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Hellhole Trilogy #2

Hellhole Awakening

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The second in a new epic science fiction series from the internationally bestselling co-authors of the DUNE prequels General Adolphus knows the Monarchy crackdown is coming. Now he needs to pull together all the resources of the Hellhole colony, the ever-expanding shadow-Xayan settlement, and his connections with the other Deep Zone worlds. On Sonjeera, Diadem Michella Duchenet has collected a huge fleet, led by firebrand Commissar Escobar Hallholme, son of the man who originally defeated Adolphus.

Uniting themselves and pooling their minds, the shadow-Xayans send a power surge along the original stringline path that links Hellhole with the Monarchy's hub on Sonjeera. All of the Diadem's battleships are currently approaching on that route, and when the mental blast wipes out all the substations, the battleships are effectively stranded.

But now a bigger threat appears. Three large asteroids come in from the outer reaches of the Candela system. On Hellhole, the awakened Xayans finally reveal information that has been hidden even from their own followers. A large group of powerful, rogue telemancers split away from the main race-fanatics, violent, and ruthless. And now that the Xayan civilization is reawakening, the rogues have come back to destroy them once and for all. They are coming for Hellhole, and this time they will completely destroy it.

Kevin J. Anderson has over 20 million books in print in 30 languages worldwide. As well as his STAR WARS, DUNE and X-FILES novels, he has written an ambitious space-opera series, THE SAGA OF SEVEN SUNS. He holds the Guinness world record for the largest single-author book signing. Kevin Anderson lives in Colorado.

The son of DUNE author Frank Herbert, Brian Herbert is a bestselling science fiction author in his own right.

528 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 28, 2013

44 people are currently reading
823 people want to read

About the author

Brian Herbert

240 books2,141 followers
Brian Patrick Herbert is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Patrick Herbert.

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5 stars
337 (26%)
4 stars
510 (39%)
3 stars
346 (26%)
2 stars
74 (5%)
1 star
22 (1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
Profile Image for Little Timmy.
7,390 reviews59 followers
April 30, 2025
Good SiFi story. fun and entertaining read. Recommended
Profile Image for Ms. Nikki.
1,053 reviews319 followers
May 15, 2015
Don't you just hate it when a book has an out-of-this world premise, but fails miserably when it comes to explaining and using the world and futuristic abilities that they have to the fullest extent?

I am really astounded that the authors did not try (if they did, they, again, failed miserably) to expound on their previous book, pulling the reader in and giving them their well-deserved reward of having some story-lines wrapped up and handing out some conclusions to some cliffhangers.

The dialogue is VERY repetitive. If you like talk-fests, then you may like this read.

To be honest, this is not a "good" read. It's a convoluted mess that I forced myself to finish in the hopes of a spectacular breakthrough. No luck.

I listened to the audiobook which I borrowed (thank goodness) from the library.

Not recommended~
798 reviews26 followers
May 2, 2019
General Adolphus has declared independence from the corrupt constellation. He knows that the Diadem will not allow that to happen as he tries to bring all the deep zone people together on all the planets. Escobar Hallholme, the son of the General that defeated Adolphus originally, is coming to put down the rebellion.

To give himself more time, Adolphus breaks the stringline in two places trapping the army coming to defeat Adolphus once and for all.

His new allies, the shadow-Xayan, continue to grow in strength and power as more and more humans enter the slick water. But his allies have kept something from the General that will put all the humans at terrible risk.

This world is wonderfully done and the political machinations for the characters in this corrupt empire really give the world depth and breadth. Well done!
Profile Image for Pat Pierce.
3 reviews
December 31, 2013
All the five and four star reviews for this book sound like publisher's blurbs. I think the publisher or authors must be seeding the reviews.

