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The Deathworlders
A serious saga in the 8000+ page range, space opera in the HFY tradition.
8400 pages, ebook
85 people are currently reading
359 people want to read
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February 14, 2021Let's be clear here: This is not a book. This is a years-spanning saga with monthly updates, a space opera so incredibly dense that its word count has no doubt surpassed that of Malazan, Book of the Fallen by a wide margin. By saying I've completed it, I'm saying that I finished the main narrative as it is complete to this date, but there will no doubt be more.
This is a time suck. It will eat your hours, but it will eat them in a happy way. (Aside from your back. You should really stand up and stretch once in a while.) The author has created a saga with memorable and distinct characters, stakes that don't get raised but shifted in interestingly complicated ways, an a forthright sense of humor.
I will be recommending to the author that he break this story into book-sized segments, preferably in ebook format so that people can get the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing multiple tomes. ;)
This is a time suck. It will eat your hours, but it will eat them in a happy way. (Aside from your back. You should really stand up and stretch once in a while.) The author has created a saga with memorable and distinct characters, stakes that don't get raised but shifted in interestingly complicated ways, an a forthright sense of humor.
I will be recommending to the author that he break this story into book-sized segments, preferably in ebook format so that people can get the sense of accomplishment that comes from finishing multiple tomes. ;)
May 22, 2022
I have very mixed feelings about this online serial. No stars because I really can't decide, it's too complicated.
Edit: After some thought, I realized that any novel that loses my interest before the end deserves a 1 star, no matter what merits it has. 1 star for did not finish and to make Goodreads algorithm do its job.
The Deathworlders starts with the account of Kevin Jenkins and an alien he calls "Kirk" (the alien's full name is unpronounceable). Jenkins and Kirk have not appeared in The Deathworlders for at least 20 chapters (hundreds of thousands of words) as of May 2022. This sums up the spirit of this work quite well, actually.
My opening note: I have never seen the phrases "anyhoo," "needs must," and "sotto voce" used so often in any written work, ever. Take a drink every time you see them used and you'll be blacked out before long. I just needed to get that off my chest.
It's a well-crafted universe, the internal consistency is better than many published books. The plot develops in a believable way, even when the insane happens (and it DOES happen). The story very quickly ascends from generic memetic HFY-schlock to one with actual serious stakes (at least for a time, see the following two paragraphs). The grating anti-theist attitude in the original short is quickly countered and the matter of spirituality is an enduring one throughout this epic. There's some really good stuff in this work. It's not afraid to shift its focus or scope. In fact it seems to delight in doing so.
Another reviewer here said this story rapidly gets consumed by broscience and bromagic after the "Warhorse" arc, and it's true. Early in the story, every character has their own voice and mannerisms. But after the bromagic kicks in, every bro-character's English suddenly degrades to a level you'd find at a Talledega Superspeedway tailgate party. I honestly couldn't tell them apart without dialogue tags anymore. This same gutter-English is used for many of a certain alien ally faction's characters too. It's like the author forgot how to make variations in speaking patterns and just went all in on the Talledega dialect.
The bromagic has an unfortunate implication that doesn't agree with the genre. The "genre" of HFY is ostensibly a celebration of the human spirit and human potential. The Deathworlders quickly leaves behind human potential with alien super-drugs and bromagic (such a great word for this) and eugenics programs (which the story does not gloss over and directly challenges the morality of, to be fair). But it's no longer about ordinary humans overcoming great odds, it's about bromagical supermen smashing the opposition with ease. Normal humans, the people this "genre" supposedly celebrates, are obsolete and increasingly sidelined in the narrative. The bad guys are hilariously inept for the first few million words of story and only start getting serious towards the more recent parts. It's all very gratuitous. What's the point in having a perfect, invincible character? There's nothing that can challenge them. You know how every challenge is going to end. This is the major reason I started losing interest in the later updates.
A moderate spoiler for one of the factions, but one I have major issues with:
Now for a MAJOR spoiler for another faction:
There's a lot to like about this work. Most of it is in the pre-Warhorse arc chapters. The more superhuman and bromagical the story gets, the less gripping it became, though I still spent the better part of a month reading through it. I don't think I'll be sticking around for whatever ending the author has planned because I'm not convinced the author has an ending planned. There's been multiple parts where the good guy have "won" only for the story to spin out a new narrative web for them to follow.
