and third because, I know without a doubt, I'm going to burn through those like I did the first. Being a huge fan of post apocalyptic stories, this is by far my favorite and I'm so excited to get on with the rest of the story.
What can I say about this story that almost 1000 other reviews haven't already said or that my wife hasn't heard me ranting on about over the past couple of weeks? I can find absolutely nothing negative about the story at all. The characters are well developed as the story unfolds without over doing it. The plot is genius and is a fantastic new take on humanities struggle for survival after humans destroy one another along with the Earth. The author does a fantastic job of describing the environment and the characters without boring you to death with too much information that isn't really relevant. The pace of the story is perfect in every way. A great mix of plot foundation and action to keep the reader wanting more and more.
Hands down just a great book all around. If I could give it 10 stars I would!
Fingers crossed for a movie out of this series. I would love to see how the Sirens would be depicted. If they are half as vicious and creepy as the author describes them, It'll be a win for everyone.

So many reasons why I was instantly in love with this book! This is dystopian/apocalyptic readers’ dreamland, where all dreams come true.

There is this "Hive", the massive airship where they live. It's overpopulated, claustrophobic, and disease-ridden. There is social inequality, famine, rebellion… There is everything that there should be.

And there is these daredevils. I loved them, especially the MC, X. This is the guy you want to be stranded with in a desert island when the ship sinks. Though he is a totally flawed drunken [well, he lives in the Hive people] he is also awesomely brave and selfless.

Then there is the writing. His writing is like… well… like an overnight FedEx package… HERE! BAM! Package delivered! Simple, streamline. AWESOME. The way the multiple POVs are handled so you get all the different perspectives of the life in The Hive… BRILLIANT.

Then there is the world! The poisoned earth, the crazy climate, the wastelands, the ruins of the abandoned cities, the technical specs of the divers’ suits and of the airships. The life in the Hive, how they farm, how they manage their waste, how they deal with sickness and crime. Family relationships, friendships, love affairs… political and personal dramas brewing everywhere… love, hatred, loyalty, betrayal. You name it… It's here.

Then there is the nonstop action. The diving through the perpetual electrical storms of this apocalyptic sky. The landing in the radioactive wasteland that Earth is. The trekking through the dangerous ruins of decayed cities… Holy hellish hecatomb! And then add the hellions of mutants that inhabit Earth. Holy hell, these beasts are so deliciously horrible, terrifying and despicable.

With summer fast approaching, I thought I’d create a Great Summer Reads list, based on new titles and books I’d read a while back. It’s easy to do with “Hell Divers 1.” The story is so visually arresting, it’s stayed with me for nearly two years—and through books 2 and 3 in what has turned out to be an epic series.

To sum up the premise of Hell Divers,” Earth has become a hellish landscape some 250 years hence after a nuclear winter-like event. Humanity hangs by the barest of threads in two floating lifeboats—grand but frail airships where a group of brave hell divers must plummet to the planet’s surface to resupply the ship while warding off sirens and other mutated creatures.

The action rotates between scenes on the planet’s blighted surface and the moral blight of the Hive, where the survivors engage in petty squabbles and power plays with little regard to the enormity of the tragedy that lay far beneath them on the planet’s scarred, toxic surface.

At its heart, Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s saga is the story of X, Xavier Rodriguez, a complex, flawed protagonist who ranks up there in the annals of sci-fi heroes. If you go on to read the rest of the series, book one offers the richest portrayal of X, not only for his heroic exploits on the planet’s surface but for his team leadership.

Smith’s writing is strong, assured, and crisp, with just enough backstory to create a handful of fully realized characters with keeping the action moving steadily forward. The result is a breathtaking series of set pieces that keep the pages turning and would make a killer movie.

Hollywood, are you ready to dial up the next great summer blockbuster?

This was a six pack of Red Bull taken intravenously.
A high octane read from page one.
Fun but empty calories like a box of Twinkies. You think Twinkies survived the nuclear fallout? I say yes.

5 stars? Come on people rate these books realistically.
Weak dialogue, poor character development, and too many plot holes to be a 5 star read.

What do Sirens eat? Radioactive snow and dirt? Where are the prey?
Why did it take X 96 jumps to see a swarm of Sirens?
Why is there a steerage deck? Have and have nots. An economy.
Did Star Trek Voyager or Battlestar Galactica have these problems? No.
One more thing, 500 people on the Hive. Inbreeding?

Hell Divers by Nicholas Sansbury Smith delivers suspense and excitement like few books I've read recently. The plot and subplots work well together. I quickly became invested in the lives of the point of view characters. The book opens with Commander Xavier Rodriguez making his 96th jump to lead his team to the surface from an airship containing the last remnants of humanity. Few Hell Divers survive anywhere close to this many missions. This reminded me of a book called Armor (by John Steakley) which revolved around a character that had made more planetary assaults there and was statistically possible.

But I digress.

The premise is that humanity has survived a nuclear holocaust by taking to the skies. (There is a reason they did this.) The airships were never meant to fly for so long. The Hell Divers must descend the surface to find parts and supplies. After 250 years, radiation has done terrible things to the few creatures able to stay alive.

As intriguing as the premise is, it’s the actual writing and the pacing of the plot points that makes this story great. Nicholas Sansbury Smith knows how to raise the stakes. The characters are always right on that line where you think they're able to handle what is being thrown at them and yet have little chance of survival.

I was particularly fond of the ending, Which was suspenseful and full of imagery. I don't know if it is a cliffhanger exactly, but I definitely am looking forward to book two. I went and joined his mailing list after completing the book.

A friend of mine gifted me a copy of the audio book, which is what friends are for, especially when it is something like this.

I am a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories. I have read dozens of books with the same premise - The world has ended, people are trying to still be people. That being said - I just finished "Hell Divers" by Nicholas Sansbury Smith from Audible (Read by the AMAZING R.C. Bray). It's about a group of WWIII survivors living aboard an airship 250 years following the near-complete destruction of the human race. The 2 ships - Aries and The Hive - float above radioactive superstorms trying to stay alive. When they need supplies or parts to fix the ship they send their Hell Divers to the ground to find what they need. It's a very bleak and depressing world... and I picked up "Hell Divers II: Ghosts" as SOON as I finished the first one.

I knew nothing about this book going in. It was on the "Editor's Choice" sale and after reading the description of the book, I purchased it. It will probably become a standard part of my yearly book-reading rotation. The characters and world-building were great.

If you love post-apocalyptic stories with action, adventure, mutant monsters, and a healthy dose of great storytelling - pick this up. You'll thank me later.

This story is similar to the Hunger Games series of books, not for the plot, but for the shoddy world building. ie The story is fun and the characters engaging, but the universe they are set in just doesn't make sense. The "ark-blimps" are falling apart and have no spares after 150 years but still have working assault rifles and ammo for them and all the electronics and sensors on the bridge are fully functional. Out of all the fictional names the author could have come up with for the company that built the airships, "Industrial Tech Corporation" is the best he could come up with? Might as well go with "Acme". But that doesn't really matter because the universe is like the cheap matte background paintings that the original Star Trek used to use. They don't matter, its the story and the characters do. This book is really like a Netflix or SyFy original. If you ignore the realities and just sit back and enjoy the action, it's a lot better than you'd expect. Smith is a good writer, he writes likeable characters and he is good at building up tension and suspense, but its like writing causes him great physical effort so he only develops the characters and settings that matter to the plot, while everything else is almost literally an "extra" with one line or a badly painted cardboard backdrop.

Nick Smith is known for his great work on the Orbs and Extinction series, and if Book 1 is any indication, Hell Divers will follow in their successful footsteps. What I like about Nick's writings is the freshness that he brings to a genre that has seen the same old stories told time and time again. In Hell Divers, he once again thinks outside the box, painting an imaginative post-apocalyptic world with unlikely heroes falling from the skies. If you're looking for a unique post-apocalyptic thriller, Hell Divers should hit the mark nicely.

Written by Dr. Arthur Bradley, author of the Survivalist series.

*I received a review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

I’m proud to say I’ve been reading Nicholas Sansbury Smith’s work since before he was picked up by a publisher. His tales are not only inventive, they are fast-paced and just downright fun. Fresh off the heels of the ORBS series and the EXTINCTION CYCLE, Smith offers us a new vision of the post-apocalypse with HELL DIVERS. But this time, the world was not decimated by aliens or a virus…this time, we destroyed it ourselves.

