Hal Spacejock 4: No Free Lunch [Paperback]

Simon Haynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2006 | Age Level: 10 and up | Grade Level: 5 and up | Series: Hal Spacejock

Hal Spacejock and his sidekick Clunk are looking for jobs to earn some cash to settle their bills, and they find just the thing on Planet D. When Hal ducks out for a quick coffee date with an attractive young woman, he thinks his luck has finally changed—but under the crust of Planet D swarms a dangerous mass of creepy-crawlies who may have something to say about Hal’s luck.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Simon Haynes is the award-winning author of the Hal Spacejock series, and a founding member of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Fremantle Press (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1921361085
• ISBN-13: 978-1921361081
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,931,678 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Simon Haynes is the author of four Hal Spacejock novels, a number of articles on writing and publishing, and several short stories, one of which collected an Aurealis Award in 2001. He divides his time between writing fiction and computer software, with frequent 25-40km bike rides to blow the cobwebs away.

Born in the UK and raised in the south of Spain, Simon emigrated to Australia with his family in 1983. He's a founding member of Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine, and lives in Perth with his wife and two children.

His goal is to write fifteen Hal Spacejock books (adult OR junior series!) before someone takes his keyboard away.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Series So Far, July 19, 2008

By 

Jim C. Hines (Holt, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hal Spacejock 4: No Free Lunch (Paperback)

The Hal Spacejock books are satirical action tales about a not-entirely-competent freighter pilot (Hal) and his too-serious robot partner (Clunk). I've reviewed the other three books in the series, and my sense all along has been that they're entertaining reads, but that the silliness was occasionally too strong for my taste. There would be scenes where the jokes felt like they interfered with the stories, or broke my suspension of disbelief. They're easy, enjoyable reads, but each time I ended up giving four stars out of five.

Hal 4, ironically, is a five-star book. Haynes has improved with each of his novels (which is exactly how it should work).

This time, Hal joins up with a young peace force officer on her first assignment, while also trying to deal with a rival freighter pilot. Hal makes an interesting deputy, and I was surprised at how well the romantic subplot between him and the peace officer worked. Naturally, the assignment leads them into all sorts of nastiness, and things roll along at a good clip. If you've read any SF at all, you'll probably figure out some of the mystery long before our investigators, but the book also threw in some twists I wasn't expecting.

This book works. The humor flows with the story, and the story is the most cohesive and engaging of all four books. At least one of the twists at the end did feel a bit too coincidental for me, but that was a minor thing. I won't tell you how it all wraps up, but it left me curious to read book five.

If you're curious, Haynes has also made the first Hal Spacejock book available as a free download at http://www.spacejock.com.au/Hal1Download.html