Hex

Coyote Universe #8

by Allen M. Steele

Two-time Hugo Award winner Allen Steele expands the universe of his Coyote saga with the story of Hex, a habitat the size of an entire solar system that could be a utopia--or nothing but a cosmic mirage...
The danui, a reclusive arachnid species, have avoided contact with the Coyote Federation--until now. Initiating trade negotiations, they offer only the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life--a massive sphere composed of billions of hexagons.
But when the Federation's recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their new partners...

Genres: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Hard Science Fiction

353 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 14, 2011

About the author

Before becoming a science fiction writer, Allen Steele was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and his home state of Tennessee. But science fiction was his first love, so he eventually ditched journalism and began producing that which had made him decide to become a writer in the first place.

Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security.

Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so.

Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.

Reviews

[Phil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another entertaining novel by Steele and the last book set in the Coyote universe. Outside of some background, however, this could be read as a stand alone. The danui, a reclusive arachnid species, have avoided contact with humanity until one day they offer to the Coyote Federation a world they can settle. Without much more than that, the Coyote Federation sends a ship to the coordinates provided and they find a Dyson sphere, composed of literally trillions of 'Hexes'. Unfortunately, the ship's captain has little to go on, and worse, all the hails/messages she sends once arriving via a starbridge go unheeded. So, setting off to investigate the Hex, they soon run into trouble...

Steele's Coyote books are addicting. This is another fun adventure, filled with some personal drama, a bit of humor, all coming together in a well plotted tale. Not sure what happened to Steele; in the 90s and oughts he was publishing like crazy and I eagerly awaited each new installment in his corpus. Then, about five or six years ago he stopped publishing. Unfortunate as he is a gifted storyteller. Do not go into this thinking it will change your life, but a fun, light adventure and another homage to the genre. 4 Hexy stars!

[Dirk Grobbelaar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Directly in front of the ship, one and a half astronomical units away, lay HD 76700, a star just a little larger than 47 Ursa Majoris. It wasn’t clearly visible, though, for surrounding it was a translucent haze the color of old rust tinted with silver. It might have been a planetary nebula were it not for the fact that it was perfectly spherical. Indeed, the sphere was so immense that it almost completely filled the wallscreen.
-“What the hell? What’s the scope’s magnification?”
-“Zero. That’s what we’re seeing from our current position.”

This is one of those stories where the megastructure is the main event, and everything else plays second fiddle: characters are not that bright and make terrible choices, but that’s OK, because they are expendable and forgettable for the most part in any case. Take that as you will, it was not intended as criticism.

If you like exploratory, sense of wonder, science fiction adventures, you should read this book. It takes place in the Coyote universe, and there are some references to events in, for example, Spindrift, but it is a stand-alone novel. In fact, this is only the second Coyote novel I’ve read at the time of writing this (the other being Spindrift).

I enjoyed it quite a bit, and in fact more than I had expected to.

This is impossible. How could anyone build anything this big?

[Jeff Koeppen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm struggling to come up with a rating for this one. On one hand, we have one of the most awesome settings in all of the Coyote books - Hex, a Dyson sphere constructed by an advanced alien race who have chosen to invite other sentient life forms to live in its countless specially constructed biopods 1,000 miles long by 100 miles wide. The author always puts a lot in to world building in Hex is a mind-boggling but scientifically possible creation. It's construction process and details of operation are described thoroughly. We don't get to know the aliens of Hex very well as they prefer to stay in the background and assign representative alien races to communicate their behalf. One couldn't ask for a more fascinating setting for a science fiction book than Hex.

On the other hand, we have the twelve humans that make up insufferable crew and exploratory team aboard the starship Carlos Montero from planet Coyote. Humans were invited to visit Hex and possibly colonize specially designed biopods, and this group of knuckleheads from Coyote was the best they could do apparently. Led by hard-ass, don't-tell-me-what-I-can't-do, captain Andromeda Carson, the crew and survey team get in to all kinds of trouble in and around Hex. Despite the fact that the humans were guests of an ancient, more powerful, race they chose to ignore a number of the rules and just did whatever they wanted to. No guns? Pfft! Lock and load! Areas off limits? Full speed ahead! Let's be hostile and defiant towards this incredibly powerful aliens! These actions got them in all sorts of hot water but instead of pulling back they doubled down with more bad behavior. It reminded me of the unprofessional, ridiculous behavior of the scientists in the movie Prometheus. I would expect Beavis and Butthead to act like this, not some away team from an advanced starship in the future.

