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
