Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Author of Hell Divers
About the Author
Nicholas Sansbury Smith is a USA Today bestselling author of science fiction and fantasy novels. He started out working for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster mitigation before switching careers to focus on his one true passion - writing. He writes several sereis including show more the Hell Divers trilogy, the Orbs trilogy, and the Extinction Cycle series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Author's personal Facebook page.
Series
Works by Nicholas Sansbury Smith
The Extinction Cycle, Books 1-3: Extinction Horizon, Extinction Edge, and Extinction Age (2016) 22 copies
The Extinction Cycle, Books 4-6: Extinction Evolution, Extinction End, and Extinction Aftermath (2017) 7 copies, 1 review
Simon451 Fall 2014 Preview Sampler: A Selection of Science Fiction and Fantasy Titles (2014) 2 copies
Savage System 1 copy
Salvage System 1 copy
The Last Legends 1 copy
Allegiance (Hell Divers #6 1 copy
Associated Works
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- Short biography
- Nicholas Sansbury Smith is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Hell Divers series, the Orbs series, the Trackers series, the Extinction Cycle series, and the new Sons of War series. He worked for Iowa Homeland Security and Emergency Management in disaster mitigation before switching careers to focus on storytelling. When he isn't writing or daydreaming about the apocalypse, he enjoys running, biking, spending time with his family, and traveling the world. He is an Ironman triathlete and lives in Iowa with his wife, their dogs, and a house full of books.
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Reviews
“Hell Divers” is a gritty, intense, violent, action-packed, post-apocalyptic thriller. It takes place 250 years after humanity bombed themselves to the point of extinction. The survivors took refuge in the same huge airships that dropped the bombs. Now there are only two left.
“The Hive” is one of them. Over-crowded and under-maintained, it carries more than 500 people, clinging grimly to life and hoping to find somewhere to land where the surface radiation and the storms won’t kill show more them.
“The Hive” is kept in the sky by teams of Hell Divers who scavenge parts and power cells from the surface. Their moto is, “We dive so humanity survives”. The average Hell Diver lives for fifteen dives before their luck runs our.
“Hell Divers” is strong on duty, sacrifice and a stubborn determination not to let the human race become extinct. The price is high and the people paying it are far from perfect: addicted to the adrenlin high of diving, haunted by their dead, seeking respite in drink and drugs. What they do is heroic but they are believably and engagingly human.
“Hell Divers” is a cinematic book, described in a way that enabled me to be RIGHT THERE when anything was happening and in this book, something was always happening. From the first page, I could see the interior of “The Hive” and immerse myself in its shabby, decaying, poorly-lit, claustrophobic atmosphere. “Hell Divers” has “Make Me Into A High Budget TV Series” written all over it. I could see how the lighting would work and the angle of the shots. It’s completely absorbing.
I won’t go into the plot other than to say that things are bad when the book starts and get progressively worse. Nicholas Sansbury Smith keeps tightening the tension with the inexorablity of a sadist using a thumbscrew. He moves smoothly between the story lines of different groups of characters and rings out every ounce of emotion from the incessant need for sacrifice and struggle.
R.C: Bray was the perfect choice as the narrator. His rugged voice and intense delivery grabbed me by the arm and dragged me through the fights and the deaths, the impossible odds and absence of good choices.
If you’re in the mood for an original thriller, tinged with military ethics, offset by human fraility and fear, you’ll love this book.
“Hell Divers” is book one of a trilogy. Book two comes out in July. My copy is pre-ordered. show less
“The Hive” is one of them. Over-crowded and under-maintained, it carries more than 500 people, clinging grimly to life and hoping to find somewhere to land where the surface radiation and the storms won’t kill show more them.
“The Hive” is kept in the sky by teams of Hell Divers who scavenge parts and power cells from the surface. Their moto is, “We dive so humanity survives”. The average Hell Diver lives for fifteen dives before their luck runs our.
“Hell Divers” is strong on duty, sacrifice and a stubborn determination not to let the human race become extinct. The price is high and the people paying it are far from perfect: addicted to the adrenlin high of diving, haunted by their dead, seeking respite in drink and drugs. What they do is heroic but they are believably and engagingly human.
“Hell Divers” is a cinematic book, described in a way that enabled me to be RIGHT THERE when anything was happening and in this book, something was always happening. From the first page, I could see the interior of “The Hive” and immerse myself in its shabby, decaying, poorly-lit, claustrophobic atmosphere. “Hell Divers” has “Make Me Into A High Budget TV Series” written all over it. I could see how the lighting would work and the angle of the shots. It’s completely absorbing.
