Crater (A Helium-3 Novel) [Hardcover]

Homer Hickam (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 10, 2012 | Series: A Helium-3 Novel (Book 1)

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Crater shows what it would be like to live on the Moon: to work there, to struggle and to triumph. A fine piece of work."

-Ben Bova, author of Leviathans of Jupiter

"Long-haul trucking on the Moon . . . with raiders, romance and a secret mission . . . High adventure on the space frontier.”
–Kirkus Review

--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

From the Author

Crater is the first of the Helium-3 trilogy. It is a tough look at a tough people who scrape out a living on the moon.  Nothing is easy for 16-year old Crater who is sent out across a thousand miles of the lunar "wayback" to seek out a prize that has already caused the death of two men. Eventually, he has to vault into space aboard a lunar Cycler, there to confront an enemy assault force made up of creatures who were born to do one thing: kill people.

Here is the trailer for Crater which gives a taste of his adventure to come.  youtube.com/watch?v=seACNm1tzLo&feature=related 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (April 10, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595546642
• ISBN-13: 978-1595546647
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 1.1 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #808,393 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Homer Hickam (also known as Homer H. Hickam, Jr.) has been a coal miner, Vietnam combat veteran, scuba instructor, NASA engineer, and now a best-selling author.

Homer has always loved to write. In the third grade, his teacher, after reading one of his short stories, predicted he would make his living as a writer. He did a lot of other things and had a lot of other interests but writing was always his true passion. After returning from Vietnam, Homer started selling his work. At first, he mostly wrote about his scuba diving adventures for a variety of different magazines and then branched out into writing articles on history, mostly World War II but also some NASA-related work. His first book, Torpedo Junction (1989), the story of the U-boat war along the American seaboard during World War II, was a military history best-seller. It was published by the Naval Institute Press and Bantam. It is still popular and in print.

In 1998, Delacorte Press published Hickam's second book, Rocket Boys: A Memoir, which became an instant classic. It is often studied in schools and picked as a community or library read of the year. It has been translated into a dozen languages, most recently French, Vietnamese and Chinese.

In February, 1999, Universal Studios released its critically-acclaimed film October Sky, based on Rocket Boys. When speaking to groups, Homer often apologizes to the young women in the audience for not actually being Jake Gyllenhaal (Jake played him in the movie). Jake Gyllenhaal, when speaking to groups, often apologizes to adult women for not being Homer Hickam. They're actually good friends.

In 2011, Rocket Boys the Musical continued development on its march to Broadway (www.rocketboysthemusical.com). There is now an annual summer production at Theatre West Virginia (www.theatrewestvirginia.com). Homer is co-writer of the musical.

There is an annual Rocket Boys Festival (www.rocketboysfestival.com) in West Virginia which celebrates the book.

Homer's first fiction novel was Back to the Moon (1999) which has proved enduringly popular.

There are three more books in the "Coalwood" series after Rocket Boys (aka October Sky). They are The Coalwood Way, Sky of Stone, and We Are Not Afraid.

Homer also has a series of popular novels about Josh Thurlow, a Coast Guard officer during World War II. The series began with The Keeper's Son (2003), followed by The Ambassador's Son and The Far Reaches.

In 2008, his novel Red Helmet, a romantic love story set in a West Virginia coal town, was published. My Dream of Stars, the memoir of Anousheh Ansari, was published in March, 2010.

The Dinosaur Hunter, a mystery/western novel set in the ranch lands of Montana and reflecting Homer's love of both Montana and paleontology, was published in Nov. 2010.

He is presently writing a series set on the moon 120 years in the future (helium3novels.com). Crater was the first in the series (2012) followed by Crescent (2013).

Also in 2012, he published his first Kindle Single, the highly popular memoir Paco: The Cat Who Meowed in Space (and other stories of NASA).

Mr. Hickam loves the mountains and he loves the sea. He scuba dives and snorkels in the world's oceans. A new avocation is amateur paleontology. He has discovered two of the approximately forty T.rexes ever found.

Mr. Hickam is married to Linda Terry Hickam, an artist and his first editor and assistant. They love their cats and share their time between homes in Alabama and the Virgin Islands.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Adventure on the moon! August 4, 2012

By M Elliott "a reader from TX" VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Crater Trueblood is an orphaned 16 year-old who lives and works on the moon. He has a job he likes mining moon dust; he has friends; he is happy. In an on-the-job emergency, Crater's quick thinking saves lives and equipment and captures the attention of Colonel Medaris, who owns the mining company and much of the moon's other developments. The Colonel recruits Crater, who has extraordinary mechanical and engineering skills, for a mission. He will travel as a scout, along with the Colonel's attractive and feisty granddaughter, Maria, for a convoy of truckers delivering Helium 3, the fuel extracted from moon dust, to a transport site on the other side of the moon. When there, he will also take possession of a mysterious package to be delivered to the Colonel. And so begins Crater's great journey across the moon.

