Hell Divers

Hell Divers Series, Book 1

By: Nicholas Sansbury Smith

Narrated by: R.C. Bray

2016 Editor's Pick

2016 Audible's Best in Science Fiction

The New York Times and USA Today best-selling series

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 Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to Earth long ago.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

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

©2016 Nicholas Sansbury Smith (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Smith did not fail to deliver

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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Great but hard to swallow

Well written, good character development and an excellent narrator; what this booked lacked to become a 5 star listen was a glimmer of hope! Well, that and the secondary characters feel pretty flimsy. I'm not one to need my books to have a storybook endings but some hint of a possible future would go a long way to making it feel like this story has somewhere to go.

Take my money for the second one now!

What attracted me to this one in the first place was name of narrator; R C Bray has the ability to turn an average title into good one. I have no idea how he does it? He is a freak if you ask me… I suspect he has some kind of secret super power to draw me in and relieve me of my money!

While I had many times seen the other titles belonging to Nicholas Sansbury Smith but I had never given them the time of day. I don’t know why? Perhaps it is just the covers. Like I said I don’t know why, it could be something as stupid as I once knew a kid called Nicolas and I didn’t like him very much. However, after listening to this one I might give his other titles a go. This one was original enough to make me test the waters more with his other titles.

I do get the feeling that this one could have easily have been a much longer mega series. I hope it does continue as I think it certainly merits it.

I listened to this one over the course of two days, so it did suck me in. As per usual with Bray’s narration I turned the speed up to 1.25x speed and was happy. Also as per usual the quality of the recording was excellent!

The story itself was a break from my usual zombie genre, but it was still in my ‘end of the world’ scheme of things. What can I say some people want to see the world burn! The story itself reminded me of another title I had reviewed about an year earlier called Sixth Cycle which was also narrated by R C Bray. The difference being I liked this one more.

The fast fat man is giving this title two big thumbs up with a stupid grin on my face!

great story. true heroics.

Great action pacing and character development. great read and a great listen! Get this book!

Great action scenes with great characters.

Love action filled scenarios in a post apocalyptic setting, but getting a bit tired of zombies always being the cause? Then then the audiobook  "Hell Divers" is for you.

Narrator R.C Bray's gravelly tough guy voice brings the whole audio experience home. Every hardcore action hero / survivor character ever can be heard in that man's voice. If Batman has an audiobook coming out this guy would likely be narrating it. Good job, R.C Bray for bringing the-staying-strong-against-all-odds plot of "Hell Divers" even more to life that it already was. Nothing is better than when they match a great story with the perfect narration for it.

This story is about an air ship called the hive and the special people who sky dive down through hellish storms to a hellish version of earth populated by hellish monsters just to retrieve enough supplies to keep their loved ones safe for just a little bit longer. They are called Hell Divers.

Recommended to thrill seekers and those facinated with action packed survivor fiction. Those who like both of those things with the added bonus of being written and told in a masterful way will love it.

Surprised

I would typically listen to books like this, but so glad that I did. What would happen to the world when WWIII hits....well this gives you some idea. I would 100% recommend this read to anyone. Continue to listen to all of the books in the series, it is well worth it.

Fun, fun, fun.

Like a lot have said, the first book in this series was fun to listen to. Not too much world building and only minor hints(or I'm projecting) at how humanity got to that position, but seeing as this is a book series, I feel an even bigger desire to move on in the series.

great post apocalyptic scifi

a great start to a post apocalyptic scifi series. I would highly recommend this book.

kick ass!

This book and the second are both fantastic. Scifi horror at its best. Lots of monsters and conflict. I can't wait for book 3!

Great action but cliched

Action was excellent. The happenings during the jumps and on the surface were interesting, but the dialogue was often groan worthy and it was hard to attach to any of the personal stories on the Hive. All in all, the author does really well with creating a gritty, terrifying world and atmosphere, but the people in it often have dialogue and personalities pulled right out of a low budget action film.