Crater

Helium-3 #1

by Homer Hickam

A Helium-3 miner named Crater makes a treacherous journey through space to find a mysterious and priceless treasure.
It's the 22nd Century and a tough, pioneering people are mining the moon 
to produce energy for a desperate, war torn Earth.  Crater Trueblood, an
orphan, loves his life in Moontown, a frontier mining settlement.  Just turned sixteen, Crater is already a seasoned Helium 3 miner, hoping someday to be a foreman on the scrapes.  But "the Colonel," the man who owns the mine, has a different plan for Crater which includes Maria, the Colonel's daring young granddaughter.  Crater, accompanied by Maria and his gillie--a sentient and sometimes insubordinate clump of slime mold cells--must shepherd a convoy of Helium 3 trucks across a forbidding river of dust while also looking for a mysterious, historical artifact that could mean the difference between life and death for every inhabitant on the moon.

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Fiction, Audiobook, Dystopia, Fantasy, Teen

311 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Homer Hickam (also known as Homer H. Hickam, Jr.) is the author of many best-sellers including his latest, Don't Blow Yourself Up. An eclectic writer, he wrote the "Coalwood Series," which includes the # 1 New York Times best-selling memoir Rocket Boys, (made into the ever-popular movie October Sky) the World War II-era "Josh Thurlow" series, the juvenile sci-fi "Crater" series, the adult thriller The Dinosaur Hunter, the romantic Red Helmet, and many others. Among his many writing awards are the University of Alabama's Clarence Cason Award and the Appalachian Heritage Writer's Award plus an honorary Doctorate of Literature from Marshall University. For more information on Mr. Hickam and his books and cats and everything else, please go to http://www.homerhickam.com.

Reviews

[Addie · Rating 1 out of 5]

The cons of this book outnumber the pro by a very wide margin. The author of this book has written an adequate memoir previous to Crater, which did well not because of its writing, but because of the inspiring and heartwarming story. In the memoir the characters were actual people who were already developed with their own lives and personalities. The characters in Crater lack any depth or development throughout the book. Crater’s backstory is the average tragic hero’s tale of dead parents. This has been used too many times as a quick way to develop character. He, and everybody else in the book, lack any sort of personality. When reading a good book the characters feel so real and that what they say and do feels natural and not like everything they did had been decided by a writer. The character’s words are so heartless they at times seem robotic. An incredibly annoying example of the robotic dialogue is when Crater is explaining who he is and says “Yes, ma’am, but my parents were in a lander crash. My father was killed. My mother was brought here for me to be born. I was adopted by another couple after she died.” It’s as if the author was just too lazy and had given up on writing in any emotion or was so used to writing in a scientific, expository style which may please some people if it annoys others. Much as their words were very uncomfortable to read the interactions of Crater are just too unrealistic and unbelievable. Crater and Maria’s relationship comes from, it seems, nowhere as they first see and like each other, then for a while in the middle of the book they are really annoyed with each other and exchange what could be called “witty banter,” after not seeing each other while Crater is off on his own, they for some reason meet up and start dating. Other books have used this setup to develop relationships, but it usually takes whole series for this to happen. The reader does not find themselves invested in Crater and Maria’s relationship. While on the subject of how Crater fells about Maria, at certain points his opinions are very sexist in nature. This can be clearly seen when Crater thinks “Somehow, even though he has only spent a few minutes in her presence, Crater had decide Maria Medaris was worthy of his complete and utter worship and adoration. That she was allowing Petro, who could not understand her perfection, the favor of her presence and probably lots of kisses was tearing him up inside.” Crater decides what Maria needs. Let that sink in. Crater, someone who hasn’t known Maria all that long, has already decided what Maria needs and wants. He doesn’t like the idea of Petro and Maria being an item because he believes that he is the only one that appreciates Maria and that he has to protect her from other guys that worship her as he does. Maria is not there to be put on a pedestal and protected by Cater. She is perfectly capable of making her own decisions about who she spends her time with, and doesn’t need Crater’s appreciation to feel good about herself. Crater is a poorly-written, sexist book with a lack of character development, that’s only good feature is how short it is.

