Hell Divers has always been one of my favorite popcorn sci-fi series, one that definitely needs to be turned into a video game and/or TV series, but I must admit the premise is kind of ridiculous. Humanity turns the Earth into a nuclear wasteland (the most believable part) and the only survivors live in airships that fly above the nuclear storms, having done so for 250 years. It's a stretch to believe but I was willing to accept it for the insane environment it created for story telling. It worked really well, delivering an excellent series, even if it was a tad drawn out. Now Nicholas Sansbury Smith goes back in time and gives us a prequel that explains how and why the Earth was destroyed, and the role that ITC played in the whole affair. Does he finally offer us enough insight to make this whole premise believable?

Not really - in fact I would say the fact that the whole "living in the skies for centuries" was impromptu makes the premise even less believable than before, but that doesn't mean this was a bad book. On the contrary, the story here was engaging, and it kept moving along at a solid pace, so I definitely enjoyed it. We are exposed to the ancestors of a couple of the characters we know from the series, so that's adds a little extra to what is ultimately a solid sci-fi story. Of course it remains heavy on the fiction side of sci-fi, but if you a fan of Hell Divers then you might as well pick this up to learn how it all began. It is also obvious that this prequel is the start of its own series, so Smith still has more time to inject plausibility into his scenario; however, at this point I think it best to set aside those expectations and just enjoy the ride, the same as I did for the main series.

R.C. Bray narrates the audiobook version and delivers his usual top notch performance as the voice of the apocalypse.