CRESCENT by Homer Hickam

Crescent is a 2013 young-adult science fiction novel by Homer Hickam, the second of his Helium-3 books. Here, Crater befriends an enemy mercenary as he gets into various moon shenanigans.

First, a note: I didn’t particularly care for the first book in the series. I only read Crescent because Hickam saw my two-star review of Crater on Amazon and came and found me on this site. He encouraged me to give the series another chance, and I agreed to read the next one. So here we are.

Crescent is a definite improvement over the first book. Crater himself has become a more interesting character. He’s complex and somewhat inscrutable, he isn’t nearly as insecure as he was in Crater, and he has a number of very good moments. Crescent, too, is a sympathetic and engaging character, even if her arc covers well-trod ground. We do less well with many of the one-dimensional supporting characters – the brutal-dictator-turned-small-time-sheriff is tough to take seriously, and the three slacker legionnaires (whose chapters could have been omitted completely) give us four out of four supposedly-fearsome crowhoppers turned cuddly. The romantic tension and conflict between Crater and Maria fails to generate much interest.  

Again, Hickam’s mining and aerospace background shine through, as he provides immersive detail, good science, and reasonable conjecture about all things related to piloting, the moon, and space.

Apart from this, though, the writing has problems. Conversations are frequently stilted; there aren’t enough contractions. Too much dialogue is “growled.” Most damaging, the story is all over the place, meandering and full of detours. Crater is doing everything – plot element after plot element is picked up, only to fall by the wayside, leaving the reader to wonder what, if anything, is really important to whatever the story might turn out to be. It seems as though Hickam had a number of themes he wanted to hit (if you missed any, he recounts them for you in his author’s note), and so in they went.

Crescent also lacks anything remotely resembling a climax – Hickam assembles his ragtag group and the book ends, leaving the reader to feel like the whole thing’s been little more than setup for what surely must be a more interesting third book.

While I feel that the Helium-3 series is definitely trending upward, Crescent has enough problems that I had something of a hard time just getting through it.

TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT

KING by R. J. Larson

King is a 2013 young-adult fantasy novel by R. J. Larson, the conclusion to her Books of the Infinite trilogy. Here, King Akabe marries into a pagan family to obtain the land to rebuild the Infinite’s temple.

The Infinite himself sits most of this one out – that’s kind of the point, but without all the prophet business, the first half or so of the book is little more than a bunch of political intrigue and self-indulgent feel-goodery, and it doesn’t feel fresh.

Hand-in-hand with this is the plotting, which is a relatively serious issue here. There’s significant padding, as in the other books; Larson spends time on plots that every reader knows aren’t going anywhere – and then brings sudden and anticlimactic resolution to the series’ ongoing romantic subplot. King has no real overarching plot: the book meanders along without much cohesion, and there’s nothing remotely approximating a climax.

All the threat and doom that hung over the protagonist in the first two books is out the window; it’s obvious to the reader by this point that Larson has no intention of following through on any of it. Never mind the contrivedly feel-good ending; in contrast to the first two, there’s not an iota of suspense in this book.

One of Larson’s strengths is the way she handles her multiple lead characters. King has the largest cast in the trilogy, and Ela, Kien, and Akabe are all, for the most part, sympathetic and compelling. (A number of characters are, from time to time, too stupid to live, particularly in terms of their relationships, and Kien and Ela spend a good portion of the book being nigh-insufferable together, but these aren’t quite deal-breakers.)

While Larson did a pretty good job of not being preachy in Prophet and Judge, King feels a little more sanctimonious as Larson gets her characters proselytizing. Many action scenes are not at all well described, which softens the impact of the book’s events. Larson also continues her annoying tendency to change scene right before the end of a chapter in a cheap attempt to manufacture suspense.

On the balance, though, throughout the trilogy, Larson has done an effective job of executing her premise, managing to incorporate God as a character without beating the reader over the head too badly, without making the story too predictable or unforgivably deus ex machina, and without raising too many theological red flags for the Judeo-Christian readership. In this regard, the Books of the Infinite are noteworthy.

