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Hal Spacejock: Just Deserts by Simon Haynes
01/10/2004 . Source: Joules Taylor 
pub: Bowman. 317 page paperback. Price: $17.95 (Aust). ISBN: 1-877034-30-4. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out website: www.spacejock.com.au
I've been looking forward to 'Just Desserts' since finishing the first two 'Hal Spacejock' books and I have to say it's been well worth the wait.
Hal Spacejock - bargain basement Han Solo and interstellar 'man with a van' (quoting myself here) - is back, as blithely oblivious to danger as ever, along with his faithful and long-suffering robot sidekick, Clunk.
Forced to land the Volante on Cathuan for repairs to the cooling system keeping their hugely valuable cargo of perishable organic foodstuff at the correct temperature, the pair find themselves in the middle of a trade war between Cathua, Plessa and Jordia.
You know the sort of thing: Jordia uses robots in its manufacturing processes, thereby turning out goods faster and cheaper than the equivalent Cathuan human-staffed businesses, Plessa therefore buys its goods from Jordia. The Cathuan economy is in real trouble and the Cathuan President willing to sink to any depths, even a staged 'war', to convince the population that he's still the best man for the job ... Hmmmm! Remind you of anyone?
Cathuan is obviously NOT the best place to land a sophisticated, powerful and expensive spaceship. Not that such considerations really worry Hal and besides, they don't have any choice if their cargo isn't to spoil. While Clunk is trying to find a replacement for the malfunctioning part, Hal accepts another delivery job, undeterred by the fact that at that moment he doesn't actually have a functioning ship...
What follows is a wild chase from planet to planet via space shuttle, a second-hand spaceship that should either be recycled as scrap metal or in a museum and a space elevator that's a scream (literally). As for the ending - I laughed aloud. Very funny, very clever and really quite touching in an odd sort of way.
The writing is tighter in this third novel, less slapstick and more sharply witty. The humour is dry, wry, with a laugh a page and there are some great in-jokes:
"We should never have come here, Clunk."
"There's nothing else within twelve parsecs."
"That far?"
"Long." corrected the robot.
Hal frowned. "I thought a parsec was a measure of distance?"
"The meaning was altered some time ago."
"Bloody revisionists." [p. 17]
My only criticism with the book is that there's so much happening in so many different places on so many planets that I lost track of where I was - though that being said, perhaps it's only fitting, given that Hal only seems to know where he is half the time...
Although I believe it would be possible to read the book in isolation and still thoroughly enjoy it, I'd advise reading books 1 and 2 first in order to get the full effect. Hal and Clunk are a great team - by now they feel like old friends! - and I look forward to reading the next book.
Joules Taylor
www.wordwrights.co.uk 
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