Review: Hell's End
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 26, 2013
Life on a space station orbiting Pluto is a struggle for survival.  The Government is fighting the powerful Families and somewhere in the gutters run the discards, starving and stealing food by light-cycle, hiding by dark-cycle.  Rejected and threatened with cannibalism by his street gang in HELL'S END, young Tuck makes for comparative safety in a war zone.  Before long he's captured by Family troops however, and hauled off to the house of the l'Arisians.Ivan, a government army squad leader, is tasked with retrieving Tuck. Why, he isn't told.  He leads the dangerous mission among machinery, water purifiers and air recyclers, with bolt guns, sizzlers, needle guns and EMPs as his weapons.  He manages to rescue Tuck, who's been drugged, and hauls him back to base.  But with the kid in detox, Ivan searches computer records and decides that the government has been turning kids into spies to put down rebellion.  The attraction between the two young men leads to a physical relationship which helps them trust each other.We're not told why a vast space habitat would be orbiting Pluto, which would make it prone to collisions with Oort cloud material, but by the time of this story the station has been in situ so long that probably nobody knows the reason.  Robotic insects scavenge and people with artificial eyes or implanted ears drink double espressos. I did find the underground rebellion story a little claustrophobic, but there is plenty of action, suspicion and characters.Ally Blue has written several other books including a paranormal mystery series, and HELL'S END is a grungy, far-future romance that's out of the ordinary.