Lightning Review: Hal Spacejock

I thought it might be fun to do brief reviews of books after I finish them!

I had Hal Spacejock on my Kindle for since December, languishing unread, hanging around in the depths with a ton of samples, and after finishing a prior book, I decided that instead of immediately buying a new one I’d finally have a go. This proved a wise decision.

Hal Spacejock is a pretty light-hearted space adventure about the penniless freelance cargo ship pilot named Hal Spacejock who’s just trying to clear his debts and, as it happens, seem to get embroiled in  one drama after another totally by accident. It’s a really funny little book and I thought the plot was simple and easy to read.

There’s a bunch of fun characters, especially the non-human ones. Simon Haynes takes the unusual step of making robots in his universe very human-like in their manner and rights but it works to quite humorous effect. I really enjoyed the book and would really recommend it highly to any sci-fi fan who wants a lightweight but also rewarding, fun bit of bedtime reading!

Sure, it has some obvious parallels with Red Dwarf, Firefly and Hitchhiker’s Guide but they’re all pretty awesome, so who cares! I just regret not reading this sooner as it was a lot of fun.

Rating: 4/5

Hal Spacejock is available for free on Amazon Kindle here, and other formats here; visit Simon Haynes’ website here!