I have to confess: HELL DIVERS is my favorite series Smith has written thus far. It has just as much tension and action as the priors, however this one has a bleakness the other two did not contain. Perhaps because this book starts off AFTER the apocalypse, whereas the others start before.

HELL DIVERS is written well, and the whole book flows at a nice pace. The prose is crisp, and the dialogue is believable, as are the people that speak it. The overall bleary tone of the story is set very early on, and this dark atmosphere carries throughout the book.

In regard to characters, they are diverse and fleshed out well. Smith writes them in a way that lets the reader get to know them intimately. We get an immersive feel for what they are experiencing, from the at-that-moment action to their longings to know what life was like before the world was destroyed. This allows us to mesh with them, and we therefore care about what happens to them.

The story is original and well thought out. I really like the concept of a select group of individuals who have to skydive to the burned out surface for supplies. I just hope my assumptions about the ending are misplaced…I can’t remember the last time I ever wanted to be wrong. As a result, I am very intrigued to see where books two and three take the story.

HELL DIVERS is another feather in Smith’s cap, and it’s a big win for me as well. If you’re any kind of fan of science fiction or post-apocalyptic fiction, then this is a book you have to check out. Smith once again raises the bar for himself, and I’m eager to see what he does next.

*Wow*. This was one hell of a book.

It’s all thanks to Daniela’s review that I read this, so I hate to copy her by starting my review the same way, but this book had possibly the greatest opening I’ve ever seen:

"The average life expectancy for a Hell Diver was fifteen jumps. This was Xavier Rodriguez’s ninety-sixth."

From there, it immediately threw me right into the grittiness and sucked me in because guess what the first thing was that happened in this book? A jump gone wrong. I could *feel* the nerves and anticipation while they were counting and waiting to do the jump. I could *feel* the terror of skydiving through a lightning storm. Everything was so vivid and made me feel like I was there.

And then when they actually got to the surface? Those were my favorite parts because they were always crazy intense.

But really, everything about this book was good. The world-building, of both the surface and the airship and how everything came to be the way it was, was phenomenal. And the concept of the Hell Divers—the people who jumped down to the surface to scavenge and get things they needed—was so unique, well thought-out, and detailed.

I also loved X. He was actually flawed and thus realistic, but he was still likeable. He risked his life as as Hell Diver, but he didn’t do it JUST for the good of the people; he was kind of addicted to the rush. He was also gruff, somewhat of an alcoholic, and not the best father figure for Tin. But then there were times when he did do selfless, heroic things just because that’s who he was, and it might seem incongruous with his flaws, but it wasn’t. It all just worked with his character. And his positive qualities made for some surprisingly touching moments.

The author also did a good job of showing both Maria’s and Travis’s sides of things when it came to the problems with the lower-deckers on the ship. I agreed with Travis that the way the lower-deckers were forced to live was awful and inhumane. They didn’t even have their own rooms, they had to share one bathroom that smelled so bad they couldn’t even stand it, they hardly had enough food to survive, and most of them were dying of cancer from the radiation they were forced to live near. It was truly terrible and definitely not fair. But I could also kind of see Maria’s side of things. I think that maybe something could’ve been done to improve their conditions, but look what happened when she tried to appease them and help them and give them more freedom—[hidden spoiler can be found in my review on my blog or Goodreads.]

Also worth noting is that this book didn’t have any romance. That’s neither bad nor good, just something to keep in mind depending on what you’re looking for.

So overall, this book was intense and detailed and gritty, and every time I picked it up, I ended up being completely gripped and sucked in, forgetting the world around me, not wanting to put it down!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

Original Review @ Metaphors and Moonlight (link in profile)

The Hell Divers book series is AMAZING! I had a hard time starting the first one, because it paints a pretty horrifying future for earth & human survival. But it still pulled me in & then I could not it down. I sooo hated waiting for Hell Divers II: Ghosts to become available (I preordered it, of course), & then was unable & unwilling to put down the minute it came out. Now Hell Divers III: Deliverance (also preordered) is almost here - just a few more weeks - yay! Looking so forward to it. :D My only regret is that I wish each book was at least 1,000 pgs long, lol. But the whole story being told is one that I will find just as entertaining & engrossing to read through again & again (I LOVE books like that!). I think the Hell Divers series would make an amazing movie(s) &/or video game(s) if done right, & that would be something I'd definitely pay to see in theater & buy for home viewing (or playing) as well. Just a thought, Nicholas Sansbury Smith! Keep writing, dear sir, & I will keep buying & reading. Thanks for the hours I've spent emersed in that horrible but morbidly fascinating possible future. I love feeling scared by a good creepy book (or movie, or video game) - one of my top NOT guilty pleasures, lol. ;)