I won’t go into the plot other than to say that things are bad when the book starts and get progressively worse. Nicholas Sansbury Smith keeps tightening the tension with the inexorablity of a sadist using a thumbscrew. He moves smoothly between the story lines of different groups of characters and rings out every ounce of emotion from the incessant need for sacrifice and struggle.
R.C: Bray was the perfect choice as the narrator. His rugged voice and intense delivery grabbed me by the arm and dragged me through the fights and the deaths, the impossible odds and absence of good choices.
If you’re in the mood for an original thriller, tinged with military ethics, offset by human fraility and fear, you’ll love this book.
“Hell Divers” is book one of a trilogy. Book two comes out in July. My copy is pre-ordered. show less
Sometimes I find sequels, or books that are in the middle of a planned series a bit dull compared the beginning and the ending. But I have to be honest, Hell Divers-Ghosts comes back strong and packs one heck of a powerful punch. The action never stops and the scares keep the hair on your arms raised in fear page after page after page. This be a very frightful book dear readers! Book Two launches it's beginning 10 years later after book one ends. Our hero, X, has weathered and aged from show more years of loneliness and a decade of surviving by the skin of his teeth. Using his wits and Hiver diving skills to keep one step ahead of the terrors that hunt in the dark, he has become weary and wonders if being the last person on earth is worth the effort.
Our young friend and hero Tin, has now grown up to become a Hell Diver himself, melancholy from the death of his father and the daily angst of wondering if X is alive or dead. Now a grown man he must face his own demons and now proudly joins the Hell Diver Team Ghosts to keep humanity alive.
On board ship, we revisit some old faces, as well as meet intriguing new characters to keep us on our toes as to who are the good guys and who are the bad. We also have a new Captain, one who seems hell bent on ruling with an iron fist and appears to be quite the lunatic. He is harboring secrets, and is running the airship with his own goals and gains foremost in his mind, rather than keeping the lasting survivors of planet earth alive and well. Radiation sickness is poisoning the people, and the airship is dying it's own death due to lack of parts and fuel and too many years traveling the deadly skies.
I love the diving scenes, they are so harrowing and nerve-wracking. I truly feel like I am diving through these horrifying storms myself. As I read I can hear the thunder and see the flashes of intense lightning as I plummet faster and faster downward into hell. Nicholas Sansbury-Smith has such an incredible talent to amaze and frighten the reader due to skilled writing making it all so very believable.
Action, heartwarming characters you will love and cheer for, scary-as-all-get-go blood-curdling creatures abound, and a plot that will keep you guessing, flinching...and....gasping....for more of this nightmarish story. Keep 'em coming Nick. This series rocks! 5 stars. show less
Our young friend and hero Tin, has now grown up to become a Hell Diver himself, melancholy from the death of his father and the daily angst of wondering if X is alive or dead. Now a grown man he must face his own demons and now proudly joins the Hell Diver Team Ghosts to keep humanity alive.
On board ship, we revisit some old faces, as well as meet intriguing new characters to keep us on our toes as to who are the good guys and who are the bad. We also have a new Captain, one who seems hell bent on ruling with an iron fist and appears to be quite the lunatic. He is harboring secrets, and is running the airship with his own goals and gains foremost in his mind, rather than keeping the lasting survivors of planet earth alive and well. Radiation sickness is poisoning the people, and the airship is dying it's own death due to lack of parts and fuel and too many years traveling the deadly skies.
I love the diving scenes, they are so harrowing and nerve-wracking. I truly feel like I am diving through these horrifying storms myself. As I read I can hear the thunder and see the flashes of intense lightning as I plummet faster and faster downward into hell. Nicholas Sansbury-Smith has such an incredible talent to amaze and frighten the reader due to skilled writing making it all so very believable.
Action, heartwarming characters you will love and cheer for, scary-as-all-get-go blood-curdling creatures abound, and a plot that will keep you guessing, flinching...and....gasping....for more of this nightmarish story. Keep 'em coming Nick. This series rocks! 5 stars. show less
The premise of Orbs by Nicholas S. Smith is relatively interesting, but there are several things that, honestly, just ruined the book for me.
One problem is the constant jump in viewpoints, sometimes several times within the same scene! It makes it a quite jarring and confusing. Also, half the time I’m left wondering why the jump happened. Can’t the main character notice the tension in her ex-lover and thus relate to the reader his state of mind? Do we have to jump to his view point for a show more single paragraph just to find it out? And then, jump back to the main character, not even knowing if she has noticed it?