In a way, it's very realistic. People come and go from the story. Sometimes they play big parts, sometimes they play small parts, sometimes they abruptly vanish in the middle of their plot arc and are never heard from again (President Sartori's post-presidency career, the OmoAru, the Locayl ambassador who had the shipyard trade deal that never got followed up on), sometimes they fade into the background without fanfare (Jenkins, Kirk, Verdeg, Moses Byron, Drew whatever, and many more), and sometimes characters are wildly inconsistent (Six above all others). It feels real, like a living world, not everything gets resolved, not everyone gets closure.
I'm not sure that's what I want from my stories.
Edit: After some thought, I realized that any novel that loses my interest before the end deserves a 1 star, no matter what merits it has. 1 star for did not finish and to make Goodreads algorithm do its job.
The Deathworlders starts with the account of Kevin Jenkins and an alien he calls "Kirk" (the alien's full name is unpronounceable). Jenkins and Kirk have not appeared in The Deathworlders for at least 20 chapters (hundreds of thousands of words) as of May 2022. This sums up the spirit of this work quite well, actually.
My opening note: I have never seen the phrases "anyhoo," "needs must," and "sotto voce" used so often in any written work, ever. Take a drink every time you see them used and you'll be blacked out before long. I just needed to get that off my chest.
It's a well-crafted universe, the internal consistency is better than many published books. The plot develops in a believable way, even when the insane happens (and it DOES happen). The story very quickly ascends from generic memetic HFY-schlock to one with actual serious stakes (at least for a time, see the following two paragraphs). The grating anti-theist attitude in the original short is quickly countered and the matter of spirituality is an enduring one throughout this epic. There's some really good stuff in this work. It's not afraid to shift its focus or scope. In fact it seems to delight in doing so.
Another reviewer here said this story rapidly gets consumed by broscience and bromagic after the "Warhorse" arc, and it's true. Early in the story, every character has their own voice and mannerisms. But after the bromagic kicks in, every bro-character's English suddenly degrades to a level you'd find at a Talledega Superspeedway tailgate party. I honestly couldn't tell them apart without dialogue tags anymore. This same gutter-English is used for many of a certain alien ally faction's characters too. It's like the author forgot how to make variations in speaking patterns and just went all in on the Talledega dialect.
The bromagic has an unfortunate implication that doesn't agree with the genre. The "genre" of HFY is ostensibly a celebration of the human spirit and human potential. The Deathworlders quickly leaves behind human potential with alien super-drugs and bromagic (such a great word for this) and eugenics programs (which the story does not gloss over and directly challenges the morality of, to be fair). But it's no longer about ordinary humans overcoming great odds, it's about bromagical supermen smashing the opposition with ease. Normal humans, the people this "genre" supposedly celebrates, are obsolete and increasingly sidelined in the narrative. The bad guys are hilariously inept for the first few million words of story and only start getting serious towards the more recent parts. It's all very gratuitous. What's the point in having a perfect, invincible character? There's nothing that can challenge them. You know how every challenge is going to end. This is the major reason I started losing interest in the later updates.
A moderate spoiler for one of the factions, but one I have major issues with:
Now for a MAJOR spoiler for another faction:
There's a lot to like about this work. Most of it is in the pre-Warhorse arc chapters. The more superhuman and bromagical the story gets, the less gripping it became, though I still spent the better part of a month reading through it. I don't think I'll be sticking around for whatever ending the author has planned because I'm not convinced the author has an ending planned. There's been multiple parts where the good guy have "won" only for the story to spin out a new narrative web for them to follow.
In a way, it's very realistic. People come and go from the story. Sometimes they play big parts, sometimes they play small parts, sometimes they abruptly vanish in the middle of their plot arc and are never heard from again (President Sartori's post-presidency career, the OmoAru, the Locayl ambassador who had the shipyard trade deal that never got followed up on), sometimes they fade into the background without fanfare (Jenkins, Kirk, Verdeg, Moses Byron, Drew whatever, and many more), and sometimes characters are wildly inconsistent (Six above all others). It feels real, like a living world, not everything gets resolved, not everyone gets closure.
I'm not sure that's what I want from my stories.
April 3, 2020
I had no idea that this was going to be such an epic journey and completely ruin my reading challenge for the year. From about chapter 10, each subsequent chapter became about a 2hr read. And it's incredibly well written, internally consistent over 64 chapters, and honestly on par with some of the greatest science fiction I've ever read.
if I could give this 7 stars out of 5, I would.
if I could give this 7 stars out of 5, I would.
