I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Hella by David Gerrold Published by Daw Books on June 16 2020
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 448
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Big ideas, big dinos and lots of thoughtful commentary, Hella was an odd combination of quick thrills, fascinating facts and very uneven pacing.
I had high hopes for Hella, and although it started off with lots of promise, halfway through the book I realized that there were several problematic elements that would ultimately add up to a middle-of-the-road book. Which is a shame, because just look at that cover! I loved the idea of a group of colonists living on a planet where everything is huge, and at first, Gerrold does a great job of setting the stage and presenting a cool idea with plenty of opportunities to evolve into a fantastic plot. And he succeeded at times, but sadly this book ended up being a mixed bag for me.
First let me set the stage. The planet of Hella was colonized 106 years ago and over 7000 colonists now call the planet home. Hella is home to gigantic dinosaur-like creatures and humongous trees, extreme weather conditions and desolate landscapes, but the colonists have developed ways to stay safe in this harsh environment over the years. One of their strategies is to relocate to a different outpost during the summer and winter seasons to avoid the worst of the bad weather.
When the story begins, the colony is packing up for the trek to Winterland Outpost, where they go every year to escape the freezing winters. At the same time, a pilgrimage ship called the Cascade is nearing Hellan orbit and will land in a matter of months with a new crop of refugees. Kyle is a young autistic teen who was born on Hella and lives with his beloved older brother Jamie and their mother. Kyle has an implant he calls “the noise,” a chip that gives him access to an internet-like pool of knowledge and that also allows him to better communicate with his friends and family.
Kyle is tasked with creating informational videos to beam up to the refugees on the Cascade while they are waiting to land, videos that show not only the beauty of Hella, but warn of the extreme dangers as well. While Kyle’s intentions are good—giving the new colonists a true picture of what life on Hella is like—not everyone on board is happy to learn about the hard work that will be expected of them once they land. Life on Hella isn’t easy, you see. Everyone does their part to make the colony run smoothly, from working on the farms and helping with food production, to clearing out tunnels to build underground housing and much more. For some colonists, the lure of relocating to a new planet was supposed to mean freedom: freedom to stake out their own territory and make their own rules.
When a political clash between the leader of the Cascade and the governing body of Hella seems imminent, Kyle and his friends must try to protect their peaceful way of life at all costs.
By far my favorite thing about Hella was the planet itself and the unique animal life that lives there. And by “animal life” I mean HUGE dinosaurs! The colony has been living and thriving on Hella for over a hundred years, so by now they have figured out the best survival tactics and how to deal with the herds of beasts that migrate each year. My favorite dino was the leviathan, which I’m picturing in my head as a brontosaurus. Leviathans are described as being 500 times as big as a Rollagon, the all terrain vehicle used to get around, which is five or six stories tall, so you can imagine a whole herd of them making their way across the plains of Hella and how the colonists strategically placed their outposts according to these migration paths. We do get a couple of exciting Jurassic Park-like scenes involving leviathans and bigmouths (tyrannosaurus rex), as they hunt and kill each other for food, and there are some delightfully gory parts that gave me hope for the rest of the story. But once we hit the midpoint, the dinos mysteriously vanish from the picture. This lack of dino action was perhaps my biggest disappointment.
I love that Gerrold included an autistic main character, and although the word “autistic” is never mentioned, it wasn’t hard to guess based on Kyle’s characteristics. The entire story is told from Kyle’s point of view, and his dry, concise manner of speaking does get a bit old after a while, I’m not going to lie. Kyle is extremely smart and obsessed with details and facts, and much of his narrative in the first half consists of page after page of detailed information about the wildlife on Hella, the social organization of the colony, and the logistics of getting from place to place. Luckily, I found all of this information fascinating, from the eating and migration patterns of the leviathans and bigmouths to the descriptions of the gigantic trucks called Rollagons that enable the colony to safely traverse the planet. But I quickly grew tired of his textbook-like voice and simply wanted the plot to take over. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen until the very end of the story.