Hell Divers, by Nicholas Sansbury Smith, promises a lot from the onset
Post-apocalyptic setting - check.
Heroes diving into the battered remnants of the old world to support humanity - check.
Conflict - check!
But does it deliver? I mean really deliver? I won't make you read all the way to the end of this review to find out. The answer is, hell yes (pun intended).

The premise for this series was easily enough to hook me. The remnant of humanity lives in giant lighter-than-air platforms, floating above a war ravaged earth. And this really is the last bits of humanity. The premise also is Hell Divers' greatest attribute and Achilles heel, as it takes some really big risks. But in my experience, the authors willing to take those risks are usually the ones worth following!

Big questions plague our protagonists from the onset - our home is a giant, floating platform in the sky, so we need to either grow, build, or generate everything we need to survive, or (big “or”) we need to somehow scavenge it from the surface. Here's where the thrills and chills come in. Skydiving sounds thrilling and treacherous enough, but skydiving into a radiation blasted, war-torn wasteland sounds almost like lunacy. Enter the Hell Divers. Smith did a wonderful job establishing these characters. Yes they are heroes to their people. Yes they perform heroic deeds, but they are also complicated people, sometimes broken by the sheer magnitude of their task (they dive so humanity survives – could you imagine having that pressure hovering over your head?). Plus, they've got a shorter than normal life expectancy. Enter X, our main character, a diver who's spit at the odds and survived more jumps than any other diver - by a mile. Without spoiling the plot, adversity sets in, forcing humanity to start taking some real risks...like dive into a place nicknamed Hades, or mankind joins the extinction list. It really is as compelling as it sounds.

Life on the surface is more complicated and dangerous for the Hell Divers than we might at first believe. After all, they have to survive freak electrical storms just to get to the surface, where they are faced with erratic ice storms, unpredictable temperatures, and off the charts radiation. Does the science get a little light in places? Yes, but in this kind of novel, the plot doesn’t live or die off the science, so it works. We don’t need to know the exact chemical or mechanical processes for separating and collecting helium, we only need know that these people have a method, and that it works. X and his fellow divers are forced to jump to the surface for items such as reactor fuel cores and pressure valves – the kind of tech needed to keep their way-out-of-date platform in the sky. This felt like a little bit of Fallout (which might have been why I liked it so much), as X and the divers are forced to pick through the rubble of the old work, looking for just enough tech to prize humanity another week, or month. But they discover that the danger on the surface has evolved, literally. Now, a predatory race of creatures is roaming the landscape, hunting…well, anything and everything. These creatures make each dive that much more dangerous, each diver that much more important, and the lynchpin for humanity’s survival even more difficult to obtain.

Hell Divers is a riveting book. Smith crafts quality characters, with just enough personality and depth for us to genuinely come to care for them. This is rare in books of this genre, as the pacing affords very little time for backstory or character development. The conflict and peril feels real, too, as we are propelled through the story, driven to find out how this remnant of humanity will survive. In the end, this is a thrilling, fast-paced adventure that will leave you wanting more. I really enjoyed Hell Divers, by Nicholas Sansbury Smith, and recommend that you give it a try!

Footnote – I was perusing the reviews of this book before I started it and was generally disappointed with some of the notes left by others (more than likely trolls). One such reviewers scorned Hell Divers, stating the author obviously didn’t pay attention in High School science class, as a floating ship full of Helium in an electricity storm sounds like a very bad idea. I think this particular reviewer had confused Helium for Hydrogen, and forgotten that Helium, is in fact, not explosive. They might want to jump back into their history book and read up on the Hindenburg disaster. Please disregard these reviewers, as I found their arguments lacked any credible foundation. These are just my unbiased thought, and I hope they help.