King, then, is the weakest entry in a generally solid series that started fresh and full of potential and was generally satisfying in that regard, even as it was content to cling exasperatingly to the safe and saccharine paths of young-adult storytelling.  

JUDGE by R. J. Larson

Judge is a 2012 young-adult fantasy novel by R. J. Larson, the second in her Books of the Infinite trilogy. Here, Ela and Kien are sent separately by the Infinite to proclaim repentance to two idolatrous nations.

Judge gets off to something of a slow start, for a number of reasons – too much chit-chat, too many story tangents, too much treating the horse like it’s an interesting supporting character. Ela is still insecure, questioning, and fatalistic – it doesn’t seemed like she’s learned much from the events of Prophet (it also gets tiresome for the reader, who has a pretty good sense of how these things go – this is, after all, a trilogy).

The second half of the book is considerably better, however, as the plot finally meanders to its destination. Siege, famine, persecution – these books do better the more serious and the more grim they get. And yet Larson has trouble juxtaposing the horrific events in the book with the PG rating she’s imposed on the story, and she always errs on the side of the latter. And while it feels that Larson takes the path of least resistance with the story (one that leads in a decidedly cheesy and feel-good direction), there’s some truly suspenseful and compelling writing here.

All things considered, Larson does an impressive job of telling a story of this sort without being too preachy (mostly) and in keeping some of the outcome uncertain. However, whereas in Prophet, Larson adopted the general prophetic mode of the Old Testament to tell her own story, in Judge, she appropriates OT stories and story elements more explicitly. She borrows extensively from the story of Jeremiah, which works well enough in her framework, but she also takes the vast bulk of the Jonah story and Elisha’s floating axe head. R. J. Larson, please stop doing that.

In short, it’s got some problems, and it plays things a little too safe for my taste, but Judge is nonetheless worthwhile.

RECOMMENDED

ANOMALY by Krista McGee

Anomaly is a 2013 young adult science fiction novel by Krista McGee. Here, in a post-apocalyptic eugenics lab, a girl is singled out for execution because she experiences emotions.

Anomaly is reminiscent of a number of books and films, including The Hunger Games, The Island, and THX 1138. The problem is not that Anomaly ever feels too derivative, but that it never really carves out its own niche. A little more setting and world building would have gone a long way toward making the book more immersive and giving it a distinct identity.

Anomaly follows all the traditions established by The Hunger Games for the currently popular female-protagonized dystopian young adult sci fi genre, no matter how forced, such as writing in the first-person present tense and including the obligatory two love interests, regardless of how believable. This doesn’t help Anomaly’s quest for identity, either.

Anomaly turns out to be an overtly Christian book, and McGee does a nice job of presenting the Gospel accurately and exploring faith in the face of death. Unfortunately, the Gospel presentation itself feels forced, like McGee has an agenda, and this contrivance saps meaning from Thalli’s obviously inevitable conversion.

Contrivance, which turns out to be widespread throughout the book, is Anomaly’s biggest problem. Things happen because McGee needs them to happen, perhaps leading the reader to ask things like “Why on earth don’t they ever lock Thalli’s door?” “Why doesn’t anybody seem to care that she has constant access to John?” and “Who the heck is responsible for the cameras around here?” (never mind questions like “Why do they call them ‘the Ancients’ when this is like two generations later and at least one is still alive?” and “Why don’t they ever kiss?”).

Complicating this criticism, however, is the fact that McGee tries to address nearly all these contrivances in the last few pages. It’s a nice try at getting away with it, I guess, but it’s pretty unsatisfying, it may make the reader wonder at just how oblivious these characters are, and it really doesn’t have the air of competence about it.

There are other issues. McGee’s writing is at a lower level than one typically expects from this genre: there are a lot of simple, see-Dick-run sentences, and it doesn’t help that Thalli is a master of stating the obvious or that everyone talks to her like she’s a little child (which may be necessary for the character but is grating for the reader). The general lack of contractions in speech makes for some stilted dialogue (but these test-tube kids do use them every now and then), and McGee has a tendency to go back and forth between the past and present tenses in an awkward way.

