On hardcovers: I have a thing about my books where I dislike inconsistency in size/cover/cover style. I'm a bit annoyed that I don't have the newer covers for Contest, Ice Station and Temple, and it would annoy me infinitely if I had Hover Car Racer in hardcover while the others were paperback.
On Temple: I just found that the story moved a bit too slowly for me. I didn't not like it, but in an action story, I thought that it should move a bit faster than that.
In all honesty, there wasn't much between Contest and Temple, but if I'm going to rank them, I can't really give an equal ranking. Contest, being his first novel, lacked a little in style, but it was engaging, while Temple bored me at times.