Discussion: Hal Spacejock 01 (spoilers)
 

Mobile Read Book Club April Discussion.

Hey space cadets. Strap on your ship and blast off into the thread. Wait, don't probe me navcom!

Did you love this book? Hate it? Did you laugh out loud?

BOb

I liked the book. it was entertaining and had some comical parts to it but they were almost predictable or a little over the top. i found myself rolling my eyes or saying oh geez to myself. that though didn't take away from the reading experience and as i read i could picture a cgi animated movie of hal and clunk's follies. i did like the character development of hal and how he tried to make himself macho and be nonchalant with everything. though he showed, or tried to show, his exterior toughness he had feelings for clunk and always worried about him but never acted on them and i found myself reading and waiting for hal to accept clunk as his friend and let all the emotions pour out. overall it was a fun read and will be reading the others in the series soon (i bought the bundle) . that's all i have right now !!

I'm just about to start it. I finally got around to converting the LRF made from the HTML to ePub to read. I'm a bit late. But then, going on a cruise for 5 nights didn't help any.

I enjoyed the book. I thought it was funny. As you say there were alot of "groan worthy" things. However, there was some that was very funny. I think my favorite was the yellow inflatable dingy that pop's out after the crash.... and Hal says "What am I supposed to do with that?" (or something). I almost bust a gut laughing at that, I don't know why.

I only bought the first one but I might get the rest later. Lot's of other to-read stuff on my list first.

BOb

I got tickled when Clunk got spaced, then realizes he is drifting toward the space station and relaxes, then he sees into people's windows in tall buildings as he gets close to the ground ... Then panics when he realizes that he is gonna miss the station by thiiiiis much.

To me, some of the funniest bits are when Haynes piles cliche upon cliche and things all begin to happen to the characters all in one whirlwind.

I really enjoyed reading the book and found it very entertaining. The humor used in it reminded me a bit of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy".

I really enjoyed this book. To me it was like Abbott & Costello in space. Ridiculous, over-the-top slapstick that had me chortling at various points in the story.

Humour is not usually my genre of choice, but it's nice to have a sci-fi equivalent of a Three Stooges banana peel skit played out for your amusement.

I'm happy enough with this book (I already own the series) that I'm going to repurchase all the paperbacks and give them as gifts to my dad. I think he'll like the absurdity of the scenarios.

Regards
Caleb

I can't remember when I have enjoyed a book so much! I howled so hard my stomach hurt along with the tears of laughter. Anything can be programmed or hacked to do what you want! Simon Haynes did a great job of it with this book. As soon as I secure some credits I am going for the next book!

This

12345

I also enjoyed the book, and have already read the 2nd one. I was waiting until after this disscussion thread to read books 3 & 4.
Like stated by others, I found a lot of the humour to be very groan worthy, but I stll found it to be a really fun read. I tolorate Hal, but, Clunk & Navcom are my favorite characters.

The data transfers between Clunk and Navcom are a riot.

Darn... I've been skipping the Book Club books the past couple of months, as there's enough going on in my life right now without adding more books. But, this one does sound too good to pass up and I just happen to have a free copy that I downloaded when it was first offered. Guess I'll have to get hopping and catch up.

The Discworld series has some really good LOL moments. Not all of the books in the series are a hit. But if you read them in published order, you'll get the most out of them and when you read the ones that give you the LOLs, you'll be able to ignore the ones that were not that good. So far, I've only read one that was ho-hum in the first 18 books.

I'm not yet finished. But so far, it seems to be like a combination of HHGTTG and Futurama.

Not really my cup of tea but an easy read with some "chuckle-worthy" moments.
I liked the somewhat cheeky navcom a lot.
The book didn't manage to grab my attention enough to make me really remember much from it (read it a couple of weeks ago, and not very carefully at that).
Won't be getting more in the series, but don't regret getting (and reading) this one.

Can definitely see the Futurama similarities.

Regards
Caleb

I also liked it. As Asai said, "not usually my cup of tea"...sci-fi, humor! ugh...but I found myself looking forward to 'opening' it up and read it rather quickly.

I even like the bad guys.

Except Clunk does not have a shint metal arse to bite! :rofl:

I guess discussion here isn't furious, but it looks like we have managed to spur on a few sales for the author through this which I guess he'd appreciate.

I'm having trouble finding this in paperback form though. I had intended on buying the series for my dad: 1 on his birthday, 1 on father's day and the remaining two at Christmas.

Regards
Caleb

can't you get the paperback versions from the authors website?

Well - it says you can. But I'm yet to find a path through to actual purchase. I always end up with an eBook purchase, never a paperback one.

I really should just contact Simon directly as he's a member here and ask him what's what.

Regards
Caleb

Science Fiction is my favorite genre, funny science fiction will be eternally compared to the hitchiker's guide in my mind. That's just how it is. note to self: read the hitchhiker's guide again.

I did lol in real life a few times and I feel that a single laugh is priceless so I definitely got my money's worth, if that means anything.