April 4, 2023
I was not expecting this to take me on a year and a half long journey where I read nothing else if I could. The ups and downs, twists and turns are endless and so infuriatingly exciting its hard to not start the next chapter. You spend hours reading it, then look at how much is left and you realise you barely scratched the surface. Im saddened and excited by the fact that I am caught up with the story, and now will only be swallowed into this world once a month for a few hours.
Edit 1:
The general jist of this series is simple. Just when you think u/Hambone has reached the limit of human imagination he drops a bomb that blows your brains out over and over again.
Edit 2:
The end. I lost track of how many years it took me to read this, as u/Hambone summarised it perfectly:
"What a Journey"
Edit 1:
The general jist of this series is simple. Just when you think u/Hambone has reached the limit of human imagination he drops a bomb that blows your brains out over and over again.
Edit 2:
The end. I lost track of how many years it took me to read this, as u/Hambone summarised it perfectly:
"What a Journey"
June 5, 2020
Never really got into sci fi before this, but this is really addictive.
January 11, 2024
Let me preface this by saying I want to like this story. And initially I really did. The characters felt like real people, the world-building was consistent and engaging, and there was enough reality to make the suspension of disbelief easy.
The problem is that as the story drags on, the story steadily loses supporting characters to being little more than background noise. In it's place, well, you get full chapters devoted to telling you how muscular and 'manly' certain military characters are, to the point of sounding like erotic fan fiction. It got to the point that most of the original readers on the HFY subreddit either stopped reading entirely or just skimmed entire monthly chapters looking for literally anything worth reading.
Now, I can forgive a lot of that due to Hambone's inexperience and the fact he openly admits it needs an editor to take a pass at the whole thing. But things get more problematic in the later chapters. The views of a certain human-adjacent alien race regarding sexual assault are frankly repulsive. And the last 25 or so chapters present an equally concerning view of eugenics, which becomes more ableist and pervasive as time goes on. Hambone has said that he's just presenting different views without being a proponent of them. But based on the words on the page, he's either being disingenuous or deluded. Oh, and he somehow manages to throw democracy under the bus in favor of neo-feudalism and everyone is somehow cool with that. But I honestly couldn't bring myself to care by then.
I finished the story and as I said I really wanted to like it. But I just can't recommend it in its current form. There's a solid base in the beginning and the ending itself isn't completely terrible, but the entire last third of the story needs a professional editor and a lot of rewriting. I hope Hambone can iterate on what he has now but for the moment I'm forced to give it 1 star.
The problem is that as the story drags on, the story steadily loses supporting characters to being little more than background noise. In it's place, well, you get full chapters devoted to telling you how muscular and 'manly' certain military characters are, to the point of sounding like erotic fan fiction. It got to the point that most of the original readers on the HFY subreddit either stopped reading entirely or just skimmed entire monthly chapters looking for literally anything worth reading.
Now, I can forgive a lot of that due to Hambone's inexperience and the fact he openly admits it needs an editor to take a pass at the whole thing. But things get more problematic in the later chapters. The views of a certain human-adjacent alien race regarding sexual assault are frankly repulsive. And the last 25 or so chapters present an equally concerning view of eugenics, which becomes more ableist and pervasive as time goes on. Hambone has said that he's just presenting different views without being a proponent of them. But based on the words on the page, he's either being disingenuous or deluded. Oh, and he somehow manages to throw democracy under the bus in favor of neo-feudalism and everyone is somehow cool with that. But I honestly couldn't bring myself to care by then.
I finished the story and as I said I really wanted to like it. But I just can't recommend it in its current form. There's a solid base in the beginning and the ending itself isn't completely terrible, but the entire last third of the story needs a professional editor and a lot of rewriting. I hope Hambone can iterate on what he has now but for the moment I'm forced to give it 1 star.
June 10, 2024
It started out great. Characters, story, worldbuilding, progression. It was great and one built into the other. Sure it may not have been super serious and it may not have been alot of things, but it had a very solid coherent story within its own selected niche.
However the further the story goes it kinda feels like the author goes completely off the track. Descriptions of muscles, bodies and "crushing" eachother turns into directly fetishist descriptions and it takes up not only a line or two but practically entire pages and chapters, it is really quite absurd at its worst and you find yourself skipping pages after page of it.