I read the first one because I liked the Dune books by these two, but I was very disappointed by Hellhole and Hellhole: Awakening. The characters are one dimensional, with cheesy dialogue and no real sense to their actions. The authors tell us what everyone is thinking (over and over and over again) so there are not many surprises in the book. All the characters seem really stupid at times, and their reactions to events are only to forward the plot, even at the expense of previous (meager) character development.

I was also annoyed throughout the first half of the book by the constant repetition, driving home stuff that was in the first book, in case I hadn't read it. (Ishop's need to redeem his noble name, the Xayan's wish to have more slickwater converts, the Diadem is a ruthless old ruler, yeah, we get it). That kind of stuff is boring.

The science doesn't really make much sense. I mean, the book states that you can 'detach' from a stringline anywhere along the line, as Walfor did coming into the Candela system when he found the doomsday asteroids, but the fleet destroys the endpoint terminus ring in a system in order to keep the rebels from entering that system. Wouldn't the rebels just hop off early to get in to that system? And ships on the stringline run off the end where the line was breeched by the rebels and get horribly lost in space, but they are able to send a probe out on the stringline which returns quickly and lets them know the line is broken? The stringline technology seems to work only as plot necessities dictate, with no consistency to speak of.
And with space ships that have the power to evacuate near 300,000 people from a planet, they don't have the technology to divert two asteroids from a planetary impact with a weeks notice?

That said, the storyline is kind of fun, and the ideas are ok, I guess, which is why I gave it two stars instead of just the one. I ended up just trying to skim quickly through the boring parts and not think too much about the plot holes. I'll probably pick up the third book from a bargain bin eventually to see how they wrap it up.
Profile Image for Josh.
1,732 reviews174 followers
August 27, 2015
HELLHOLE ended with a declaration of war with AWAKENING set up for a large scale confrontation between the Crown Jewel planets and the deep zone planets. Diadem Michella, Escobar Hallholme, and Ishop amongst others against General Adolphus and his alien Xayan race is epic within itself yet the added mystery of an anonymous space craft scanning Hellhole and the planets’ slow awakening added even more drama and chaos. There’s a lot to take in, and to the authors credit, they make it easily readable. This is one sci-fi series reader can enjoy rather than have to work to read.

Much like HELLHOLE, book 2 of the trilogy, AWAKENING doesn't give full closure to the story arc. Whilst I walked away satisfied, I would've liked less of a tease for the next installment and more of a clear ‘end point’ to the book. Perhaps it’s more a criticism of my own impatience rather than the authors themselves – they have me craving what happens next. Mission accomplished in that respect.

Read the full review on my blog: http://justaguythatlikes2read.blogspo...
Profile Image for READERSBEWARE.
173 reviews
November 17, 2025
Diving into Hellhole: Awakening felt like stepping into a pressure cooker that never stops tightening. Right from the start, I could feel the tension rising on Hallholme — this bleak, volcanic world somehow becoming the center of a galactic storm. Following General Adolphus again pulled me right in. His quiet ruthlessness, the weight on his shoulders, the impossible odds… I found myself rooting for him even harder this time as the Constellation’s grip tightened and betrayal brewed in every dark corner of the Deep Zone.

What really hooked me in this sequel was the escalation of the Xayan mystery. The whole “shadow-Xayan” telemancy element feels more dangerous, more otherworldly, and honestly a bit unsettling. It’s like the book wants you to question whether humanity is about to break into something transcendent… or something catastrophic. When the Xayans reveal what they’ve been hiding, it flips the entire playing field. The story moves from a desperate rebellion to something on the edge of cosmic horror, and that shift made the world feel bigger, stranger, and more alive than the first book ever hinted.

