Hell's Heart

by Alexis Hall

Gideon the Ninth meets Moby Dick in USA Today bestselling author Alexis Hall's science fiction debut, Hell's Heart!

Earth is a ruin, and the scattered remnants of humanity scavenge what they can from the stars under the watchful auspices of a grab-bag of collectives, corporations, and churches which 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 called spermaceti, which is 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 precious spermaceti. Once aboard, however, 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 word 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 otherwise lost.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Genres: Science Fiction, Horror, LGBT, Queer, Fiction, Lesbian, Fantasy

464 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication March 10, 2026

About the author

One of those intricate British queers.

Please note: I don’t read / reply to DMs. If you would like to get in touch, the best way is via email which you can find in the contact section on my website <3

Reviews

[Ellie]

A pub assistant reached out to ME about reading an ARC of this book and I have never felt so special in my WHOLE LIFE.

[Cee]

“Gideon the Ninth meets Murderbot”????
Well, I mean, flamin' sign me up!

[Jassmine]

This still doesn't sound like a real thing that's happening to me.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy from Tor Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Publish date March 10th, 2026.

I've been a longtime fan of Alexis Hall's, and I was interested to see what he'd do in his science fiction debut. In Hell's Heart, aimless and self-destructive I- signs on a space whaling voyage in order to flee her merciless medical creditors, who own her body and soul. In this retelling of Moby Dick, she begins to realize that their charismatically deranged captain is hell-bent at hunting down the leviathan who injured her--even at the cost of her life and the lives of the entire crew.

Well! As someone who's familiar with Herman Melville's Moby Dick, I should not have been surprised that the lesbians in space retelling had a pace as slow as molasses, interspersed with endless and aimless asides to the reader. Because I- states directly how the book ends from very early on, the four hundred plus pages of boat antics and Leviathan slayings feel like mere filler before the ultimate end. The effect is exacerbated by narrator I-, who is passive, depressed, and has a very detached perspective that makes the narration feel distant. I know many of you like your women soggy and pathetic, but personally I prefer the aggressively digging themselves deeper into a hole type rather than the facedown on the floor type.

By far the strongest point of the novel was the worldbuilding. Since the original novel was set midway through the process of driving whales nearly to extinction in the Atlantic, it's fitting that the retelling is also set in a capitalistic hellscape, albeit one set in a retro-style Solar System limited space future. While I- has mostly left the awful religion she was brought in (a grotesquerie of a certain type of prosperity Christianity), she accepts the values her culture presents her without much question, and drops the awful little details as casual little asides. Onboard the ship, shower minutes are billed and taken directly out of their wages. I's surgery (implied to be gender-affirming) puts her in debt to a pharma-corp conglomerate, and if she misses a payment, they can repossess her organs. People can be sold into debt-slavery for the crime of inheriting a patented gene complex. And so on and so forth. It's a fitting accompaniment to the grim plot.

Overall, Hell's Heart is a throwback to Hall's complex early steampunk novels rather than his frivolous recent historicals. It certainly isn't a romance novel--while I- has unhappy escapist sex with a number of women, there's no romance and nothing I'd consider a full sex scene. However, I did enjoy I-'s crewmate and sometimes-lover Q-. Q- is from Earth, speaks nearly exclusively in untranslated Latin in the text, and has a sort of smartphone reference device that I- doesn't understand and refers to as her "idol". Alas, Q- is almost entirely opaque to I-, who doesn't really understand her, and therefore to the reader as well.

There's some fantastic details here, but not much substance. I think this would have been a much stronger work chopped down into a novella..

[Andrea]

The sky itself will remember our names.

4.5 stars rounded up because it's Alexis Hall.

Honestly, I don't really know what more I can say to convince anyone to pick this up. If the cover and "SAPPHIC MOBY DICK IN SPACE" doesn't convince you to immediately drop everything and read this book, I don't know what will. Also, "sapphic Moby Dick in space" kinda tells you everything. It's Moby Dick. In space. With lots of queerness.