This is one fantastic story! Hell Divers combines the best of what sci-fi and post-apocalypse stories have to offer. You follow the story of the Hell Divers, the elite teams living in giant airships with the rest of humanity after a nuclear war ruined the world. Every day on those ships is a fight for survival (they are hundreds of years old) and the world bellow and in the skies is even more dangerous. Nicholas Smith's writing is excellent! The way he describes the world of the story and the characters will really give you a feeling that you are seeing the story through his eyes. The action is written in such a good way that you really feel like you are in the fight with the characters. As you read this (or listen in audio book) and you can't help but see it as a full length movie in your head. Really glad I found this at my local library!

This is my kind of book, a “what if?” type of book with a dark, tormented protagonist. The surface of the earth is completely inhospitable, the last remnants of life (or so they thought) have taken to the skies.

Hell Divers has a great concept; people living on massive airships who would still need supplies from the earth. These brave individuals, Hell Divers, parachute to the surface and face a plethora of challenges to keep humanity alive. Nicholas Sansbury Smith takes us deep into the life of one of these insane…I mean…brave men.

“The average life expectancy for a Hell Diver was fifteen jumps. This was Xavier Rodriguez’s ninety-sixth, and he was about to do it with a hangover.”

This is our introduction to X, a man who is one part brave, two parts skilled, with a smattering of luck and a whole lot of crazy. As I read Hell Divers, I was pulled into his life, I began to understand the why’s and how’s of X. I love a tragic hero, no one wants Mr. Perfect to win, we prefer to root for the underdog. A tragic hero like X always makes the story better.

I had a few minor issues with the story. I found myself wondering: why do they do it like that? I really don’t think that’s logical; but let’s be honest, this is science fiction. Why do I read science fiction? For a getaway, an escape and to have some fun.

In the end, Hell Divers was an exciting edge-of-my-seat experience with an incredible protagonist that was based on a well-developed, intricate concept. It was a hell of a lot of fun. Sign me up for the next Hell Divers Team!

* I received a copy of the book from the publisher (via NetGalley) in exchange for an honest review.

This was such a great start to a new series by one of my favorite authors right now! This book definitely ends on a cliffy so if that really bothers you, you may want to wait for the series to be done.

X is a Hell Diver. Years ago the world destroyed itself through nuclear war and now only about 1,000 people remain. Two airships that hover just over the cloudy atmosphere of our world, each holding only 500 remaining survivors. It is the job of the Hell Jumpers to risk their lives going down to the radioactive world below to rummage for supplies that they need to keep their airships up.

As Nick is known to do, there are multiple deaths within the first chapter of the book. He knows how to immediately get you into his world and is phenomenal and fleshing out his characters and really providing great world-building. I had absolutely no problem picturing our world this way in the future.

Of course, while there are dangers on the Earth’s surface (high levels of radiation, dust/snow storms that are the size of apocalyptic tsunamis, and monsters that appear to be rather human like, but that feed on the radiation left behind – including the natural radiation that every human being has), there are troubles going on in the airship as well. They are slowly descending, a collision with the Earth’s surface only a matter of time, when a bunch of rebels decide they are going to take some people ransom and try to change the politics of the airship. Everything is hitting the fan, but our main protagonist X, can’t do anything about it. He’s too busy trying to survive on the planet’s surface, and find the much needed supplies that will ensure their airship doesn’t crash to the ground.

I don’t want to say anything else because I don’t want to spoil the story. However, the ending nearly brought me to tears. What a gut-puncher. X is seriously “The Man”, and we could only hope to have someone like that on our side at the end of days.

Copy received for free from the author in exchange for my honest review.

After reading the Extinction series, I had high hopes for Hell Divers. I can say without question the book more than lived up to my expectations.

You can find plot summaries in other reviews, so I'll stick with commenting on what I liked about the book. The male lead, X, is a complex person who deals with epic amounts of survivors' guilt from years of seeing team members die around him. This makes for a layered, three-dimensional character it was easy to root for. He is surrounded by solid, if not hugely developed, secondary characters (the most notable exceptions being Captain Ash and fellow diver Rick Weaver, whose back stories come out, and who are among the only characters besides X whom the reader gets to follow directly). I'm hopeful that in the volumes to come we see more of X and Tin together. The scene where X has to tell Tin he's diving again moments after making it back home was powerful, maybe the best scene I've read from NSS. I'd love to see more of that.

The ending was exciting, with a great cliffhanger to set up volume 2. I'm looking forward to it.