As for the characters, I found it difficult to connect with any of them, although I did have a soft spot for Kyle and his social challenges, and I did like the close relationship between Kyle and his brother Jamie. One of the strangest things for me was that the kids and adults all felt exactly the same. Kyle and Jamie, as well as two kids from the Cascade, J’Mee and Charles, all spoke like adults, and their dialog at times actually made me cringe. Kyle befriends an outcast on Hella named Jeremy, and they quickly decide to become boyfriends, despite the fact that Kyle doesn’t like to be touched. The dialog swings wildly from Kyle and Jeremy calling each other “sweetheart” (which just didn’t fit with their age—they are supposed to be around fifteen years old) to making a “stinky promise” to each other by linking fingers. (Seriously, if I ever have to read the words “stinky promise” again…) It was such an odd mix of adult language and baby talk, which made it hard to relate to them.
I also want to mention the role of sex and gender in Hella, as I found it interesting and a little disturbing at the same time. In this future, people are able to change their physical sex at will. For example, Kyle was born female, but when she was about three, she was jealous of Jamie’s ability to pee standing up, so she decided to become male. Likewise, Kyle’s mother was born male and changed so that she could experience childbirth. And once you change, you can change back if you want to. Oddly, there is never any discussion about how the physical transformations take place. I was also surprised to find that it’s common for the colonists to take showers together. Gerrold had his characters randomly jumping into the shower in groups of two or three, I suppose to show how open everyone is about sex and seeing each other naked, but I have to admit it was a bit shocking and weird for me, especially when those showers involve young adults who don’t even know each other that well.
The plot abruptly switches from a potentially exciting survival story to a confusing political plot, complete with lots of social commentary about genetics and whether or not all members of society are important, even if they’re “different.” And I haven’t even mentioned HARLIE, the AI from the Cascade who adds a philosophical layer to the story—as if this story needs anything else added! The big twist near the end wasn’t surprising in the least—I had it figured out early on—and it felt like Gerrold was trying to shoehorn in a bunch of action in those final scenes in order to make up for the slower parts of his story.
Hella had a lot of potential, and I applaud Gerrold for including a marginalized main character and using Kyle’s condition to shine a light on autism, but with so much going on, it was hard to love all its parts. Lots of readers have rated this five stars on Goodreads, which puzzles me a bit, but hey, you never know! If this sounds like your kind of story, then definitely give it a try.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I am sorry this book didn’t delivered! The idea seem great and dinos! This is sooo cool! But it seems like very poorly done, and that’s a shame!
It was too bad, but I am curious to read more of his books.
does anyone know if any of these characters in Hella appeared in any of Gerold’s previous books. A Goodreads review says so. scopist65@gmail.com
Sorry to hear this one didn’t work out too great for you. The worldbuilding sounds great, but I agree that it sounds like almost too many things are going on in the book.
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It was just too much…
This really does seem like such a cool premise — I’m sorry it wasn’t as good as you expected (that cover is damned striking)
I love the cover, and oddly enough, the cover fits really well with the parts of the story I loved best:-)
The cover is indeed gorgeous, and the premise was fascinating. Dinos, extreme weather would have made for a pretty good story. Sorry, the book couldn’t interest you as much as you wanted it to.
I just wanted more of the dinos, but hey the author had other ideas, and that’s ok:-)
I have this one coming up next, and I do love the concept, but I’ll go into it a little wary after reading your review. 🙂
I’m so curious to see what you think!
I just finished, and had to come back and re-read your review. And yes, we’re very much in sync, and I can’t even express how much I wanted more dinosaur action in the 2nd half of the book!
I’m sorry this novel did not deliver on its promises! It’s not difficult to imagine that you might have expected something similar to the “Donovan” series, and from your description this does not sound as if it comes even close…
Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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There are parts that really reminded me of Donovan, and parts that reminded me of Jurassic Park, and parts that…well you get my drift, lol.