Another problem is over-explaining and including irrelevant information. The first AI chapter is a perfect example. Before the chapter, there is an odd event that happens and the characters are trying to figure it out, there is a sense of mystery and creeping doom, since if they are correct in their guesses, things are bad – very bad. Then we get the AI chapter, which (obnoxiously) recaps everything that just happened and confirms the worst fears of the characters. In the very next chapter, the AI reveals this information to the characters. Now, why couldn’t I learn this information with the characters? Why couldn’t I experience the emotional impact together with the characters? I actually have no good answers for these questions.
It completely undermined the tension and the interest I had in the story.
Another problem is that the book insists on telling us detailed backstories that are better left to the imagination. We find out early that two of the characters previously hooked up. Instead of exploring that relationship in real time through glances, off-the cuff comments to each other, or other nuanced ways, we get a flashback and a straight up explanation of their relationship. Yay. That was fascinating to read. (That was sarcasm, by the way).
Now that I write it all out, I realize that this book’s main problem, out of which the others stem, is underestimating the reader. We’re not stupid, we get it. If a character start to focus on someone’s lips, that probably means they’re interested. We don’t need a paragraph explaining it to us. It completely halts the pacing of the story and makes it difficult to care about what happens next.
How deadly are these flaws? I couldn’t finish LISTENING to the book. And I have 1 hour every single night, while I try to put my baby to sleep to listen to something, anything. And I often would just sit there in silence while my baby tossed and turned in bed.
So, yea Skip it! show less
One problem is the constant jump in viewpoints, sometimes several times within the same scene! It makes it a quite jarring and confusing. Also, half the time I’m left wondering why the jump happened. Can’t the main character notice the tension in her ex-lover and thus relate to the reader his state of mind? Do we have to jump to his view point for a show more single paragraph just to find it out? And then, jump back to the main character, not even knowing if she has noticed it?
Another problem is over-explaining and including irrelevant information. The first AI chapter is a perfect example. Before the chapter, there is an odd event that happens and the characters are trying to figure it out, there is a sense of mystery and creeping doom, since if they are correct in their guesses, things are bad – very bad. Then we get the AI chapter, which (obnoxiously) recaps everything that just happened and confirms the worst fears of the characters. In the very next chapter, the AI reveals this information to the characters. Now, why couldn’t I learn this information with the characters? Why couldn’t I experience the emotional impact together with the characters? I actually have no good answers for these questions.
It completely undermined the tension and the interest I had in the story.
Another problem is that the book insists on telling us detailed backstories that are better left to the imagination. We find out early that two of the characters previously hooked up. Instead of exploring that relationship in real time through glances, off-the cuff comments to each other, or other nuanced ways, we get a flashback and a straight up explanation of their relationship. Yay. That was fascinating to read. (That was sarcasm, by the way).
Now that I write it all out, I realize that this book’s main problem, out of which the others stem, is underestimating the reader. We’re not stupid, we get it. If a character start to focus on someone’s lips, that probably means they’re interested. We don’t need a paragraph explaining it to us. It completely halts the pacing of the story and makes it difficult to care about what happens next.
How deadly are these flaws? I couldn’t finish LISTENING to the book. And I have 1 hour every single night, while I try to put my baby to sleep to listen to something, anything. And I often would just sit there in silence while my baby tossed and turned in bed.
So, yea Skip it! show less
My addiction to Smith’s works continues. I tore through his Hell Divers series (which I totally loved) and then jumped into this series. Finally, I’m writing reviews.
This post-apocalyptic series is set in modern times, mostly set in Estes Park, Colorado (which is an easy day’s drive north of me). In this scenario, EMPs are set off in key points of the USA, shutting down our electric grid and wreaking havoc. The North Koreans have nearly paralyzed the US government! Even as people start show more to grasp what has happened, the hits keep coming for Washington DC.
I became attached the Estes Park characters much quicker than I did with the Washington DC characters. I did like the alternating view points. Sam ‘Raven’ Spears (retired Marine) and his dog Creek are my favorite characters hands down. Sam has been a bit of a loaf in Estes Park but now with this nationwide emergency he has a chance to really make a difference. Also, this is a murder mystery story and Raven gets caught up in that too since he and Creek are excellent trackers. Raven’s sister Sandra, who works as a nurse at the hospital, and her daughter (Allie) become caught up in this mystery too.
The reaction of the average citizen was very realistic. Sure, a lot of stuff has stopped working, there looks to have been a bomb off on the horizon (maybe a nuclear bomb), but some things still work and surely the government will be by any time to set things right, right? Some people were more skeptical, some caught on quicker, some didn’t wait to find out one way or another, etc. It was a great mix of believable responses.