I've tried to think of a criticism, and I can't really come up with one. The closest is that I thought Tin seemed to go from being a smart kid with potential to an instant life saving hero with no real education in the interim to speak of. Oh well. This book had a lot of balls in the air at once, with several story lines going simultaneously, so a little suspension of disbelief is no big deal.

An exciting, action packed beginning to this series. I am really late in submitting my review but just wanted to add my two cents. The plot, characters and everything else has been hashed and re-hashed at this point as this book was released on the 19th of July.

This is undoubtedly the shortest review of a book I have submitted on the store. Three words - Scintillating, Super and Suspenseful.

I do hope that when the author releases the next one that he will give the readers a re-cap of this one. A year is a long time to wait and as a reader, I have a tendency to forget.

Most highly recommended. A solid 5 stars from me.

“Those things control the surface but we control the sky”. As humanity stands on the edge of extinction, barely surviving by going up in the air for a long time now, a group of elite soldiers from The Hive has the task of diving down to earth and maintain the old and messed up ship on the air. I really liked the fast pacing of the book even tough you know the author didn’t rush the story. And another thing was the author did an amazing job depicting the wasteland down on earth. There’s one thing: I’m still wondering what else is on earth. I’d like to know more about the story of earth. How it came to be like that. If there’s any survivors down there and more about the wasteland in general. I hope those things are discussed in future books.

I can't believe the author of this boring story also wrote the _Trackers_ series. The characters are dull and I didn't care if any died. There's lots of pointless action, but with no investment in the characters, all of it was fluff. This book was a big disappointment.

An interesting perspective on the future survival of humanity, with a little flavor of Aliens (minus Sigourney Weaver). I like how the author shows multiple perspectives by visiting the minds of several characters; which wasn't done disjointedly like other books I've read. In fact, it helped to garner sympathy from a character one might otherwise consider a "bad guy." There's a dark and serious undertone, making this a bad read for those looking for more happy and uplifting material. While the ending wasn't my favorite, it does fit with the overall tone. I personally enjoyed the tale and plan to check out the next book in the series.

Stumbled on Hell Divers as a recommendation from Audible after reading the first Extinction Horizon.

Absolutely excellent book. The genre for post-apocalyptic stories is getting inundated with stories that are vastly similar even if they are still very good. Smith brings in a very unique story with skyships and all sorts of mutants that deviate from the popular zombies antagonist. Smith is no stranger to post-apocalyptic writing and this story proved as easy to get sucked into as Extinction Horizon.

Characters are great and easy to connect with, the action is intense, and Smith does a great job at writing to where you hate to lose any characters. It's a book that is, by my estimation, a unique look at a popular genre and if you love post apocalyptic writings, you'll love this one and wind up buying the second book. At least, that's what's happened to me and now I'm getting ready to start Trackers.

I have a lot of books that I've loved that didn't necessarily make me a fan of the authors writings. Smith's book series have made me a fan of his work. You won't regret buying Hell Divers. We dive so humanity survives!!!

I thought decrepit airships above a decimated, post-WWIII Earth were a living dystopian Hell until I saw what these last remaining souls were floating above. When you fill out the application as a Hell Diver, you get to see Hades first hand if you're lucky enough to make it through the daily electrical storms plaguing the atmosphere in this first installation of Hell Divers.
Hell diving is more or less the medieval equivalent of the signing up for the Night's Watch and we get to ride along with a no-nonsense veteran and luckiest parachuting bastard in the world, Commander "X" who discovers everything isn't dead after all on the surface.

The story's pacing is blistering and gives us a small piece of Nick's world and the immediate new threats that may end all of humanity. I expect the next book to dig more into the geo politics and war that caused all of this as well as some new technological options in keeping the human species alive. It's now time to bring a few more mags on the next jump!

Very entertaining and unique picture of a post war future. Great audiobook production that kicked off with a fascinating idea of divers who visit the surface to retrieve vital supplies to keep humanity's survivors floating above the destroyed and poisonous remains of our world. I had moments where I wanted to see more of the world below, and that was mostly satisfied by the end. There was a little bit of a let down when I didn't get the adventure on the surface that I thought I was in for, though I enjoyed the personal aspect involved in the sub plots taking place on the ship. I wondered if I liked the main character enough, but by the end I was glad to have read his story. He's not the only one I cared for, so overall a very good story. Great climax that didn't give us an easy out, and added to the emotional impact, as well as my interest reading the next book.