Thalli herself is just too passive to be a compelling protagonist, as by and large, she’s acted upon by various other characters, clueless, led here and there by their actions. No, the real protagonist of Anomaly is Berk, who perpetually risks both his life and career to act on behalf of Thalli. But he remains on the sideline as a supporting character, appearing when needed to save the day or advance the plot.  

Anomaly is a book I wanted to like, and I take no pleasure in giving it a bad review. But the volume of contrivance and the quality of the writing are deal-breakers.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

PROPHET by R. J. Larson

Prophet is a 2012 young adult fantasy novel by R. J. Larson, the first in her Books of the Infinite series. Here, a teenage girl is appointed the prophet of the Infinite (God) and sent to preach repentance to a foreign aggressor.

By design, Prophet has an extremely Old Testamental feel, which is a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre. Elements of the story are borrowed from many of the biblical prophets; similarities to the stories of Moses and Elijah are most obvious. The concept is strong, and Larson executes it fairly well. Several of the showdown scenes are powerful and quite satisfying (in large part because of the novel’s Judeo-Christian analogs of repentance and salvation).

The characters are a definite strength of the novel. Ela is a strong, sympathetic protagonist, even if she does seem to get hung up on self-doubt fairly often, and the leads are compelling and have good chemistry. The supporting cast works well, even if some of them are a little flat.

There’s only one real issue with the storytelling, and it more or less works itself out by the midpoint of the book. Ela is able carry on conversations, more or less at will, with God. She seems to be the only one who can do this on a regular basis (although this is never explicitly stated). It is therefore odd that she never finds this remarkable. Either way, just who can and can’t communicate with the divine isn’t entirely clear early on, and this may cause confusion for the reader as he or she tries to figure out Larson’s fantasy world.

There are, however, a bunch of lesser issues that keep this very solid novel from being a great one. The book always moves at a good pace, but setting and place are not always sufficiently fleshed out, and sometimes scenes aren’t fully developed. The plot wanders from time to time and can be repetitious. The girl/boy/horse dynamic is reminiscent of Tangled (that’s not a compliment), and the horse-driven humor wears thin (He’s a real one-trick pony – ha ha, see what I did there? Yeah, sorry.).

Nevertheless, the good of Prophet heavily outweighs the bad, and on the whole, Prophet is a compelling and refreshing entry into the fantasy genre.

RECOMMENDED

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

CRATER by Homer Hickam

Crater is a 2012 young-adult science fiction novel by Homer Hickam, and the first in his Helium-3 trilogy. Crater, a teenage lunar miner, accompanies one of his company’s helium-3 convoys in pursuit of an objective that led to the deaths of two others who tried to obtain it.

Hickam has been a coal miner and a NASA engineer. Not surprisingly, Crater’s lunar mining operations, living conditions, moon physics, and use of helium-3 are well thought out. There are also a lot of good moon facts in here, as well. Hickam’s setup and world-building (of the moon, anyway) are the highlights of the book.  

Hickam’s storytelling is less impressive. Crater himself is hard to root for because even though he’s good-hearted and capable, he’s also a clueless, pouty bumpkin with inexplicable low self-esteem. Almost every other character is flat, and many have the reasoning power of small children. The novel has two kinds of villains, crowhoppers and demons, and not only are they exactly the same, they’re also largely incompetent. Plot developments and resolutions are often convenient and unrealistic. The romance is horrendous. The story even stops for two pages near the end so Hickam can get in a quick sermon against government regulation. The overall effect is that the novel feels like a Saturday morning cartoon with a bunch of killing.

Crater features little in the way of suspense, even though Hickam tries desperately to generate some in the final act using one of the cheapest writer’s tricks of all time – hiding from the reader plot information known to all the characters. Nor does the MacGuffin-driven plot attract much interest, nor the cartoon characters that populate Hickam’s moon.