Hex is the last full length novel of the Coyote series. Steele wrote one Coyote novella which I had a hard time finding in paper so I bought the Kindle version. So far so good. But this one? I'll give Dyson sphere Hex five stars and the humans in the Montero one star and average it out to three stars.

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

HEX is set in Steele's Coyote universe, and is another terrific hard-science novel. In fact, the titular Hex tends to dominate the story to the point that the actual characters and plot take a back seat to the setting, though there are observations on the nature of mother-son relationships which are quite well drawn. It's difficult not to compare this one to Niven's Ringworld or some of the other Dyson-influenced mega-engineering hard-sf concepts, but I think Hex more than holds its own against most I've encountered. I hope Steele revisits it frequently!

[Glen Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I mainly bought this book because I am a great fan of Allen Steele's Coyote series. Hex is an extension of that universe, based on the premise that in 2070, a group of political dissidents steal a spacecraft and travel to a new planet to start their own colony. They name the planet Coyote, and a series of events happen beyond the initial settlement. What makes the series interesting for me is that most of the stories are a combination of short stories that, put together, provide a larger story about Earth settlers on Coyote.

This book happens about 23 years after the initial group of settlers arrive on Coyote. The humans there come into contact with a federation of aliens, who are willing to communicate and trade with the humans. Eventually, one race of aliens share the secret held by another group, what they refer to as a "living world." Some time later, the human colony receives an invitation to visit this "living world," and colonize there if they want to. Coyote sends out a ship to investigate.

What they discover is what many know as a Dyson Sphere, an artificial shell that has been built around a sun. The sphere is built over thousands of years, using the raw materials available from their home planet and elsewhere in the solar system with meteorites and other planets. The sphere is the size of the planet's (think Earth's) orbit around the sun, and so the sphere provides the living space of thousands of planets, while trapping all of the energy released by the sun. Hex is the name they give the sphere because it consists of millions--if not trillions--of these hexagons. Each hexagon has six habitats lining its edges, with each habitat forming a valley a hundred miles wide and a thousand miles long. That's a lot of living space.

Steele does his usual job of developing interesting and well thought out characters with conflict between them (the main characters are a mother and son who are estranged, and his girlfriend/fiancee). But what makes the story really fascinating--as in many tales in this type of science fiction--is the concept of the Dyson Sphere and how it works. Steele has worked it all out, and it all makes logical--if mind-boggling--sense. But it's not just a scientific premise; the story has action, conflict and kept me interested all the way through. It was a fast read.

Hex gets five out of five stars from me.

[Francis Gahren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazon Review
The book is a continuation of the Coyote novels and is the 8th in the series. The series was in need of fresh blood and fresh ideas. Hex provides both in ample quantities. It is a story of exploration and discovery. A ship's captain must take her crew and passengers in the form of an exploration team to discover what an alien race is offering the inhabitants of Coyote. They are expecting a planet suitable for colonization and find a Dysonian sphere. The story continues as one of discovery; discover what the alien race expects from the human race and discover what the relationships between the humans will be. There is conflict; between the starship captain mother and her explorer team son and between the humans and aliens.

The setting and exploration aspects of the book are excellent. The conflict and resolution are perhaps the weak points of the book. The conflict is generally cerebral, intellectual and remote even when someone is killed right in front of you. The conflict is generally caused by someone being stubborn and unwilling to listen and the resolution is generally the stubborn person saying or thinking, "Oh yes! Why didn't I listen to the advice, suggestions, orders, ... We could have avoided this whole mess." To me that is the weakest part of the book. However, the scope of the concept and the rest of the book more than make up for this. And, he has devised a setting that allows plenty of room for future books. Considering that he had about run out of space on Coyote, that is a good thing.

Steele is compared to Robert A. Heinlein on the book's dust jacket. My opinion is that Arthur C. Clarke is a better candidate for comparison. While both authors wrote near future stories and alien contact and relations stories, Heinlein was more visceral and direct while Clarke more cerebral and remote. Steele is closer to Clarke in themes, style of writing and choice of subjects. That is neither good nor bad. It is another way to judge if this is a book that you want to read. And, my advice is that it most definitely is.

