Tangled In Pages: Crescent Blog Tour

Title: Crescent

Author: Homer Hickam
Series: Helium-3 #2
Release Date: 06/2013
Publisher: Thomas Nelson

Goodreads Summary

They said she wasn’t human. They were wrong.

A seemingly endless war against the insurgent Crowhoppers keeps the people of Moontown fighting when they’d rather be mining valuable Helium-3. Crater Trueblood’s valiant efforts against the genetically-manipulated beings weighs heavily on his mind. What is he really fighting for?

In the midst of a deadly battle, Crater captures an enemy Crowhopper. But this one he refuses to kill. “It” is genetically more human than not and its gender seems to be female. She calls herself Crescent.

Crater takes her to Moontown as a prisoner of war, but treats her kindly. However, at the hands of Moontown residents Crescent experiences prejudice and even cruelty.

Soon Crescent is imprisoned for a murder she didn’t commit. Crater comes to her aid, and the two become fugitives, escaping into the vast expanse of hostile terrain called “the big suck.” For Crater, it turns out the cause most worth fighting for may be right by his side.

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“Life is Death. Death is life.”

I read this book without reading the first one in the series so I may have been slightly confused at first but it was actually pretty smooth. I had started the first one but since I was short on time I just picked this one instead, so I wasn’t completely clueless but never the less once you get the hang of this book it can be read like a standalone.

I am sure I missed quite a bit of the world building in the first book but even in this book there was quite a bit of it, I loved all the techy details. The geek in me was so happy with the world building, mostly because I actually understood it. Plus I’ve always wanted to go to the moon so it was interesting to see the author develop this world.

From what I gather though, living on the moon isn’t all that fun. The habitants are people who committed crimes on Earth and were exiled to the moon. There is the colonel, who I think of as a dictator, and there are a couple of cities.

This book opens on the verge of war where Crater, our main character, rescues a crowhopper; which is basically something bred in laboratories and is designed to kill.

Crater is actually a pretty good male lead. He is really smart but he is also kind. He isn’t a ‘bad boy’ but more like the ‘nice guy’ I crave. Despite this though I couldn’t really relate to him, maybe it was because he was so smart or maybe not, there just seems to be a gulf there.

I initially liked Maria, she was a strong female who wasn’t easily intimidated but then later on she seemed more manipulative. She claimed to love Crater yet she also said she missed the ‘old Crater that she could wrap around her fingers’. For being such a strong/independent woman, she sure did seem stupid at times. She complains about Crater not making contact for 3 years but why couldn’t she do that? I mean she knows that he is busy fighting so she should understand that he won’t exactly have a lot of time to write.

The romance did NOT work at all for me. There was too much cheese and it just didn’t seem like they were in love. There tends to be a chemistry present two characters that are in love or attracted to one another, and perhaps I missed that in the first book, but in this book, I did not sense ANY between Maria and Crater. Their romance seemed like it was forced.

Which brings me to Crescent. She is the crowhopper that Crater rescued. The crowhoppers are interesting creatures. They know they are going to die, which makes them strong fighters so Crescent is surprised when they take her captive instead of killing her right away. I love how her character is developed; she doesn’t change immediately but slowly. I was initially bothered by the fact that Crescent was jealous of Maria and may have fallen in love with Crater but in all honesty? I prefer her as a love interest (not that she was one), Maria just didn’t work for me.

The plot was slightly confusing, it was hard for me to keep up at times and some of the things did come out of nowhere. There were also times I had to skim because I was bored.

All in all this was a rather interesting read and sci-fic geeks should definitely give this a shot.

About the Author

Homer Hickam is the author of many best-selling books with his best known the acclaimed memoir Rocket Boys: A Memoir which was made into the award-winning film October Sky where he was portrayed by Jake Gyllenhaal.

Born and raised in the small mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia, Homer is a graduate of Virginia Tech, a Vietnam veteran, a scuba instructor, a paleontologist, and a former NASA engineer. He has won many literary awards including the Clarence Cason Journalism Award from the University of Alabama and an honorary doctorate in Literature from Marshall University.

Homer is on Facebook at http://www.homerhickamofficialpage.facebook.com and maintains an extensive website at www.homerhickam.com

Homer and his wife Linda and their five cats share their time between homes in Huntsville, Alabama and St. John of the U.S. Virgin Islands.

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Check out the other blog tour stops:

June 3:

Mom With A Kindle - http://momwithakindle.blogspot.com - Promo Post

As You Wish. - http://asyouwishreviews.blogspot.com/ - Review

Moosubi Reviews! - http://www.moosubi.blogspot.com - Review
The Page Turners - http://www.futuresuns.blogspot.co.uk – Review

June 4:

Pixie Dust Book Reviews - http://pixiedustreviews.blogspot.com - Review

deal sharing aunt - www.dealsharingaunt.blogspot.com - Review

June 5: