Alexis Hall (Confounding Oaths) dives deep into adventure and introspection in Hell's Heart, an expansive, sexy, and vibrant retelling of Moby-Dick set in the atmosphere of Jupiter.
Flat broke and in danger of having her expensively modified body repossessed by her debtors, the narrator decides to join an expedition to hunt Leviathans. She meets a harpooner she calls "Q," a woman from a devastated Earth the narrator has heard described as the home of cannibals and criminals. The narrator is both drawn to Q and unable to understand her. The two women find employment on a ship called Pequod whose hull is fashioned of Leviathan bones. The eerie craft is captained by a one-legged woman referred to only as "A." She carries a burning obsession with taking revenge on the Möbius Beast, the vast white Leviathan she claims took her leg. Some call the creature a myth, but A quickly gains sway over the narrator and the entire crew through "the inescapable, neutron-star gravity of her," the promise of possible wealth, and to some extent through being "extraordinarily hot." The voyage brings the narrator up against terrifying beasts, dangerous people with perilous beliefs, and the deepest hells of the human heart.
Hall imbues an American classic with sharp British wit, delivering an update to Melville by way of Wilde with a modern, frequently erotic sensibility. The narrative alternates between propulsive action, uncanny world-building, and the narrator's own soul-searching, but always maintains a constant seeking ferocity at its core. This catastrophic prophecy of humanity's spacefaring future marries with scenes of feverish beauty for an imaginative and unforgettable adventure. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads