“The Ballad of Halo Jones, Volume 2” by Alan Moore, Ian Gibson

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

The second book in the Ballad of Halo Jones, this one looks at Halo Jones’ adventures about a space liner as it makes its one-year journey towards a planned rendezvous with one of her friends.

The stories range from the curious, like her ability to talk to the ship’s navigator (which happens to be a dolphin), her job as a waitress, being held hostage by people considered as terrorist by Earth, meeting one of the richest men on the ship and so on.

But it is the stories about her relationships with her fellow shipmates that stand out. One is a larger than life character who constantly struggles to find a machine that can take her on in arm wresting. The other is an unusual person who is constantly ignored by everybody else due to him / her (we’re never sure of the gender) efforts to fit it.

Both of them would play key parts in the story when Halo discovers the awful truth about the tragedy that happened in the first book that lead her to go travelling on the ship. Another key part of the story (although not revealed in this book) is her discovery of who is actually staying in a private suite and how her actions now would have repercussions in the future.

When she finally gets to the rendezvous point, she also learns the truth about her friend who was supposed to be there. Now alone, Halo will have to consider her future options.

In this book, Halo Jones is portrayed as a more mature person, who discovers freedom and joy but also sadness and betrayal, just like the rest of us. We’ll have to see how she will deal with her life in the next book.

Book read from 2020/08/03 to 2020/08/06