Hickam, an engineer for NASA, is the author of several books, including Rocket Boys, a novel based on his own life, and Back to the Moon. This is his first young adult novel, the beginning of a trilogy, and is a rollicking good tale, enjoyable to adults as well as younger readers. The innocent, somewhat naďve and just plain good Crater is both appealing and a great role model, with his strong sense of justice and fair play. He is also smart and brave (though he doesn't think so), and has what another character calls "true grit" (a nod to Charles Portis' great novel about another courageous youngster who "set out across the territory," the unforgettable Mattie Ross). Crater's journey across the vast, unpopulated reaches of the moon is, in fact, very reminiscent of the American old west, the convoy of truckers not unlike a cattle drive or wagon train, with a threat of ambush from the uncivilized and lawless, and weapons that include flechettes (arrows).

A skillful and entertaining writer, Hickam blends imagination and futuristic ideas with actual science in provoking and intriguing ways. Besides Crater, he creates other characters we care about, including a "gillie" -described as a collection of slime mold cells--which rides in a holster on Crater's shoulder and functions as a combination of Iphone, Ipad, PDA, and personal computer. There's also a horse named Pegasus and his Will Rogers-like owner; Crater's friend, Petro, who may or may not be the heir to the British throne; and several creative--and wonderfully named-- villains. Hickam infuses his story with warmth, humor, and unobtrusive but significant observations on the social aspect of an imagined future: what it is like to live on the moon, the sobering results of bio engineering, and the age-old disproportion of greed, power, and responsibility among those who take risks and settle frontiers. I look forward to Hickam's second Helium 3 story, and the further adventures of young Crater Trueblood.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars amazing! April 2, 2012

By Jennifer Zuna

Format:Hardcover

I don't usually read a lot of science fiction. Something abut this book caught my eye though and I'm so glad I decided to read it. The subject of space travel and living on the moon has always fascinated me so I devoured this book very quickly. The characters in the story are so real you can almost hear their voices in your head. I fell in love with Crater almost immediately. He has a little "sidekick" called a gillie that I was just absolutely bewitched by and the interaction between Crater and the gillie make for some really cute dialog in the book. The emotions of fear, love, jealousy and friendship are entwined perfectly with some great suspense and adventure. This was a wonderful futuristic coming of age story that I would recommend for anyone of any age. I think it has a little bit of something that everyone can enjoy. I will definitely be searching out Homer Hickam's other books.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Crater - Review May 3, 2012

By A Goddess of Literature

Format:Hardcover

Young Crater Trueblood was born on the moon. He had lived in the same mining colony his entire life. Though he was only sixteen ... almost seventeen ... he was chosen for a special mission, which would change his outlook on life forever.

While I'm not a huge science fiction fan, I don't hate it either. Mostly, a lot of sci-fi books go a bit over my head and I don't really comprehend the technology involved. While I enjoy pondering over different plot aspects etc, I don't want to have to use a lot of brain power trying to figure out futuristic technology. Although this story did a great job at explaining the theory of an interplanetary elevator at work. I had run across the idea in other books and just could not picture it in my mind's eye.

The characters in this story are believable and well represented. Petro, the older, more worldly teen who thinks he always knows best. Maria, the bossy knock-out who knows exactly who she is and what she wants and the guys clamor over her. Captain Teller, the seasoned professional with a no frills attitude. The Colonel, the rich corporate guy who will do whatever it takes to see his plans through. Earth people or moon people, location makes no difference as the typical personas of humans remain the same.

I loved the passage near the end of the book when Crater meets the governmental official who is being sent to the moon to regulate quality of the helium-3 product. Poor innocent Crater just cannot wrap his mind around the double talk that the official spouts and I give the author kudos for pointing out the complete uselessness and lack of common sense in the official's arguments.

Last but not least, we must mention Gillie. Gillie is the backbone of stories in the role of surprisingly amusing sidekick. Where would C3PO be without R2D2? Captain Kirk with Spock? Harry Potter without Ron? I cannot help but wonder WHY gillies are illegal as they seem to be such handy critters. Maybe we will find out in the second book of this trilogy.

The most annoying thing about this book is the fact that Crater is sixteen, and always asserts the fact that he is almost seventeen. Through this ENTIRE book I had the song from The Sound of Music running through my head. Other than that, this was a pretty good story. Highly entertaining, thought provoking, with a little bit of philosophical rib poking at where big government ends up leading the earth, I look forward to the next installment to this series.