[Denae Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5
Crater, the person, was boring. He was overly nice to everyone and didn't seem to every make mistakes. He was supposed to be super-duper smart and educated, but he had no ambition. He cared for everyone, even a girl who was bossy and rude. Crater was also brave. And won a race. And won this ball game. He would try new things and succeed almost with no effort in a page or two. The most interesting thing that happened was that he found out about his parents and he invented something awesome. Which also took only a couple pages.
Although there was plenty of action and death and attacks and danger in this book, the writing was all in telling mode. It glossed quickly over anything exciting so that the epic space battle at the end seemed to only take a few pages. Too many things happened, and I had a hard time drawing connections between them all. It seemed more like a set of separate events that happened to Crater rather than one big mission.
And the conclusion was weak. And there were allusions to Earthrise (like sunrise?), except that the same side of the moon is always facing the earth, so the earth's position in the moon's "sky" will always be the same.

I probably won't be reading any more of these, despite the neat idea about the moon colony and mining Heel-3.

[Lindsey (Books for Christian Girls) · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm impressed I made it to page 88. Because, honesty? The writing was basic and there was lots of head-jumping (like a little children's story form), which annoyed me to no end. The two mentions of two somethings being millions of years old made bothered me very much as I'm a firm believer in creation. I'm always sadden when there's evolution mentions in a so-called Christian book. And just in case your thinking that since this is a Dystopia I should let it slide, you're very mistaken. The back of the book plainly says it's set in the 22nd century, we're in the 21st century...so this book is set in the 2100s. 85+ years in the future. Very disappointing. :(

{{1 star due to I did not enjoy this book.}}

[Julie Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crater Trueblood is an orphan and helium 3 miner on the moon, 100 years in the future. This coming of age story features an annoying best friend, a pretty tomboy, and a sidekick—Crater's gillie, a sentient and sometimes insubordinate clump of slime mold cells. Crater is chosen by "the Colonel" for a mysterious mission because he feels Crater may succeed where others have failed. All Crater has to do is travel to the capital city, pick up a package and deliver it to the Colonel. That sounds almost too easy and, of course, it is. Along the way we get to see other places on the moon, meet memorable characters, and learn about Crater's ingenuity. As with many of these stories the journey teaches Crater as much, if not more, than finishing his quest.

I requested this book from Amazon Vine because the gillie was an intriguing concept. I am pleased to say that it was a totally justified decision because the gillie rose far above the "slime mold cells" description by being rather charming and a bit of a know-it-all.

Crater made me feel the way I did when I could sink into the Heinlein juveniles for a rattling good story. This author shows original thinking in such details as the way they bioengineer space suits for outside Moon working, which kept me interested in more than just the adventure. Overall it was a great read and one that left me wishing the sequel was available.

I was interested to note that a few times there was prayer in the book and then I noticed that the publisher is known for their Christian books. However, the book didn't come off that way at all. It was just a rattling good adventure.

In fact, one of my favorite parts was actually a commentary on prayer which made me laugh aloud.

===========

Teller pointed at the woman. "It was your stupidity that killed Tilly." He cut his eyes back to Crater. "Say a prayer for her, Crater."

Crater didn't know why the captain wanted him to say a prayer, but he gave it some thought and said, "Dear Lord, I didn't know Tilly, but I hope You'll take her into heaven. She messed up here at the last but that doesn't matter now, not to her and maybe not to You either."

"I said say a prayer, not write an editorial," Teller growled.

The gillie jumped in. "For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. Dust to dust, ashes to ashes, blessed be the Lord thy God who loves thee still. Amen and good-bye."

Teller stared at the gillie, then said, "Well, at least that thing's got some sense."

[SARAH · Rating 2 out of 5]

WHYY is this required reading in school?

The writing was not good. It was super choppy and bland.

Crater's (also this name is killing me) character in the book was so boring, I mean, none of the characters really have a personality but Crater is the main character so.....

[SPOILERS BELOW]

The ending was extremely disappointing. The fact that the Colonel had to appoint Crater to get a 'bag of Yuri Gagarin bones' just so he can marry Czarina Zorna was sad because it was such a forced love.

[Louisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good book, but the way that it was written got on my nerves, a lot of tell, not show and explaining the terms that were created for this world. But a pretty good story. Just a lot of little annoyances!

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked it. Good clean story.

The miner’s prayer at the start of the day is a day version of now I lay me down to sleep.

LOL…. “The sheriff asked the puter to keep looking, but all it found were felons, gun runners, and university presidents; sly and wily.”