Suspension of disbelief goes completely out the window around the same time and basically stuff like The Last Jedi suddenly seems a masterpiece in coherent worldbuilding compared to what is going on. At best it is a utter absurd mess and at worst it is just nonsense and world vomit.
Not to mention the feeling of rushing things, it feels painfully obvious he is just padding the story with the aforementioned points while trying to rush everything else, and honestly it is most likely what is driving the complete disintegration of the story. it feels like the author has completley lost a sense of the passage of time and reasonable events within said time. Entire armies and fleets and socieatal upheavals occur within months suddenly with no consequence or explanation beyond "yo, this happens because i want it to and stuffs bad yo.... yo". It honestly is quite saddening because the entire thing started out so promising.
And thent here is the honestly utterly absurd views on eugenics and sudden feudalisation of society and everyone just thinking it is good and great and going along with it. A fucking fetish furry bear being the bear emperor of mankind through conquest against a weakened ally, a ridiculous god king out of nowhere, his manchild of a son that is a eugenical miracle that everyone loves and sucks the dick of. Its just like a child wrote these parts, honestly it doesnt even feel like the same author nor even an adult compared to the first chapters. Its like a 14 year olds fanfiction. It feels like the author just lost interest and handed the whole thing of to his underage nephew who has read a little bit too much erotic fanfiction about space marines.
A completely loss of how reality, physics and genetics works. Muscles good, strong muscles gooder, not muscles bad, muscles much smart and not muscles dumb and selfish. Muscles bestest smartest and if strong you good. Its just fucking stupid. And this is me being *nice* in describing the story.
2 stars is me being fucking gracious. 2/3rds of the story is below a single star, the only reason why it gets a 2 is because it started out so well and promising. Honestly i should sink it to a single one but i have a hard time to shit on the first part of the story because it genuinely is pretty good.
TLDR: Genuinely i would not recommend anyone to read this or any other work of the author. There is a completely lack of interest or professional pride in his work and the impression is that he will throw anything down the drain if he loses interest (or economic incentive?) to finish a story. The start is deceptive good and utterly missrepresentative of the remaining two thirds of the story.
However the further the story goes it kinda feels like the author goes completely off the track. Descriptions of muscles, bodies and "crushing" eachother turns into directly fetishist descriptions and it takes up not only a line or two but practically entire pages and chapters, it is really quite absurd at its worst and you find yourself skipping pages after page of it.
Suspension of disbelief goes completely out the window around the same time and basically stuff like The Last Jedi suddenly seems a masterpiece in coherent worldbuilding compared to what is going on. At best it is a utter absurd mess and at worst it is just nonsense and world vomit.
Not to mention the feeling of rushing things, it feels painfully obvious he is just padding the story with the aforementioned points while trying to rush everything else, and honestly it is most likely what is driving the complete disintegration of the story. it feels like the author has completley lost a sense of the passage of time and reasonable events within said time. Entire armies and fleets and socieatal upheavals occur within months suddenly with no consequence or explanation beyond "yo, this happens because i want it to and stuffs bad yo.... yo". It honestly is quite saddening because the entire thing started out so promising.
And thent here is the honestly utterly absurd views on eugenics and sudden feudalisation of society and everyone just thinking it is good and great and going along with it. A fucking fetish furry bear being the bear emperor of mankind through conquest against a weakened ally, a ridiculous god king out of nowhere, his manchild of a son that is a eugenical miracle that everyone loves and sucks the dick of. Its just like a child wrote these parts, honestly it doesnt even feel like the same author nor even an adult compared to the first chapters. Its like a 14 year olds fanfiction. It feels like the author just lost interest and handed the whole thing of to his underage nephew who has read a little bit too much erotic fanfiction about space marines.
A completely loss of how reality, physics and genetics works. Muscles good, strong muscles gooder, not muscles bad, muscles much smart and not muscles dumb and selfish. Muscles bestest smartest and if strong you good. Its just fucking stupid. And this is me being *nice* in describing the story.
2 stars is me being fucking gracious. 2/3rds of the story is below a single star, the only reason why it gets a 2 is because it started out so well and promising. Honestly i should sink it to a single one but i have a hard time to shit on the first part of the story because it genuinely is pretty good.
TLDR: Genuinely i would not recommend anyone to read this or any other work of the author. There is a completely lack of interest or professional pride in his work and the impression is that he will throw anything down the drain if he loses interest (or economic incentive?) to finish a story. The start is deceptive good and utterly missrepresentative of the remaining two thirds of the story.
