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Hellhole, TOR Books, 2011, 644 pages, Science Fiction, Hardback

Review by Sarah Hendrix

Defeated through the treachery of Diadem Michella,General Tiber Maximilian Adolphus has been banished from the Crown Jewel worlds to the Deep Zone colony of Hallhome. Heavily taxed and carefully watched, Adolphus and the colony are supposedly rendered powerless and unable to make trouble. But the General has a plan.

With the help of other planetary administrators and many people on his planet, General Adolphus plans to unite the Deep Zone planets, throw off the Crown Jewel shackles, and gain their independence. Off world events begin to challenge his plans and the discovery of the original inhabitants of Hallhome complicates the lives of the colonists. Things are thrown into to high gear with this fast paced science fiction story.

Being the first book in a series has its advantages and disadvantages. This one clearly isn’t a stand alone, as many of the story lines are left incomplete. Herbert and Anderson create a variety of characters that add several dimensions to the story but the plots are complex enough that five hundred pages aren’t going to be enough to tie up all of the ends. The story never gets bogged down with all of it though. Short chapters and cuts to the next main player in the story keeps this story from being stagnant.

I was slightly disappointed with the character development in this book. While there are several characters and complicated plots, there is just too much going on for us to see the individuals change and grow. A few shortcuts were made in order to push the story line, but this was mostly a plot driven story.

Over all, it was a quick engaging story.