Solipsistic Meanderings » A Second Course of Spacejock

September 5, 2006

A Second Course of Spacejock

I finished Simon Hayne’s "Hal Spacejock: Second Course" yesterday and I must say that I enjoyed this book several magnitudes more than the first one. (And that is not to say I didn’t enjoy the first one – as you’d see if you read my review of the first book :p)

This book certainly shows that at least some authors mature over the course of years 🙂 The first book was enjoyable and a smooth read but the humour wasn’t a primary factor – especially in the conversations between the characters. From the opening pages of "HS: Second Course", the humour in the conversations is much more evident. I can’t say much more without spoiling the story for people and so I won’t. Just take my word for it 🙂

And another thing which really drew me to this book was the complexity of the plot and the hairpin twists and turns that Simon introduces into the plot. There is a bit towards the second half (which again I can’t comment about for fear of spoiling) which has so many plot elements packed together in a few chapters that Simon must have used a compression program :p It has lost alien civilizations, deserted planets full of alien technology, lonely towers standing guard far out to sea and a lot of other things that I really enjoy reading in a science fiction novel. In fact, I wish I’d written thins one 🙂

In fact, about the worst thing I can say about "Hal Spacejock: Second Course" is that I don’t like the cover as much as the cover of book one. Now don’t get me wrong, Dion Hamill is a good artist and there are elements in the cover of the second book that I do like but Hal looks a bit grim and old and Clunk looks a bit shifty eyed in the second book. Now the first cover (by Les Peterson) has what I’d think of as the "classic" Hal pose and while Clunk looks a bit big and purple in that one, he still looks really cheerful. And that’s how I personally see the books – one big, cheerful read 🙂