[Tamahome · Rating 3 out of 5]

Liked the kindle sample and the Scalzi 'Big Idea' article about the Dyson sphere. Giving it a shot. Seems more sciencey than Leviathan Wakes. I think the protagonist is a female ship captain. (Actually it looks like there's a lot of characters.) This is my first Coyote book. I hope I'm not spoiling the series for myself.

10% Really liking the author and the female narrator too.

25% Maybe I should turn this off and sleep. He made a mistake though, and gave volume in miles instead of cubic miles.

The ship only has one shuttlecraft? Really? (Doesn't become that important.)

50% This is so very 'Star Trek', or maybe 'Voyager'.

90% I'm more enamored with the space exploration part of it rather than the local habitats. The characters need to cut down on their risky behavior.

All done. Liked the first half better. Definitely accessible characters. A picayune person might not like some of the plot points. When I finish anything, it has something going for it.

[MB (What she read) · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick read.

I really like the idea of Hex itself. It is a very cool premise and should give plenty of opportunity to take this series onward and upward. My favorite part of Steele's Coyote series has always been the exploration with xenoflora and fauna, so Hex is great for potentially more of that.

I will say that the characterization in this novel bothered me. All of the characters were either candidates for Darwin awards or paper-thin. (Ooops, there was one that was cardboard thin, I guess.) Those who made command decisions were uniformly stupid and/or life-threateningly brainless. Annoying. That stopped me from rooting for them.

The ending wrap up with the two antagonistic characters was pretty simplistic and unbelievable. (But, I guess the book would have been a lot longer if it had more depth?)

And what is it with the dated gender roles? We're in the future supposedly!

[Chip · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book written in the Coyote universe that has almost nothing to make due with it. OK, it has the same type aliens but beyond that it could be any Earth colony. Not as good as the other books in the series since the characters are very weak and the plot is very shallow. Each chapter's problem are solved miraculously but they also seem to start a new incident without reason. It did have fairly good Space Opera. I'll miss the Coyote series.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Habitable Hexagon Hosts Humanity, Hijinks Ensue.

[F S · Rating 2 out of 5]

After the other Coyote books I didn't like this one at all. The colonists were an unsatisfactory bunch and very petty and opinionated. Oh for the likes of Ted Harker rather than Andromeda Carson. The naming of the ship 'Carlos Montero' is an insult to the memory of the principled and humane first President of Coyote with his clever lateral thinking and empathy.

But really the thing which gets me as a fair minded person is the appalling behaviour of the danui. when the ship reached the Hex area the com officer Anne exhausted herself for nearly a week trying to contact the danui and getting total silence. If the danui really wanted to welcome the human crew they should have given docking coordinates to the humans via the hjadd embassy on Coyote before the ship left Coyote, or at least have had the courtesy to reply once the expeditions had exited the starbridge at the Hex end. And to be fair, a number of the human crew favoured calling off the trip, returning to Coyote and renegotiating via the hjadd embassy. only one or two hotheads favoured blasting on to an orbit round Hex, and the main party did after all have the patience to orbit Hex for a while where they struggled to establish contact. The danui had only themselves to blame by still refusing to reply. And at the end the top danui had the cheek to tell off Andromeda for not contacting at the start, when the humans had tried for days! It is appallingly unfair.

[Stuart Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

The humans of Coyote are invited by the alien danui to settle on an Earth-type planet in their system. When the humans get there they find not a planet at all, but a Dyson sphere. Getting no information whatsoever from the danui they decide to explore. Things don't go well. There is a crash landing, a cultural misunderstanding, a hijack, then someone dials the wrong phone number. Finally, some people get flushed down an alien toilet. All because the aliens deprived the humans of vital, need-to-know information. Thanks, aliens, people are dead because you invited us to your house and then ghosted us when we showed up and you didn't put up a Stay Off the Grass sign or even lock the door.