By the time the Constellation’s massive fleet started closing in, I could feel the drumbeat of war echoing through every chapter. Herbert and Anderson keep the pace relentless, bouncing between political scheming, war preparations, and alien revelations until everything crashes together in a finale that left me hungry for the next book. Hellhole: Awakening may not be perfect, but as a sequel it does exactly what I want — it raises the stakes, deepens the world, and leaves me with that addictive feeling that this universe is much darker and more dangerous than anyone realizes. If you like your sci-fi full of rebellion, tension, and looming alien dread, it’s definitely a ride worth taking.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
639 reviews
April 3, 2022
This trilogy is a great story. As with all second books, this book is the dark part of the story, setting up for the great finale. This trilogy follows this pattern and things are bleak and dark for our hero and his people.
Profile Image for Dunja MacAlister.
65 reviews
February 8, 2019
A bit slow at the start but by the middle and end I couldn’t put it down! Great sci-fi intrigue
Profile Image for Rob.
Author 2 books440 followers
abandoned
July 25, 2017
Like with true 2017 fashion, this is what I get for letting my 5 year old randomly pick books for me from the library. I'll be gracious and leave off any rating here. Needless to say, I'm flagging as abandoned for a reason.

I will say this: I've read plenty of trashy sci-fi in my day. And even most of the trashy sci-fi sequels that I read could stand on their own in at least a minimal capacity. This one was an obvious sequel from the first page, and was consequently stillborn in my eyes.
Profile Image for Laura Ruetz.
1,380 reviews74 followers
December 16, 2020
This is an ambitious book, but considering the authors, that's not unexpected. It took me a little bit to get into this, but a few chapters in, I was hooked.

This is another example of excellent world-building on a grand scale. With more than one planet, and two species, there are a lot of moving pieces here and the end result is a very intricate book full of politics, survival against harsh conditions, and human conflict.

This was a very involved read, but a very satisfying read for me. Really great Sci-Fi.
Profile Image for Kazima.
295 reviews42 followers
November 6, 2015
Argh, this was such a frustrating read. I really liked the first book and was looking forward to reading this sequel and seeing how "Game of Thrones - in space - with body-snatching aliens" was going to continue.

But the first 150 (!!) pages of this book was just a very slow and tedious recap of the first book. I understand, and can even sometimes appreciate, the need to reintroduce the reader to characters, settings, etc, but there is no way this should last more than a chapter or so (and in a well written novel it doesn't even present itself as a recap/reintro). In this case however it just went on and on and on, to the point it became a little ridiculous. At the same time the plot was going nowhere slowly, so it just seemed like a lot of unnecessary filler. It almost seemed like they needed a third book to make it a trilogy (because for some reason trilogies are more attractive these days than duologies), but didn't really have enough story so they just padded the middle to draw it out. Which, if that's the case, itself is unnecessary, because the book is 500+ pages and would still have been a solid novel with 100 pages less.

On the other hand, the last 200 really picked up and felt like the first novel again. Things got going and I felt I got what I came for. So much so that I'm going to read the next book and am looking forward to it. But in these last 200 pages there were some sequences that went by a bit quickly and some of the first 150 pages could have been cut to give room for there to be shown more of what was happening at the end .

All in all is seemed like Herbert and Anderson were rushed into expanding on a part of the story they weren't all that interested in and just wanted to get done with it so they could move on to the exciting third act.
Profile Image for Cathy.
2,014 reviews51 followers
April 20, 2013
3.5 stars. This book was better than the first one, it flowed better and the characters felt more interesting. I probably would have given it four stars if it was more in my area of interest, it was just a bit too political and military for me, but that's just a matter of taste.

There were a few issues though. Some of the sections got very repetitive; Ishop repeated his issues over and over again, and we saw Bolton's history with and concern for Keana too many times, as a couple of examples. And the heavy foreshadowing about the enemies of the Xayans that everyone kept ignoring was pretty annoying.

But overall I liked the style, the short chapters work for me and don't mind the constant POV switches. I have a short attention span and it makes the military and political sections go down more easily, instead of getting too complicated or intense. Anyone who's read the authors' Dune books will be familiar with the style. I'd just prefer a bit more of the character-driven space opera of Anderson's Saga of the Seven Suns. But this is fun too, I'm enjoying it.
86 reviews
June 26, 2015
Pretty good story overall. Slower beginning, much more interesting in the second half. Some characters have great importance in the first book, and parts of this book, and then are fairly abandoned as their relevance to the plot wanes.

