Hell Divers: Hell Divers Series, Book 1
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Hell Divers: Hell Divers Series, Book 1 Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 6,526 ratings
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2016 Editor's Pick

2016 Audible's Best in Science Fiction

The New York Times and USA Today best-selling series

More than two centuries after World War III poisoned the planet, the final bastion of humanity lives on massive airships circling the globe in search of a habitable area to call home. Aging and outdated, most of the ships plummeted back to Earth long ago. The only thing keeping the two surviving lifeboats in the sky are Hell Divers - men and women who risk their lives by skydiving to the surface to scavenge for parts the ships desperately need.

When one of the remaining airships is damaged in an electrical storm, a Hell Diver team is deployed to a hostile zone called Hades. But there's something down there far worse than the mutated creatures discovered on dives in the past - something that threatens the fragile future of humanity.

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  1. Listening Length
    10 hours and 11 minutes
  2. Author
    Nicholas Sansbury Smith
  3. Narrator
    R.C. Bray
  4. Audible release date
    July 19, 2016
  5. Language
    English
  6. Publisher
    Blackstone Audio, Inc.
  7. ASIN
    B01E97TSO8
  8. Version
    Unabridged
  9. Program Type
    Audiobook
  10. See all details
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Product details

Listening Length 10 hours and 11 minutes
Author Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Narrator R.C. Bray
Whispersync for Voice Ready
Audible.com Release Date July 19, 2016
Publisher Blackstone Audio, Inc.
Program Type Audiobook
Version Unabridged
Language English
ASIN B01E97TSO8
Best Sellers Rank #17,452 in Audible Books & Originals (See Top 100 in Audible Books & Originals)
#97 in Technothrillers (Audible Books & Originals)
#170 in Dystopian Science Fiction (Audible Books & Originals)
#300 in Technothrillers (Books)

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
6,526 global ratings
Those searching for the greatest military sci-fi series, behold.
5 Stars
Those searching for the greatest military sci-fi series, behold.
"Hell Divers I" was the first story by Nicholas Sansbury Smith that I've encountered, and I've been reading his multiple series ever since. Nicholas has a great way of creating a world that is both believable and immersive- a combination for stories that are gripping and terrifying. Each arc in the story plays out amazingly. What I love the most about Nick's books is that multiple characters get to be the hero. There is not one hero dominating the story. Each amazing character has their own moments and all these moments come together to create a great story.Well done, Nick!
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Top reviews from the United States

JJCEO
5.0 out of 5 stars Doing what they must do - to save the last people on the Earth!
Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2016
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There are only two left in the world. Large flying war machines that are part helium airship and, hover craft with the ability to fly and they are powered with nuclear power packs. They are hundreds of years old and they survived through the efforts of the hell divers. The brave men and women that are shot out of the craft to dive down to the war torn and demolished Earth to find the parts necessary to repair the craft and keep them flying.

The two craft contain all of the remaining living human beings on earth. One of the ships is catastrophically damaged by a storm and the hell divers they send down are all dead but one. They are killed by falling through the massive storms or from being attacked by the mutant monsters that roam the earth and fly in the sky. The aircraft named “The Hive” gets the distress call and rushes to try to help rescue their sister craft. Can they arrive in time to save half the human race or will they meet with disaster also……

I am a huge fan of the author Nicholas Smith. I have read all of his series of books of the Extinction series and enjoyed them all. This book, Hell Divers, is the first book of a new series. It is about a post apocalyptic world where life is rough and barely surviving is a daily challenge. Hell Divers as the bravest of the brave and their life expectancy is only about 15 dives. Horrible electrical storms, nuclear winter, radiation and mutant killers combine to take their toll on the Hell Divers.

The author has the skill to take you 250 years into the future and show you what life would be like after mankind has destroyed themselves and their planet. He also builds strong characters that you like and want to survive. This is a good book and it is full of action and suspense. I rated it 5 stars. I am already hooked on this new series and I am waiting for the next book to be released.

The next book in the series is released and it is an excellent book also. Great series to read and enjoy! The books are full of action and I like reading them a lot. This author is becoming one of my favorites. His books are entertaining and I just enjoy reading them! Hell Divers II is released and it is a very good story, Hell Divers III will be released soon and I believe this series of stories is getting better with each new book release. This series is well worth reading.

This is the first book of the series and it is a must read to lay the ground work for the story of how the apocalypse came about and the dire situation that humanity is in.

This book is well written and it paints a picture of an Earth devastated by nuclear war with very few human survivors left! It also leaves the world a nuclear wasteland inhabited by mutant creatures and plants that hunt the few living people on the surface of the earth.

The imagination of Nicholas Sansbury Smith is what makes this series of stories interesting and exciting. This part of a great series and it is a good story. I have heard that it may be made into a movie or a TV series.

A great book that holds your interest and keeps you reading the book as you can’t stop!
51 people found this helpful
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Ellkay Kay
4.0 out of 5 stars Sad, Exciting, Depressing, Enthralling Story
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2017
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I gave this book 4, rather than 5, stars because I don't really think it great and enduring literature. I do, however, think it most of the other positive things I could say about a book.

