Helium-3 Novel: Crater

"A Mining Colony on the Moon.

A Teen Sent on a Deadly Mission.

And a Secret Bigger that Two Worlds."

Bookworm's Ranking - 4 Worms

Storyline - Crater Trueblood is happy in life. He has a good job mining for Helium-3 for the world, good friends, and a loving guardian whose son, Petro, is like a brother to him. But when he attracts the attention of the Colonel who runs Moontown, he is sent on a deadly mission to retrieve a mysterious package. Along the way, his mission is put in jeopardy by obstacles along the trail consisting of accidents, mutated humans, and assassins to name a few. As Crater deals with danger to his friends and himself, he tries to understand what is going on, what he should do, and if this package is really worth all this danger of death.

Author - Homer Hickam

Publisher - Thomas Nelson

Age Group - 14 and up

Content - *May Contain Spoilers* Crater is sweet, kind, and caring. He gives of himself without any thought of being repayed, even to a mutant race that once tried to kidnap him. Not having any interest in killing, even when someone is trying to kill him, shows his innocence but gets others to tell him to toughen up. Petro is a tough guy but can be something of a jerk. He cares deeply for Crater and is something of a woman chaser and gambler. The villains are violent and some characters die but it isn't graphic (one death might have been a little creepy but I'm sure I have read worse).

Personal Opinion - This was a good story and an interesting idea of living on the moon. I was pretty sure the author's knowledge of mining went into this story when I was reading it (and if any of you know who Homer Hickam is, you are probably saying, "Duh"). As I read the note at the end, I found out that was correct (you repeat yourself), but, something interesting I learned was that Helium-3 does exist and there had once been plans to live on the moon. That was an interesting piece of information that broadened my interest in the book.

The characters were developed well and varied in personality which made it more realistic. Their struggles, thoughts, and action seemed appropriate and their reactions believable. Crater could have gotten a little tougher but one of his charms is how sweet and kind he is and I feel he is still growing. Even though I liked the story, I felt it was a little long in places and quick in others. There were times I also felt that I got too much info on this for the story and not enough on another so I was left scratching me head. A glossary would have been nice to look up some of the info if I forgot it because there were a bunch of new terms. Because this was published by a Christian company, I assumed there would be more about God but it did show that the Crater and others believed and put their faith in Him. It was more that it was a given that the characters believe in God and it was an everyday thing for them. Don't get me wrong, I found spots that were very exciting and myslef wanting to go back to the story when I put it down. The world was also very creative and well developed. If someone was thinking about getting, or reading, the book, I would tell them to read it because I thought the story was good and feel that the adventure is just getting started, promising to be even more exciting as the trilogy goes on.

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Buy - Amazon

Links - Learn more about the book and author here.

Special Notes - Book 1 in a trilogy. Book 2 out in 2013

Disclaimer - In exchange for an honest review, I received this book for free from the publisher through Booksneeze.

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