Hellfire Review

This week I decided to review Jean Johnson's Hellfire (Theirs Not to Reason Why). Ia, the heroine of the series, has the ability to see the future. While there are many other beings in the setting have similar powers, along with telepathy, telekinesis,  and teleportation Ia’s ability to see the future is far stronger then anyone else’s allowing her to see every possible future for thousands of years to come. A few centuries after Ia’s lifetime the Milky Way galaxy is going to be invaded by a race planning to destroy all life in it and strip it of resources before moving on. In almost every possible future this species succeeds in destroying the Milky Way so Ia has dedicated her life to guiding the future onto a path where they are defeated.

When Hellfire begins Ia has been appointed captain of the book’s namesake, a one of a kind battleship equipped with a main gun so powerful its shots are lethal for literally months after being fired, and light months of distance. Also the Salik, a race which views all other carbon based life as lunch meat, are about to break the blockade imposed around their territory after a pre-series war, and launch an all out war on the human powers and their allies. Once the war starts most of the book is focused on life aboard the Hellfire and the battles she and her crew fight. Also Ia is having to deal with the Feyori, a species who can shift between matter and energy and view the Milky Way as a gameboard with them the players and everyone else as pieces. To help Ia’s efforts she has allied with some Feyori but this leads to others trying to sabotage her plans by a variety of means.

So far this has been my favorite book of the series by far but it still has its flaws. The biggest is that there is one event I feel would have been better seen as it happened rather than viewing the aftermath. And the few times the book’s story involves Ia engaged in ground rather than space combat are skimmed over.