For those who already love Alexis Hall, you know what to expect: it's irreverent, fun, sarcastic, and will make you feel things at unexpected moments. There are lovely shiny moments were the narrator (Call her... whatever) muses on the logic behind hunting beautiful beasts so you can take them apart, religion and how it is used (and abused). Yes, sometimes they go off on tangents (which they freely admit early on) and ramble a bit but let's be honest: it's Moby Dick in space, if you didn't expect that then. Well...

And one last time: it's sapphic Moby Dick in space! Enjoy.

*I received an ARC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

[Briana Shuman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hell’s Heart wants to be a lot of things a space-faring fever dream, a queered-up Moby Dick, a poetic meditation on obsession and survival. And maybe it is, in a way. But mostly, for me, it felt like being stuck in a long, winding conversation with someone who loves the sound of their own voice.
There’s a ship. There’s space. There’s ruin. There’s a narrator who watches everything and feels very little until suddenly she’s supposed to feel everything. I kept waiting to be pulled in. To feel the weight of Jupiter’s storms in my chest. But all I found were words. So many words. Describing, explaining, telling. Never quite letting me breathe.
I wanted to care. I really did. But caring requires connection, and this book never stopped long enough to make one.
I suppose some people will find it brilliant. I wanted to like it. I just found it exhausting. Thank you to the publisher and author for this ARC.

[Sabina · Rating 4 out of 5]

(3.5) An astronomical retelling of Moby Dick! Hell’s Heart takes a long-time classic and sets it in the swirling depths of the cosmos, among the budding madness of a revenge-driven captain and the frenetic energy of a crew who just wants to kill leviathans. I loved the often philosophical narration and how real the extra-planetary surroundings of the setting felt, from religions based on the eventual consumption of the universe to pharma companies who extract perpetual payments on the limbs they replace. I’ve personally never read Moby Dick, but I think if you’re a fan this will be huge for you.

I was caught off guard by the abruptness of the ending and the way the plot meandered in the last third of the book, but I think that may be a problem with Herman Melville and not Alexis Hall. The first 50% of the book was some of the best stuff I’ve read all year!

[Heather Lewis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve never read Moby Dick but thought the idea of lesbians in space sounding fun. This was not that for me. It felt like it took me forever to read and I was never really sucked in.

The writing is well done. The worldbuilding was great. It was very easy to imagine this world and there’s so much information provided. I found all of the churches, religions and cultures mentioned to be interesting. As well as the leviathans themselves.

It does pick up at the end but that wasn’t enough for me. Overall I just don’t think this was for me. But if you’re a fan of the author or just wanna read Moby Dick in space then I would definitely give this a shot! Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This took me longer than I thought it would to read but that’s because it reads like Moby dick: long, meandering, weird, horny, sad, silly.

It’s not a line for line rewrite but it feels not far off. It hits all the major beats of the story the minor ones too. The story translates really well to space and sad horny lesbians. I had a great time and probably need to re read Moby Dick again!

[Collin Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sapphic space opera Moby Dick retelling with a widely inclusive cast of characters went about as chaotically as I could’ve imagined.

Hell’s Heart thrives in the world building department which does slightly sacrifice the pacing up until the third act—but the capitalistic undertones really keep the intrigue alive in this one.

I’ll read anything Hall writes, because they consistently push literary boundaries—this does just that.

Thanks again to NetGalley & Tor for a digital copy in exchange for a fair/honest review.

[Dawson Sprinkle · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a while to finish this one, but it was worth it! I should preface that I was not assigned Moby Dick in high school, as such, I have not read it. My limited and vague understanding of that novel comes mostly from cultural osmosis and a brief phase in sophomore year where I got really into the Mastodon album about it, which is to say that my knowledge of this story is limited so I don't know how much of this book was taken from that one. Honestly? I don't think that's a bad thing.

The best pieces of this book are its characters (which I suspect are similar to the characters from the original novel just a bit queerer) and its world building. The way the leviathans are described and the way the hunting process was described was super interesting. All of the different churches and beliefs and cultures from around the solar system, even if they were briefly mentioned, gave this world so much depth. I found especially the mystique and confusion about people from Earth to be particularly interesting.

Much like the original (I imagine at least) this book is slooooooow moving until the last ten percent or so. Much of what happens before the climax feels almost like a serial tv show because the in-universe author's memory isn't great, but most of it is very interesting. But man! That last ten percent is going to stick with me for a while.

