*spoiler alert
I just finished reading Hellhole, by Kevin Anderson and Brian Herbert. My reaction to the book: Meh. It is supposedly the start to a new space opera epic and I was quite frankly disappointed. Based on the ravaged and dangerous planet of Hallholme, nicknamed Hellhole, it describes the actions of the oh so noble General Tiber Maximilian Adolphus as he plots to overthrow the evil rule of the dowager Diadem Michella Duchenet. He had already been defeated once. These new plots are reasonably successful and Adolphus is able to craft an alliance out of the frontier planets to which he had been exiled. This story arc is slightly interrupted by the emergence of a beneficent symbiotic alien race that wants to merge with humans in order to seek the renewal of their dead race. This exceptionally intriguing plot aside, the book stalls in both setting description and characters.

In setting, the description of Hellhole seems understated as a planet ravaged by an asteroid a half millennium ago. The authors seemed to want to imply that it was a backwater dumping grounds for misfits on a severe life-threatening scale, à la Star Trek’s Nimbus III. The authors were unable to sell it for me. The characters, all decent enough folk, seem to work together for the common good. Nature, while deadly, is maintainable. Power for equipment is available, nobody seems to be starving, and the single killing that takes place shocks all who learn about it. This is not a place that shapes the human soul through suffering. From veteran writers who worked on the Dune series, I expected better. If you want a truly deadly environment, whether from nature or just killing each other, turn to Godwin’s The Survivors or Pournelle’s War World series. To be honest, a good day in Mogadishu sounds worse than Hellhole.

The characters are not much better. The leads, Adolphus and Duchenet, are extremely one dimensional. Adolphus is honorable and believes that the ends do not justify the means. This is made evident when he refuses to attack the enemy fleet, losing the battle and his own fleet, because the enemy has taken hostages from among his peoples’ families. This sucks for him as his opponent is the exact opposite in nature. She is cruel and malicious. She killed her brother who was before her in the line of succession and imprisoned her sister who witnessed it. There was no hesitation about ordering the arrest and execution of her daughter’s lover. She has ordered a great many deaths, yet she was hesitant to order the execution of Adolphus when he was captured. So, to foil the creation of a martyr, she exiles him to a really bad planet where he is expected to die but doesn’t. This one suspect act of benevolence starts the ball rolling.

The most disappointing aspect of this new series start is that it was written by two such veteran sci-fi authors. I have read several books that they have put out and have been generally impressed with their writing. The one redeeming aspect of this book is that it will set up what may be some spectacular space battles in the next two books. Or, at least I hope so if the aliens crap doesn’t piss me off too much when I read them.