[Julie Witt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I really did, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't connect to the characters. They were written as such caricatures and stereotypes that I spent more time rolling my eyes than nodding along. Crater, the main character, a 17 year old boy working on the moon mining for Helium-3, a source of power up there, was too naive to believe. His adopted brother, Petro, the Prince of Wales, was just unlikeable. And trying to buy into Queen Elizabeth as just a regular lady trying to get by, who goes by the unlikely nickname of Q-Bess, was too much for me. There was so much information dropped on you throughout this book that it was too much tell and not enough show;. By the end, I was getting used to all of these problems and annoyances, but not enough to want to read the next book in this series.

Because I think this book was just not for me, but might be for others if they want to give it a try, I'm giving it 2.5/5 stars.

I received a copy of this book free of charge in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Glenn Haggerty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crater is written in traditional sci-fi style, with realistic representations of what life on the moon could be like. Crater, the 17-year-old underdog-hero, is an interesting character. Although the omniscient point of view portrays Crater as somewhat distant, his inspiring faith and heroism shines through. In addition, the unique world-building and compelling quest make this a fun read.

[Will G · Rating 4 out of 5]

Simple, YA oriented Sci-Fi story that recalls the era of Boys Series Books of the 40's, 50's and 60'. But surprisingly the science involved is based on facts and the story, although simple, held my interest. This is book 1 of a trilogy, looking forward to reading book 2.

[Hunter]

Zero stars. Snickerdoodles, this was bad haha
We actually started this in English class, but it was so incredibly boring that my teacher didn't even care about finishing it.
I don't really want to waste time writing a review, so...

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Student book club choice. Would not have finished it if not for the kids.

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️⭐️⭐️✨ I read this book along with my son, since he was reading it for class. For a middle grade book it was enjoyable.

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crater is the story of an average miner sent on a quest to retrieve an unknown item. Crater is an orphan living on the moon as a low level Heel-3 miner with his close friend Petro. Crater is recruited by his mining company’s owner to retrieve an item for him after hearing the stories of how Crater rescued a warehouse full of workers from a loose boulder. Crater embarks on his journey with with a convoy carrying the precious material Heel-3 accompanied by his friend Petro as well as the company owner’s granddaughter, Maria, who Crater is charged to protect. While traveling across the moon’s desolate frontier the convoy meets many different perils which seem to always be resolved by Crater and half of the time killing off a minor character. At one point Crater returns from settling a conflict, to have Maria confessing her love for him after seeming to hate him before he left. Later in the book Crater finds out what the package is that he is to retrieve and decides that it is not worth the death of so many people, but still continues on the mission solely because he loves Maria.
The universe that this story was set in is very interesting, but I feel that there were parts in the plot that were just too corny and stereotypical for a story of this nature. I also found some major flaws in the description of what was happening in the book, especially in action scenes, which were about 50% of the book. I did not recognize many of the tools that were being used or beasts being fought because I feel they were not described enough to give me a visual image. There were also many points in the book that I found absurd or cliche such as how Crater would have failed his mission if his rag-tag group of ball players didn't beat a professional team. I also wasn’t a huge fan of how Crater’s second most important job was just to protect Maria who seemed like a strong woman perfectly capable of protecting herself along with the naive and inexperienced miner Crater. The main character Crater, a boy who will follow a cause that he doesn’t believe in just because he likes a girl, did not interest me as much as I had hoped.
The place and time that this book took place seem interesting to me, but I found that there were too many flaws in the telling of this story and the plot for me to give this book a good review.

[Online Eccentric Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

More reviews (and no fluff) on the blog http://surrealtalvi.wordpress.com/

There's no question that Homer Hickam is an accomplished writer. His novels of young men in blue collar trying circumstances have become his hallmark and this book, despite being speculative fiction, is no different. Transporting his 'miners' to the moon from the Earth gives him a chance to add a mystical element in the mix.

Although the book is marketed as ubiquitous YA, I feel it is much more geared to adult men who can appreciate the difficulty of a life situation over actual characterization. Crater, the main character, is a cipher. He has a bland milquetoast personality through most of the book but incongruously overreacts continually when dealing with his age peers. The shift from passive acceptance to heated annoyance really underscored the the main problem of the story for me: Crater just doesn't feel like a real 3-dimensional person.

