Reviews
Praise for Hell's Heart:
"Wow." – John Scalzi
"A startling, ferocious love letter to all the rawest emotions the human body can produce. Hall is a master of voice and scale, and this relentlessly gripping ode to the splendors and miseries of existence is no exception." – Sarah Gailey, USA Today bestselling author of Spread Me and Just Like Home
"One of my favorite books of the year... utterly transfixing." – Charlie Jane Anders
"Fey, funny, and extremely metal." – Malka Older, author of The Mimicking of Known Successes
“A towering love song to both Melville and Joan D. Vinge, a marvelous, intricate, heart-shattering romp.” – Lilith Saintcrow, author of the Dante Valentine series
"[A ] terrifying, fatally fascinating ride into the heart of Jupiter’s blood-red hell." – Judith Tarr
"Hell's Heart goes like gangbusters and is entirely unhinged. I'll follow Alexis Hall anywhere."--Kelly Robson, author of High Times in the Low Parliament
"A gorgeously written science-fictional picaresque, full of blood and guts and foolhardy daring, sperm jokes, a gracious lot of fucking, pirates, and a cult dedicated to the god who will devour the universe whose prophet mutters cryptic quotation." – Locus
"An update to Melville by way of Wilde with a modern, frequently erotic sensibility. The narrative alternates between propulsive action, uncanny world-building, and the narrator's own soul-searching, but always maintains a constant seeking ferocity at its core." – Shelf Awareness
"[A] dazzling retelling of Moby Dick... Hall captures a breathtaking sense of adventure throughout. This thrills." – Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Hall brings their signature flair to the story, imbuing the narrative with steamy queer romance, electric prose and shrewd insights into a postcapitalist hellscape whose mores are only the slightest exaggeration of our own." – Bookpage
"A fantastic space adventure that any fan of sf or even Earth-bound adventure novels will love." – Booklist, starred review
"Call me fangirl! This is Hall’s best, weirdest, and most snarkily delightful book yet. Whether you like even-more-queer Moby Dick retellings, space whales, disaster bi drama, Jovian gaslamp science fiction, razor-sharp satire of capitalist theology, Locked-Tomb-style obscure jokes, Cthulhu cultist crew members, thematically-important infodumps about xenobiology – or better yet all of those things tied together in intricate perfection – this will be your jam." – Ruthanna Emrys, author of A Half-Built Garden
"Unlike Melville’s Ishmael, Hall’s protagonist has sexual relationships that are textual rather than subtextual and also pretty hot. The worldbuilding is strong and—as is the case in the most resonant science fiction—disturbingly plausible... a good old-fashioned space yarn." – Kirkus