[Kayla Girdner · Rating 5 out of 5]

so good! so weird and sad and vast and lonely! I love Moby Dick but I might love this book more.

[L. Garrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Came for the strangeness of the concept, stayed for the cynical protagonist.

I’m not really sure what I was expecting from Hell’s Heart, to be honest. The tagline is more than interesting enouhg to demand your attention, and the promise of a science fiction romp through the storms of Jupiter in search of fantastical monstrosities whose brain juice fuels the entire human species draws you in like nothing else.

But there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface than that.

The main character, referred to simply as “I”, is a lot more complex than she would have you believe. Her narrative voice is cynical, self-hating, borderline nihilistic at points. She makes it clear to the reader that the urge for self-destruction drives her, and that signing up onto a Leviathan-hunting ship just about to set off on an expedition everyone else thinks is doomed aligns perfectly with her need to pursue oblivion. Her narrative voice never strayed too into jaded territory, and the author did a fantastic job of balancing I’s self-loathing and sarcasm with a fair amount of actually quite philosophically internal monologues. “I” might label herself a fake philosopher, and be called such by members of the crew, but there’s a lot of depth to her. She spends a fair amount of time reflecting on her decision and why she needs to destroy herself so badly.

She’s also incredibly meta and canny. This books is framed as a memoir of sorts, being written by “I” years after the events of the story have taken place. She addresses the reader on multiple occasions, and will draw attention to certain narrative decisions in a way which felt natural and engaging. For example, there are a few chapters where “I” dedicates the pages to explaining some aspect of Leviathan biology or providing an overview of the mechanics of the hunt itself. She then breaks the fourth wall and notes that she’s aware she’s rambling or drawing our attention away from the plot’s main thread, but we need to know this stuff and she didn’t know how else to include the context. I’ve never read Moby Dick, but I’ve heard the author does similar things by overexplaining topics not directly relevant to the plot, so this was quite an amusing way of poking a bit of light fun at the original classic.

Moving on from the MC, the plot itself is relatively simple at its core. The Captain Ahab stand-in, a fanatical and enigmatic woman named simply “A”, lost her leg to the Möbius Beast, and not only craves revenge, but also desires the immortality killing the beast will give her. As the hunt progresses, “I” comes to understand the captain’s mission whilst also unpacking why it is the crew follows “A” when even they recognise her madness. There are also a number of well-developed secondary plots supporting main pursuit, including the rise of a religious cult within the crew (who believe the Leviathans of Jupiter are sent by God to devour everyone, and the most faithful will be devoured last), an encounter with space pirates (and their silver-tongued captain), and “I’s” growing relationship both with crazy captain “A” and a woman named “Q”, who she joined the expedition with.

The character of “Q” was an interesting one. She and “I” barely share and language, though manage to communicate and share a quite significant romance that served to humanise “I” and remind her that, even against her wishes, she is capable of caring for people. “Q” was always there to sweep in and save “I”, framing herself as a competent warrior-like woman who also serves as one of the ship’s harpooners when it comes to hunting the monsters themsevles. “Q” also hails from Earth, and in this far-future reality, our home planet is shrouded in rumour and mysticism, placing “Q” on the fringes of common society and making her a pariah, just as “I” is a pariah.
The setting was also fantastic, it has to be noted. The idea of populating the storms and continent-sized clouds of Jupiter with huge monsters was an inspired one, as Jupiter being a gas giant means a large part of the ship’s hunt is spent beneath the surface. There was also mention of, and a brief near-miss with, a huge hydrogen sea at the very centre of the planet, which added an extra layer of space opera danger to an already expansive plot.

The descriptions of the hunts themselves, as well as the resulting butchery, were well handled. Rather than an account of the mindless murder of animals whose bodies we require for our own selfish needs, “I” frames the hunt in a slightly more compassionate manner. She feels connected with the carcasses of the hunted Leviathans, and watches as they are disassembled, their bodies claimed as their lives are stolen. It feeds into the themes of ownership, and how, in this bleak future, even our own bodies don’t belong to us anymore, much as the Leviathans’ don’t. “I” herself is in a huge amount of debt to a pharmaceutical state (because she had some undetailed surgery to alter her body at some point in the past), a debt she can never hope to repay. These pharma states essentially run humanity, enforcing widespread debt and ensuring no one is truly free. The Leviathans and the hunting of them encapsulates this theme because they are only as valuable as the brain juice they can provide, just as people are only as valuable as the debts they can accrue to keep them indentured.

