“Hatching the Phoenix Egg” is the sequel to author Joel Horn’s coming-of-age rocket science book “Lost Coast Rocket”, which you can find on Amazon alongside this novel. Where the first book is about the protagonist’s journey into adulthood via rockets and science, this book manages to diverge into the Crumble Blog’s genre – post-apocalyptic fiction.
So … how the hell did that happen?
My review summary
Pros: Unique story that packages rocket science in an entertaining way
Cons: Pacing of the book slows down a lot near the end
Who should read this?: Anyone who enjoyed the first, and is interested in science
What is “Hatching the Phoenix Egg?”
Important question: How did a book about a young boy who loves rockets end up as an apocalyptic story? Well, to reveal the true extent of this would be spoiler city, but our protagonist – Ken – begins this part of his life in space, floating millions of miles away from the planet Earth. Though I must admit, I don’t fully understand the reasons why Ken was ever allowed to go as far as piloting a mission to Jupiter by himself, his crippling loneliness makes for quite an emotional beginning to Hatching.
There are three main sections to this story, which I suppose you could call its arcs. The first is Floaty Floaty Jupiter, then there’s Omg the World is Ending (my favourite bit, as you can probably guess) and then there’s the aftermath.
To tell you more would be to spoil one of these sections, so I won’t discuss some of the details of the arcs. But we can do pros and cons of the book as a whole!
Pros
My first pro? APOCALYPTIC FICTION. I love a good story set as the world ends or, even better, afterwards, and Horn’s book weaves into this area during its second arc. It’s quite gripping, watching as the world you’ve come to know and enjoy from the first part of the book (or the prequel, if you read it) starts to unravel thread by thread, especially through the lens of someone who is millions of miles away and becoming more and more emotionally detached by the day.
The characters of this book remain its strongest point, much like its predecessor. Although Ken is definitely our primary focus, his friends since childhood are largely present in Hatching, and watching their adult lives unfold (especially amid the end of the world) is like Christmas with long-lost family. This is perhaps especially true for Ken’s one-time love interest, who remains a key player in this novel, and whose complicated relationship with our protagonist is as fascinating (and frustrating) to read as it was in Lost Coast.
Find this book on Amazon!
Cons
But alas, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t find something to grump about.
I mentioned this in my review of “Lost Coast Rocket”, and it rears its head again in “Hatching the Phoenix Egg”. Pacing. Pacing pacing pacing. The first novel could be excused for its odd pacing due to the coming-of-age nature of the plot, but Hatching doesn’t have that. The characters have all come of age, and this plot is about the consequences of their childhood actions echoing into adulthood.
The three-arc structure sounds like a good idea, but it’s not like a traditional plot. The book is more like three stories rolled into a singular novel, and they were not all created equal. For me, the central, apocalyptic arc remains the strongest, but my feelings are fairly mixed on the former and latter story. Indeed, you could argue that the climax of this story occurs at the end of Arc 2, which leaves the reader with quite a lot of book left – but, in reality, not much going on. There’s some good wrap-up characterisation, a few loose ends all knotted together finally, but that’s it. You read this novel up to the end of the second section, then skim the rest.
Final thoughts
So, my final advice to you would be to read the prequel if you haven’t already, for some of the inter-character relationships of “Hatching the Phoenix Egg” might be confusing without a pre-existing knowledge of them.
If you HAVE read “Lost Coast Rocket”, did you enjoy it? If so, pick this book up as well – you should finish the story, and there’s some great moments in the second part.
If you didn’t enjoy the original, there’s a chance you won’t enjoy this either. That said, the chapter sampler on Amazon is free, so there’s no harm reading the first little bit and making a decision from there.