I was a little surprised by the ladies. I’m coming to this series from Hell Divers where the ladies do everything the men do; gender equality is a given not a ‘check the box’ thing. So here we have several well made female characters that are competent in their given jobs and yet none of them are in the thick of it. They generally don’t handle weapons and they certainly don’t go out on missions to scout, track, or rescue. I was left wanting more from the ladies.
While Raven works with police chief Colton on tracking down a killer, Nathan Sardetti goes on a rescue mission near Estes Park. His handicapped nephew, Ty, was at a special camp when all hell broke lose. Nathan’s sister, Senator Charlize Montgomery (who’s a retired fighter pilot), was in DC when things headed south. She’s recovering from serious injuries and can’t join in the search herself. Her body guard, Big Al Randall, do their best to rejoin the remnants of the US government.
Unfortunately, there’s a group of white supremacists (Sons of Liberty) in the area near Estes Park and they would be quite happy to have some important captives. I loved hating on their leader, Fenix. He was so hate worthy but also calm, collected, smart. He makes a worthy foe for both Nathan and Raven.
The murder mystery, the believability of the EMP attack and response, and the bits of Sioux & Cherokee believes all worked well for me. The tame ladies left me wanting a bit more. 4/5 stars.
The Narration: Bronson Pinchot gave a pretty good performance. There was this side character that was written as very loud and a bit rude and Pinchot did that voice well but sometimes I had to turn the volume down a little. I liked his voice for Raven and he also made a great Colton. His voice for Charlize Montgomery was feminine and carried her strength as well. His voice for President Diego was a little too much Texas politician for me, but that also made it distinct. 4.5/5 stars. show less
This post-apocalyptic series is set in modern times, mostly set in Estes Park, Colorado (which is an easy day’s drive north of me). In this scenario, EMPs are set off in key points of the USA, shutting down our electric grid and wreaking havoc. The North Koreans have nearly paralyzed the US government! Even as people start show more to grasp what has happened, the hits keep coming for Washington DC.
I became attached the Estes Park characters much quicker than I did with the Washington DC characters. I did like the alternating view points. Sam ‘Raven’ Spears (retired Marine) and his dog Creek are my favorite characters hands down. Sam has been a bit of a loaf in Estes Park but now with this nationwide emergency he has a chance to really make a difference. Also, this is a murder mystery story and Raven gets caught up in that too since he and Creek are excellent trackers. Raven’s sister Sandra, who works as a nurse at the hospital, and her daughter (Allie) become caught up in this mystery too.
The reaction of the average citizen was very realistic. Sure, a lot of stuff has stopped working, there looks to have been a bomb off on the horizon (maybe a nuclear bomb), but some things still work and surely the government will be by any time to set things right, right? Some people were more skeptical, some caught on quicker, some didn’t wait to find out one way or another, etc. It was a great mix of believable responses.
I was a little surprised by the ladies. I’m coming to this series from Hell Divers where the ladies do everything the men do; gender equality is a given not a ‘check the box’ thing. So here we have several well made female characters that are competent in their given jobs and yet none of them are in the thick of it. They generally don’t handle weapons and they certainly don’t go out on missions to scout, track, or rescue. I was left wanting more from the ladies.
While Raven works with police chief Colton on tracking down a killer, Nathan Sardetti goes on a rescue mission near Estes Park. His handicapped nephew, Ty, was at a special camp when all hell broke lose. Nathan’s sister, Senator Charlize Montgomery (who’s a retired fighter pilot), was in DC when things headed south. She’s recovering from serious injuries and can’t join in the search herself. Her body guard, Big Al Randall, do their best to rejoin the remnants of the US government.
Unfortunately, there’s a group of white supremacists (Sons of Liberty) in the area near Estes Park and they would be quite happy to have some important captives. I loved hating on their leader, Fenix. He was so hate worthy but also calm, collected, smart. He makes a worthy foe for both Nathan and Raven.
The murder mystery, the believability of the EMP attack and response, and the bits of Sioux & Cherokee believes all worked well for me. The tame ladies left me wanting a bit more. 4/5 stars.
The Narration: Bronson Pinchot gave a pretty good performance. There was this side character that was written as very loud and a bit rude and Pinchot did that voice well but sometimes I had to turn the volume down a little. I liked his voice for Raven and he also made a great Colton. His voice for Charlize Montgomery was feminine and carried her strength as well. His voice for President Diego was a little too much Texas politician for me, but that also made it distinct. 4.5/5 stars. show less
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