Overall, this was a fantastic book. Not only did it defy my expectations, it also subverted them, thrust itself head and shoulders above them, and turned them on their head.

It has a lot to say about the state of the world and the selfishness of humanity, and it explores those darker themes in such a fun, unique way.

Thank you to the publisher for my free copy.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

ugh. Perhaps I'm not the right audience for this one.

My first intro to this author was A Lady for a Duke, which was pretty great. I've been disappointed with everything I've read by them since, so why did I think their first foray into sci-fi would be a winner? In defense of the book, I didn't read the blurb aside from "Alexis Hall's thrilling SF debut" before hitting that request button. Had I known before starting it that it was Moby Dick but in space...

I also haven't read all of Moby-Dick or, The Whale; I read a few assigned chapters in an American Lit class in undergrad, but we weren't assigned the whole novel. I remember that I liked it more than I thought I would and wouldn't have been opposed to reading the whole thing, but of course never got around to it.

This is maybe most interesting for literature deep-readers who will enjoy the/any parallels to the original and where/how it diverges. Since this is 400-some pages, I assume much of the structure is the same, especially with the info-dumping. The main characters (narrator, their companion/roommate, and captain) are all female (I read the narrator as trans, based on scattered comments about body-shaping surgeries, such as to change the shape of her hands) and the first mate is nonbinary; there are male crewmembers, too. The narrator spends a lot of time deconstructing or at least musing on the topic of religion-- both what she was raised with, and the variations practiced by other crew members. This topic seems insightful at first, but the author proceeds to beat a dead horse, with too-blatant, too-obvious critiques throughout the entire book. Maybe other readers who didn't grow up in and then leave restrictive faiths have different takes on this.

The narrator's voice is similar in several ways to the narrator of Mortal Follies (which I didn't like in that book and don't enjoy in this one, either). Both are flippant; both are forthright about their particular vices or moral failings but seem to be under the impression this makes them more self-aware. Both make a lot of parenthetical asides, often directly addressing the reader.

eARC from NetGalley.

[Shilo Quetchenbach · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was intrigued by this book, and Alexis Hall is one of my favorite authors, so I had high hopes for it. Alas, it and I don't get along.

The main problem is the narrator. She is depressed, is signing onto a hunting barque on a whim to escape "walking out the airlock" feelings, and the narration drips with it. As I am struggling with slipping into a bit of a depression myself at the moment, it was not a good fit. But it wouldn't be a good fit at the best of times. She is detached from her surroundings which means since she is narrating, I (the reader) do not become attached to any characters--a necessity for me when reading.

I did appreciate that I- seems to be trans (having had many surgeries to change her appearance and therefore in danger of having her organs repossessed by the corporations).

I like to have a glance at other reviewers' thoughts when I'm struggling with how to rate a book or if it's worth finishing, and the reviewer who noted that the narrator here, I-, is very similar to the narrator in Mortal Follies--another book I did not get on with, largely because of the narrator and narration style-- is spot on. That realization made a lot of my feelings much more clear.

Also, it's a re-imagining of Moby Dick, complete with glacial pace and long-winded meandering asides. I have not read Moby Dick in its entirety, but I have been struggling with long (and long-winded) meandering books lately. I think If I had recently read Moby Dick (and enjoyed such books more at the moment) I might appreciate better how close Alexis Hall sticks to the text and how they deviate from it.

The worldbuilding is interesting, if very dense, and incredibly bleak. Space is a capitalist hellscape, religion is for the wealthy, which facts are beaten into the characters and reader over and over again. I- is inured to it. As a reader, it only added to the depression of it all.

Q-, the crewmate and sometimes lover of I-, speaks almost entirely in untranslated Latin which adds another barrier to feeling attached to her. It's hard to feel close to someone you can barely understand.

