The Halcyon Drift

I come to this book very late, having read it for the first time only today, and I definitely like it. I feel sympathy for the hero, although he's rather grumpy and alienated from humanity; and his progress through the story is interesting. I like the fact that the one woman in an otherwise male story doesn't become romantically or sexually involved with anyone (although young Johnny seems ineffectually interested). Overall it makes a good story, and it's well written by the standards of sf in 1972.

The pace is leisurely, and I became rather weary of technobabble in the descriptions of space travel, even though it's well done.

Faced at one point with a slow and uneventful journey across an uninhabited planet, the author doesn't skip from beginning to end as some authors would, but talks us through it with descriptions of the changing landscape along the way.

At this point I don't feel enthusiastic enough to give the book more than 3 points, but it was an agreeable experience, worth reading, and I feel motivated to try the sequels.

3.5 stars. Originally posted at FanLit.

Grainger, a spaceship pilot, has been shipwrecked on a deserted island in a dangerous star system called the Halcyon Drift. He???s just about to give up hope when he is unexpectedly rescued by a commercial spacecraft. They charge him for the rescue and take him to court, so now he???s deep in debt. When he arrives on Old Earth, he finds it in decline. There???s no hope of getting off or finding lucrative work, so he???s forced to accept a job offer to pilot the prototype of a new hi-tech spaceship, the Hooded Swan. Unfortunately, this means going back to the Halcyon Drift to help his boss, a mad scientist, hunt for the Lost Star, a spaceship that disappeared in the Drift carrying a potentially valuable cargo. This is a very dangerous job, but perhaps Grainger will get some help from the alien parasite that took up residence in his brain while he was stranded in the Drift.

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