The addition of a bossy, irrational, 'crush interest' female felt more cliche than anything. Crater is so 1-dimensional that you don't really understand why she would be even remotely interested in him anyway - unless it's because she grew up in a world of schemers and Crater is completely guiless.

Crater's companion, the Gillie alien, is very cute as written but tends to be a bit too omniscient - almost as a deux ex machina, which can be a bit of a writer's cop out. The Gillie provides the tension in the form of immediate danger warnings and humor in the form of witty bon mots.

I gave the book 3 stars because it is solidly written, there are some great concepts in there, and it is easy to make associations with Earth conventions even though it is speculative fiction. But the lack of good characterization and the very male-centric characters were a complete turn off for both myself (a mother) and my tween daughter.

[Wayward Skyril · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sorry... I just could never get into this at all. I did read all of it, but it was partially through will power, partially through curiosity about Crater+Maria, and partially because by the time I realized how bored I was with it, I was already one hundred pages in and didn't want to waste it.

The plot was fine, interesting even. What is Crater going to pick up? What is in it? Why is it so important?? Unfortunately the pluses end there.

The writing style is with what I had a big problem. I had this sense of simple all the way through it. Instead of clear, sharp images, I get vague ideas, usually with only one of the five senses- sight. The story rarely went into details about anything. [I have no clue how anything smelled..., for instance. Can Crater smell?]

The characters, largely because of the writing style, were also lacking. I felt distant from all of them, even Crater. To be honest, I didn't care if anyone died. I see some personality traits, but these traits weren't solid throughout it. In the beginning, Crater is afraid to stand up and talk, so hesitates until Petro gets up first. A little later, he's ordered to keep people off a bridge, and without pausing, he jumps to the task and does whatever it takes to do it. These two examples are close together- there was no character building in between. By the end of the book, I felt no further attachment to anyone than I did in the beginning, other than perhaps Gillie, who wasn't a person.

Really, I can't recommend this book to anyone, and personally, I won't be reading the sequels.

[Mason · Rating 1 out of 5]

The book takes place on a mining colony called Helium-3. The mining colony is on the moon in outer space.
Crater Trueblood (title character) is a 16 year old boy who saves a life and goes on a space adventure (he does not leave the moon) to multiple moon colonies to save more lives. This book connects to ANY dystopian novel you can possibly imagine minus the obvious and annoying love triangle. You know, Hunger Games, Divergent, The host, The Maze Runner, or some other hunger games knock off without that love triangle. I think this book contains plagiarism, is over the predictable mark, and contains to many clichès. The book writing is stale for a sci if genius who wrote Rocket Boys. I did not find the book interesting even remotely, it would more fun if there was a LOT more action moments throughout the book. I Recommend this book to any teen girl waiting for another cliche dystopian novel and needs something to tide them over.

[Missy Wilson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book fell so flat. Crater is a horribly developed character with no depth. He's so naive and never really does anything to actually move the plot along. He'd never get out of things if someone else didn't dig him out of the situation. He's supposedly smart, but it's not actually shown through his thoughts or actions. It's just told to the reader, but not really ever proved. None of the other characters are consistent either. The narrative style doesn't help either. Instead of focusing on one character, the narrator knows all and there are no secrets. I think this was only used to try to make a certain death a bit more sad. The deaths in this book was seemingly without point, and most of them didn't move the plot along in a better fashion. If you're going to kill someone, make it have purpose.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing was wooden. I was expecting so much more, given the fact that this author wrote "Rocket Boys" - which was not just a terrific story, it was so well written. This story had the potential to be awesome but it was taken down by its simplistic writing style - maybe this is a story meant for youngsters, who don't need a lot of sophistication. But telling a tale of settlements on the Moon, how technology has advanced, and how society itself changes because of being on the Moon -- there's so much there that I could not appreciate amidst the stiff dialog and simply-drawn characters, despite all the action. And what's with all the Moon slang that is not defined?

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Quickie Review

The author of the beloved book Rocket Boys, which later became the movie October Sky, now is trying his hand at fiction, and the end result is actually very good. A fun, kid-friendly interstellar adventure, Crater is well-written and enjoyable.

Content Concerns: Mild violence, a scant few instances of implied profanity, some intensity...about as innocent as what you are likely to see on the Disney Channel.