This is a good Coyote story much like Spindrift. It doesn't have much character building other than the Captain and her son, and most of it is exploration so it's just a lot of explanation of the surroundings. The aliens act illogically but they are alien so they can do that if they want. The human first contact team is totally incompetent and panics at the drop of a hat. Steele is much better at writing farmers and construction workers than he is soldiers and sailors. But it's a good story that moves along well and has interesting scenery.

[James Geary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hex was another great read from Allen Steele and this series. I loved the depiction of Hex, it was an interesting one I hadn't come across before, and I liked the adventure, the exploration into the new, and the peril that comes with it. The characters were interesting, especially the dynamic between Andromeda and Sean. It was great to get yet another view into the Coyote universe, and I really hope this isn't the last I read from it.

[grundoon · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 A sort of a coda in the Coyote universe which manages to simultaneously tie things up humanity- and big-picture-wise, while thoroughly demonstrating just how bad we are at... well, pretty much anything involving judgement. A worthy revisit with a compelling arc, but oh so much stupid in the details.

[Christopher Heckman · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a quick re-read, after I found it while sorting out my books. (I had read it years ago, before I read the Coyote series, so I missed a few things then.)

[Collin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review of Hex (See below for review of the Coyote Series)
A great sci-fi story using an oft-repeated sci-fi plot element in a new way. I've read other stories with this particular element, and it's good to see it hashed out in a new way rather than simply repeated. Steele also pays homage to the great thinkers and fiction writers who first envisioned it. Dyson spheres are a great concept, but I think it takes a relatively plausible reason to bring one into a book. The premise that Hex is a "race sanctuary" is a great one, and the fact that the Danui are an ancient and technologically advanced race makes this more plausible. The only other story of a Dyson sphere is within the fantastic Hyperion Cantos, and Dan Simmons pulls that one off with aplomb.

As an ending to the coyote series (or, more correctly, an ancillary title), it didn't have the feeling of a conclusion that I was hoping for. At the same time, I think the conclusion can be seen as fitting for the series.

Review of the Coyote Series
Overall, I'd give the series a 3/5 stars. Steele has a real mind for exactly what plot elements make a sci-fi book and series worth reading. At the same time, he has a real tin ear for dialogue and realistic thinking. His characters who speak in scientific/nautical/militaristic and other concrete terms are great. The teenage girls, feminine women, artists and alcoholics come off as flat in their thoughts and speech. That or they don't really play a part in the plot. In particular, Marie Montero, Hawk's wife, the alcoholic member of the Order of the Eye and even Hawk himself come to mind.

This deficit in character building is what made the original Coyote so readable for me. If Steele had to do a lot of character-building in a book about a treasonous rocket heist and the colonization of a new world, this would have been a doubly (or more) thick stand-alone book. Simple language and sparse dialogue work for that scenario. Unfortunately, when the books became about the new world of Coyote and beyond, the characters needed to populate that world very variable. I never felt any great emotion when a character died or when anything particularly moving happened. Still, I was pulled along to discover how these characters fared.

At face value, Coyote is about independence and the positive aspects of the "pioneerism" of man. We're asked to care about many of the characters and their struggles, but only inasmuch as they pertain to the struggle of the group, or the colony, or the planet or the race. Themes of stewardship and redemption of the race abound and are seen through compassion for criminals, rebounding from the brink of environmental collapse and many other second chances.

Look at the series as a whole, and you'll see that this story is about survival and exactly how we as humans fare in the long run. Folks make mistakes, good people die, bad people die, folks redeem themselves. None of these stories are "extraordinary" or "epic" as we often see tales such as Harry Potter to be. This fact actually makes the story more accessible to me since I can consider these peoples' story as a possibility of where my own story might lead me. Though the final pages of Hex don't offer explanations of what happens to Kasimasta or the Chaaz'maha, we are assured that the humans will likely continue as a species, if no where other than the sanctuary the Danui have set up for them. This really is a very rewarding conclusion one can have for the story of the universe.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Allen Steele's Coyote series has been a long-running favorite of mine. Lately, Steele has been expanding the Coyote universe in ways that are both different and intriguing. His latest entry is Hex , and takes place mostly away from Coyote entirely.

The synopsis for Hex:

The danui, a reclusive arachnid species considered the galaxy's finest engineers, have avoided contact with the Coyote Federation. Until, that is, the danui initiate trade negotiations, offering only information: the coordinates for an unoccupied world suitable for human life-a massive sphere, composed of billions of hexagons.

