Stationfall

This book picks up where "Planetfall" left off, with main character Homer B. Hunter commandeering the ship inhabited by his faithful robot companion Oliver, tough but pretty warrior Reina, gorgeous Lieutenant Coryban, and the inept and argumentative Ensign Blather. I must say right off that this book cannot really be understood very well without first reading "Planetfall." Other than that, however...this book is just as hilariously ridiculous as its predecessor. Homer B. Hunter leaves the others and crashes his ship on the very mysterious and very advanced civilized planet of Aurelia, where he teams up with a head-shrunken rock star Spaceside, the ancient but heroic Agent Double-Oh-Pi (in the book it uses all numeric characters!) and the agent's beautiful, initially naked daughter Yangtze. Battling a mysterious phenomena in the universe known only as "The Farce," Homer must use all his wits to locate the spirit of his other once-dead-but-no-less-faithful robot Floyd. The written gags are as ridiculous as those in the first book, such as the cybernetic sexual member replaced on Homer after he is injured in an explosion, the alternate egos of the goddess Marie (one who rides the soul of Yangtze and another who chews gum and tries to look cool), and Oliver's annoying habit of taking all of Homer's sarcasm seriously. This book reads quickly and I highly recommend it. I only give it 4 stars instead of five because:1) In some places, particularly the last chapters, the author gets so lengthy with event description that I found myself skimming just to see where the next character action occurred.2) The story would be hard to understand without having read "Planetfall" first, and3)The next sequel promised at the end of the book, supposedly called "Futurefall", was never written. Therefore, you are left permanently hanging after you finish this book...although thankfully the "hanging" is the start of a new story with the same characters, rather than cutting you off in the middle of the old story.