Score: 4.5/5

[Jambush · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea, but not well developed. I finished the book, but didn’t keep it. The characters did not have much depth, and the story felt rushed and shallow. It seemed more like an outline of what could’ve been more of a story.

[Elliot P · Rating 5 out of 5]

good book

[Christopher Cunha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The title of this work of literature that I read over the summer is Crater by Homer Hickam. This book was published on April 1, 2012, and the genre of this book is science fiction, young adult, dystopia, and fiction. The setting of this book is that it takes place on the moon in which is now colonized and contains many different towns in the 22nd century. The main character is Crater Trueblood in which Crater is a 16-year-old whose job is helium-3 miner in a town called Moontown. Another main character is Maria Medaris who is also 16 and she is the granddaughter of Colonel Madaris who is the owner of Moontown and the mines in which are there. A summary of this book is that it starts off with Crater, which Crater is a super kindhearted and nice guy who sees the brightness in everyone. Crater is an orphan who lost his parents on the journey to the moon from earth. The person who raised him was Q-Bess who adopted him after the people who first adopted him died in the mines in Moontown. She raised Crater and also her own son Pedro. Crater loves his jobs in the mines but it all changed when one day when he was out in the mines collecting helium-3 a roller broke loose and started rolling towards him and the others on the mines and what he did was he ended up saving another miner's life. This action of him saving someone's life got the attention of the owner Colonial Medaris, who was in need of a person to undertake on a dangerous mission to collect a package for him which is thousands of miles away and one that the last 2 people that he had sent to get it had died. He chooses Crater and even though he feels like he doesn’t want to go, he decides he has to go on the journey, and he is also accompanied along the journey with Maria, which the Colonial also informed him to protect her and if worse came to worse risk his life for hers. The central themes of this book are adventure, courage, secrets, and heroism. Overall how I feel about this book is that I enjoyed reading it. The parts which I enjoyed were I enjoyed the adventure that the characters took and the fact that it was just a difficult book to put down once I started reading. I also enjoyed the fact that all throughout reading this book I was able to basically picture in my mind everything that was occurring and it was as if a movie was playing in my mind. The book's strengths are the action that occurs and the character development which occurs all throughout the book. This is a strength because what it does is it makes the book worth reading because being able to see the characters develop makes it feel as if I am a part of the story. The book's weakness is that the book doesn’t provide any context to the story. What I mean by this is you truly never get a full description of certain words that are first presented until you read halfway through the book. For example words like rollers, fastbug, and crowhopper, these words are first presented but it is not until you read the middle of the book that you understand what these words mean. This lack of description causes it at times to get confusing, but even though these weaknesses occur I still feel that this book was definitely a good book to read.

[Braeden Cairns · Rating 2 out of 5]

Braeden Cairns

Crater is a young adult novel in which we follow 16 year old Crater Trueblood. Crater is a helium-3 miner on the moon and has a knack for adventure. Crater often finds himself in sticky situations, because he likes to go and explore. This story is set in 2143 when Earth needs helium-3 to produce energy for a war-torn Earth. Crater’s boss needs him to set off on a mission across the moon to pick up a secret object, along with him goes Maria, his boss’s daughter, and his gillie which is a sentient clump of slime. Crater must battle his way through both human and non-human enemies as he tries to recover the item that will change lives forever. Crater and Maria set off on their adventure hopefully but comprehensive of the danger and challenges they will face. Crater understands how his life is at danger but still wants to complete the mission because he will spend time with Maria, who he’s in love with. Do you think Crater and Maria will make it out or succumb to the pressure and dial?
I did not personally love this book. I believed that this book was very slow and predictable. There was not much that went against the grain of your average adventure and Crater did not run into the tougher challenges and he easily overcame everything. The story was all over the place with a lot of jumping around and not a lot of smooth transitions as if the author needed to write this for a deadline and forgot about it until that weekend. The concept of the book and the story isn’t all that bad but it could’ve been written better. As someone who isn’t the biggest science fiction fan I liked the concept but I wish it was completed better. The character Crater almost has no flaws and never does anything wrong it’s not realistic. Homer Hickman illustrates, "Crater's tunic was a careful gray, his legging the standard black, his boots an ordinary beige" (Hickman 7). This quote describes the book, very standard, very boring. Maria, the girl, was also very basic and we did not go in depth into most characters which made me lack interest as we did not understand our main characters. To me, the best part of this book is some of the action scenes, however, there are too many of them. I think the universe is set up well but the execution was very stereotypical and almost to easy for the author. All in all, I would give Crater a 4 out of 10, because the book isn’t dreadful but it’s almost too watered down and too for kids that it gets in the way of enjoying this book.