One problem in the book, there was a bit too much jock and not enough space. I suppose since this is the first book in the series, we are just getting introduced to the characters and the story and the setting will be better developed as the tale continues, indeed the excerpt for book 2 at the end of book 1 was the funniest part of the book.

I can't say anymore without spoiling, so I won't.

Spoilers for books under discussion here are fully allowed and expected.

I used to even put (spoilers) on the thread title, but I stopped doing that. :D

BOb

I think one of the things I liked most about this book was not so much the humans, but the robots.

There were some witty one-liners from Clunk that had me laughing out loud. Definitely had some HHGTTG elements in the comments too. I loved the comment when Navcom was copied into the other space vessel - "I've been pirated!". I also enjoyed Clunk's dream of locating the mysterious robot planet.

But it was also the pacing which again reminded me of slapstick. One disaster follows another so quickly that you don't have time to come up for air. And it's all punctuated with these little punchlines.

I can understand where the over-the-top and corny sentiments come from, but I think that's its charm.

Regards
Caleb

Go and have a look at www.booko.com.au. When you search for a paperback it will list all sites it is available from in order of price. Fishpond.com.au has it in stock.

From the authors site go to the main page (http://www.spacejock.com.au) and on the left side you will see each book, select the one you want and on the new page two drop down boxes appear, prices for ebook and one for paperback.

HIH.

I suppose that everyone reading this thread has already read the book so that makes a kind of sense.

Well I just wanted to say I was a bit disappointed when those two robots Hal and Clunk free from the robot factory decided not to join them on their adventures. I was hoping Hal was going to assemble a robot crew :thumbsup:

Same here. I was really hoping they would stick around! They were great comic relief on top of Clunk & Navcom.

Sorry - I should have mentioned that I got in contact with the author and he showed me what I had missed on his site.

Regards
Caleb

I'll call you Albion and Clyde.

I think that's Bonnie.

Great... I'm glad you like it.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

BOb

It's hard to imagine worse pilot than Hal, but Clyde and Albiob managed to crash land in a garbage dump and set it ablaze. At least when Hal set the spaceship junkyard on fire, the ship was not crashed. :rolleyes:

The one time I actually LOL-ed was when Clunk was assessing a situation and told Hal the odds are 50-50. And then Hal asks - for, or against? He was all serious and honestly asking that.
Otherwise, it seemed over the top for me too. Do people as stupid as Hal really exist? (I mean, obviously he is fictional, but are they realistic?) With such disregard for the consequences of his actions and such surety (or carelessness) of a good outcome, I just couldn't sympathize with him.

Clunk was funny, I liked him a lot. I also liked the scenes where he gets out of the water, scares the picnic-goers, the cows.
I did not like him being cheated of his winnings in the casino. Surely there should have been cameras and he should have gotten his due.

I do not regret buying this one, but I won't get the next in the series.

the series is hal spacejock but seems from reading the comments that clunk is the star of the show.
i too felt bad for clunk when he didn't get the winnings, that part almost seemed rushed and they were kicked out and off chasing farrell almost immediately.

I understand your misgivings. I had a hard time dealing with Hal, as well, but Clunk & Navcom really made it worth the read. I will say that I enjoyed the 2nd book more than the first one, despite the fact that Hal is almost more of an idiot.

:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Agreed... that was funny. I forgot about that one.

BOb

I can see all those influences, and I really enjoyed this book. The pacing, especially, reminds me of Adam's Hitchhiker series.

Oddly, the robots seemed to be the most human characters in the book. I do hope we'll be seeing more of Albion and Clyde. I enjoy this kind of off-beat humor, and will be sure to read the rest of this series.

I use to not think so, but people as dumb as Hal really do exist. I just never believed it until seeing the popularity of some reality shows, listening to people who work in retail customer service, and reading about some facebook or other online postings on news shows. Once, I finally realized that, I found I could enjoy books that had characters like him. :) (still irritating, kind of like some horror movies when you just can't believe the characters are going to do something dumb, even though they should know better)

I read the book a while ago and still smile when I hear about parts or just the title of the book. I thought it was a fun read and could see it as a movie. I plan to reread it before starting the others.

Nooo! Don't go upstairs, you twit! Don't go searching the house, in the dark, after finding the phone line cut! Get Out...

If you call your friend's name the 2 times, and he/she doesn't answer - run away!

Oh and never ever say "I'll be right back". :D

There were so many one-liners that got a chuckle from me. I now wish I highlighted them as I read so that I could put some of them here.

Regards
Caleb

I always forget to do that... it would be so easy with my Kindle and I don't do it. Perhaps I need to get a Sony so I can just do it with a touch. :chinscratch::rolleyes:

BOb

:eek: Do you yell out to the screen too? :2thumbsup I use to "talk" to the people in the movie and say all those same things. It drove my son crazy. He had a rule whenever he put a movie on that I couldn't talk and I was to just enjoy the movie (or at least let him do so). He kept telling me, "It's just a movie, mom. If they did do the right thing, it would be boring." :p
I wished I did that too. Then again, I always get so caught up in the story that I really don't want to stop and break the flow.