Oh, and I saw it described as Gideon the Ninth meets Murderbot, which is not accurate at all. I mean, I guess Murderbot and I- are both depressed? And both Gideon and I- are lesbians in space? But it's a stretch. I would say they're nothing alike at all.

In conclusion, well-written as far as I could tell, because I did plod along for quite a while, just barely interested enough to keep going, but very much not for me.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing an early copy for review.

[Booksblabbering || Cait❣️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Queer, self-depreciate, humourous, Sci Fi Moby Dick.

She wanted a job in the skies, she was slightly suicidal and running away from a childhood religious doctrine. So, she went hunting Leviathans.

This will be for a very specific audience. The humour is immensely immature with more sperm jokes than I ever wanted to read. The heroine is self-destructive, horny, suicidal, and pretty submissive and passive. If anything, she is probably the least interesting character, but her self-indulgent reflecting and philosophising allows readers to see the bigger picture.

Intimacy isn’t about reaching into your pants or reaching into your heart. It’s about reaching across time. It’s about a touch that you can still feel—really feel, sure as the ice wind on your too-exposed skin—a day or a year or ten years later. It’s waking up in the night and realizing that your hands are empty and your bed is empty and you’re ugly-crying for what might have been.

A peculiar trait of this book is to not name our three main characters. Our first person heroine recounting her unbelievable tale, the crazy, formidable Captain, and the bunkmate who barely speaks the same language.

The plot and narrative is meandering, filled with interjections, breaking the fourth wall, and metatextual inner dialogue.

The account is filled with info dumps, excused by the fact that the heroine says you can skip certain chapters if you want to get ‘back to the sex’.

Part of the reason this story gets fucky with time is that memory really do be like that sometimes.

Basically, this chapter is here so you’ll know what the fuck I’m talking about when some great beast with chitinous mandibles and feeder tendrils shows up and I don’t have to explain what it’s called while I’m also explaining how it nearly ate me. Let’s start with the Behemoths.

The tone is modern and I felt like it tried to lean into the Gideon the Ninth comparison too much, but couldn’t capture the same energy. A hyperactive Locked Tomb.

I started off enjoying the unique narrator and her way of seeing the world. However, it got boring and annoying fast.
Where was the character development? Why didn’t I find hunting Leviathans in space exciting? Why did I find the ending so unsatisfying?

Physical arc gifted by Tor.

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[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: 3.75 stars

From the description you might be expecting a fast-paced adventure novel but I would go so far as to say this book is VERY slow-paced, more a meandering to its end point. Which is not a bad thing but definitely a thing to know and will certainly not be for everybody. This tale is told as a memoir; the narrator is reflecting back on her time aboard a hunting ship, tracking down the greatest and most dangerous mythical beast in the atmosphere of Jupiter.

In many words, this memoir is narrated by a person who deflects every serious emotion with dry humor and sex as a coping mechanism. Imagine the most emotionally avoidant and self-destructive person you know reflecting on a world of late-late (futuristic) stage capitalism in which religious organizations make no attempt to hide their participation. The narrator is detached, tangential, and simultaneously philosophical, so that is how the information in the book is relayed. One minute she’ll be joking about sperm and the next she’ll hit you with a line like, "It was the comfort of a half believer retreating to the safety of dogma from the danger of thought."

This is a book filled with dark humor, reflections on personhood and capitalism and religion, and Leviathan hunting through space, but told from the point of view of someone incredibly passive and depressed who never let's herself get attached to anyone or anything and so the story (I believe purposefully) comes across with a tinge of all of those things as well (e.g., as a reader you're somewhat submissive to superfluous whims of the narrator and it can feel hard to connect to the characters in a meaningful way). Picture reading a memoir or being told a story via podcast years after the fact, there's a distance present that's not the typical reader experience in adventure sci-fi. You're not inhabiting the story as it's happening, so this is kind of a blend of genres (both literary and sci-fi). I've never read Moby Dick, but I assume it's comped for a reason.

Overall, I laughed, I was made to reflect on how corporate greed fucks everything, I remained interested in the general plot, but also I don't know that I felt any big feelings and this book took me some time to read.