[Ryan Mihm · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if you were the one chosen to go on a dangerous moon mission? That's exactly what a young man faced in the story Crater, by Homer Hickam. Crater Trueblood is a 17 year old that is a Helium miner on the moon. This book is set about 100 years in the future, where moon life is common.
While working on the scrapes, Crater is able to save one of his fellow miners, and the Colonel of the city admires his bravery. He is sent on a mission to travel around the moon to gather the remains of Yuri Gagarin, the first human in space. He encounters many different creatures on the way, but he is able to return home safely. I would recommend this book from ages 10-14 because this book is action-packed, but it also can be hard to understand the plot at times."We turn dreams into reality." (Pg.285)
is in my opinion the message of this book. Author Homer Hickam has won the Commendation Medal, and the Bronze Star Medal for his work. "Long haul trucking on the moon... With raiders, romance, and a secret mission... High adventure on the space frontier." -Kirkus Review

[Sophie Gauthier · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have decided this year that if I'm not enjoying my reading time I will not force it and unfortunately for this moon mining YA, I will be DNF-ing it.

Which is unfortunate because it had some promising features to it but the negative overpowered the positive and I'm finding myself having a really hard time picking it up. I didn't find the story particularly interesting or intriguing enough to keep my attention long enough. The two main characters are, in my opinion, insufferable. Crater is overly nice and naive not having any personality beside his good guy "I'm gonna save you" type and the other one the Prince not Prince whose name I don't remember, is overly cocky, pessimistic and complains about everything the whole time I was reading it, really really annoyed me 😒 I didn't find him interesting either... Nothing really stood out for me and it was just boring, unfortunately.... I didn't even make it half way before I decided it wasn't worth it... and it's a trilogy!! 🙄😮‍💨🫩Perhaps if I was a teen it would've passed better... Oh well....

[Crista · Rating 2 out of 5]

dnf. I really really loved Hickam’s Coalwood Way (rocket boys) series so I thought why not try his fiction? I didn’t get into it. I got halfway through and gave up. I really wanted to like it but didn’t.

The story is about a mining town on the moon, with people who have only ever lived on the moon and sects of people who have broken off and began to ‘evolve’ different. They mine helium3 out of the moon soil and send it back to Earth.

Being an engineer the narrative of the story stop starts as the author explains the physics behind the concept just being discussed, which although interesting doesn’t enable the story to flow. The main character Crater is way to naive especially with his past. Maria, his love interest is not a nice person and Petros his best friend is an awful friend and person. The names of the characters living in the sects on the moon was what pushed me to stop reading it. The Gillie is the best thing about the book

[Arwen Jacotin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Crater is an uninteresting and overly detailed novel. The author obviously had no idea how to hook the readers on or make them relate to/understand the characters. Even with all the details they provide, I find myself unable to picture what the surroundings look like. This book is the book version of Grammarly ads: Wordy and hard to read. It is hard to believe that this book is classified as ‘New York times best seller’. I understand that the author is a scientific novel writer, which is why I bring myself to ask; why even make this book? It jumps around from scenes to scene a ton and makes it hard/uninteresting to read. It is a sexist and boring novel overall. If you are a teacher thinking about sharing this with your class, do not. (P.S, this was made by 2 middle schoolers forced to read this by our English teacher.)

[Nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

People talk about cozy/comfort reads and usually that's a somewhat predictable quiet story without too much scary going on that you can read. This was that for me. But instead of a homey cabin in the forest and a sweet little romance, it was all the classic elements of a Heinlein-style sci-fi story. Everything is so matter-of-fact that even when danger breaks out the reader never has any sense of fear or stress, just a pleasant curiosity about what the next resolution will entail. In the hands of some authors that would be a decided downside, but Hickam handles it so gracefully that it's hard to mind; everything just feels familiar and comfortable and you get to enjoy the science as much as the fiction.

[Reuben H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Crater was written by Homer Hickam, the author of the autobiography Rocket Boys that was adapted in 1999 as the film October Sky. I saw the film years ago and loved it, and that's how I instantly became interested in this novel when I heard that Homer wrote it. The story of October Sky was about Homer's life as a young man: his father was a coal miner and wanted him to become one as well, but Homer saw his future along a different path, and eventually became a NASA engineer. Many years later, after the events of his autobiography, Homer retired and became a writer of both fiction and nonfiction. Though at this current time I've only read this one that he's penned, the book descriptions of many of his books imply that he uses much of his knowledge from both his life as a coal miner's son and his life as a NASA engineer when writing his stories. This is definitely one such story.

Crater is of a lower reading level than I have read in a while—young adult, for sure—and sometimes it just seemed childish or cheesy. The narration would often mention some key piece of technology but would fail to even hint at what it actually looked like or how it worked. Sometimes it would fail to mention what certain things even did. A lot of the main character's mission that was assigned near the very beginning of the book doesn't make complete sense until you know what exactly a cycler is and how a works—and that's something you don't find out until you have about fifty pages left in the entire book. These aren't details that would be considered plot spoilers; these are details that the narration seems to think readers should already know from the beginning but can't, because it's usually referring to technology that the author himself created.

In addition, several parts of the story were cliché. Early in the book the protagonist, Crater Trueblood, enters a sort of futuristic race, and his main opponent is one that everyone knows will win. The opponent is the type that uses as many forms of "foul play" as they can while making sure not to officially break any rules. With the help of his gillie and some ridiculous luck, Crater barely crosses the finish before his opponent. By that time they'd been the only two competitors still in the race. Does that sound familiar? Also, the main character is just a teenager, but he's extremely smart and can think of (and design) improvements for almost everything man-made he comes across. I suppose in the next book it will be revealed that General Caesar Augustus Nero—a character who, as you can obviously tell from his name, will turn out to be evil—is actually his father, long thought dead. (Yes, that is sarcasm.)

Crater is full of inconsistencies, clichés, and sometimes just ridiculousness, but in all honesty, it was the first book I've read in a long time that I've actually enjoyed reading. I read a lot of books recently that I loved, but it was the story or characters or ideas or setting or author's writing ability that I loved, not the actual reading part. For nearly a year and a half now reading has been a chore for me. I've grown to hate it, but I press on anyway to enjoy the wonderful worlds and tales that I fall in love with. My ability to read left entirely with my ability to focus, so even reading a little bit takes an excruciating amount of effort and time. Crater, though at times it was difficult to get through, (to an average person it could be probably read easily in a weekend) is a super easy read. I enjoyed reading it like I haven't for any other book I've read in a very long time.

The book had its faults, but enjoying the reading part of it really helped me to enjoy the rest, and the faults weren't nearly bad enough to ruin the book. The story and setting, when you look past the thin outer skin, is actually incredibly cool. Sometimes the book seemed a little bit like an Isaac Asimov novel, though of course on a far less mature level. The main character, Crater Trueblood, changed a lot throughout the story. He sometimes really surprises the reader, either with his level of immaturity or his level of maturity.

The author, Homer Hickam, harnessed loads of his scientific knowledge into the novel. Putting a bunch of techno-babble into a book geared toward the reading level of Crater is absolutely ridiculous, but for those of us who enjoy reading books at this level and also know a decent bit about science (so we can barely grasp what some of the techno-babble is about), this book a very enjoyable experience. Homer is a wise man, and I often felt myself wanting to save entire paragraphs or conversations as quotes, rather than just a character's line or two, as is traditional for quotes.

In the end, through its faults that I have probably made sound far worse than they actually are, Crater was a fun novel with a great story, cast and setting. If you enjoy young adult fiction and science fiction, check it out. I was expecting a lot from the author, so for a while into the reading I can't deny that I was disappointed. By the end, however, I was wondering when Hollywood will get enough sense to make this into a movie. I definitely can't now deny the awesomeness of the story and setting. Homer Hickam might not be an expert at converting his knowledge into all the correct words for a novel everyone will love, but his knowledge of space and the moon makes the technology he created seem all the more believable. I look forward very much to the next novel in the Helium-3 saga.

Crater: A Helium-3 Novel was published on April 10, 2012.
This book was sent to me for free from Thomas Nelson Publishing.