“Hell Divers III: Deliverance” by Nicholas Sansbury Smith – The Last Lifeboat

 

Short Summary

Nicholas Sansbury Smith has created a uniquely infernal post-apocalyptic landscape in The Hell Divers series, one he has been developing intricately with each installment. In the third book of the series, Hell Divers III: Deliverance, we follow the exiled divers from the previous book on their search for a long-lost hero, Xavier “X” Rodriguez, all while being hunted down by Captain Jordan, leader of humanity's remnants.

Nicholas Sansbury Smith Hunts for the Exiles

Whenever a post-apocalyptic scenario is explored, sooner or later, virtually every story comes to the same inevitable conclusion: the greatest danger to people is they themselves. In Hell Divers III: Deliverance, Nicholas Sansbury Smith makes this fated turn and continues the series as the exiled Hell Divers barely escape with their lives, and thus give humanity one last hope for survival.

In my review of the previous book, I mentioned that one didn't need to have read the first chapter of The Hell Divers series to understand the second one, due to the events being separated by many years and following a different group of characters. This time around, I'd highly recommend you at least read Hell Divers II if you haven't, for this one picks up pretty much where it left off.

After surviving being left for dead on the surface of the planet, the Hell Divers manage to find a new airship called Deliverance, a shining ray of hope for their future prospects. Additionally, they learn a long-lost hero, Xavier “X” Rodriguez, might actually still be alive and somewhere out there, leading them to mounting a daring rescue mission to bring the man back into the fold.

Their plans, however, are bound to suffer from some hefty complications, for up there in the skies, Captain Jordan hasn't forgotten about them. Commander of The Hive, a massive airship housing humanity's remnants, he is faced with some critical decision-making, and vows to keep the ship up and running, whatever the cost. It's falling apart fairly rapidly, and they simply lack the resources to make the necessary repairs... all seems lost for him until he gets wind of the Hell Divers' discovery.

With his sights set on their new airship, Captain Jordan decides murder is a small price to pay to ensure humanity's survival, and launches a hunt after the Divers, turning into a regular old bandit in the process. Unfortunately for him, not only have the Divers have proven themselves to be immensely resourceful and difficult to put down, but they are actually on the verge of making a discovery which might just change everything.

Deposing the Tyrant of Humanity in Hell Divers III

On the surface, The Hell Divers series seems like one of those action-packed science-fiction stories with elements of horror mixed in, with little time dedicated to anything but the progress of the plot. While I won't deny the novels so far have had a tangible page-turning quality to them, there is still more this series than initially meets the eye, and one of the elements which stood out to me was Nicholas Sansbury Smith's treatment of Captain Jordan and his world.

On one hand, he is enforcing a nigh-tyrannical rule aboard the Hive, doing away without so much as a thought with any opposition to his views, essentially prohibiting any sort of dissent against his word which, evidently, has become the Law. The iron-fisted regime and the ruthless way he runs certainly qualify him as a villain we can quickly judge and hate.

On the other hand, the author allows us to glimpse beneath the surface of his character, and throughout both Hell Divers II and Hell Divers III we learn more about his way of seeing things, and most importantly, his motivations for making the decisions he does. In short, he is an innately good man corrupted by the power trusted to him, and broken by the unbearable enormity of the burden his shoulders are made to bear.

The society he commands aboard the Hive, described in vivid and fascinating detail, also helps to characterize Captain Jordan further, showing what exactly he has managed to achieve, and what it is he's really fighting for. In the end, rather than making him into a towering monolith of pure evil (something he could have easily done), Nicholas Sansbury Smith elected to make him much more interesting... that is to say, human.

In my opinion, having this type of nuanced villain at the centre of the story goes a long way towards elevating this book from the rank of cheap thrillers into something much more substantial, a work which explores certain aspects of human nature. While ultimately I was yearning for the moment where he gets what's coming to him, I couldn't help but have a dual relation to the man, worthy of pity and hatred in equal measures.

Nomad of the Wastelands

As fascinating as Captain Jordan and his airship might be, let's not forget the book is, after all, titled Hell Divers III, and a such, the titular Hell Divers to take up the majority of our time. Though when we first met them they might have appeared as soulless soldiers, over the course of the series their individuality has really leaked through the pages, slowly raising them to the status of main characters.

Their search for Xavier is an excellent motivation to send them off on their perilous journey across the wastelands of our unrecognizable planet, finally realizing the promise of bringing into the story a character which, in certain respects, has attained something of a mythical proportion in this universe. The questions surrounding this man only get bigger by the second, and the promise of answers is a hook like none other.

Naturally, on their search for this nomad who has, supposedly, lived on the surface for more than ten years now (with the help of his canine companion, as they're going to find out), they come face-to-face with a number of hostile creatures and monstrosities preying for their flesh. Once again, their concepts and descriptions by Nicholas Sansbury Smith are vivid and memorable, their images imprinting themselves on the brain for a long time to come.

Rest assured, there is a fair bit of fast-paced action, tables turning, plot twists, and basically every other ingredient which makes a story exciting. Delivered in a concise and relatively simple prose, the plot seamlessly flows from one page to the next with no bumps or hitches, making it quite easy to finish it in only a sitting or two.

Additionally, looking at the series from a big-picture standpoint, the introduction of Xavier into the plot as an actual character does lead us to obtaining answers to a good number of questions which were left unresolved in the previous books, filling in a good number of blanks, but naturally, not all of them. This reassures me the author has one cohesive idea for the series as a whole, and doesn't simply churn out ideas to meet deadlines.

The Final Verdict

Hell Divers III: Deliverance by Nicholas Sansbury Smith is a fantastic way to continue The Hell Divers series, moving the action-packed plot forward quite significantly with the introduction of a long-awaited character, the impending fall of humanity's final lifeboat, culminating in a pulse-pounding face-off between the Divers and the deeply-characterized Captain Jordan.

If you're a fan of the series and liked what the previous book had to offer, then I'd say adding this one to your collection is a bit of a no-brainer.

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Nicholas Sansbury Smith Personal site Nicholas Sansbury Smith is an American author of science-fiction and fantasy novels and former worker for the Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management branch in disaster mitigation. He has written a few bestselling series so far, including The Hell Divers and The Extinction Cycle, with prominent works such as Extinction Horizon, Hell Divers and Trackers.