But when the Federation's recon mission goes terribly wrong, the humans realize how little they know about their new partners...

In fact, the novel progresses much like a mystery, with each clue only leading to even more questions. In many ways, it's similar to Spindrift in its style. The characters in the novel face challenges and danger as they investigate the Dyson sphere that they come to call Hex throughout the novel. It's a very interesting story, and most definitely a page-turner.

Readers will be drawn in almost immediately, as the story takes little time to develop, and we're very quickly thrust into the Danui system, and to the Dyson sphere found there. From there, events take their twists and turns and lead the reader through an interesting, and sometimes revealing journey of Hex. The novel actually takes a long time to start revealing answers, and once it does, they come in rapid succession--but that's a good thing. The pace never slows down, and the second half of the book reads much like a single long chapter.

There is really little to criticize about Hex. It's a well-written, entertaining, and awe-inspiring work. It's reminiscent of Jack McDevitt's early Academy books, in which readers are introduced to alien races with little or no context, only little clues that slowly add up to provide a picture of what these races were actually like.

By the time Hex ends, it's clear that there's a new and very important location in the Coyote universe, and one that begs to be explored further and in more detail. Steele alludes to there being more to the story that he's yet to reveal, and I for one can't wait to read the next installment.

[Cora · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the idea of Hex. I was enthralled by the Dyson Sphere and wish I could read (or listen) to many more stories about this fascinating place, that even in my mind’s eye, was breathtaking. It was so colorfully detailed that I was able to see Hex as I read. I love that. I plan on reading the other books in the Coyote Series if only because I loved that type of imagery. This story was pretty good as well. I would have given it 4 stars because after "reading" it I felt not a second was wasted. In saying that….

Slight Spoilers.....

So imagine if you will, asking people over to your home for free food and shelter, and because you were not there at their arrival, they kick in your door, steal a car, run it into the neighbor’s house, trespass in another yard, and then beat up some disabled kids down the street. Then they act like it is entirely your fault because you wasn’t available at the exact time they were wanting. That is basically what the Humans on the Montero were like. You were trying to help them and they repay you by being hoodlums.

I wanted to punch the characters in the face. I actually would find myself yelling at them while driving. Apparently the government officials of Coyote are morons. If I were going to send a sample of the human race to met highly advance race of aliens I would NEVER choose Andromeda nor her son as ambassadors. I cringed at every decision that Andromeda and Shawn made. As we say in the South, none of them were “raised right.” I would have totally jettisoned them as soon as Shawn decided to steal the boat. RULES people. RULES!

Possibly the purpose of the story is to show that humans, many times, are impatient and filled with a sense entitlement, and that this will be our near downfall in the future. The author did an excellent job portraying that future. I am sure that the lesson learned by the “mistakes” made were to show that humans need approached others in the COMPLETE opposite manner in which most of these characters did. Once again the author did an excellent job of that as well.

The sense of entitlement, selfishness, rudeness shown by the humans as they stumbled through the story and Hex, was the drawback of the story. Nobody would have sent them to this important of a meeting, ever. Thus, making the story a bit hard to swallow.

Anyway… can’t wait for the next one, may be all the annoying people will be gone.

4 stars for story
2 stars for the characters (I only wanted to punch them not kill them).

[Zeke Chase · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 7 / 10

Allen Steele is the author that got me into reading for fun. Before him, I only read for school assignments. I've been following the entire Coyote series since the beginning, and HEX fits in perfectly. Generally, the series goes as such: five central novels, which include the trilogy and the chronicles, and a number of spin-offs that don't deal with Coyote directly. The worst of the series was Spindrift, and this novel kind of repeats parts of that, in particular, Cayce's paranoia about other races and his subsequent death as a result. But this book has motivation, whereas Spindrift seemed to be written solely for the necessity of the series, what I call a procedural work.
HEX is undoubtedly an exploration novel. It introduces a very interesting concept, the Dyson sphere, and explores in brief passing a number of alien races. I do like that the taaraq were brought back into it, I thought it intriguing that the danui had an Asperger syndrome-like condition, and I enjoyed the matriarchal and quasi-cannibal culture of the arsashi (and I have to give proper kudos to any author that includes a character with four breasts, even if she is a Yeti-like alien). Moreover, it also explores child abduction by a parent, which is a very real representation of how many child abductions happen.
However, despite all that, this novel suffers problems. The first is the sudden absence of the helpful arsashi right when their help was needed, which led to the eventual finale of the book. Second, the book is rather anti-climactic. That's not something new with Steele, but the climax seemed especially short in this, and I thought wasn't fledged out fully. The nature of the child abduction story served as almost exclusive exposition, and I don't think Andromeda would have disclosed that so readily to a stranger. Kyra had little depth for what I thought to be a relatively important character.
The ending does set it up for further entries in the Coyote universe, although Steele has said that this will be the last. Of course, he said that for every book within the series, and that didn't happen to the case. I do hope the series continues, in some form. I will continue to read.

