The Third Craft [Paperback]

James T. Harris (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2008

An adventure into the limits of technology, the nature of evil, and the destiny of humankind. Fast-paced, frightening, and full of vivid science, The Third Craft is the first book in James T. Harris's Third Craft Trilogy, a saga of morality, civil war, and human evolution. The story begins when two teenaged brothers-Joe and Hawk Grayer-find a strange metal object buried in the ground close to the Northern Ontario town where they are spending the summer. As a strange host of characters begins to materialize-including their own long-disappeared father-Joe and Hawk learn that what they have uncovered is a spaceship that holds the key not just to the government's most closely guarded secrets, but to an intrigue that's been boiling below the surface of global politics, and to a battle that once raged on another planet but will now be borne out on Earth James T. Harris is a self-taught chemist and the founder and chairman of Magi Seal Corporation. He was born in Montreal, worked in Northern Ontario, and now lives in London, Ontario. Harris has a broad range of interests including collecting art, flying as a private pilot, ball hockey, and piano, which he learned to play two years ago.

Product Details

• Paperback: 300 pages
• Publisher: BPS Books (May 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0980923123
• ISBN-13: 978-0980923124
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #7,434,284 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A fun and interesting read!, February 11, 2009

By 

David J. Pasquno (London, Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Third Craft (Paperback)

I quite enjoyed this book; there were a number of original ideas and well thought out and elegant solutions (especially when dealing with alien technology) that were very well written with just the right mix of technical details, without getting bogged down in the details.

There was a surprising lack of female characters that once I noticed it, was a little distracting to the story; there was a least one relationship where I really wanted to see the woman's side of things. And yes, there is a huge coincidence that is a little difficult to accept, and could have been (and perhaps will be) explained fairly easily (at least in my humble opinion).

Overall, I really enjoyed this book, and look forward to future installments in the story!

2.0 out of 5 stars A dry read-- needs water, December 15, 2008

By 

Sastenio - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Third Craft (Paperback)

I read this based solely on the Amazon blurb which made it sound like a character-driven science fiction story set in the "real world", so I had some preconceptions before I started reading.

I will say the author has a succinct prose style and the narrative had a good pace and was easy to read. The author is also obviously knowledgeable about the scientific aspects of his story. After a promising start in which two brothers unearth a UFO, however, the plot line unraveled to such an extent that I felt I could have spent my time better elsewhere. The handling of the human/alien connection was clunky, to say the least, and hard to accept at face value, as there was no attempt to provide a psychological context for what would obviously be extremely challenging experiences for any human to undergo.

Unfortunately, the plot has a hole in it large enough to fly a UFO through with room to spare. The aliens are presented as a race advanced millennia beyond human evolution and culture, having overcome the ego-driven behaviors which have plagued human civilization; yet the characters who have direct interactions with the aliens find themselves locked in a very ego-driven battle for supremacy, in which specific individuals from the alien contingent behave like medieval warriors battling to conquer a kingdom. Which are they, benign advanced beings or glory-driven egomaniacs?

I also have to mention that there was not a single female character in the entire story, not even peripherally, which gave it a decidedly testosterone-driven nerdish quality. Um... yes, I have to point that out, since I am a female myself, and I missed having any around in this story to inject a little "je ne sais pas".

With some fleshing out of characters and a more balanced treatment of the interplay between them, this could have been developed into a good novel. Less dry, encyclopedic passages, less adolescent conquest dynamics, and there could be something worth reading here. If there are, in fact, succeeding entries in this trilogy, let's hope they bring some substantive explanations about the seemingly paradoxical motivations of the aliens, for starters. I believe this book is a vanity publication, which goes to prove there is something to be said for going through channels and having an editor go over your manuscript before publication. This writer has a nice style, but needs to leaven the story with something more heart-felt.