It is a convincing and frightening parable of our own future, should we continue along the path we seem to be following now. And it is a clearly painted and tremendously dark picture of that future. A dark vision? Oh Yes. If "every man's death diminishes me," never have those words been so literally true. In a post-apocalyptic world where the numbers of surviving humanity are as incredibly limited as they are here, every death clearly diminishes the chances of every remaining human just to have any kind of future. And many people die in the course of this book.

As much as I appreciated this novel (I started to say "enjoyed this novel," but one really cannot use the word "enjoy" to describe any part of this work), I found myself putting it aside for periods of time because every element, every succeeding event, just showed the future as seemingly more and more inevitably bleak than the present pretty horrific state of affairs. I needed time to recover before plunging back in. Dark as it was, I found it clearly persuasive.

If the story-telling was convincing, so too was the characterization. I thought at first that the main character--X--was pretty much a caricature, but soon I found him much more believable. As a team leader who had out-lived how many of his teams? As a 90-something "hell-dive" survivor in a career where 15 was the average life expectancy, how could he not have problems? Survivor's guilt? As the pretty healthy widower, who dove often into the radiation-filled cities of the ex-earth, who had also watched his wife die of cancer, how could he be unaffected? Sadness? Loneliness? More Survivor's Guilt?

In any case, I found this a compelling and exciting story, which leads me to look forward to the next in the projected trilogy.
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Top reviews from other countries

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Terry and dog
5.0 out of 5 stars The future is bleak, it's always bleak.
Reviewed in Canada on February 15, 2024
Verified Purchase
This reads like it should be a movie. I really got sucked in. I don't know why but all the futures in the books I choose, are bleak, and this is very true with this story. There is a solid group of characters, mainly strong, dedicated people, a diver named X is the main one, and then another that will draw you in, is a young boy named Tin. Their relationship is something I expect to see more of in future books. Lots of action, brutal monsters and dire situations. Good stuff.
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Lucas Nogueira
5.0 out of 5 stars Um livro excepcional de ação!
Reviewed in Brazil on June 5, 2020
Verified Purchase
Para aqueles que não conhecem o jogo, leiam o livro. Para aqueles que já jogaram, por favor, LEIA. A. LIVROS.
É tão magnífico que um autor realmente fez uma grande história tão grande e tão longa !!

9/10
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Swords and Spectres
5.0 out of 5 stars Great sci-fi action!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 20, 2019
Verified Purchase
Hell Divers takes place two-hundred and fifty years after World War Three effectively destroyed the Earth; rendering it an uninhabitable world to live on. The only option was for humanity to live in vast airships (ironically, the very same airships that had dropped the bombs that doomed the Earth). These airships were not designed for long-term habitation. The only way to keep these ships afloat is by sending teams of divers down to Earth's surface to find the resources from the ancient factories the ships were built in.

The concept was one that hooked me straight away. I love the whole idea of having to dive through the clouds back down to a radioactive surface in search of ship parts to keep humanity afloat. The novel pretty much delivered a darn awesome experience from start to finish. I am not the world's fastest reader (mainly due to work and other commitments) but I managed to rip through this one in about four days (I only grab an hour or so a night, a little more if I'm lucky. Oh, if only I was a speed reader).

The action scenes were particularly good. The pacing of the battles were great and I could really feel my adrenaline pulsing when the Hell Divers got themselves in trouble. The author did a great job of building that anxious feeling of knowing something was just about to happen. 

If I had to pick a couple of downsides to Hell Divers, I would say that, at times, certain character's motivations/choices felt a bit strange given what they had going on in their lives. Some of the choices felt a tad forced. I also hated the fact that the main character was called Xavier. I really like that name, but I hate with an absolute passion the abbreviation 'X'. I thought I was going to struggle reading it due to every other line having 'X' written on it but, to my surprise, it grew on me (or I at least was able to ignore it)

The ending was also the sort of ending that was both good and not what I wanted. It left me with a few different emotions ranging from happiness to feeling as though life was just incredibly unfair. I'm not saying it was a bad ending (it wasn't) I just totally wasn't expecting it. This goes back to the author's skill of making you think something was going to happen only to just full deliver you a last minute gut-punch of a surprise.

I am really looking forward to getting stuck into the next in the series.
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Great
Reviewed in Australia on March 16, 2024
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Definitely worth the read for all dystopian lovers. I'm so stoked to have to found this series and will be continuing on with the next books.
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Jon Spielman
5.0 out of 5 stars Hang ON!!
Reviewed in Germany on July 21, 2017
Verified Purchase
This was a great new twist to the Dystopian, end of the world style books. Full of fresh ideas, great characters, and if you have read anything else from this Author, you know that the storyline, and plot are all first class as well. Beautiful descriptive writing, that will draw you into the story, and not let you go. Don't start this book, if you don't have some time on your hands.. Because once you do, you will not be able to put it down.
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