July 8, 2023
This story is well written, but it does suffer from issues that other reviewers have noted.
My primary issue with the story comes from the complexity, stemming from the length. Due to live events, I missed a couple of updates, and when I was able to dive into them, they didn't quite make sense, so I reread the previous chapter to gain context. And then I had to rinse and repeat. I wound up attempting to reread it, but unfortunately could not finish due to aforementioned length.
If you're willing and able to binge it consistently, and can track of the staggering and ever-growing cast of characters, then you'll probably enjoy it.
I'd also like to mention, as have other reviewers, that time away from the story, and my subsequent reread, made me rethink the story-- namely the bromagic, which deeply detracts from the HFY origins of the story.
By this point, I feel as though the HEAT characters are primarily a thinly veiled allegory for transhumanism, rather than a story of average humanity triumphing- they are established as being a small percentage of humanity who can even begin the selection process.
Overall a good story, if you can handle the length, sheer number of characters, and the hand-waving pseudoscience.
My primary issue with the story comes from the complexity, stemming from the length. Due to live events, I missed a couple of updates, and when I was able to dive into them, they didn't quite make sense, so I reread the previous chapter to gain context. And then I had to rinse and repeat. I wound up attempting to reread it, but unfortunately could not finish due to aforementioned length.
If you're willing and able to binge it consistently, and can track of the staggering and ever-growing cast of characters, then you'll probably enjoy it.
I'd also like to mention, as have other reviewers, that time away from the story, and my subsequent reread, made me rethink the story-- namely the bromagic, which deeply detracts from the HFY origins of the story.
By this point, I feel as though the HEAT characters are primarily a thinly veiled allegory for transhumanism, rather than a story of average humanity triumphing- they are established as being a small percentage of humanity who can even begin the selection process.
Overall a good story, if you can handle the length, sheer number of characters, and the hand-waving pseudoscience.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 9, 2023
I loved the early to middle parts of the saga, and its expanded universe. I just generally enjoy the idea of humans being much better and much more badass than aliens, especially when most of the Sci fi I consume has humans being stupid puny earthlings. The conceit is that humans are from a death world, and had to fight to survive, while most of the aliens are peaceful herbivores from safe planets. Of course they are going to get curbstomped.
There is some more nuance to that. The presence of humans or other earth life sometimes kills planets, and the various aliens have very interesting and unique culture and biology. But at the end, what I am here for is stories of humans being better than aliens.
Later in the series, it gets more boring. The author seems to be running out of ideas, and there is a new strain of alpha male machoness and vague conservatism in the story. Some of it was probably present in earlier Deathworlders stories, but when I got bored and stopped following the main series, it was unbearable. But at least it didn’t effect the first fifty or so chapters of epic web novel Sci fi action, so my overall opinion remains positive.
There is some more nuance to that. The presence of humans or other earth life sometimes kills planets, and the various aliens have very interesting and unique culture and biology. But at the end, what I am here for is stories of humans being better than aliens.
Later in the series, it gets more boring. The author seems to be running out of ideas, and there is a new strain of alpha male machoness and vague conservatism in the story. Some of it was probably present in earlier Deathworlders stories, but when I got bored and stopped following the main series, it was unbearable. But at least it didn’t effect the first fifty or so chapters of epic web novel Sci fi action, so my overall opinion remains positive.
September 26, 2024
So this book took me four months to read, and according to my Kindle approximately 280 hours total reading time. I just want to put that out there at the beginning; this is a commitment to read at approximately 8,400 pages.
I would not trade any of that time for something else. THis book was a ride from the start.
There are 97 parts to this saga which would be equivalent in length to novellas. Sometimes. So are longer than others, but very few are the epic size of a Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson.
At the end, looking back at the characters who have been lost and those that have changed and grown over the course of the book makes you realize the completeness of this writing. And I just want to read more by him.
As he says in the end, it could benefit from professional editing; however, that is only for clean-up and maybe pacing.
And what makes it even more fun, is that it doesn't pretend to exist in a world without present and past pop culture. There is probably as much reference to things as can be done without taking over other author's materials. And yet the parts that are mesh perfectly.
I would not trade any of that time for something else. THis book was a ride from the start.
There are 97 parts to this saga which would be equivalent in length to novellas. Sometimes. So are longer than others, but very few are the epic size of a Robert Jordan or Brandon Sanderson.
