AUDIOBOOK
About
Hell's Heart is a queer speculative fiction retelling of Herman Melville's classic story.
Here, a small party go hunting for a giant space creature – and experience love and loss along the way.
Earth is a ruin, and the scattered remnants of humanity scavenge what they can from the stars. This under the watchful auspices of a grab-bag of collectives, corporations, and churches. These are all that remains of what we once called society. Having long exhausted any conventional sources of energy, life in the solar system is now sustained by a volatile, hallucinogenic substance – this harvested from the brains of vast cetacean-like Leviathans that swim the atmospheric currents of Jupiter.
Finding herself with no money and little to occupy her groundside, the narrator ("I") takes a commission aboard the hunter-barque Pequod as it sets out in pursuit of these Leviathans. However, once aboard, she finds herself pulled inexorably into the orbit of the barque's captain, a charismatic but fanatically driven woman who the narrator names only as 'A'. As the Pequod plunges ever deeper into the turbulent, monster-haunted atmosphere of the gas giant, the narrator begins to lose herself in the eerie world of Leviathan-hunting and the captain's increasingly insistent delusions. The only thing that might keep her grounded is the bond she develops with Q, a woman from the wreck of Old Earth, whose skin is marked with holographic light and who remembers things others have lost.
A grand adventure is about to begin - one that will be strange, extraordinary and utterly unforgettable. Alexis Hall (whatever pronouns - sic) is the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material and many other books. Their work thus far ranges across mystery, urban fantasy, historical romance, rom-coms, and high-heat contemporary romance. He lives in the south of England. A hugely exciting new take on the classic Moby Dick story – with wit, grand adventure and queer romance. Here a small band ventures into deep space to hunt a mysterious leviathan. Great riches are at stake – but some might lose their lives, and their hearts, in the process.
Here, a small party go hunting for a giant space creature – and experience love and loss along the way.
Earth is a ruin, and the scattered remnants of humanity scavenge what they can from the stars. This under the watchful auspices of a grab-bag of collectives, corporations, and churches. These are all that remains of what we once called society. Having long exhausted any conventional sources of energy, life in the solar system is now sustained by a volatile, hallucinogenic substance – this harvested from the brains of vast cetacean-like Leviathans that swim the atmospheric currents of Jupiter.
Finding herself with no money and little to occupy her groundside, the narrator ("I") takes a commission aboard the hunter-barque Pequod as it sets out in pursuit of these Leviathans. However, once aboard, she finds herself pulled inexorably into the orbit of the barque's captain, a charismatic but fanatically driven woman who the narrator names only as 'A'. As the Pequod plunges ever deeper into the turbulent, monster-haunted atmosphere of the gas giant, the narrator begins to lose herself in the eerie world of Leviathan-hunting and the captain's increasingly insistent delusions. The only thing that might keep her grounded is the bond she develops with Q, a woman from the wreck of Old Earth, whose skin is marked with holographic light and who remembers things others have lost.
A grand adventure is about to begin - one that will be strange, extraordinary and utterly unforgettable. Alexis Hall (whatever pronouns - sic) is the bestselling author of Boyfriend Material and many other books. Their work thus far ranges across mystery, urban fantasy, historical romance, rom-coms, and high-heat contemporary romance. He lives in the south of England. A hugely exciting new take on the classic Moby Dick story – with wit, grand adventure and queer romance. Here a small band ventures into deep space to hunt a mysterious leviathan. Great riches are at stake – but some might lose their lives, and their hearts, in the process.
Related Subjects
Reviews
"Charli Anne Delores manifests a nameless narrator with a self-destructive streak in this SF reimagining of Moby-Dick. This narrator isn't particularly great at anything: She's impulsive, self-damaging, and resistant to love, and her path has inexplicably landed her aboard the Pequod. As she and her shipmates hunt down an enormous leviathan swimming around the planet Jupiter, the narrator grows closer to a harpooner named Q and the ship's captain, who's obsessed with hunting the white whale. The story is as much about the horrors of space-monster hunting as it is a rumination on religion, sex, and connection. Delores brings an entire interstellar melting pot to life, sharply voicing characters who represent a range of genders, cultures, and species. While the story stifles at times, Delores keeps listeners on the edge.
A queer fever dream made real by committed narration."
AudioFile