Planet America

Starhawk #2

by Mack Maloney

Searching for the mythical Home Planets, renegade Imperial pilot Hawk Hunter goes AWOL, journeying across the galaxy to find Planet America, the possible birthplace of humankind, but he soon discovers that an alien armada has targeted the world for destruction and that it is up to him to stop the disaster. Original.

Genres: Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

304 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 21, 2011

About the author

Mack Maloney is the author of numerous fiction series, including Wingman, ChopperOps, Starhawk, and Pirate Hunters, as well as UFOs in Wartime – What They Didn’t Want You to Know. A native Bostonian, Maloney received a bachelor of science degree in journalism at Suffolk University and a master of arts degree in film at Emerson College. He is the host of a national radio show, Mack Maloney’s Military X-Files. Visit him on Facebook and at www.mackmaloney.com.

Mack Maloney is the Pen name for BRIAN KELLEHER

Reviews

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Starhawk series is a very odd and puzzling thing. The original sixteen Hawk Hunter Wingman books were published from 1987-1999 by Zebra and Pinnacle with "Men's Adventure" printed on the spine as the genre tag. About a decade and a half later Hawk-as-Wingman was rebooted with a seventeenth book, and so far two more have appeared subsequently. In between, though, we had the five Starhawk books, which Ace published in the first few years of the new millennium, with "Science Fiction" printed on their spines. The covers are military sf/space opera scenes, with a man over the title who looks nothing much like the way Hawk was ever described. There are elements of the original books, but mixed in with liberal dollops of Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon with lots of Star Wars imagery. The Wingman books are all filled with pulpish hyperbole, but it's escalated by several orders of magnitude in Starhawk. Hawk is introduced in the first book with a profound sense of confusion and dislocation and a sense that he isn't quite sure what's going on; it's a feeling that continues and dominates the series. Hawk's never quite sure what it's all about, and neither is the reader. They're always waiting for a big reveal that's unfortunately never paid off, though we get hints and bits and pieces along the way. Is it all a dream or an alternate universe or a chess game guided by divine intervention? We never find out for sure, though I suppose it does lead to the freedom to reach your own conclusion, and Hawk is all about the importance of freedom. The individual plot points of the Starhawk books have all blurred in my memory, but I do remember enjoying the individual reads, though the puzzles weren't resolved to my satisfaction. I certainly did not enjoy them as much as Wingman, but they were lightly entertaining (even though they occasionally bordered on the silly), and didn't seem to me to embrace the pulp values of the earlier books.

[Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A true thrift store lark. I purchased this book not expecting to be blown away by it. My goal was a little enjoyment but large sections of this book just made me laugh out loud. It is funny, sassy, and well-written. The sci-fi is not hard to follow and moves along at a decent pace. Maybe this book is not for everyone but it is fun. =) This book is a keeper. =)