So intense. Dark and dreadful. Desperately hopeful.

The settings were haunting. The characters were flawed and lovable. The story was simplistic, but action packed.

My biggest complaint was that for as much technology as there seemed to be, there didn't seem to be much thought given to one's ability to withstand being hit by electricity. It seemed like a convenient way to kill off a bunch of people at once, more than anything. Other than that, there was some more room for character development... especially with those characters that must be in the next book... since there's not a lot of people left to continue the story...

But, all in all, Smith's world was mesmerizing. Don't get me wrong. I did not enjoy this book. Characters I wanted to live, died. Ships I wanted to stay afloat, crashed. Socio-economic conflict I wanted to resolve, worsened.

X's fate could easily be ours. I'm not sure I want to think about it.

I received this title free from netgalley.

This book is all about action. High paced action. If you want people fighting to stay alive against mutant monsters in a radiation filled Earth, this book is for you and ignore the rest of my review.

Beyond the action and interesting setting, I have a TON of problems with several aspects of this story. First of all... where did these mutant monsters come from. No one had ever seen them and then suddenly they are popping up all over the world. Secondly, the airships these people live on for generations house only around 550 people (if I read correctly). But over and over again Nicholas Smith brings up interactions where people have never met each other. I would expect that if the population is so small, everyone would know one another. Also, with the population, how do they have enough students to feed a special Engineering program where they have several classes a day. This engineering program has many first year students but its only for an elite few. I did the math and if the average life was 40 years on the ship, every single person would pass through this program... Its just an odd discrepancy of world building I could not get past.

Other aspects I did not admire were the character building. Its ok, but these are like Bruce Willis in Die Hard, it doesn't get deeper than that. I also didn't think the multi person story telling was done very well. It could have been better if Smith had followed just a single character and varied the story structure to tell the points of views of others. The entire rebellion on board of second class citizens was kind of goofy in creation.

So while this book reads like a fun B grade action movie, its not well written, the characters are 2 dimensional, and the writing style is sloppy. Not sure why its getting such stellar reviews.

I recently finished the Trackers Series and wanted to read more from this author. I purchased Hell Driver and was just blown away by this book. The love, loss, fear and strength that these divers face to save what little of humanity is left is amazing. There will always be bad guys in every world sadly because there must be balance. As soon as the last page was turned I immediately purchased Hell Drivers II. I am looking forward to what the world and X have in store for the future. Lots of unanswered questions. This series is quickly becoming one of my favorites.

Hell Divers is a interesting look at post apocalyptic life but it wasn’t for me. The plot doesn’t really go anywhere. The majority of the time is spent on the mission to save the Hive but since its meant to be a series I feel like we’re missing much of the overall story and how it will end, which is one of my pet peeves. The flip side is that characters are interesting and engaging and helped rescue the story a bit. I have the next two books in the series, so I’ll move on in the short term but I’m not sure what to expect.

As darkness surrounds you and drags you into the storm brewing above the wasteland that once was a beautiful planet teeming with life. Your pulse quickens as as the lightning flashes through the sky, making the hair on the back of your neck stand with every crack. You want to close your eyes as you plummet to earth but you can't look away, there's no stopping for you....don't blink.

Nicholas has done it again, with heart pounding, blood pumping thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. I recently finished all of the available extinction cycle series or should I say recovered from it. Just like real life the heroes don't always win or get the girl, bad thinks happen and good people die. That's what makes his stories more powerful, they build you up then crush your hopes then build it up again. It's never an easy mission or cake walk in Nick's world and that's what I love about his work. It's grimy and gritty. I've never been a real sci-fi person but Hell Divers isn't really that type of story. It's a balls to the wall, nut up or shut up action packed thriller that will keep you begging for more. And I'm sure his gonna hate me for this and I don't blame him but I feel it's an extension of the extinction cycle. And that's not a bad thing because I love the extinction cycle and I feel that in some way this is what happen to that world. The variants evolved into the sirens and some how Kate and Beckham's great great great grandson is Commander Xavier and that brings me a great deal of joy.
I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did and continue with the rest of Nicholas' work. Also try the audio versions with R.C. Bray who is an incredibly gifted voice actor.

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 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.

Received from Blackstone Publishing in exchange for a completed unbiased review.