All of this is really too bad, because Crater felt like it had a lot of potential when it got started. In the end, though, it was a disappointment.

NOT RECOMMENDED

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

MOCKINGJAY by Suzanne Collins

Mockingjay is a 2010 young-adult science fiction novel by Suzanne Collins, and the final book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Here, Katniss has become the face of the rebellion’s propaganda campaign.

Mockingjay is often grimmer than the previous books, and Collins makes a couple of somewhat bold plot decisions (for the YA genre). However, while Collins knows how to keep the reader turning the pages, the story itself often lacks focus. Much of the book features Katniss involved in events of only peripheral importance, and a number of important story elements are not well developed, even if they are resolved satisfactorily.

In Mockingjay, Collins attempts to draw a contrast between Gale’s embrace of no-holds-barred warfare and Katniss’s reservations. Yet her attitude is inconsistent with her actions in all three books, and it rings distinctly false.

In the context of street warfare, the Capitol’s Games-style booby traps feel silly and impractical. And the book’s ending, in addition to fizzling abruptly, feels somewhat contrived and arbitrary. A very deliberate suspension of belief is required in a number of places.

Collins finally gives Katniss some substantial emotional reflection and explores just how damaged she is. However, this self-examination is focused on what Katniss has lost and almost completely ignores what she has done, which may make the reader feel that Katniss has not learned anything (especially the messages Collins seems to be trying to present to the reader) nor evolved substantially as a character. But Collins lowered the bar for herself in this regard in the previous books, and it’s better than nothing.

In the end, Mockingjay is an under-developed but reasonably entertaining and generally satisfying conclusion to the series, held back by the telling rather than the story.

RECOMMENDED

CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins

Catching Fire is a 2009 young-adult science fiction novel by Suzanne Collins, and the second book in the Hunger Games trilogy. Here, the events of the first novel have stirred up unrest in the Districts, and the totalitarian Capitol threatens nearly everyone Katniss knows with death.

The Hunger Games was a page-turning affair; Catching Fire is too, mostly. Collins has a lot of creative ideas here, many of which work well, especially in the middle third of the book. It’s notably impressive that she can keep a second Hunger Games event reasonably fresh, although its abbreviated length certainly helps.

And yet here also Katniss spends page after page mentally whining, absorbed in her own problems, feeling sorry about her situation (that she’s moping about her loved ones’ fates rather than her own doesn’t make it less tiresome). Katniss is also painfully slow on the uptake throughout the book, and is often a hindrance to other people who are trying to get things accomplished. For numerous reasons, she just isn’t as sympathetic here as she was in the first book.

The real star of Catching Fire is the supporting cast. Whereas Katniss is usually content to take a blunt-instrument approach to her plight, many of the other characters are crafty, creative, and noble, and the reader roots for them. It’s too bad the first-person narrative restricts the book to Katniss’s perspective, because a great deal of what they’re up to is quite a bit more interesting than much of what Katniss has going on.

Collins’ writing feels somewhat less solid here than in the first book. The story itself is fine, but Collins at times seems more interested in setting up the third book than telling this book’s story. Much of the key action in the book is given in summary. The ending is a particularly glaring example, where the reader is given a glossed-over page of twists and revelations without even a proper scene. Additionally, the love triangle featuring two upstanding, devoted young men who don’t care how annoying the girl can be is boilerplate for female-fronted young-adult fiction.

For all the setup of the first book, Collins still doesn’t have anything interesting to say on any of her issues. She still hammers the totalitarian-government-is-bad point, but that government and its leader are never more than one-dimensional villains. Collins again ignores the moral issues of the Hunger Games; indeed, Katniss, who hopes that somebody else kills the people she likes so she won’t have to, is nearly all hardened killer here. (The seeds are here to make a point about fighting evil with evil, but Collins doesn’t seem the slightest bit inclined in that direction.)

Catching Fire is a page-turner. But because of its flaws, it feels shallow, and a page-turner is about all it is. Ultimately, that’s just enough to make it worthwhile.

RECOMMENDED (barely)