[Lis Carey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I listened to the unabridged audio edition; however, Amazon will not allow me to link to that, so I've linked to the paperback edition.

Andromeda Carson, captain of the Coyote merchant ship Montoya, is getting bored with standard commercial runs where, due to the fact that humans aren't yet fully accepted or trusted in the Talis, she and the crew rarely even get to disembark, much less explore. She's beginning to reluctantly contemplate retirement when her boss, Ted Harker, approaches her with an unexpected proposal. The most mysterious race in the Talis, the danui, have indirectly approached Coyote with an offer of a human-habitable planet in their home solar system.

It's a stunning offer, but they need an experienced and reliable ship and crew to make the first journey there and determine whether this too-good-to-be-true offer is real. The danui system, after all, appears to have a gas giant close in to its primary--a "hot Jupe"--and such systems aren't noted for having a plethora of smaller, rocky, potentially habitable worlds. There also appears to be a rather strange dust nebula around the star.

Of course Carson agrees to take her ship on this potentially risky reconnaissance. Then her life is further enlivened by the news that her estranged son is a member of the Explorers' Corp team that will be joining her.

Steele is a master storyteller, and gives us a wonderful tour of the unexpected reality of the danui home system. Saying anything else would be a spoiler. If you like solidly constructed sf grounded in good science, with good characters and plot, you'll enjoy this.

Recommended.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read all of Allen's Coyote series and overall have been very pleased with them. I met Allen at an Orlando con some years back and that is what started me reading him. That is the way I've started reading a number of authors. I found this book fairly good and would actually have tweaked my rating to a 3.5 rather than a 3 if that were possible. The things I did like were the huge Hex globe, the ideas he came up with for how it was constructed and how the habitats were integrated. I've known about the Dyson sphere idea before and Steele's portrayal of it was quite good. The aliens were good as well and I liked the way they met with the humans. The bad parts, to me at least, were the somewhat stereotyped characterizations Steele came up with for some of the primary characters. They were too one dimensional with very closed personalities that you could depend on figuring out their reaction to a situation. But overall this fit in well with the extension of the Coyote universe. I am wondering if Steele has completed his writings based on the Coyote universe or whether we will have more books from it? I'm not sure if that would be good or bad but I would read it if he wrote another.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Science Fiction
I like the Coyote series so I have to give Hex a mention. This is Space Opera with Coyote characters. It is not set on Coyote and is a side story to that universe.

The danui offer information about planet suitable for human life located in their star system. Coyote sends a ship to check it out. For conflict we have the Captain and her estranged son both on the ship. For further conflict once they get to the system them find on planet but a massive sphere orbiting the system. No one talks to them when they arrive so they just blunder in. Adventure and danger follow.

It is a good Space Opera and if you like Science Fiction I recommend you give it a try. It can be read as a stand-alone. For me I did not feel much connection to the Coyote series. Anyone who has followed the Coyote series will want to read the book. To me that was the main reason for it to be written. It was predictable but fun to read.

Berkley Published Hex by Allen Steele in 2011.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another solid book set in the Coyote universe! And this one opens up a whole new world of possibilities. I can't wait for more novels based on Hex.

The story was just as strong as all the other novels I've ready by Allen Steele. This was more of a straight-forward adventure and discovery novel and didn't really delve into many of the philosophical territory that Coyote Horizons and Coyote Destiny covered, but that was just fine with me. I felt at times those two novels got a little preachy. This was pretty much just adventure and introducing readers to a new, mysterious setting where (I hope) a lot more stories will take place. The character development was maybe a little less than some other Coyote novels, but again, I didn't really feel like I missed it here.

