Hells Heart, Alexis Hall
Hells Heart, Alexis Hall
List: $32.99 | Sale: $23.10
Club: $16.49

Hell's Heart

Author: Alexis Hall

Narrator: Charli Anne Delores

Unabridged: 14 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/10/2026


Synopsis

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

A Most Anticipated Book: Book Riot |The Pink News | Diva Magazine | Audible | Bookpage

They are monsters, legends, gods.

They are our prey.

Earth is dead. Which leaves us stuck living in atmospheric domes on planets that will kill us if we blink wrong, or run out of fuel. And by “fuel” I mean “the cerebrospinal fluid of gargantuan, quasi-psychic space monsters”.

I joined the hunt hoping to get paid and maybe laid, but mostly paid. Instead, I followed a captain chasing abominations in the skies of Jupiter.

We battled the Möbius Beast itself, there in the red eye of the world.

Spoiler: we lost.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

About Alexis Hall

Some years ago—never mind how long precisely—having little or no money in their purse, and nothing particular to interest them on shore, Alexis Hall thought they would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. Unfortunately the boat they were in sank with all hands, and they were rescued only by a passing whaler. They have since become a novelist.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Queralt✨ on February 01, 2026

Hell’s Heart by Alexis Hall is a queer space opera retelling of Moby Dick. The narrator, named I, boards a Leviathan-hunting spaceship captained by A and spends most of the book fucking around, both metaphorically and literally, with A and a Latin-speaking harpoonist from Earth named Q. The whole th......more

Goodreads review by Briana Shuman on September 04, 2025

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. Ther......more

Goodreads review by Me, My Shelf, & I on March 31, 2026

PSA: This👏Book👏Is👏Horny👏 ----------------- I've never read it, but the narrator in this is so horny that I fully forgot for the first 30% or so that this is a Moby Dick retelling. ...unless Moby Dick has always been really raunchy? lol I assumed not but I could be wrong. "As you might've worked out b......more

Goodreads review by Jen (Fae_Princess_in_Space) on January 20, 2026

This was so epic; a sapphic sci-fi retelling of Moby Dick, with plenty of gore, drama, smushing in space and interstellar battles. The storytelling in this one is pretty unique; it’s written in first person, but our narrator, known only as ‘I’, is narrating directly to the reader, which means we get......more

Goodreads review by Mostly Sapphic Books on March 19, 2026

This is Moby-Dick for weird dykes who are never going to read Moby-Dick. I loved everything about this. So much weird shit crafted Just For Me. - A horny, irreverent, fourth-wall-breaking, unreliable narrator writing this story retroactively as a memoir. - Trans lesbians. Toxic open relationships. Sex......more


Quotes

Praise for Hell's Heart:

"Wow." – John Scalzi

"Hell's Heart is a startling, ferocious love letter to all the rawest emotions the human body can produce. Hall is a master of voice and scale, and this relentlessly gripping ode to the splendors and miseries of existence is no exception. I can't think of anyone else who could successfully pull off Moby Dick meets Treasure Planet by way of Fleabag -- an unbelievable accomplishment from a tremendous author." – Sarah Gailey, USA Today bestselling author of Spread Me and Just Like Home

"Fey, funny, and extremely metal." – Malka Older, author of The Mimicking of Known Successes

“A towering love song to both Melville and Joan D. Vinge, a marvelous, intricate, heart-shattering romp.” – Lilith Saintcrow, author of the Dante Valentine series

"[A ] terrifying, fatally fascinating ride into the heart of Jupiter’s blood-red hell." – Judith Tarr

"Hell's Heart goes like gangbusters and is entirely unhinged. I'll follow Alexis Hall anywhere."--Kelly Robson, author of High Times in the Low Parliament

"A gorgeously written science-fictional picaresque, full of blood and guts and foolhardy daring, sperm jokes, a gracious lot of fucking, pirates, and a cult dedicated to the god who will devour the universe whose prophet mutters cryptic quotation... I’ll be thinking about it for a while. I recommend it: It feels real, and honest, and messily ambitious." – Locus

"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." – Shelf Awareness

"[A] dazzling retelling of Moby Dick... Hall captures a breathtaking sense of adventure throughout. This thrills." – Publishers Weekly

"A fantastic space adventure that any fan of sf or even Earth-bound adventure novels will love." – Booklist, starred review

"Call me fangirl! This is Hall’s best, weirdest, and most snarkily delightful book yet. Whether you like even-more-queer Moby Dick retellings, space whales, disaster bi drama, Jovian gaslamp science fiction, razor-sharp satire of capitalist theology, Locked-Tomb-style obscure jokes, Cthulhu cultist crew members, thematically-important infodumps about xenobiology – or better yet all of those things tied together in intricate perfection – this will be your jam." – Ruthanna Emrys, author of A Half-Built Garden

"Unlike Melville’s Ishmael, Hall’s protagonist has sexual relationships that are textual rather than subtextual and also pretty hot. The worldbuilding is strong and—as is the case in the most resonant science fiction—disturbingly plausible... a good old-fashioned space yarn." – Kirkus

Praise for Alexis Hall:

"Hall is a dizzyingly talented writer, one likely to spur envy in anyone who's ever picked up a pen."—Entertainment Weekly on Boyfriend Material

"Simply the best writer I've come across in years."—Laura Kinsale, New York Times bestselling author

"Absolutely delightful, like a chocolate box, full of unexpected and brilliant references, sparklingly witty.”—Genevieve Cogman, author of The Invisible Library on The Affair of the Mysterious Letter

“An extended romp through a wild range of alternate universes with a bizarre cast of characters. Don't miss this fun, queer, clever intrigue!”—Malka Older, author of The Mimicking of Known Successes

"I haven’t been so enchanted and delighted by a book in years... the most perfect blend of gentle humour, wild creativity and love."—Emma Newman, author of Atlas Alone

"Extraordinarily imaginative. This is the most fun I've had between two covers in a while!"—Lara Elena Donnelly, author of Amberlough

"Full of adventure, chaos, magic, and lust, this will enthrall Hall’s fans and new readers alike."—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Mortal Follies

"Utterly enchanting"—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Confounding Oaths

"Thoroughly queer and extraordinary."—Kirkus, starred review, on Something Extraordinary

"Hall has a gift for humor but is also skilled at composing passages that evoke the deepest emotions, whether the ache of long-denied love, crushing grief or the relief and soulful joy of being accepted and adored as one's most authentic self.”—Library Journal, starred review, on A Lady For a Duke

“Hall has hit it out of the park with this emotionally resonant, character-driven Regency romance... stellar.”—Bookpage, starred review, on A Lady for a Duke

"Hall is a consistently beautiful writer."—Kirkus, starred review, on A Lady for a Duke

"The characters are charmingly flawed, with enough chemistry to see them through some serious ups and downs... full of poetry and honesty."—Publishers Weekly, starred review, on For Real