At the end, looking back at the characters who have been lost and those that have changed and grown over the course of the book makes you realize the completeness of this writing. And I just want to read more by him.
As he says in the end, it could benefit from professional editing; however, that is only for clean-up and maybe pacing.
And what makes it even more fun, is that it doesn't pretend to exist in a world without present and past pop culture. There is probably as much reference to things as can be done without taking over other author's materials. And yet the parts that are mesh perfectly.
October 15, 2022
I originally found this book, if you could call it that considering its massive length and growing each month, through the Humans are Space Orcs/Humans Fuck Yeah Reddit thread which had already provided me months of enjoyment. I was NOT prepared for the ride it has taken me on. Very few books have made me actually laugh out loud, feel fear for a fictional group of characters, and actually cry during some sections. That all tells me that Hambone is an amazing writer and knows how to make you connect with his story in ways I've rarely known. I always look forward to the next chapter every month or so.
December 31, 2019
Never really wrote a review before so here's a short one.
Definitely read chapter 0; the Kevin Jenkins story.
It's a very interesting take on the usual view of humans and aliens.
Story as a whole (so far) is varying but satisfying and an easy read.
Definitely read chapter 0; the Kevin Jenkins story.
It's a very interesting take on the usual view of humans and aliens.
Story as a whole (so far) is varying but satisfying and an easy read.
October 11, 2021
Reading The deathworlders has been an experience and an epiphany in itself. The premise of the story is a real eye opener. It forces us to look differently to ourselves and our species.
May 3, 2022
I adore a lot of this, and get really creeped out by a lot of it. It's well done, especially for the genre.
April 11, 2024
Gave up halfway through. I guess that's quite a good rating, given that that means I've read somewhere around 5000(?) ebook pages.
March 18, 2025
This is a very difficult "book" to review.
I say "Book", because this 97 chapter webnovel epic is longer than most fully published series. Reading this took me about 6 months.
So The Deathworlders in review. This is quite possibly my single favourite sci fi IP I've ever encountered, and there is a rich and collaborative extended universe (canon and fanfiction) to go with it. Yes, it starts as a daft HFY joke / quick antitheistic rant about religion, but the world is SO GOOD. The believable alien cultures, the politics, the deep lore, the plot, the exploration of the purpose and role of religion later on... Yeah. This is the good shit.
Unfortunately, whilst the world and overarching plot are incredible and are the reason I stuck out reading this to the end, the story... *sigh*
It starts off so strong. A wealth of interesting characters and perspectives both human and alien, male and female. Characters are good, interactions are good.
Around the "Warhorse" arc, this becomes a distinctly male fantasy. I can only assume around this time the author maybe had a tough breakup or otherwise got unhealthily into the gym? Because gone are most of the interesting alien perspectives, and instead our main characters, even squishy ETs who've now been retconned heavily to be less squishy, are all these superslab hypermale meatheads who lift all the time. And we get PAGES describing their beautiful musculature. And this stays. For the rest of the book.
Meanwhile all our female characters start falling in love with these superslab ubermensch, and for the purposes of the story become reduced to domiciled love interests.
The author also chooses to use alien races to explore some controversial issues. Which in principle I'm fine with - it's something sci-fi is great for. Topics he chooses to explore include Eugenics, Gender dimorphism, and sex. And... None of it reads in a balanced way. It often reads like some kinda weird fetish, and has some pretty ableist and chauvinistic themes that are never really countered.
And... It's a shame. Because a lot of the good is still there. I still enjoyed reading a lot of it. And I'd love to read the story that could've been.
Instead we have a strong premise, and a frustrating read.
The early stuff is great though, especially where it overlaps with stories by other authors like "Salvage", "A Wounded Rabbit", etc.
As a complete and unedited work however? This isn't a good read. The author has suggested he wants to have a go at getting it properly edited and released as books, and should that happen and a LOT of the retcons and toxic masculinity gymbro fetish stuff be removed, the ending reworked, and some of the more Controversial topics the author chooses to use alien races to explore be better handled, this would likely be my favourite sci fi series of all time.
I say "Book", because this 97 chapter webnovel epic is longer than most fully published series. Reading this took me about 6 months.
So The Deathworlders in review. This is quite possibly my single favourite sci fi IP I've ever encountered, and there is a rich and collaborative extended universe (canon and fanfiction) to go with it. Yes, it starts as a daft HFY joke / quick antitheistic rant about religion, but the world is SO GOOD. The believable alien cultures, the politics, the deep lore, the plot, the exploration of the purpose and role of religion later on... Yeah. This is the good shit.
Unfortunately, whilst the world and overarching plot are incredible and are the reason I stuck out reading this to the end, the story... *sigh*
It starts off so strong. A wealth of interesting characters and perspectives both human and alien, male and female. Characters are good, interactions are good.
Around the "Warhorse" arc, this becomes a distinctly male fantasy. I can only assume around this time the author maybe had a tough breakup or otherwise got unhealthily into the gym? Because gone are most of the interesting alien perspectives, and instead our main characters, even squishy ETs who've now been retconned heavily to be less squishy, are all these superslab hypermale meatheads who lift all the time. And we get PAGES describing their beautiful musculature. And this stays. For the rest of the book.
Meanwhile all our female characters start falling in love with these superslab ubermensch, and for the purposes of the story become reduced to domiciled love interests.
The author also chooses to use alien races to explore some controversial issues. Which in principle I'm fine with - it's something sci-fi is great for. Topics he chooses to explore include Eugenics, Gender dimorphism, and sex. And... None of it reads in a balanced way. It often reads like some kinda weird fetish, and has some pretty ableist and chauvinistic themes that are never really countered.
And... It's a shame. Because a lot of the good is still there. I still enjoyed reading a lot of it. And I'd love to read the story that could've been.
Instead we have a strong premise, and a frustrating read.
The early stuff is great though, especially where it overlaps with stories by other authors like "Salvage", "A Wounded Rabbit", etc.
As a complete and unedited work however? This isn't a good read. The author has suggested he wants to have a go at getting it properly edited and released as books, and should that happen and a LOT of the retcons and toxic masculinity gymbro fetish stuff be removed, the ending reworked, and some of the more Controversial topics the author chooses to use alien races to explore be better handled, this would likely be my favourite sci fi series of all time.
September 16, 2025
TL;DR: Read it if you enjoy the themes of space Australia (or America in the case of this story) or HFY.
The story is set in a universe where humans are the offspring forged from one of the toughest planets to live on, which has earned humanity the nickname "Deathworlders". Our bodies are basically the strongest and can endure much more then any other being among the stars. But is it enough to survive in the deep space,navigate through conflict and politics, and to tackle the many things yet unknown to the mankind?
You can read it online on:
https://deathworlders.com/
'The Deathworlders' is the main series of a larger universe known as the Jenkinverse (J-verse or Jverse for short). The other stories are not necessary to get the hang of the main story-line, but provide the background to some characters or events (some function as side-stories, such as "Henosis" or "Devourers"). If you wish to access the stories or don't know about the reading order, go there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref...
The first 20 or so chapters of 'Deathworlders' on r/hfy may not have been tweaked/revised so better read them on Hambone's website.
Here's more general info about the setting (with spoilers):
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref...
The story is set in a universe where humans are the offspring forged from one of the toughest planets to live on, which has earned humanity the nickname "Deathworlders". Our bodies are basically the strongest and can endure much more then any other being among the stars. But is it enough to survive in the deep space,navigate through conflict and politics, and to tackle the many things yet unknown to the mankind?
You can read it online on:
https://deathworlders.com/
'The Deathworlders' is the main series of a larger universe known as the Jenkinverse (J-verse or Jverse for short). The other stories are not necessary to get the hang of the main story-line, but provide the background to some characters or events (some function as side-stories, such as "Henosis" or "Devourers"). If you wish to access the stories or don't know about the reading order, go there:
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref...
The first 20 or so chapters of 'Deathworlders' on r/hfy may not have been tweaked/revised so better read them on Hambone's website.
Here's more general info about the setting (with spoilers):
https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/wiki/ref...
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 28, 2020
Since this is an ongoing web series, I haven't really "finished" this, but I have read all extant chapters in their entirety (in excess of 71 as of this writing). The author releases each chapter once per month (apart from one occasion where he had to take a break due to personal circumstances). So, given that I've read every chapter published this year, as well as all the prior chapters, I'll think I'll go ahead and count this one as read. This is probably the best web series I've ever read. I highly recommend reading.
August 16, 2024
Will write a proper review later but for now I'll say I am SO sorry to have turned the last page and I hope the author will return to this universe one day, even if it's just by way of a short story or such.
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