Thank you Tor for the arc!

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked it quite a bit but I think it's also going to be quite contentious when it actully releases; it borrows a lot from the sense of humor and general permutation of internet culture that the Locked Tomb books have, and I know that's been somewhat controversial for a lot of people. That being said, I thought th eway the story was translated from the OG Moby Dick to being in space was really well done, and the world building felt quite satisifactory. So many times, when you have a book that is 'x classic in this new setting' the world building can feel like flimsy scaffolding, but this felt fairly fully realized and left me wanting to know more about the broad universe at play.

I do confess I've never actually read Moby Dick- I tried, and I could never get into it, though I know the broad strokes/beats, and it was delightful to be able to recognize even that much within the text. You don't really have to be intimately familiar, which is nice- you just need to know the main players, which I think many people do, from a pop culture perspective.

And, of course, it's always a delight to read something that decides to take a classic and just make it really, really queer- because in space, no one can hear you gender.

Stylistically, I really liked that it was meandering, wandering, not straight forward- the text goes back and forth between story (not always strictly linear) and the narrator's own inner wonderings, their thought on the world, musings on their past, reminscing on particular members of the ship's crew. For me, this worked extremely well, though it makes it a slower read than a more straight forward narrative. Others may find themselves bouncing hard against it.

Overall, 4/5 stars. If you're willing/amenable to the humor and the style, I think it's a lovely, fun book.

[Jensen McCorkel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quick very high level summary.
A queer science-fiction reimagining of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick that is set in a far future where humanity has ruined the earth. Humanity survives in domes on harsh planets or in orbit and are reliant on scarce fuel sources.

My take.
I will admit as I was reading the mining of volatile, a substance harvested from the brains of gargantuan reminded me of Knowhere's Celestial mining operation in Guardians of the Galaxy. In GOTG they harvest valuable organic matter from the Celestial's skull. Now with that out of the way lets discuss this story. We have a whole bunch of themes and statements taking place in this story. We have religion, capitalism, ecology, exploitation and resource Scarcity then add queerness and identity. So much to tackle in one book plus the whole Moby Dick rep to live up to. A brave move for the author no doubt.

The writing is so well done in my opinion. The world-building was an ambitious task and I think the author did an amazing job of creating a visual imagery that at times can be surreal and grotesquely atmospheric. I enjoyed the quick wit and snarky banter that provided some natural levity to a story that really does have some heavy themes and dark moments of cosmic horror. The pacing can shift and become a bit uneven at times but I think that is due to just the vast amount of information they author provides in order for the reader to feel truly immersed in the story so it never really bothered me or hindered my reading experience. It also had a bit too many references to sex for me and I felt did take away a bit from the story and actually just became repetitive. Overall I enjoyed the read.

[Nicole Wagner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hell's Heart is a sci-fi reimagining of Moby Dick that trades the ocean's depths for the stormy frozen atmosphere of Jupiter. It follows its source material perhaps too faithfully at times, but the author has created a genuinely thrilling adventure, set in a future in which interplanetary economics involve swashbuckling mercenary voyages, and enigmatic gargantuan Lovecraftian fauna are the treasure most religiously sought.

The settings are where this novel truly shines. From the breathtaking descriptions of Jovian storms and hydrogen seas to the diverse array of modified humans and extraterrestrial species, the setting is pure catnip for science fiction enthusiasts. The author's vivid imagery of space monsters and cosmic phenomena creates an atmosphere that's both wondrous and terrifying.

However, the character development leaves something to be desired. While there are moments of compelling tension and unspoken attraction between certain female characters, none of the protagonists demand particular emotional investment. One major frustration is the frequent use of untranslated Latin by a key character. I annoyingly had to keep my phone handy for Google Translate, since I'm not fluent.

I don't always mind trading deep character development for spectacular action and imagery.

Special mention must go to the cover art, which is absolutely stunning and wouldn't look out of place as a vintage black light fuzzy poster.

[Hadley Field · Rating 5 out of 5]

A destitute, unreliable, pansexual, ADHD-coded, resentfully-agnostic, eternally restless woman decides to chase space whales in Jupiter to temporarily drown out the emptiness she feels inside.

