Crescent Review

Crescent (A Helium-3 Novel) Description:

Her motto is "Life is Death! Death is Life!" Can a warrior trained from birth to kill be trusted?

Crescent is a gene-tweaked mercenary programmed to fight to the death. When she's captured by Crater Trueblood, a miner turned soldier, she can't understand his kindness.

Maria Medaris, once Crater's girlfriend, has become a ruthless competitor in business and in life. When a murderous band of assassins attack, Crescent, Crater, and Maria escape to a lunar ghost town called Endless Dust. To survive they must do more than navigate the desolate moonscape and battle a persistent band of killers. They must decide what--and who--is truly worth fighting for.

My Review:

I admit, the description sounds really corny.  The video book trailer is even worse!  (You can view it here.)  But I am a sucker for a sequel and after reading Crater, I had to read this.

While the first book in this series focused on relationships, this installment touches on social issues instead.  Can we overcome our training?  How do we treat people that were raised with different morals and beliefs?  These questions are brought up, but there really isn't any depth to how the characters work them out.

The book felt as if it just stumbles from one scene to the next.  Crater never really understands why he chose not to kill Crescent, or why he decides to show her kindness.  He just meanders through the story as the guy who does good things, which really leaves the reader unsure of his motives.  I found that really disappointing, especially when Crater is confronted with "Helpers", humans bred to have less than average intelligence and trained to live as slaves to the person who purchases them.  They are disposable; when they are no longer able to help just trade them in for a new one.

The discussion questions at the end of the book felt as if Hickam was seeking reader input for his next novel.  "Crater often does what others want him to do....Do you like him better when he goes against authority?"  Is Hickam regretting this series?  Is he unsure of what to do next with it?  The ending of this book leaves me questioning where the story is going, and whether the hours I spent reading this was worth it.