That’s A HELLA Story

David Gerrold’s latest novel (full disclosure:  David and I are friends) is a marvelous sci-fi adventure novel in the world building vein of Larry Niven and Hal Clement.

Hella reads like a juvenile or YA book but it’s really not, despite having a very young protagonist as the narrator.

To be perfectly honest, when I started the book I felt it was a little too juvenile, a little too pat and spot on, but then it slowly penetrated my thick skull that Gerrold’s narrator, Kyle Martin, kept dropping his huge information dumps not because Gerrold is pitching a softball at slow readers, but because Kyle is somewhere on the spectrum (his exact condition never clearly defined but hey, do we still diagnose people today using 18th century terminology?).

As a result, his info dumps are both perfectly in character because of his somewhat obsessive nature and also allow Gerrold to fill in vast swatches of detail about Hella instead of teasing the info out in drips and drabs.

Because of this deceptively simple approach, it’s easy to get lulled into the belief that you’re reading yet another kids-own-adventure story (which it certainly has elements of) instead of a rather deftly played dissection of human nature, in particular that negative aspect that leads us to evil.

There’s a lot about human politics in this book, and any resemblance to a certain orange skinned turdmonger is definitely spot on.

But the best monsters in the book aren’t human but rather the megasized fauna of Hella (an old South Park joke carried to its logical conclusion, much like Niven’s Mt. Lookitthat).  This is the most joyous part of the story, really evocative of the grand old space opera traditions.

But it also explores territory that, if not exactly new to science fiction, certainly isn’t commonplace, either.

Let me back into what I’m talking about:
One thing about Hella is that we see things through early 21stcentury eyes, and despite setting the story several centuries in the future, Gerrold writes it with a tone and focus on daily detail that wouldn’t be out of place in a contemporary slice of life story.

Which means at times one reads something that feels a little too 21st century-ish, a little too firmly rooted in the here and now.  The story never quite seems to inhabit its future fully, and I presume part of that is a deliberate stylistic choice on Gerrold’s part because…

…changing one’s sex and orientation on Hella is only slightly more complicated that changing one’s clothes.  It’s quite possible in Hella’s future for two people of the same sex and orientation to fall in love with one another and for one to transition to female so the love can blossom in a traditional heterosexual way (or not, or both can transition to the opposite sex, or a married couple can decide to swap genders just to spice things up; Gerrold’s point being It’s No Big Deal*).

As an idea that serves more of a supporting function to the story than a central theme, it’s probably a better choice to approach this in a more contemporary tone and vein rather than try to fully explore it and all its implications.

And speaking of implications, as well thought out a world as Hella is, it’s not the real focus of Gerrold’s tale of humanity’s challenge in facing down the self-serving aspects of our individual and cultural nature/s, but it does serve as an excellent stage (not backdrop!) for the real story he’s starting to tell.

Hella will be followed by sequels, but exactly how far and in which direction Gerrold intends to take it, I couldn’t guess.

But it’s an interesting, fun read; highly recommended to all fans of classic space adventure stories.

© Buzz Dixon

*  I will say Gerrold is missing a bet by confining the transitions to gender-typical forms.  Show some imagination and daring!  If Deep Throat could posit a mutant clitoris in the back of Linda Lovelace’s throat, certainly the guy who invented tribbles can come up with some brand new sex organs we’ve never seen before!