The parallels to Ishmael aren't so far off.

You don't have to have read Moby Dick in order to enjoy this, but if you brush up on the Cliff's Notes, you'll see some lovely nods (I, A, and Q for Ishmael, Ahab, & Queequeg, the ship names, a good portion of the plot).

The worldbuilding is exquisite, and like Moby Dick, thoroughly examined by the narrator. I can see how some people might find it slow-paced, but I found it almost cozy. This is a book that you can linger over, with plenty of pockets and details to explore. The narrator muses about everything from the etymology of Old Earth words to dick jokes to the nature of religion, and all of it is full of voice, all of it central to the character at hand.

The meandering hunt for the whale contrasts heavily with the ending, which moves at lightning speed. Which, I think, is rather the point.

Hall is masterful here. There were parts, especially when the narrator slips between the present and the past, with such smooth dialogue flows that I had to read them again just for the pleasure of it.

Thank you to Tor Books, NetGalley, and Alexis Hall for the ARC!

[Y.N.]

Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for the eARC

Well, this book didn't find me at the right time. It is very slow going, with an unreliable narator and a huge draw on Moby Dick (I didn't read it, or if I did it was in french, at least ten years ago). All of this meant it was no an engaging read, even less so when a tragedy hit me in my life.

Still, I have a few things to say about Hell's Heart, even I didn't finish it. It is well written for what it wants to do, with a worldbuilding done in a way that is quite easy to imagine, with interesting religions and cultural details (very drawn from recognisable sources I'd say, not the type of worldbuilding I prefer).

Hell's Heart is sold as "Murderbot" mets "Gideon the Ninth" (at least in some places). I haven't read Gideon yet, but I guess the lesbian/saphic characters are the main relationship here. Murderbot, I don't really see the link, but I guess it is more a marketting choice. The Netgalley comps, which includes "Moby Dick" is a better comparaison I'd say.

Overall, a book that manages to convey what it wants to convey, in a manner that didn't suit me. I didn't feel drawn to the book or the characters. Still, I might try again in a few weeks/months, since I enjoyed some of Alexis Hall books.

[Hollowspine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sapphic Moby-Dick in Space. This book delivers on it's tagline, and some. Hell's Heart should appeal to both readers who are familiar with Moby-Dick and those who've never read it. Readers who enjoyed Moby Dick will find the ways Hall gives homage, comments on, and transforms their story from that of it's inspiration interesting and refreshing. Those who were bored by Moby-Dick will find here a narrative that keeps things snappy, delivers enough of the hits, but deviates from tired old ways and adds rich details to bring this story into the space age. Who knew Moby Dick would translate so well into a grimy space-port and gritty crew of leviathan hunters in the gases of Jupiter. The adventurous soul of Ishmael is present and the commentary on obsession, grief and rage conjures old Ahab. That said, even with a chapter called, "Cetology," interruptions with many explanations and definitions, and a digressing, philosophizing narrator, the flow of the story never stalls and the page count goes fast. For readers who like Gideon the Ninth - this will provide a similarly intense cast of mostly queer characters, a unique vision set in space and a bit of spicy sapphic non-romance.

[Pinch · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book! A sapphic, chaotic, scifi take on Moby Dick, complete with Melville's style of meandering prose and ironic humor. Isa, our likely psudeonymous protagonist, signs on with a space whaling ship as a way to pay her bills and manage her self-destructive ways (more or less) alongside Q, a "savage" from Earth. Isa soon falls under the sway of Captain A, who is obsessed with killing the giant Leviathan who took her leg on the last voyage. Filled with more sex and humor than the original, Hell's Heart retains much of what made Moby Dick a classic- detailed descriptions of shipboard life, trechant observations of human nature, and and intricate worldbuilding. It's a bit of a brick at over 900 pages according to Kindle, but well worth it for the strange cults and odd characters that populate Hell's Heart. I forced myself through Moby Dick in high school and Alexis Hall managed to do the impossible - make me appreciate Melville's work as anything other than a doorstopper.