Can't wait for more Hex books!

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book but was also conflicted because this is the last book in Allen Steele's Coyote universe. I hated to come to the end of this great series, although Hex is not really in the series, it is a spinoff. Takes place at the end of the last Coyote book and is about the crew of the Montoya and exploration of Hex. Its a great book that kept me interested from start to finish. Hex is an artificial planet built by an alien race that we barely know. Its massive size is beyond understanding and has millions of Hex shaped biospheres each of which is the home to a different race. We get into trouble exploring Hex and several members of the crew are killed. I can only hope that Mr. Steele decides to write another book in this amazing universe. Although you don't need to start at the beginning with Coyote, I highly suggest it. The entire series is awesome.

[Bill]

Having not read any prior books in the Coyote universe I was initially lost at the lack of introduction for many of the races. However, Steele managed to correct that slowly throughout the novel, referencing plot points from his prior novels as filler between action or discovery sequences. The descriptions of Hex itself are what really capture the imagination. Illustrations were included near the start of the book to assist readers that had trouble picturing the creation.

Overall an enjoyable, but not riveting, book that does not require prior knowledge of its universe. I'll likely reread this some day after I've read his other books and will hopefully be surprised at the connections that might be made.

[Ragnar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really wanted to like this book - the promise of another BIG idea - like Niven's Ringworld was tempting but Steele's characters were just....wrong. Unprofessional, petty, -come on, getting mad and putting on an attitude with creatures god like enough to create Hex? Really? Also some of the backstory seemed ...off - 5000 yrs to build Hex? world's stupidest transit system UI, off limits areas with no safety features - the little details that were grating just kept coming. Even the ending was sort of strange - why would you want to live in a relatively small biosphere? Without the lure of unlimited exploration and or trade there wouldn't be much point to the colony. Oh well I finished it but wasn't happy. My opinion - not really worth the bother.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hex is a good, entertaining read, the latest in the Coyote series of books that Allen has been writing. I enjoyed the central SF premise, that an old race, the danui, have created a Dyson Sphere in their system as a result of past calamity that sent a Jupiter-class gas giant spiralling into their star. This particular Dyson sphere is built out of hexagons, hence the name "Hex," for the place. However, I found the characterization somewhat on the weak side, with the conflict betweeen Andromeda, the captain of the Montero, and her son Sean, being the strongest elements. Otherwise, none of the characters, including the alien danui themselves, stand out. Still, I would recommend it as a nice summer read.

[Darrin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The cover blurb compares Allen Steele's work with Robert Heinlein. An apt comparison as I felt on more than one occasion that I was reading a Heinlein book from my high school library. Many times, as well, I was reminded of Alan Dean Foster.

Hex is a continuation of Steele's Coyote series and the first of the series that I have read. The book is a good read but I doubt that I will go back to the Coyote novels. In the end I just felt the book to be too corny and the characters too obvious and predictable.

I love the big universe, space opera with lots of aliens, advanced tech and big ideas but this book just didn't do it for me.

[Max · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked Allen Steele's latest book, but he could have made the problem a little more severe. I cant wait for the sequel to this. This is really good because Coyote has finally evolved, earth is coming back, and there is nothing much less to write about. BUT, Allen steele always finds something, and if anything I would like to know more of is the alien races. And I guess Allen Steele knows that two, because with Hex, he can now write more adventures and talk more about other races in the galaxy. I hope that more books come out to help support Hex, and the new idea of Coyote and Earth finally fixed. But who knows whats next. Theres a whole galaxy out there waiting to be documented.

[George · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a continuation of the Coyote novels and is the 8th in the series. The main quality for Hex is the technology being explored in the narrative. That the Coyote leadership allows/chooses a bored and nearing retirement starship captain and a corporate vice president to represent a whole planet in it's first contact with another race is a lunacy developed by the author and to his credit. The sense of entitlement, selfishness, rudeness shown by the humans as they stumbled through the story and Hex, was the lesson from the book. It is certainly an excellent addition to the Coyote universe.