Lots of repetitive moments and reflections. If you haven't read the first book, you aren't missing anything because just about every plot point from the initial story is covered again...and again...and again in this book. I hope the third book doesn't do that.

Profile Image for Kathy KS.
1,441 reviews8 followers
August 14, 2020
2.5*

I believe I liked this one better than v. 1 in the series, but I'm not sure if I want to finish the trilogy or not (which says a lot, since I'm pretty much a completist!) The politics of the Constellation pretty much bore me, so that so story line didn't further my interest.

And, to tell you the truth, I don't really feel that much invested in the Original species on Hellhole or the newly created hybrids. They've been helpful in the war; that's the best part of their storyline. It's ironic that I feel this way, since it appears that they may have a lot to do with how the final volume goes...

I always like "settlement of planet"-stories and hardy frontier types, so this is the part that attracts me the most. Unfortunately, I just don't feel much connection with any of the characters. The moral dilemmas that the two generals fight within themselves and with one another might be the best character developments.

So, if, like me, you miss good old space opera and planet settlement, etc., this might scratch your itch. It does for me somewhat, just maybe not enough. Lately, when you see lists of "best new science fiction/fantasy" or the like, it seems most are either fantasies or non-space science fiction. I miss me some traditional space stories (well, they don't have to be "traditional" if you mean only men, etc.). Frankly, I miss the new items in the Vorkosigan saga by Bujold and the great masters, etc. Or TV like "Firefly"... ah well...
Profile Image for Dindy.
255 reviews5 followers
September 29, 2020
I'm actually reviewing the Hellhole trilogy as a whole instead of each book separately. I did not expect to like it as much as I did. At first I was annoyed because I thought the focus would be on the colonization of the planet Hellhole, and I thought the discovery of the aliens and the war with the Diadem were intrusive, but it all fit together beautifully, and by the time I reached the end of the first book, I couldn't put it down. The villains were suitably evil, the good guys suitably flawed, and the balance of the rebellion went back and forth so that I needed a scorecard to keep track.

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT! DO NOT READ AHEAD IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS!


The book shows the dangers of an authoritarian oligarchy, where all the rules are made by the rich whose main concern is gaining more wealth on the backs of the workers. I will warn you, a lot of good characters die horribly in this series. The first deaths surprised and shocked me, some of the deaths I kept expecting the people to magically come back to life ala Star Trek's Spock. At first I thought the aliens smacked a little of deux ex machina, but that was resolved as well.