I really dislike mixed bags, especially if the premise sounds so interesting as well as a cool cover. The inclusivity is good though!
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I know, mixed bags are tough to nail down, and I hate to sound too negative because a lot of readers loved this!
I’m definitely intrigued, so thanks for sharing your thoughts! I haven’t actually had a chance to start this one yet, but I don’t know if I’ll like the beginning as it sounds bogged down with lots of description, and that doesn’t always work for me. But I think I’ll still try to read it soon. 🙂
I’d love to hear your thoughts, if you read it!
Well darn, I was hoping this was going to be really really good. That whole sex changing showering thing is I will admit not for me so I am glad you mentioned it as I can just skip the book but admire the really cool cover! 🙂
There were just too many weird things for me to fully enjoy it. But if you have time, you might want to try!
Fantastic review! I’ve been debating about whether to try to fit this into my already overloaded schedule and I guess I won’t. It sounded great but some of your issues would be for me too probably. Plus overloaded.
Thanks Anne:-)
Doesn’t sound like something I’d enjoy, and I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy it either – especially after such a promising start! Sounds like two novels hastily sewn together, and that rarely is a good thing.
It did feel almost like two separate novels!
I haven’t yet tried anything by Gerrold, and though I’d like to, I doubt this will be the one I try. Too bad it didn’t come together better.
Yeah, I wouldn’t mind trying another book of his someday!
I debated between giving this a 3 or 3.5, and my rating still might change when my review goes up soon, ,but yeah I had fun with this one in places, and in others it was frustrating. Regarding the gender issue, I got the feeling sex as a biological concept just didn’t exist or matter to these characters which is why the book seemed to just gloss over the subject. I get that we’re seeing the story from Kyle’s point of view which is why the tone almost feels flippant or dismissive, but as readers on the outside, the lack of context was a bit jarring and disturbing. Having Kyle as narrator is a bit of a double edged sword in that sense. But the parts that were fun, I really enjoyed! Especially the ending.
I did love the ending, it made up for some of the rest of it.
That sounds like… a lot! At least the world itself was a plus!
The world was really cool! The huge size of everything was a great idea.
Darn. I’d hoped you would love it. The idea is so fun and that cover sure is something.
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I know, maybe my expectations were too high.
I guess if you can randomly change your sex at will then showering with everyone wouldn’t be a big deal, that’s what I’m thinking lol.
Ha ha good point!
This kind of sounds like a lot to take in. I’m still curious about it but think I will definitely lower my expectations.
It was actually very slow for me, too many info dump pages and the action was all at the end.
Brilliant and very fair-minded review, Tammy. What a shame this one didn’t deliver. It sounds as if the author is simply trying to cram too many ideas into a single book – as a result it all suffered!
Yes, there were just too many elements, and I really wanted the focus to be on the dinosaurs and some drama with the colonists. But hey, I didn’t write it, so I can’t complain too much I guess!
I was super curious about this one, because I was kind of on the fence with it. On the one hand, it sounded a bit like my sort of book (think Jurassic Park), but on the other … sci-fi is so hit or miss for me lately. I love the idea of the dinos, and I think that’s definitely why I wanted to pick it up. I’m kinda disappointed that it was done so well when the rest of the book was kind of meh, because now I’m confused about whether I want to read it for the dinos or whether it’s not worth suffering through the rest (which doesn’t sound like my kind of story). xD I’m so in the mood for a great dino book right now lol. Thanks for the review!
I think it’s worth reading, especially if you like reading about scientific facts. As long as you know it was sort of uneven.
I was thinking the same as Lisa. I guess if you can change your own sex so easily then you’re probably much more relaxed about it all.
Shame this didn’t quite work out for you – I don’t think it’s for me tbh, my head isn’t in the right place for certain style reads atm.
Lynn 😀