[CJ Opal · Rating 5 out of 5]

I put off reading the last thirty pages of this book for an entire week. I feel like I've been punched in the chest and I am crying on my couch, begging my husband (who has several chapters of Moby Dick memorized) to read this book. I've never read Moby Dick, and I've never read a passage from the bible, both of which heavily influence this story, but Hall tells the story in a way that didn't make me feel left out. I fact checked with my Moby Dick stan and it's a faithful retelling, with some interesting and pivotal twists. It's a story about greed, faith, love, and free will. I'm devastated by the ending, and I'll be thinking of the last few pages for years to come.
I'll admit it took me a good 50 pages to really get into it, and there were times when I found the narrator to be more than a little annoying. Trust Hall to set it up and give you exactly what you need, no more and no less, and you'll make it through to the end for a closing chapter that will terrify, sicken, and break you open. I promise it's worth the journey.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a fan of Alexis Hall's work I was curious about his Sci-Fi debut, and happy to have received an ARC via NetGalley. Hell's Heart is a typical Alexis Hall novel (funny, sarcastic, surprisingly deep when you least expect it), but it is also closer to his Steampunk novels than his contemporary or historical romances. Also, it is not a romance.

It is what it says on the tin, a lesbians in space retelling of Moby Dick; slow pacing and lots of meandering included. The world-building is where this story shines. Set in a future of our Solar System that is corrupted by capitalism and with the weirdest versions of patriarchal (mainly Christian) religions that you can imagine.

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Below you can find the thoughts about Hell's Heart I shared with another ARC reader just after finishing the novel:

Lots of "sperm" jokes.
Not as boring as Moby Dick, but those 400+pp are filled with tangents and self-deprecation and horniness and Q talking in Latin.
It's very Alexis Hall by way of Melville.

3.5 stars - rounded up, because it's Alexis Hall

[Olga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sometimes you don’t know you want a book until you get it. Did I want a retelling of Moby Dick in space? No, but it’s such a good idea. The Pequod, a hunter barque going after Leviathans in and around Jupiter, is helmed by A, a charismatic captain obsesses with the Mobius Beast, a white monster that wrecked A’s boat, tore her leg, and killed some of her crew on a previous encounter. The first chapter comes complete with “call me Ishmael” or something beginning with I, anyway. Told in a snarky yet philosophical tone, Hell’s Heart ultimately wrangles with the same issues as the original - religion (the way it evolved some centuries from now), vengeance, obsession, and is there any point to the universe, or do we have to create meaning ourselves, by fighting forces that dwarf us, not necessarily to win, but just to make a stand?

[sophie ☁️ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for granting me an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book and I’m so disappointed that I didn’t. I was captivated by the concept of a sapphic space-opera retelling of Moby Dick but it fell flat for me. I was barely a chapter in and I was already LOST. So much was thrown in so quickly, from complex names to the entire contents of a thesaurus.

I’ve also realised that feeling like I’m being addressed directly in a book is not my jam. I understand it was written to be a memoir but it just took me out of the story. The world-building was complex and then the narrative felt really juvenile and overly casual. It didn’t mesh well in my opinion.

I definitely think there will be some people that adore this story and I appreciate why. Not for me on this occasion.

[Jessie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is marketed as Gideon the Ninth meets Moby Dick so you know that I HAD to read it and it does deliver on those claims. The strongest part of this novel is the worldbuilding - Hell's Heart exists in a crappy capitalist nightmare full of messy characters, space leviathans and flying ships. The narrative was meandering, sad and weird (my favourite). The last maybe 10% of the novel is when everything really picks up and packs a strong punch. I think it could've been shortened at times, to really hone things in but regardless, I loved this one and I will be recommending it to everyone that I can.

[Kaysen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was such a wild, imaginative ride. Think Gideon the Ninth energy meets cosmic chaos, but with Alexis Hall’s signature humor and heart woven through it. The worldbuilding is bonkers in the best way!! Giant psychic space monsters, doomed missions, messy characters just trying their best, and it all comes together in a story that feels fresh and unexpectedly emotional.

I didn’t fully love every moment, but I definitely had a great time. It’s sharp, weird, clever, and genuinely fun to get lost in. A solid 4 stars and a very worthy entry into the sci-fi chaos canon.