I enjoyed this trilogy very much and highly recommend it.
Profile Image for Stephen Holtman.
77 reviews1 follower
January 25, 2018
This is the highly anticipated sequel to Hellhole (Obviously). This one delves into both the elevating feud between The Diadem’s Crown Jewels and aldophus’s resistance and the attack by an unknown enemy who is out to stop the Xayan’s Alaru (A.K.A Their destinies). I thought that the way the individual stories were brought closer together while still being their own thing was awesome. I think that the part with the Xayan people was a little bit underwhelming. It was as if they were just there to do nothing but fill in space. That was an unfortunate way to continue what could’ve been a really enjoyable side story. But it wasn’t able to stop the momentum that the first one was able to build. The Story itself was just as good as the first one. So since all the different factions from this book were able to keep up with the original (Except for one group of course). Then it only makes sense to give it the same star value. It gets an equal four stars.
Profile Image for Michael.
1,237 reviews44 followers
August 25, 2022
Hellhole Awakening is the second book in the "Hellhole" trilogy by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. First, let me say I enjoyed this book very much. Some books in Fantasy are known as Grimdark Fantasy. This book could be rightly described as Grimdark Space Opera. It is very dark and violent compared to much space opera/military science fiction. If dark violent fiction is not to your taste then stay away from this series. If, like me, you enjoy this type of fiction then you will enjoy this book.
I have read several negative reviews from readers who were disappointed that it wasn't more like the "Dune" books written by these two authors. Personally, I am glad that it was very different because I think "Dune" and the follow-up books are highly over-rated.
Profile Image for Marc Diepstraten.
918 reviews3 followers
September 1, 2018
Book 2. Some love some hate it. I lean more towards the first. Of course the story is not meant to be finished in this book, leaving certain parts open, to be concluded later. This is somewhat annoying since some very pressing matters are ignored to resolved later. This is not always logical. Enough story left over for the third book. Little is revealed further in this one, it is almost nonstop action whereby events follow one another very quickly. It is not developing as I hoped it would but is very readable especially if you're in for the long haul.
Profile Image for Zuzana Dankic.
467 reviews29 followers
January 17, 2021
Pokracujeme s generalmi jednym pokrivenym, ale lutujucim co urobil a tym druhym, co este cest ma. Uvidime, ako sa to vyvinie dalej, ale treti diel v cestine nie je, tak si uronim slzu do vankusa a domyslim dej :D
Ale na vyplach hlavy idealne. Konecne som citala rychlo a mohla si dovolit aj nejake strany preskocit a nemala som ziaden pocit viny :D Jasne, ze moralne otazky a spajanie cudzich bytosti s ludskymi tam bolo, ale netrapilo ma to natolko, ze by som sladko nezaspala :D
Takze dik Brian, za knizku do medzipriestoru:)
201 reviews1 follower
December 9, 2024
very repetitive. Whole pages are sometimes rehashes of the same thing again and again.
And characters seems to make decision because that is the only plot will move forward. it
does not feel like those decisions are natural to those characters but it helps the plot so they are doing it.

And I am so confused on the communication bit . Apparently people on the ground in a POW camp knows the minute by minute details of the battle going in space.

I think book could have been helped by removing 200 pages from it and then maybe plot could have been simpler.
Profile Image for Kevin Pimbblet.
Author 1 book
April 6, 2024
Beginning with the repetition in the first (approximately) 100+ pages, this really is a novel that could have been cut down in size with zero loss. The recap of the first book of the trilogy didn't work for me. I felt there were some plot holes, and the "just when you think you have everything sorted out along comes a bigger bad" trope is in strong evidence. I don't actually mind that, but overall the book didn't really work for me personally and I struggled to read it to completion.
Profile Image for Carmelo Medina.
141 reviews6 followers
November 18, 2020
Lo he leído en inglés ya que no hay traducción al español y está claro el porqué. Si en la primera parte va como un tiro con personajes y giros muy interesantes, en esta segunda parte estira el chicle de la trama para forzar una (cada vez odio más el concepto) trilogía. Veremos a ver la conclusión.
Profile Image for Marlies Vaz.
Author 34 books4 followers
November 1, 2020
Spannend en goed opgebouwd verhaal. Er zijn genoeg rustpunten om niet snakkend naar adem bij de laatste bladzij aan te komen (ik ken zulke boeken en daar houd ik niet van). De personages zijn goed uitgewerkt. Een veel beter boek dan ik verwachtte.
Profile Image for See.
629 reviews4 followers
April 1, 2021
With a lot of stories coming together and action in every chapter, this should have been a five star book, but it seems to drag on and on. Maybe the idea is to get you to the final book faster, but I for one will take a break before reading onward.
Profile Image for John Doyle.
750 reviews1 follower
August 3, 2020
Good Sequel. Very Sci Fi and i like the intrigue on the home planet. I'm excited to see the alien race fight itself.
625 reviews
October 31, 2021
Fleets attack, then are stranded in space. Will they survive? And hostile aliens appear. Will they prevail? The excitement mounts.
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